[February 12, 2026] Most of us grew up with some basic rules that our parents had for us kids. One of them was “Don’t Lie.” There are many reasons for this rule, maybe reasons our parents did not fully understand, but what they did know was that lying has incredibly destructive consequences. And when a lie is perpetuated by a society, then we all suffer for it. One American societal lie that I’ll address here is that Native American Indians were peaceful.
My point is not so much the history of the American Indians, or that their culture was more violent that what we might think today or that we caused their downfall. What I want to address is the impact of that lie on the American Indian.
For most of us, we were taught that the American Indians had a kind of gentle and kind existence, close to nature, and living in harmony and in a beautiful setting and with few troubles, at least until the white Europeans came to their land. That’s mostly what we see from Hollywood, and formal education textbooks.
The American Indians were here first in the Americas; they were here certainly before the Europeans arrived. Today, Indians are confined mostly to reservations, and those living on them have many problems like alcoholism, drugs, poverty, and depression.
Indians were not a visible part of the United States. And much of this has to do with the lies we are told about the “peaceful” Indians that for so long dominated the continent. The fact is, the American Indians were violent, and violence was how they survived. We now know that Europeans were able to attract Indians to their side because Indians were always at war among other tribes. They needed allies.
The frontier was a clash of two brutal systems, and the result was a cycle of warfare that included massacres, reprisals, torturing, scalping, and other depraved primitive war atrocities. This stretched over several hundred years.
The truth here has been whitewashed, and that is part of the reason Native American Indians are no longer part of the vibrancy of America. Until they realize they can play a valuable role, and overcome this false narrative about their “peaceful” past, little will change.
History can be awkward. American Indians lived in a brutal land even before whites came to what is now America. Violence was the rule, not the exception. And this is how Indian boys proved themselves. Those who were able to kill in war with another tribe, they were rewarded with the best wives, leadership positions, and a reputation of respect and honor.
Even the concept of warfare was radically different between the Indians and Europeans. The basis of this was honed from their cultural values. For example, women and children were not to be touched in European warfare, but for the Indian, capturing or killing the women and children meant you had broken through the enemy’s defenses and conquered them totally. By the 1800s, Europeans to survive began to adopt the tactics of the Indians, and things got much worse.
This clash of two very strong civilizations went on for around 300 years. If we want to respect the American Indians, and if they want to respect themselves, their history should not be turned into fake, cardboard heroes or victims because that is not true. The truth is, the Indians were powerful, resilient, and often brutal, just like the European settlers who fought them.
This history is dirty, and it only gets dirtier the more we delve into it. This does not mean we have to clean it up, by doing so we hide the very thing that makes us who we are. Modern Western cultures have a propensity for doing this, and in doing so, we are much less than we are. And certainly for the American Indian, they have paid the price.
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NOTE: Much of this article is taken from Elephants in Rooms by Ken LaCorte who can be found on YouTube and other social media channels.
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Of course they were “violent”. If by violent we mean they protected their tribe, then yes. Attacking your enemies was smart. Wiping out your enemies was even smarter. They did not have the luxury of allowing an enemy to just exist within their reach.
Sir, you nailed it.
“This clash of two very strong civilizations went on for around 300 years. If we want to respect the American Indians, and if they want to respect themselves, their history should not be turned into fake, cardboard heroes or victims because that is not true. The truth is, the Indians were powerful, resilient, and often brutal, just like the European settlers who fought them.” There is nothing like the truth to put things in perspective. That is exactly how we get to take the right actions to fix our problems and to move forward. Thank you!
👍👍👍👍. Yep. ………
As we all are.
Am I surprised at this, well no. But I do appreciate the history lessson. More of this should be taught. Those days were brutal. Today, we can’t even tolerate a hang nail without crying. Just imagine one of these Indians or settlers coming into this decade and seeing how much of wimps we are. Imagine.
Good one killing off the lies.
The American Indians fought the good fight but lost. And they lost because their violent culture put them in direct conflict with the Europeans moving in. Only one would survive, once violence was chosen as the main weapon. And that also happened in the Southwest where Mexico/the Spaniards had taken territory from them. They were put in a situation that was a no-win situation. And, one correction. The American Indians as we know them today, were not the first in the Americas. There were other civilizations that the American Indians pushed out and destroyed.
Yeah, Nick, that whole “stolen land” narrative is not just false, but dumb. Only stupid people repeat it.
So tired of that narrative. This stolen land is a BIG LIE. Only dumb liberals would believe it.
I remember clearly when I was growing up and playing cowboys and Indians that we respected the power of the Indian and were maybe scared of them. Today, the narrative is that the Indians were victims, and being a victim makes you somehow superior in our stupid Western thinking. That victim culture hurts the Indians, and no surprise that they have high rates of alcoholism, drug use, suicide increases, and on and on. Be brave. Reject that victimhood. Stand up and be counted as someone who can contribute. That is how to have a good life. And, see Gen. Satterfield’s book “55 Rules for a Good Life” for me information on how to do this.