America: Imagine the World Without Her Page #4

the land was taken in violation

of the Laramie Treaty of 1868.

$1 billion, fair market value of the

land plus interest, has been set aside.

But the Sioux have rejected it.

They want the land.

But is it their land?

In the late 1700s, the Sioux took

that land from the Cheyenne,

who had earlier pushed out

the Kiowa and the Arapaho.

Land possession is

part of a long history

in which the stronger Native American

tribes displaced weaker ones.

The Native Americans, too,

subscribe to the conquest ethic.

But what about the

charge of genocide?

In the two centuries after Columbus,

the Native American

population declined by 80%.

But it wasn't due to warfare.

Rather, as historian William

McNeill points out,

they contracted diseases,

measles, typhus, smallpox,

cholera and malaria,

to which they had no immunities.

Now, this is tragedy on a grand

scale, but it's not genocide

because genocide implies an

intention to wipe out a people.

Just a century and a half earlier,

one-third of the population

of Europe was wiped out

by a series of bubonic

and pneumonic plagues.

Those plagues came from Asia,

and the Europeans had no immunities.

We don't call that genocide.

I understand the pain of

Charmaine White Face and others

over the loss of an old way of life,

but the Native Americans, if they

wanted, can return to that way.

Instead, they have exercised the

right of tribal self-government

and many have chosen

to build resorts, casinos

and other entrepreneurial businesses.

Did America steal half of

Mexico in the Mexican War?

It seems cruel.

We took the land of these Mexicans

and now we won't even

allow them to come back

and work as laborers on land

that used to be theirs.

I asked Texas Senator Ted Cruz

what started the Mexican War.

What prompted the Texas Revolution,

the Texians, who were

part of Mexico at the time.

General Santa Anna,

who was the dictator in Mexico,

began stripping away

the rights of Texians.

And indeed, they began to revolt to

protect their freedom and independence.

And so the Texians

fought a revolution,

just like our founding

fathers in America did,

and won their

independence from Mexico.

Texas joined the American union,

and its border dispute with Mexico

precipitated the Mexican War.

America won that war.

As a result, American

troops were in Mexico City.

We took all of Mexico.

Then we retired its debt and

gave half the country back.

The people who ended up on the

American side of the border

were made American citizens.

Temo Muniz is a law student

active in Hispanic politics.

Would you consider

yourself Mexican American?

Mexican is the adjective.

American is the noun.

I am a proud Texan born and raised.

I'm an American of Mexican heritage.

Do you believe in the American dream?

Definitely. I've seen it first-hand.

My dad was a shepherd boy

from the mountains of

San Luis Potos Mexico.

He pretty much bootstrapped

his way to building

one of the largest manufacturing

companies in his industry sector.

Like I said, we started from

the bottom. We had, uh, nothing.

Uh, dumpster diving to sell

things, to resell things.

Selling chips at the park at the

age of six. Collecting cans.

Unloading cotton bales

at the age of 13.

So, I've witnessed it. I've lived it.

And I know the American dream is alive.

What is your American dream?

Well, I'm still in search of it.

I'm in law school right now.

And I hope to really be an

influence to my community.

We're cut from the same cloth as any

American who has a pioneer spirit.

What would your life be like

today if you were in Mexico?

If we had the same

American dream in Mexico,

we'd probably be extorted

by the cartel kingpins.

Asking us for 10%, 20%

of the fruits of our labor.

We wouldn't even have the

natural right to bear arms

to defend ourselves

against the cartels.

It's hard to build any kind of dream

when you're living under tyranny.

I've heard of las provincias

perdidas, the lost provinces.

The truth of the matter, Dinesh,

is that we don't care about that.

We're here in America.

We're building up the American dream.

We're successful.

We've tasted freedom and liberty.

We're not going back.

What would you do if

the American Southwest

were somehow to be

returned to Mexico?

Uh, I'd be moving to Minneapolis.

So you'd want to stay in America?

America is where I was born and

Texas is where I'm gonna die.

And he's not alone.

How long have you been in

border control law enforcement?

Dinesh, I was a border patrol agent

on the border for 26-plus years.

Now, how many people

would you say in a year

surreptitiously cross the border?

Probably in the millions.

And these are people obviously crossing

from the United States into Mexico.

No, they're people crossing from

Mexico into the United States. Yes.

But don't you have Mexican Americans

who are trying to cross back

into their old country?

Uh, I've never seen one illegally try

and cross back into Mexico, no, never.

They prefer it here?

Obviously.

I wonder how many

people in Mexico today

wish the United States

had kept all of Mexico.

The enslavement of African

Americans was theft.

Theft of life and labor.

Were the American founders hypocrites in

affirming that all men are created equal

while approving a constitution

that allowed slavery to continue?

This was debated by the

Republican Abraham Lincoln

and his Democratic opponent.

So if you desire Negro citizenship,

if you desire to let them move into our

state to settle with the white man,

then by all means, support Mr. Lincoln

and the black Republican party

who are for Negro citizenship.

The authors of that notable instrument

intended to include all men.

They did not intend to declare

all men equal in all respects.

They did not mean to say

that all were equal in color,

size, intellect, moral

developments or social capacity.

They define with

tolerable distinctness

in what respect they did

consider all men created equal.

Equal in certain inalienable rights.

Among which are life, liberty

and the pursuit of happiness.

They did not mean to

assert the obvious untruth

that all were then actually

enjoying this equality.

Nor yet that they were about to

confer them immediately upon them.

They simply meant

to declare the right,

so that the enforcement of it might follow

as fast as circumstances should permit.

Lincoln recognized that the founders

could not have outlawed slavery

and still had a union.

No Southern state would

have joined such a union

and slavery might have

lasted much longer.

Earlier in his career,

Frederick Douglass

had called Lincoln the

white man's president.

There was a movement in America

supported by many blacks

and even by Lincoln to

relocate blacks to Africa.

But meeting Lincoln restored

Douglass' faith in America.

Douglass condemned that movement.

He didn't want to leave America,

nor did he want to destroy America.

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