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WE, THAT IS TO SAY NATIVES FROM THE EASTERN SIDE OF THE CONTINENT, LITERALLY FUCKING TOLD YOU THIS FOR HUNDREDS OF YEARS
IT WAS NEVER A 'MYSTERY' YOU WERE JUST LITERALLY TOO RACIST TO IMAGINE WE COULD HAVE AN ENVIABLE STANDARD OF LIVING THAT WOULD MAKE EUROPEAN COLONISTS JOIN US https://twitter.com/AthertonKD/status/1295560476169056256
IT WAS NEVER A 'MYSTERY' YOU WERE JUST LITERALLY TOO RACIST TO IMAGINE WE COULD HAVE AN ENVIABLE STANDARD OF LIVING THAT WOULD MAKE EUROPEAN COLONISTS JOIN US https://twitter.com/AthertonKD/status/1295560476169056256
literal centuries of pretending this was a mystery after the colonists told you, the nearby tribes told you, and finding worn/broken metal items in shell/bone/ash middens along the route where you were told they went, WILLINGLY, and you're still playing this out like a mystery
my christ the whole Roanoke thing makes me irate. like you will literally dig in your heels and close your eyes and go LA LA LA MYSTERY MYSTERY, NO IDEA rather than go "oh maybe natives who knew the land and had medicine and culture and comfort were better off than dipshit euros"
"maybe people who were left alone and had no medicine or comforts or human companionship outside their very small group went "this sucks, let's join these welcoming, happy, well-fed and beautifully clothes folks who value life, and freely opened their arms to us"
"or we could fuckin sit here for another five years waiting for Raleigh to sober up and get his ship back from the royal navy and quit dicking around with spain, sounds awesome"
"oh also these handsome and healthy local people value female personhood
so should we sit here or should we join these civilised, clean, and - i cannot emphasise this enough - HANDSOME people before raleigh comes back and reminds us we're supposed to be Garbage Londoners?"
so should we sit here or should we join these civilised, clean, and - i cannot emphasise this enough - HANDSOME people before raleigh comes back and reminds us we're supposed to be Garbage Londoners?"
if you think i am exaggerating the "handsome" thing: first of all, no.
british europeans had never in their lives seen such tall, strong, and healthy people and they wrote about it EXTENSIVELY.
not many achieved George Catlin levels of horny, but still
british europeans had never in their lives seen such tall, strong, and healthy people and they wrote about it EXTENSIVELY.
not many achieved George Catlin levels of horny, but still
nobody:
absolutely NOBODY:
george catlin drawing europeans after hanging out with and painting natives for a year:
absolutely NOBODY:
george catlin drawing europeans after hanging out with and painting natives for a year:
"hey george how are those pictures of natives goi–"
*urgent clattering*
*urgent clattering*
one of my low-key favourite things about george catlin is that his writing about individual parties of natives faithfully includes us talking shit and throwing MASSIVE shade about each other's nations.
a group with whom he traveled to europe was like "you painted the ojibwe? haha hope you counted your paintbrushes afterwards" and i was like wow, WOW
WOW
WOW
first of all, the paintbrush was just sitting there,
