Land Conquest and the Absurdity of Land Acknowledgement
Teaching children incorrect and highly biased history is not only academically harmful, but,… it erodes any desire to defend America and the West.
One of the most effective methods of anti-American indoctrination is to instill a sense of shame and guilt since early childhood.
American children are taught horror stories about their ancestors and history, based on an unscientific polemical narrative in the tradition of Howard Zinn. This narrative depicts the United States and the West as the worst offenders in human history and applies anachronistic norms of morality and international relations to past events.
One of the most absurd results of this propaganda is the recent practice of land acknowledgment, which leftist politicians have embraced to indulge their woke sensitivities and misguided virtue signaling. Can you imagine any government in Asia, Africa, or even Europe apologizing for its country’s territory, despite the innumerable bloody conquests and violent migrations throughout those continents?
Until very recently, land conquest was a ubiquitous practice. Western civilization is no exception. What is unique about it, however, is that its traditions resulted in the best societies on Earth, which value human life and create opportunities for flourishing. During the discovery of the New World, multiple attempts were made to act in peace and goodwill. As early as the 1540s, Bartholomé de las Casas passionately advocated for humane treatment of local tribes. The story of Squanto or the adventures of Lewis and Clark provide fascinating examples of cooperation with indigenous peoples.
Contrast this with Tamerlane’s conquests, for instance, which left many millions of murdered victims in their wake. To instill fear and obedience amid the subjugated population, Tamerlane ordered the methodical and symmetrical construction of his notorious pyramids of skulls as architectural symbols of terror. Thousands of victims were used as building material in similar structures while still living.
But back to the question of land acknowledgment. The native tribes in America, who, incidentally, also came as settlers once upon a time, from Asia, did not practice land ownership in a legal or practical sense. When the soil became depleted, they moved to better land. If that land was inhabited by another tribe, violence often ensued for its control.
Jeff Fynn-Paul, historian and author of Not Stolen: The Truth About European Colonialism in the New World, explains:
The narrative of the “stolen country” or “Native American genocide” does not stand up to scrutiny by any honest historian. It is a dangerously myopic and one-sided interpretation of history. It puts one hundred percent of the burden on Europeans, who are held responsible for nearly all historical evil, while so-called indigenous people are mere victims — saint-like, innocent martyrs whose civilizations were close to ideal. This is simplistic, anti-historic thinking that has gained currency only because most practicing historians and history teachers have either given into groupthink or else have been cowed into silence by fear of losing their jobs.
Fynn-Paul further elaborates:
There is hardly a single civilization on Earth which did not displace natives or which did not engage in nasty wars or ethnic cleansings at many points during its history….
In North America, most natives were primitive farmers. This means that (with some exceptions) they had no permanent settlements. They farmed in an area for a few decades until they wore out the soil. Then they moved on to greener pastures where the hunting was better and the land more fertile. If somebody was already on those greener pastures, that meant war. If you won, the land was yours, and the tribe you defeated was destroyed or assimilated. This pattern repeated itself endlessly…. The idea that the Europeans stole land which had belonged in perpetuity to any one tribe is ludicrous.
This is the basic math of all human history: if you can defend your land, you can keep it. If you can’t, you lose it. This was true five thousand years ago, 500 years ago, and to a very real extent, it is still true today. In almost every case, conquest happened without remorse. Caesar didn’t agonize over his conquest of Gaul.
Teaching children incorrect and highly biased history is not only academically harmful, but, more importantly, it creates moral confusion and erodes any desire to defend America and the West.
Nora D. Clinton is a Research Scholar at the Legal Insurrection Foundation. She was born and raised in Sofia, Bulgaria. She holds a PhD in Classics and has published extensively on ancient documents on stone. In 2020, she authored the popular memoir Quarantine Reflections Across Two Worlds. Nora is a co-founder of two partner charities dedicated to academic cooperation and American values. She lives in Northern Virginia with her husband and son.