History Lesson

It is very difficult to get a satisfying picture of American history. History is written by the victors and most of the Peoples that occupied America when the Europeans invaded hundreds of years ago are defeated people. Many of them have lost their language and culture as well as their lands. When the successfully adaptive members of a defeated people begin a salvage operation on their history they are fighting a battle with time. They are also tempted to sanitize their own history to make it a comfort to those who want to clinge to it.