I was glad to see that the MN guys were all pretty respectful. Honest and blunt, but still respectful. Sadly, the same cannot be said for others.
At a previous job, I had the opportunity to work with countless reservation youth in a treatment setting. The conditions in which these kids grow up is nothing short of one big, non-stop, traumatic event. Often times nothing, no one, and no place is safe for them every single day they are on earth. This leads to a form of generational trauma in which it is nearly impossible to break cycles. The conditions on Indian reservations in this country are undeniable proof that these human beings endured one of history's most overlooked genocides. This is a compound issue with no easy solution, assuming any could ever be found to counteract hundreds of years of murder and broken promises.
Jurassic, based on your comments I am going to assume that you don't read many books that are not primarily composed of pictures. Should this ever change, I could recommend a few that give some incredible insight on colonization from an Indian perspective.
I agree that there must be a lot more to the bear story.
I have also worked with some of these people in a treatment situation and agree it's hard to combat the generational trauma. I know of several people who have dedicated their lives to trying to help change the course. Life for people on the res so often is going from one crisis to the next. Alcohol, drugs, physical abuse, suicide, incest is all a part of just about everyone's family tree. The hopelessness is palpable.
But blaming what you call genocide is part of the problem, not part of the solution. Nobody alive today was there when North America was settled by the whites. I am not to blame for what the whites did to the natives, and the natives today are not to blame for the horrific things they did to the whites from the mountain men, to the westward migrants, to the settlers. The blame doesn't all lie on the backs of the Europeans. There's plenty of blame to go around for everyone involved. It's time we just got over it because there's nobody alive to blame. I've heard them tell stories about what they teach in their schools that are not historically accurate, and I know a guy who started a campaign to help natives get a college education and went around to schools, etc. explaining that they could have a better life by getting educated and being a part of the solution instead of the problem and he was met with a lot of resistance.
As long as there is a victim mentality rather than an over-comer mentality, things will never change. That's what everyone needs to work towards.