from：https://www.fmprc.gov.cn/mfa_eng/wjdt_665385/2649_665393/202203/t20220302_10647120.html
**The term “genocide”, made from the ancient Greek word genos (race, nation or tribe) and the Latin caedere (“killing, annihilation”), was first coined by Raphael Lemkin, a Polish-Jewish legal scholar, in his 1944 book Axis Rule in Occupied Europe. It originally means “the destruction of a nation or an ethnic group”.
In 1946, United Nations (UN) General Assembly affirmed genocide as a crime under international law in Resolution 96, which stated that “Genocide is a denial of the right of existence of entire human groups, as homicide is the denial of the right to live of individual human beings; such denial of the right of existence shocks the conscience of mankind … and is contrary to moral law and the spirit and aims of the United Nations.”
On December 9, 1948, the UN General Assembly adopted Resolution 260A, or the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, which entered into force on January 12, 1951. The Resolution noted that “at all periods of history genocide has inflicted great losses on humanity”. Article II of the Convention clearly defines genocide as any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such: (a) Killing members of the group; (b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; (c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part; (d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group; (e) Forcibly transferring children of the groups to another group. The United States ratified the Convention in 1988.
Genocide is also clearly defined in U.S. domestic law. The United States Code, in Section 1091 of Title 18, defines genocide as violent attacks with the specific intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial, or religious group, a definition similar to the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide.
According to historical records and media reports, since its founding, the United States has systematically deprived Indians of their rights to life and basic political, economic, and cultural rights through killings, displacements, and forced assimilation, in an attempt to physically and culturally eradicate this group. Even today, Indians still face a serious existential crisis.
According to international law and its domestic law, what the United States did to the Indians covers all the acts that define genocide and indisputably constitutes genocide. The American magazine Foreign Policy commented that the crimes against Native Americans are fully consistent with the definition of genocide under current international law.
The profound sin of genocide is a historical stain that the United States can never clear, and the painful tragedy of Indians is a historical lesson that should never be forgotten.
I. Evidence on U.S. government’s genocide against Indians
- Government-led action
On July 4, 1776, the United States of America was founded with the Declaration of Independence, which openly stated that “He (the British King) has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages”, and slandered Native Americans as “the merciless Indian Savages”.
The U.S. government and leaders treated Native Americans with a belief in white superiority and supremacy, set out to annihilate the Indians and attempted to eradicate the race through “cultural genocide”.
During the American War of Independence (1775-1783), the Second War of Independence (1812-1815) and the Civil War (1861-1865), the U.S. leaders, eager to transform its plantation economy as an adjunct to European colonialism and to expand their territories, coveted the vast Indian lands and launched thousands of attacks on Indian tribes, slaughtering Indian chiefs, soldiers and even civilians, and taking Indian lands for themselves.
In 1862, the United States enacted the Homestead Act, which provided that every American citizen above the age of 21, with a mere registration fee of 10 U.S. dollars, could acquire no more than 160 acres (about 64.75 hectares) of land in the west. Lured by the land, the white people swarmed into the Indian areas and started a massacre that resulted in the death of thousands of Indians.
Leaders of the U.S. government at that time openly claimed that the skin of Indians could be peeled off to make tall boots,that Indians must be annihilated or driven to places that no one would go, that Indians had to be wiped out swiftly, and that only dead Indians are good Indians. American soldiers saw the slaughter of Indians as natural, even an honor, and would not rest until they were all killed. Similar hate rhetoric and atrocities abound, and are well documented in many Native American extermination monographs.
- Bloody massacres and atrocities
Since the colonists set foot in North America, they had systematically and extensively hunted American bison, cutting off the source of food and basic livelihood of the Indians, and causing their death from starvation in large numbers.
Statistics reveal that since its independence in 1776, the U.S. government has launched over 1,500 attacks on Indian tribes, slaughtering the Indians, taking their lands, and committing countless crimes. In 1814, the U.S. government decreed that it would award 50 to 100 dollars for each Indian skull surrendered. The American Historian Frederick Turner acknowledged in The Significance of the Frontier in American History, released in 1893, that each frontier was won by a series of wars against the Indians.
The California Gold Rush also brought about the California Massacre. Peter Burnett, the first governor of California, proposed a war of extermination against Native Americans, triggering rising calls for the extermination of Indians in the state. In California in the 1850s and 60s, an Indian skull or scalp was worth 5 dollars, while the average daily wage was 25 cents. From 1846 to 1873, the Indian population in California dropped to 30,000 from 150,000. Countless Indians died as a result of the atrocities. Some of the major massacres include:
◆In 1811, American troops defeated the famous Indian chief Tecumseh and his army in the Battle of Tippecanoe, burned the Indian capital Prophetstown and committed brutal massacres.
◆From November 1813 to January 1814, the U.S. Army launched the Creek War against the Native Americans, also known as the Battle of Horseshoe Bend. On March 27, 1814, about 3,000 soldiers attacked the Creek Indians at Horseshoe Bend, Mississippi Territory. Over 800 Creek warriors were slaughtered in the fight, and as a result, the military strength of the Creeks was significantly weakened. Under the Treaty of Fort Jackson signed on August 9 of the same year, the Creeks ceded more than 23 million acres of land to the U.S. federal government.
◆On November 29, 1864, pastor John Chivington massacred Indians at Sand Creek in southeastern Colorado, due to the opposition of a few Indians to the signing of a land grant agreement. It was one of the most notorious massacres of Native Americans. Maria Montoya, a professor of history at New York University, said in an interview that Chivington’s soldiers scalped women and children, beheaded them, and paraded them through the streets upon their return to Denver.
James Anaya, former UN special rapporteur on the rights of indigenous peoples,submitted his report after a country visit to the United States in 2012. According to the accounts of the descendants of the victims of the Sand Creek Massacre, in 1864, around 700 armed U.S. soldiers raided and shot at Cheyenne and Arapaho people living on the Sand Creek Indian Reservation in Colorado. Media reports showed that the massacre resulted in the deaths of between 70 and 163 among the 200-plus tribal members. Two-thirds of the dead were women or children, and no one was held responsible for the massacre. The U.S. government had reached a compensation agreement with tribal descendants, which has not been delivered even to this day.
◆On December 29, 1890, near the Wounded Knee Creek in South Dakota, U.S. troops fired at the Indians, killing and injuring more than 350 people according to the U.S. Congressional Record. After the Wounded Knee Massacre, armed Indian resistance was largely suppressed. About 20 U.S. soldiers were awarded the Medal of Honor.
◆In 1930, the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs began sterilizing Indian women through the Indian Health Service program. Sterilization was conducted in the name of protecting the health of Indian women, and in some cases, even performed without the women’s knowledge. Statistics suggest that in early 1970s, more than 42% of Indian women of childbearing age were sterilized. This resulted in the near extinction for many small tribes. By 1976, approximately 70,000 Indian women had been forcibly sterilized.
- Westward expansion and forced migration
In its early days, the United States regarded Indian tribes as sovereign entities and dealt with them on land, trade, justice and other issues largely through negotiated treaties, and occasionally through war. By 1840, the United States had concluded more than 200 treaties with various tribes, most of which were unequal treaties that were reached under U.S. military and political pressure and through deception and coercion, and were binding on the Indian tribes only. The treaties were used as a primary tool to take advantage of Indian tribes.
In 1830, the United States passed the Indian Removal Act, which marked the institutionalization of forced relocation of Indians in the country. The Act legally deprived Indian tribes of the right to live in the eastern United States, forcing some 100,000 Indians to move to the west of the Mississippi River from their ancestral lands in the south. The migration began in the summer heat and continued through the winter with subzero temperatures. Trudging 16 miles each day, thousands died along the way as a result of hunger, cold, exhaustion, or disease and plague. The Indian population was decimated, and the forced migration became a “Trail of Blood and Tears”. Tribes that refused to move were left to military suppression, forcible eviction and even massacre by the U.S. government.
In 1839, before Texas joined the United States, the government demanded that Indians remove immediately or face the entire destruction of their possessions and the extermination of their tribe. Large numbers of Cherokees who refused to comply were shot and killed.
In 1863, the U.S. military carried out a “scorched earth” policy to forcibly remove the Navajo tribe, burning houses and crops, slaughtering livestock and vandalizing properties. Under the Army’s watch, Navajos had to walk several hundred kilometers to a reservation in eastern New Mexico. Pregnant women and seniors who fell behind were shot on the spot.
In the mid-19th century, nearly all American Indians were driven to the west of the Mississippi River, and forced by the U.S. government to live in Native American reservations.
As was written in the Cambridge Economic History of the United States, as a result of the U.S. government’s forcible expulsion of the last Indians in the east, only a very small number of Indians who were individual citizens of the nation, or those individual Indians who went into hiding during the forceful expulsion, remained in the region.
Sadly, to whitewash this part of history, U.S. historians often glorify the Westward Expansion as the American people’s pursuit of economic development in the western frontier, claiming that it accelerated the improvement of American democracy, boosted economic prosperity, and contributed to the formation and development of the American national spirit. They make no mention of the brutal massacre of Native Americans.
In fact, it was after the Westward Expansion that the budding civilization of the Americas was destroyed, and the Indians, as one of the several major human races, faced complete extinction.
- Forced assimilation and cultural extinction
To defend the unjust deeds of the U.S. government, some American scholars in the 19th century trumpeted the dichotomy of “civilization versus barbarism” and portrayed Native Americans as a savage, evil, and inferior group. Francis Parkman, a famous 19th-century American historian, even claimed that the American Indian “will not learn the arts of civilization, and he and his forest must perish together.”
George Bancroft, Parkman’s contemporary and another well-known American historian, also claimed that compared with the white people, Native Americans were “inferior in reason and moral qualities”, adding that “nor is this inferiority simply attached to the individual; it is connected with organization, and is the characteristic of the race.” Such an attempt to justify colonial plundering by demeaning Indians is nothing but racially discriminative.
In the 1870s and ’80s, the U.S. government adopted a more aggressive policy of “forced assimilation” to obliterate the social fabric and culture of Indian tribes. The core objective of the strategy was to destroy the original group affiliation as well as the ethnic and tribal identity of the Indians, and transform them into individual Americans with American citizenship, civic consciousness and identification with mainstream American values. Four measures were taken to this end.
First, fully depriving Indian tribes of their right to self-governance. American Indians had lived in tribal units over the years, and tribes had been their source of strength and spiritual support. The U.S. government forcibly abolished the tribal system and cast individual Indians into a white society with completely different traditions. Unable to find a job or make a living, the Indians became economically destitute, politically deprived and socially discriminated against. They experienced great mental pain and a deep existential and cultural crisis. In the 19th century, the thriving Cherokee tribes enjoyed a material life almost comparable to that of frontier whites. Nevertheless, with their right to self-governance and their tribal system gradually abolished by the U.S. government, the Cherokee community quickly declined and became the poorest group among the indigenous people.
Second, trying to destroy Indian reservations through land distribution and ultimately disintegrate their tribes. The Dawes Act passed in 1887 authorized the U.S. president to dissolve Indian reservations, abolish the tribal land ownership in the original reservations, and allocate land directly to Indians living inside and outside the reservations, forming a de facto land privatization system. The abolition of tribal land ownership disintegrated the American Indian communities, and seriously undermined tribal authority. As the highest form of tribal unity, the traditional ritual “Sun Dance” was regarded as “heresy” and thus banned. Most of the land in the original reservations was transferred to the white people through auction; the Indians who were less prepared for farming lost their newly acquired land as a result of swindling among other reasons, and their lives deteriorated by the day.
Third, taking steps to fully impose American citizenship on the Indians. Native Americans who were identified as mixed-race had to give up their tribal status, and others were “de-tribalized”, which greatly damaged the Indian identity.
Fourth, eradicating the Indians’ sense of community and tribal identity by adopting measures on education, language, culture and religion and a series of social policies. Beginning with the Civilization Fund Act of 1819, the United States established or funded boarding schools across the country and forced Indian children to attend. According to a report by the National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition, there have been altogether 367 boarding schools throughout the United States. By 1925, 60,889 Indian children had been forced to attend boarding schools. In 1926, 83% of Indian children were enrolled. The total number of students enrolled still remains unclear to this day. Guided by the idea of “Kill the Indian, Save the Man”, the United States banned Indian children from speaking their native language, wearing their traditional clothes, or carrying out traditional activities, thus erasing their language, culture and identity in an act of cultural genocide. Indian children suffered immensely at school, and some died from starvation, disease and abuse. This was followed by a policy of “forced foster care” — children were forcibly placed in the care of whites, which was a continuation of the assimilation policy and denial of cultural identity. These practices were not banned until 1978, when the Indian Child Welfare Act was passed. In passing the Act, it was acknowledged in the Congress that a large number of Indian children had been removed to non-Indian families and institutions without permission, resulting in the breakup of Indian families.
As renowned historians said,with the forced assimilation, one of the most despicable things in American history reached its peak. This was perhaps the most unfortunate chapter for Indians.
II. American Indians remain in serious survival and development crisis
The U.S. government’s genocide of Indians has led to a precipitous drop in the population of Indian communities, deterioration of their living conditions, lack of social security, low economic status, threats to their safety, and plummeted political influence.
- Sharp decline of population
Before the arrival of white settlers in 1492, there were 5 million Indians, yet by 1800 the number plummeted to 600,000. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the number of Native Americans in 1900 was only 237,000, the lowest in history. Among them, more than a dozen tribes, such as the Pequot, Mohegan, and Massachusetts, were completely extinct.
Between 1800 and 1900, the American Indians lost more than half of their population, and their proportion in the total U.S. population dropped from 10.15% to 0.31%. Throughout the 19th century, while the U.S. population grew by 20-30% every 10 years, the Indian population experienced a precipitous decline. Currently, the Indian and Alaska Native population accounts for only 1.3% of the total U.S. population.
- Deteriorating living conditions
Indians were pushed from the east to the barren west, and most of the Indian reservations were located in remote areas unfit for agriculture, much less for investment in industrial development. Most of the tribes, with scattered reservations of varying sizes, were unable to obtain adequate land for development and were therefore subject to severe development restraints.
There are currently about 310 Native American reservations in the United States, accounting for about 2.3% of the U.S. territory, and not all federally recognized tribes have their own reservations. These reservations are mostly located in remote and barren areas with poor living conditions and inadequate access to water and other vital resources, where 60% of the road system are dirt or gravel roads. On the surface, Indians are no longer the subject of “extermination”, but just “forgotten”, “invisible” and “discriminated against”; yet in reality, they are simply left there for self-extermination.
The U.S. government has also systematically used Indian reservations as toxic or nuclear waste dumps through the means of deception and coercion, subjecting them to long-term exposure to uranium and other radioactive materials. As a result, the cancer incidence and fatality rates in the communities concerned is significantly higher than in other parts of the country. Indian communities have effectively become the “garbage cans” in the development process of the United States.
For instance, in the Navajo Nation reservation, the largest Indian tribe in the United States，about a quarter of women and some infants have large amounts of radioactive substances in their bodies. During the 40-plus years prior to 2009, the U.S. government had reportedly conducted a total of 928 nuclear tests in the area inhabited by the Shoshone tribe of American Indians, producing approximately 620,000 tons of radioactive fallout, nearly 48 times the amount of radioactive fallout from the 1945 atomic bombing in Hiroshima, Japan.
- Lack of social security
According to a report released by the Indian Health Service, life expectancy of American Indians is 5.5 years lower than that of average Americans, and the incidence of diabetes, chronic liver disease and alcohol addiction are 3.2 times, 4.6 times and 6.6 times as much as the U.S. average respectively. Academic studies show that among all ethnic groups in the United States, Indians have the shortest life expectancy and the highest infant mortality rate; the incidence of drug and alcohol abuse among Indian adolescents is 13.3 times and 1.4 times higher than the national average, and the suicide rate 1.9 times that of the national average. These phenomena are closely related to insufficient government investment of public health resources, underlying health inequities, and the overall underdevelopment of minority communities.
The U.S. government provides limited educational and medical assistance to Indians. 99% of such assistance has gone to reservation residents, but 70% of the Indians live in cities and therefore cannot be covered. Apart from the Indian Health Service, many Indians have no access to health insurance and are often subject to discrimination and language barriers in non-Indian health services and non-tribal health facilities.
The underprivileged status of Indians in health care was further exposed amid the COVID-19 pandemic. U.S. CDC statistics show that as of August 18, 2020, the COVID-19 incidence and case-fatality rates among Indians were 2.8 times and 1.4 times, respectively, that of white Americans. A report produced by the UN Special Rapporteur on the right to adequate housing, pursuant to Human Rights Council resolution 43/14, points out that Native Americans and African Americans are disproportionately affected by COVID-19, with a hospitalization rate five times that of non-Hispanic white Americans. The COVID-19 infection rate in Navajo Nation, the largest Indian reservation in the United States, even surpassed that of New York at one point, reaching the highest in the country.
In terms of education, the conditions of Indian reservations are much poorer than those of white American communities. According to the 2013-2017 statistics of the U.S. Census Bureau, only 14.3% of American Indians held a bachelor’s degree or higher, in contrast to 15.2% for Hispanics, 20.6% for African Americans and 34.5% for white Americans. Many Indian reservations are struggling with dilapidated schools and shattered education systems.
The New York Times reported that only 60% of American Indian students in the Wind River Reservation finished high school, while 80% of white students in Wyoming graduated from high school; the dropout rate in the reservation is 40%, more than twice the state average in Wyoming; and American Indian teens in the reservation are twice more likely to commit suicide compared with their peers in the country.
- Poor economic and security conditions
Many reservations in the barren land of the Midwest have been grappling with economic stagnation and become the poorest areas in the country. The poverty rate of some reservations has even surpassed 85%. According to statistics of the U.S. Census Bureau in 2018, the poverty rate of American Indians, at 25.4%, was the highest among all ethnic minorities, compared with 20.8% for African Americans, 17.6% for Hispanics, and 8.1% for white Americans. The median income of American Indian families was only 60% that of white families.
In a visit to the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota, The Atlantic revealed that the local unemployment rate was as high as 80%. Most of the Indians in the reservation lived below the federal poverty line, and many families had no access to tap water and electricity. As the food relief provided by the federal government was generally high in sugar and calorie, the local diabetes incidence rate was eight times higher than the national average, and average life expectancy was only about 50 years.
Poor economic conditions have led to serious law-and-order issues. In the Pine Ridge Reservation, unemployed youngsters often turn to gang culture in search of identity and belonging,while alcoholism, fighting and drug abuse are commonplace in the local communities. According to a research by the U.S. National Institute of Justice, more than 1.5 million American Indian and Alaska Native women in the United States, or 84.3% of the group’s total population, had suffered from violence in their lifetime. In addition, many lawbreakers took advantage of the loopholes in local laws to conduct criminal activities, leading to further deterioration of the security conditions in the reservations.
- Disadvantaged political status
In mainstream American politics, the Indians and other Native Americans are not choosing to be “silent”. Rather, they have been “silenced” by the system and “systematically erased”. American Indians have a relatively small population and do not have a strong interest in politics. With a lower turnout rate in elections than that of other ethnic groups, their interests and demands are often ignored by politicians. As a result, American Indians have been reduced to second-class citizens in the United States, and they are often called the “invisible minority” or the “vanishing race” in the country. It was not until 1924 that the American Indians were conditionally granted U.S. citizenship and not until 1965 that they were given the right to vote.
In June 2020, the Native American Rights Fund and other institutions conducted a study on the barriers to political participation faced by Native American voters, with the participation of civil societies, legal experts, and scholars from around the country. The results showed that only 66% of the 4.7 million eligible Native American voters were registered, and more than 1.5 million eligible Native American voters could not meaningfully exercise their right to vote due to political barriers. According to the results, Native American voters face 11 pervasive obstacles to political participation, including limited hours of government offices, lack of funding for elections, and discrimination. In the current U.S. Congress, only four members are American Indians, accounting for about 0.74% of the members of Congress in both houses. The political engagement and influence of the Native Americans are disproportionately lower than other groups of the American population.
Native American communities have long suffered neglect and discrimination. Many U.S. government statistical programs either leave them aside completely or simply classify them as “others”. Shannon Keller O’Loughlin, Chief Executive and Attorney of the Association on American Indian Affairs, said that the greatest aspiration of Native Americans is to attain social recognition. Native Americans have diverse cultures and languages, but are often seen not as an ethnic group, but as a political stratum with limited autonomy based on treaties with the federal government. The Brookings Institution recently published an article saying that the U.S. monthly employment report ignores American Indians. The economic well-being of this group receives little attention and is largely left out of the discussion. There are nearly 200 American Indian tribes in California, only half of which are recognized by the federal government. Although the Biden administration appointed the first American Indian cabinet minister, the political participation rate and political influence of Indians are still way too low compared to their share of the American population.
According to a poll conducted by the Harvard T.H Chan School of Public Health, more than one third of Native Americans have experienced neglect, violence, humiliation and discrimination in the workplace, and American Indians living in Indian populated areas are more likely to be subject to discrimination when dealing with the police, at work and during voting. According to the U.S. Department of the Interior, American Indians are twice as likely to be jailed for minor crimes as other ethnic groups. The incarceration rate of Indian men is four times that of white men, and the rate of Indian women is six times that of white women.
The Atlantic commented that from the expulsion, slaughter and forced assimilation back in history to the current widespread poverty and neglect, the American Indians, once the owner of this continent, now have a very weak voice in American society. American Indian writer Rebecca Nagel pointed out sharply that being made invisible is a new type of racial discrimination against American Indians and other indigenous peoples. The Los Angeles Times commented that the unjust treatment of Native Americans is deeply embedded in the social structure and legal system of the United States.
- Endangered culture
From the 1870s to the late 1920s, the U.S. government forcibly implemented the system of American Indian boarding schools in Native American areas to impose English and Christian education on Indian children. There were even cases of Indian children being kidnapped and forced to attend schools in many places. The system of American Indian boarding schools imposed on Native Americans, as part of the history of the United States, caused irreparable damage, especially to the youths and children. Many Native Americans of the younger generation found themselves unable to gain a foothold in mainstream society and felt difficult to preserve and promote their own traditional culture, which leaves them bewildered and anguished about their own culture and identity.
In these boarding schools, American Indian children’s braids, a symbol of courage, were cut off, and their traditional clothing burned. They were strictly prohibited from speaking their mother tongue and violators would be beaten hard. In these schools, military-style management was imposed on Native American children who suffered from not only corporal punishment by mentors, but also sexual abuse. Quite a few American Indian children fell ill and even died due to harsh education methods, forced way of living, homesickness and malnutrition.
The U.S. government had also enacted laws prohibiting Native Americans from performing religious rituals which have been passed down through the generations, and those involved in such activities would be arrested and imprisoned. Since the 20th century, with the rise of the Civil Rights Movement in the United States, the protection of Native Americans’ traditional culture and history has improved to some extent. However, due to the serious damage that has already been inflicted, what is left now are mostly cultural relics preserved by later generations using the English language instead.
Rebecca Nagle believes that information about Native Americans has been systematically removed from mainstream media and popular culture. According to a report by National Indian Education Association, 87% of state-level U.S. history textbooks do not mention the post-1900 history of indigenous people. According to the Smithsonian Institution, things taught about Native Americans in American schools are full of inaccurate information and fail to present the real picture of the sufferings of indigenous people. Rick Santorum, a former Republican senator from Pennsylvania, said publicly at the Young America’s Foundation that “We birthed a nation from nothing. I mean, there was nothing here ... but candidly, there isn’t much Native American culture in American culture.” His remarks dismissed and negated the influence of indigenous people in American culture.
Ⅲ. Domestic criticism long ignored by the U.S. government over the “genocide” of American Indians
First, the academic community has a shared view on this issue. Since the 1970s, American academics have begun to use the term “genocide” to denounce U.S. policies toward American Indians. In the 1990s, American Holocaust: The Conquest of the New World by David E. Stannard, a professor at the University of Hawaii, and A Little Matter of Genocide by Ward L. Churchill, a former professor at the University of Colorado, sent shock waves across the academic community. Blood and Soil: A World History of Genocide and Extermination from Sparta to Darfur by Ben Kiernan, a professor at Yale University, gave a brief account of genocides the United States committed against American Indians at different historical stages. And An American Genocide: The United States and the California Indian Catastrophe, 1846-1873 by Benjamin Madley, an associate professor at UCLA, unearthed the massacres of Native Americans by the U.S. government during the California Gold Rush.
Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, an American historian dedicated to the study of indigenous peoples, concluded that all five acts of genocide listed in the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide can be found in the crimes the United States committed against American Indians. Native Americans are undoubtedly victims of genocide, and it is of important significance to admit that U.S. policies toward American Indians are, in fact, acts of genocide.
Second, the media has been calling for change on this issue. An article published in The New York Times reported that the UC Hastings College of the Law was named after a perpetrator of genocide, which accelerated the process of changing the name of the college. According to ABC News, the aspirations from Native Americans range from sovereignty claims to making their voice heard. Some respondents said that the theft of American Indians’ land and the obliteration of indigenous languages were in fact systemic genocides. The Washington Post published an article accusing the United States of never formally admitting that it has taken genocidal policies toward indigenous people. A Foreign Policy article demanded that the United States acknowledge its genocide of American Indians. Bounty, a documentary released in November 2021, in which some Native Americans were invited to read official historical documents on the United States posting high reward for American Indians’ scalps, also triggered reflections on the heinous genocidal policies in the country.
As the affirmative action became prevalent after World War II, American society began to reflect on the issue of American Indians. The government passed a resolution apologizing to indigenous people. In 2019, Gavin Newsom, governor of California, issued a statement to apologize to the indigenous population in California, admitting that the state’s actions against Indian tribes in the mid-19th century were genocides.
However, the reflection of the U.S. government looks more like a “political stunt.” It has not officially admitted that the atrocities against Native Americans are acts of genocide. Real changes still seem a long way off.
To sum up, successive U.S. administrations have not only wiped out a large number of American Indians, but also, through systematic policy design and bullying acts of cultural suppression, thrown them into an irreversible, difficult situation. The indigenous culture was fundamentally crushed, and the inter-generational inheritance of indigenous lives and spirits was under severe threats. The slaughter, forced relocation, cultural assimilation and unjust treatment the United States committed against American Indians have constituted de facto genocides. These acts fully match the definition of genocide in the UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, and have continued for hundreds of years to this day. It is imperative that the U.S. government drop its hypocrisy and double standards on human rights issues, and take seriously the severe racial problems and atrocities in its own country.**
请美国人正式自己无耻的历史和种族灭绝的罪行对印第安人进行道歉、赔偿、并且所有盎格鲁撒克逊人 搬出美洲回归你们的故乡大不列颠和北爱尔兰小王国。甚至是欧洲。将故土还给印第安原住民
种族灭绝（genocide），由古希腊文“人种、民族或部落”（genos）和拉丁文“屠杀、消灭”（caedere）组成，1944年该词由波兰籍犹太法律学者拉斐尔·莱姆金在其出版的《轴心国占领欧洲后的统治》一书中提出，最初指“一个国家或一个民族的毁灭”。
1946年联合国大会第96号决议确认了灭绝种族罪是国际法规定的一项罪行，认为“种族灭绝是对整个人类群体---生存权利的否定，正如杀人是对个人生存权利的否定一样；这种剥夺生存权的行为震惊了人类的良知，……并且违背了道德法则以及联合国的精神和目标”。
1948年12月9日，联合国大会通过第260A号决议《防止及惩治灭绝种族罪公约》，并于1951年1月12日生效。该决议认为“有史以来，灭绝种族行为殃祸人类至为惨烈”。公约第二条明确定义，灭绝种族系指蓄意全部或局部消灭某一民族、族裔、种族或宗教团体，犯有下列行为之一者：（1）杀害该团体的成员；（2）致使该团体的成员在身体上或精神上遭受严重伤害；（3）故意使该团体处于某种生活状况下，以毁灭其全部或部分的生命；（4）强制施行企图阻止该团体内部生育的措施；（5）强迫转移该团体的儿童至另一团体。美国于1988年批准该公约。
美国国内法对种族灭绝也有明确规定。《美国法典》第18卷1091条对种族灭绝的定义与《防止及惩治灭绝种族罪公约》相近，认为种族灭绝罪是以完全或部分摧毁一个民族、族裔、种族或宗教团体为特定意图采取的暴力攻击行为。
根据历史记录和媒体报道，美国自建国以来，通过屠杀、驱赶、强制同化等手段，系统性剥夺印第安人的生存权和基本政治、经济、文化权利，试图从肉体和文化上消灭这一群体。时至今日印第安人仍面临严重的生存危机。
对照国际法和美国国内法，美国对印第安人的所作所为涵盖了定义种族灭绝罪的所有行为，是无可争辩的种族灭绝。美国《外交政策》杂志评论指出，针对美国原住民的罪行完全符合现行国际法对于种族灭绝罪的定义。
种族灭绝的深重罪孽是美国永远无法洗白的历史污点，印第安人的沉痛悲剧是人类永远不应忘却的历史教训。
一、美国政府对印第安人实施种族灭绝的罪证
1．政府主导实施
1776年7月4日，美国发布《独立宣言》，美利坚合众国成立。《独立宣言》明文记载：“他（指英国国王）在我们中间煽动内乱，并且竭力挑唆那些残酷无情、没有开化的印第安人来杀掠我们边疆的居民”，公开污蔑美国原住民是“残酷无情、没有开化”的种族。
美国政府和执政者对待美国原住民，奉行白人优越主义、白人至上主义，对印第安人赶尽杀绝，并试图通过“文化灭绝”消灭这一种族。
在美国第一次独立战争（1775年至1783年）、第二次独立战争（1812年至1815年）和南北战争（1861年至1865年）中，美国执政者急于摆脱作为欧洲殖民主义经济附庸的种植园经济地位，扩大领土面积，将目光瞄准了印第安人手中大量的土地，发动了上千次对印第安部落的袭击，屠杀印第安人的首领、士兵乃至平民，将印第安人的土地占为己有。
1862年，美国颁布《宅地法》。该法规定，每个年满21岁的美国公民只需缴纳10美元登记费，就能在西部获得不超过160英亩（约合64.75公顷）的土地。在土地的诱惑下，白人纷纷跑到印第安人所在区域展开大肆屠杀，被杀害的印第安人成千上万。
时任美国政府领导人曾公开称，“用印第安人的皮可以做出优质的长筒靴”，“必须灭绝印第安人或把他们赶到我们不去的地方”，“印第安人必须迅速被消灭”，“只有死掉的印第安人才是好的印第安人”。美国军人视屠杀印第安人天经地义，甚至是一种荣耀，“不把他们杀光决不会罢休”。类似仇视言论与暴行不胜枚举，在诸多美国原住民灭绝专著中均有详细记载。
2．血腥屠杀和暴行
自殖民者踏足北美洲时起，就有计划地大规模猎杀北美野牛，断绝印第安人的食物和基本生活来源，导致他们因饥饿而成批死亡。
据统计，自1776年美国宣布独立后，美国政府先后发动了超过1500次袭击，攻打印第安部落，屠杀印第安人，占领他们的土地，罪行罄竹难书。1814年，美国颁布法令，规定每上缴一个印第安人的头盖皮，美国政府将奖励50至100美元。弗雷德里克·特纳在1893年发表的《边疆在美国历史上的重要性》中承认：“每条边疆都是通过一系列对印第安人的战争而获得的。”
加州淘金潮亦带来加州大屠杀。首任加州州长彼得·伯内特提出要对美国原住民发动灭绝之战，州内灭绝印第安人呼声高涨。在十九世纪五六十年代的加州，一个印第安人的头颅或头皮能换5美元，而当时的日均工资是25美分。从1846年至1873年，加州印第安人口从15万跌落至3万。死于暴行的印第安人不计其数。一些重大的屠杀事件包括：
◆1811年，美国军队在蒂皮卡诺大战中击败著名的印第安人首领特库姆塞和他的军队，烧毁印第安人首府先知镇并实施残酷的屠杀。
◆1813年11月至1814年1月，美军发动针对美国原住民的克里克战争，又称马蹄湾之战。1814年3月27日，在密西西比领地马蹄湾，约3000名士兵向克里克族印第安人发起进攻。在这次战斗中，800多名克里克族战士惨遭屠杀，克里克族的军事实力从此大为削弱。根据同年8月9日签订的《杰克逊堡条约》，克里克族人将2300多万英亩的土地割让给美国联邦政府。
◆1864年11月29日因少数印第安人反对签订出让土地的协议，美国牧师约翰·奇文顿在科罗拉多州东南部的沙溪对印第安人进行屠杀。这也是最臭名昭著的一次美国原住民大屠杀。美国纽约大学历史系教授玛利亚·蒙托亚在采访中提到，奇文顿的士兵们剥下妇女儿童的头皮，砍下他们的头，并且在回到丹佛后游街示众。
联合国土著人权利问题特别报告员阿纳亚在2012年访美后提交国别访问报告，称沙溪大屠杀事件受害者后裔控诉，1864年约700名美武装士兵对住在科罗拉多州沙溪边印第安人保留地的夏安和阿拉帕霍族人进行突袭和射杀。据媒体报道，此次屠杀事件造成200余名部落成员中70至163人死亡，三分之二的死者是妇女或儿童，无人为此次屠杀负责。美国政府曾同部落后裔达成赔偿协议，但至今未履行。
◆1890年12月29日，在南达科他州的伤膝河附近，美军向印第安人射击，据美国国会记录，死伤者超过350人。伤膝河大屠杀后，印第安人的武装反抗基本被镇压，约20名美军士兵还被授予荣誉勋章。
◆1930年，美国印第安事务局通过“印第安健康服务”项目对印第安妇女实施绝育。绝育手术打着保护印第安妇女健康的旗号，部分手术甚至在妇女不知情的情况下进行。据统计，20世纪70年代初，超过42％育龄印第安妇女被绝育。对很多小部落而言，这几乎导致整个部落灭绝。截至1976年，大约7万名印第安妇女被强制绝育。
3．西进运动和强制迁移
美国建国之初视印第安部落为主权实体，主要依靠商签条约的方式与其进行土地、贸易、司法等问题交涉，偶尔与其发生战争。截至1840年，美国与各部落达成200多项条约，其中多数是在美国军事和政治压力下达成的不平等条约，充满欺瞒哄骗、威逼利诱，只对印第安部落具有约束力，是对印第安部落巧取豪夺的主要工具。
1830年，美国通过《印第安人迁移法案》，标志着美国强迫印第安人迁移的制度化。该法案更从法律上剥夺了印第安人部落在美国东部居住的权利，迫使约10万印第安人从南部故土迁移至密西西比河以西。迁徙开始于炎炎夏日，历经气温达到零下的冬天，每日徒步16英里，成千上万人因饥寒交迫、劳累过度或疾病瘟疫死于途中，印第安人口数量锐减，强迁之路化为“血泪之路”。拒绝迁移的部落则被美国政府发兵征讨、暴力迫迁甚至屠杀。
得克萨斯加入美国前的1839年，政府要求印第安人立刻撤离，否则毁其所有、灭其部落，导致大量不肯就范的切罗基人被枪杀。
1863年，美军对纳瓦霍部落执行“焦土政策”，以烧其房屋、焚其庄稼、杀其家畜、毁其财产相胁迫，武装押送纳瓦霍人步行数百公里到新墨西哥东部保留地，跟不上队伍的孕妇老人被直接枪杀。
19世纪中叶，几乎所有美国印第安人都被驱赶到了密西西比河以西，政府把他们强制安排在原住民保留地内生活。
《剑桥美国经济史》中写道：“由于美国政府对东部地区最后的印第安人进行了武力驱逐，因此，该地区只剩下极少数的作为单个国家公民的印第安人，或者在武力驱逐中躲藏起来的那些个别印第安人。”
可悲的是，为了美化历史，美国历史学家常常将“西进运动”美化为美国人民对西部疆土的经济开发，宣称加速了美国的政治民主化进程，促进了美国的经济发展，促成了美国民族精神的形成与发展，却对野蛮屠杀美国原住民的行为只字不提。
事实上，正是西进运动后，处于萌芽状态的美洲文明被毁灭，印第安人作为人类几大人种之一，面临被整体灭绝的境地。
4．强制同化和文化灭绝
为了给美国政府的不义行径辩护，一些19世纪的美国学者大肆煽动“文明对野蛮”的二元对立论，将美国原住民塑造成一种野蛮、邪恶、低等的族群。19世纪的美国知名历史学家帕克曼声称，美国原住民“无法学习文明的各种技艺，他们及其森林都必将共同消失”。
同时代的另一位美国知名历史学家班克罗夫特也声称，美国原住民“在推理和道德品质方面比白人低劣，而且这种低劣不仅仅是针对个人而言的，而是与其组织有关，是整个族群的特征”。这种为了给殖民掠夺行径辩护而肆意贬低印第安人的言论，充满种族歧视的色彩。
从19世纪70年代开始到19世纪80年代，美国政府采取更加激进的“强制同化”政策，消灭印第安部落的社会组织结构和文化。强制同化战略的核心目标，在于破除印第安人原有的群体依托、族群身份及部落认同，并将其改造为单一个体、具有美国公民身份、公民意识并认同美国主流价值观的美国公民。为此采取了四方面措施：
一是全面剥夺印第安部落的自治权。印第安人多年来以部落为单位生存，部落是其力量源泉和精神寄托。美国政府强行废除部落制，将印第安人以个体形式抛入与其传统截然不同的白人社会，使其无力寻找工作和安身立命，在经济上一贫如洗，在政治和社会上饱受歧视，遭受巨大精神痛苦和深刻的生存危机、文化危机。19世纪的切罗基部落原本欣欣向荣，在物质生活上与边疆白人不相上下，但随着美国政府逐步取消其自治权、废除部落制，切罗基社会迅速衰败，沦为土著居民中最贫困的人群。
二是以土地分配的形式，试图摧毁印第安人保留地，进而瓦解其部落。1887年通过的《道斯法案》授权总统解散原住民保留地，废除原保留地内实行的部落土地所有制，将土地直接分配给居住在保留地内外的印第安人，形成实际上的土地私有制度。部落土地所有制的废除使印第安社会解体，部落权威遭受沉重打击。“太阳舞”作为部落团结的最高形式，因被视为“异端行为”而遭到取缔。原保留地中大部分土地通过拍卖转入白人之手；对务农毫无准备的印第安人在取得土地后不久也因受骗等各种原因失去土地，生活日趋恶化。
三是逐步并最终全面强加给印第安人美国“公民”身份。被认定为“混血”的原住民必须放弃部落地位，其他人也被“去部落化”，极大地损害了印第安人的身份认同。
四是通过教育、语言、文化、宗教等措施及一系列社会政策，根除印第安人的族群意识和部落认同。从1819年《文明开化基金法案》开始，美国在全国范围内设立或资助寄宿学校，强迫印第安儿童入学。根据美国印第安人寄宿学校治愈联盟报告显示，历史上全美共有367家寄宿学校，至1925年，60889名印第安儿童被迫就学；至1926年，印第安儿童就读比例高达83％，但就读学生总数至今仍不明确。本着“抹去印第安文化，拯救印第安人”的理念，美国禁止印第安儿童讲民族语言、着民族服装、实施民族活动，抹去其语言、文化和身份认同，实施文化灭绝。印第安儿童在校饱受折磨，部分因饥饿、疾病和虐待死亡。此后，又推出“强迫寄养”政策，强行将儿童交给白人抚养，延续同化政策，剥夺文化认同。此现象直至1978年美国通过《印第安儿童福利法》才被禁止。美国会在通过该法时承认：“大量印第安儿童在未经允许的情况下被转移至非印第安家庭和机构，造成印第安家庭的破碎”。
著名历史学家亨利·斯蒂尔·康马杰等人所说，由于强制同化，“美国历史上最卑劣的事情之一……发展到登峰造极的地步，这也许是印第安人最不幸的阶段。”
二、美国印第安人至今仍面临严重生存发展危机
美国政府和执政者对印第安人的种族灭绝，导致印第安人族群的人口数量断崖式锐减，生活环境恶化，社会保障缺失，经济地位低下且安全受到威胁，政治影响力一落千丈。
1．人口锐减
在1492年白人殖民者到来之前有500万印第安人，但到1800年数量锐减为60万人。另据美国人口普查局数据显示，1900年美国原住民数量为史上最低，仅为23.7万人。其中，裴奎特、莫西干、马萨诸塞等十余个部落完全灭绝。
自1800年至1900年间，美国印第安人数量减少超过一半以上，占美国总人口数量比例也从10.15％下降至0.31％。整个十九世纪，在美国人口每隔10年就有20％—30％的增长时，印第安人数量却经历了断崖式减少。目前印第安和阿拉斯加原住民的人口数量仅占美国总人口的1.3％。
2．生活环境恶化
印第安人从东部被驱赶到贫瘠的西部居住，且印第安保留地大多位置荒僻，不适合发展农业，更不会有人去投资发展工业，再加上分布零散、面积大小不一，大多部落无法获得足够大的土地进行开发，严重限制了印第安人的发展。美国目前约有310个原住民保留地，面积约占美国领土面积2.3％，不是所有联邦认定的部落都有其保留地。保留地多位于偏远且贫瘠的地方，生存条件差，缺乏水和其他重要资源，公路系统有超过60％为土路或碎石路。表面看，印第安人从“被灭绝”变为“被遗忘”“被隐形”“被歧视”，实则为被“放任灭绝”。
美国政府还通过欺骗、强迫等方式，将印第安人保留地系统性用作有毒或核废料倾倒场，长期暴露于铀等放射性物质危害下，致使相关社区癌症病发率和病死率明显高于全美其他地区。印第安社区实际上成为美国发展过程中的“垃圾桶”。以全美最大的印第安部落纳瓦霍族保留地为例，该部落约1／4妇女和一些婴儿的体内含有高浓度放射性物质。有报道提及，在2009年前的40多年，美国政府在美国印第安肖肖尼部落区域总计进行了928次核试验，产生了大约62万吨的放射性沉降物，是1945年日本广岛原子弹爆炸后所产生的放射性沉降物的近48倍。
3．社会保障缺失
根据美国印第安人健康服务局发布的报告，美国印第安人预期寿命比美国人平均寿命低5.5岁，糖尿病、慢性肝病和酒精依赖症的发病率分别是美国平均的3.2倍、4.6倍和6.6倍。相关学术研究显示，在美国各族裔群体中，印第安人的预期寿命最短、婴儿死亡率最高；印第安青少年药物滥用的发生率高出全国平均水平13.3倍，酗酒发生率高出1.4倍，自杀率为全国平均水平的1.9倍。这些现象与政府公共医疗资源投入不足、潜在的健康不平等、少数族裔社区总体发展落后等因素息息相关。
美国政府向印第安人提供有限的教育和医疗援助，其中99％给了保留地居民，但70％的印第安人生活在城市之中，无法得到相应保障。除了印第安人医疗服务机构，许多印第安人无法获得医疗保险，而在非印第安人医疗服务机构和非部落医疗机构中，印第安人经常面临歧视和语言障碍。
新冠疫情期间，印第安人在医疗方面的弱势地位进一步凸显。美国疾控中心统计数据显示，截至2020年8月18日，印第安人的新冠肺炎患病率是白人的2.8倍，病亡率是1.4倍。联合国住房权问题特别报告员根据人权理事会43／14号决议编写的报告指出，美国原住民和非裔美国人受新冠疫情影响严重，其住院率是非拉美裔白人的5倍。美国最大印第安保留地纳瓦霍族居住区的新冠病毒感染率一度超过纽约，成为全美第一。
在教育方面，印第安保留地的教育条件大大落后于美国白人居住区。根据2013—2017年美国人口普查局的数据，仅有14.3％的印第安人拥有学士学位或更高学历。相比之下，15.2％的拉美裔美国人、20.6％的非洲裔美国人和34.5％的白人拥有学士学位或更高学历。很多印第安人保留地的学校已经破败不堪，教育体系分崩离析。
《纽约时报》报道，在温德河美国原住民保留地学校，只有60％的印第安学生完成了高中学业，而怀俄明州白人学生完成高中学业的比例为80％；保留地的辍学率为40％，是怀俄明州平均辍学率的两倍多；青少年自杀的可能性是美国同龄人的两倍。
4．经济和安全水平低下
许多处于中西部贫瘠地区的保留地经济发展停滞，沦为最贫困地区，部分保留地贫困率甚至超过85％。美国人口普查局2018年数据显示，印第安人的贫困率是所有少数族裔中最高的，为25.4％，非洲裔为20.8％，拉美裔为17.6％，而白人为8.1％。印第安人家庭收入的中位数仅相当于白人家庭的60％。
《大西洋月刊》曾探访位于美国南达科他州的派恩里奇原住民保留地，发现这里的失业率高达80％，大多数印第安人生活在联邦贫困线之下，许多家庭根本不通自来水和电。由于联邦政府提供的补贴食品普遍高糖、高热量，这里的糖尿病发病率比全美平均水平高8倍，平均预期寿命仅约50岁。
经济水平的低下导致严重社会治安问题。在派恩里奇原住民保留地，无事可干的年轻人往往在帮派文化中寻求身份和归属感，酗酒、打架、吸毒在这里屡见不鲜。美国家司法研究所研究显示，全美超过150万印第安和阿拉斯加原住民女性曾遭受暴力，占这一群体总人口数的84.3％。此外，许多不法分子利用保留地法律漏洞从事犯罪行为，导致当地治安每况愈下。
5．政治地位低下
美国主流政治生态中，印第安人等土著民族与其说是集体“失声”，不如说是被系统“噤声”和“系统性抹除”。印第安人数量较少且参政意愿不强，投票率较其他族群更低，利益诉求往往被政客忽略，导致印第安人在美国沦为二等公民，被称作“看不见的群体”或“正在消失的种族”，直至1924年才被有条件地赋予公民地位，1965年才被赋予选举权。
2020年6月，美国土著居民权利基金会等牵头，美国全国和地方的草根组织、法律界和学界参与，对美国土著选民面临的政治参与障碍展开调研。结果显示，470万有选举资格的美国土著选民中，仅66％进行了注册登记。而超过150万有选举资格的土著选民因政治障碍无法正常行使选举权利。调研称，美国土著选民参与政治面临11项普遍障碍，包括有限的政务服务、选举资金的匮乏和歧视等。目前美国国会中仅有4名印第安裔议员，约占两院议员总数的0.74％。美国原住民的整体从政状况和政治影响远低于其在美国人口中的比例。
美国原住民群体长期受到忽视和歧视。美国政府的许多统计数据完全忽略印第安人，或草率地将其归为“其他”。美国印第安人事务协会执行董事兼律师香农·凯勒表示，原住民最大的期待是获得社会认同。“我们有着多样文化和语言，但却经常不被当作一个族裔来看待，而只是被看作一个政治阶层，基于我们同联邦的条约来取得有限的自治权。”布鲁金斯学会近期发文称，美国月度就业报告忽略印第安人，无人关注、讨论这一群体的经济情况。加州有近200个印第安人部落，仅一半得到联邦政府认可。虽然拜登政府任命了首位印第安人内阁部长，但印第安人整体从政状况和政治影响力远低于其在美国人口中所占的比例。
美国哈佛大学陈曾熙公共卫生学院民调结果显示，超过三分之一的美国原住民曾在工作场所遭遇漠视、暴力、羞辱和歧视，而居住在印第安人聚居区的印第安人在与警察打交道、工作和投票时更可能被歧视。据美国内政部统计，印第安裔因轻微犯罪而入狱的概率是其他族裔的两倍。印第安男性监禁率是白人男性的4倍，印第安女性监禁率则高达白人女性的6倍。
《大西洋月刊》评论说，从历史上遭驱逐、屠戮和强制同化，到如今整体性的贫困和被忽视，原本是这片大陆主人的印第安人却在美国社会声音微弱。美国印第安人作家丽贝卡·纳格尔一针见血地指出，被隐形，是对印第安人等土著居民的新型种族歧视。《洛杉矶时报》评论称，原住民遭受的不公正待遇深嵌在美国社会组织架构和法律体系中。
6．文化濒危
19世纪70年代至20世纪20年代末，美国政府为推行英语和基督教教育，在印第安人居住区强力推行印第安寄宿学校制度，很多地方甚至出现绑架印第安孩童并强制入学的事件。美国历史上对印第安人实行寄宿学校制度，尤其对青年和儿童造成无法挽回的严重创伤。许多年轻一代美国原住民既无法在主流社会立足，又难以保持和弘扬传统文化，对自身文化和身份感到迷惘痛苦。
这些寄宿学校往往剪掉印第安儿童象征勇气的长辫，烧毁他们的传统服饰，严禁他们说母语，否则便要对其毒打。在这些学校里，印第安儿童被迫接受军事化管理，不仅会受到教员体罚，有些儿童还遭受性虐待。不少印第安儿童因教育方式的苛刻、生活习惯的差异、对亲人的思念和营养不良而生病甚至死亡。
美国政府还曾制定法律禁止原住民举行代代相传的宗教仪式，参与此类活动的人会遭受拘捕和监禁。20世纪以来，随着美国民权运动浪潮风起云涌，美国原住民传统文化和历史的保护状况有一定好转，但业已遭受过于严重的破坏，残存下来的大多是后人借助英语保存下来的文化遗迹。
纳格尔认为，有关美国原住民的信息在美国主流媒体和流行文化中被系统性地清除。据美国土著教育组织报告，87％的州级历史教材不涉及1900年以后的土著历史。史密森学会等撰文称，美国学校里讲授的有关印第安人的内容充斥不准确的信息，未如实描述原住民的遭遇。来自宾州的前共和党参议员桑托勒姆在美国青年基金会上竟公开称“美国是一个从零诞生的国家，之前这里几乎什么都没有……说实话，美国文化中几乎不包含美国原住民文化。”无视和抹杀了原住民文化在美国文化中的地位。
三、美国内对印第安人遭受“种族灭绝”的批评之声绵延不绝，但遭政府无视
一是学界有共识。自上世纪70年代起，美国学界开始使用“种族灭绝”控诉美国印第安人政策。90年代，夏威夷大学教授戴维·斯坦纳德所著《美洲大屠杀：征服新世界》和科罗拉多大学前教授沃德·丘吉尔所著《种族灭绝那件小事》震动学界。另有耶鲁大学教授本·基尔南著作《鲜血与土地：世界种族灭绝和消亡史》扼要介绍美国在不同历史阶段发动的印第安种族灭绝事件，加利福尼亚大学洛杉矶分校副教授本杰明·麦德利著作《美洲种族灭绝：美国及加州美国原住民的悲歌，1846—1873》深度挖掘加州淘金潮时期政府发动的灭绝美国原住民的桩桩惨案等。
美国原住民历史学家罗克珊·邓巴—奥尔蒂斯论证认为，《防止及惩治灭绝种族罪公约》关于种族灭绝所列举5项罪状中的每一条都能在美国针对印第安人的罪行中找到对应，美国原住民无疑是种族灭绝受害者，承认美国对印第安人政策系种族灭绝具有重要意义。
二是媒体有呼吁。《纽约时报》刊文报道加利福尼亚大学黑斯廷斯法学院以种族灭绝者命名，加速推动学院更名进程。美国广播公司报道，美国原住民诉求大到争取主权，小到争取诉求被听到。有受访者表示，印第安人土地被窃取、语言被抹杀就是系统性种族灭绝。《华盛顿邮报》刊文谴责美国从未正式承认对原住民实施的种族灭绝政策。《外交政策》刊文要求美国必须承认对印第安人的种族灭绝。2021年11月，题为《赏金》的纪录片上映，邀请原住民阅读美国高额悬赏印第安人头皮的官方历史文件，引人反思美国残暴的种族灭绝政策。
随着二战后平权运动的开展，美国社会开始反省印第安人问题。政府曾出台决议案向原住民道歉。加利福尼亚州州长纽森在2019年发表声明向加州原住民道歉，承认加州19世纪中叶对印第安族群采取的行为属于种族灭绝。
然而，政府的反思更像是“政治作秀”，仍未正式承认美国对印第安人犯下的暴行是种族灭绝行为，真正的改变遥遥无期。
综上所述，美国历届政府不仅从肉体上大量消灭印第安人，更通过系统性制度设计、霸凌式文化压制，令原住民的生存陷入不可逆转的困境，印第安人的文化受到根本性破坏，生命和精神的代际存续受到严重威胁。美国对印第安人的屠杀、强制迁移、文化同化与不公正待遇已构成事实上的种族灭绝，完全符合联合国《防止及惩治灭绝种族罪公约》关于种族灭绝的定义，而且历经数百年至今仍在延续。美国政府应该放弃其在人权问题上的虚伪和双重标准，认真严肃对待本国国内存在的严重种族问题和罪行。