[Kunihiko Hisa's Manga Anything Theater (Special Edition)] The "Indians" of the Americas

Recently, it has become common to see people of Indian descent even in Yokohama. They are diverse, ranging from those working part-time at convenience stores to those working in high-tech industries; they ride the bus like anyone else and have become full-fledged residents.

However, the subject this time is not people of Indian descent living in Japan, but the "Indians" of the Americas—that is, the so-called American Indians (Native Americans). Although called Indians, they are not the Indian people referred to by Japanese people, but the indigenous people who originally lived on the American continent. It began when Columbus discovered the New World at the end of his great voyage. Having initially misidentified his arrival point as India, Columbus thought the local people were Indians and called them "Indios."

Since Central and South America came under Spanish and Portuguese rule, the Spanish term "Indio" took root. In North America, Britain took the lead, and they were called "Indians" in English.

From Alaska through North America to Central and South America, the so-called New World was a cultural sphere akin to the Stone Age until it was "discovered" by Columbus. The people who created magnificent and unique cultures, such as the Aztec civilization of the Yucatan Peninsula and the Inca Empire of the Andes, knew how to process gold and silver but did not know iron. They had sharp obsidian blades but no iron swords. They built sophisticated stone structures, created calendars, utilized harvests suited to the seasons, and produced brilliant pottery. However, that civilization knew neither the wheel nor livestock that could serve as weapons, such as horses.

It was into this world that "white men," accustomed to European warfare and burning with desire, arrived, and the results were devastating. The states of the Aztecs and Incas, which were based on gentle religious foundations, were dismantled in an instant. In South America, the Indios scattered across the vast Amazon continued their ancestral way of life until recently, out of reach of white men. However, in recent years, as the development of the Amazon has progressed, they have been driven from their way of life and have come into conflict with the government. Large areas of rainforest are being burned down to create vast grazing lands, and prospectors, including illegal ones seeking gold and rare metals, are ravaging the jungle. The indigenous people, who originally had a low population density and no concept of a "state," recognized their own territories for hunting and bartering, but they never gave a single thought to the right of individual land ownership. It is a saving grace that conscientious people are active on behalf of these minority indigenous groups, but to the government, they seem to be nothing more than a nuisance. The logic is likely that if large sums of money move, many people will prosper.

In the North American continent, states like those of the Aztecs or Incas did not exist. There were the Eskimos of the north (called Inuit in Canada), the forest Indians of the northwest (famous for totem poles; sedentary), the strongly sedentary Indians along the East Coast down to Florida, and the so-called Plains Indians west of the Mississippi. They created tribal societies in their respective regions and formed loose cultural spheres through hunting and bartering. Of course, it was a world without horses, wheels, or currency.

The white men who reached the East Coast gradually increased in number while being helped by the local people. At first, items like furs caught their eye as primary products. Eventually, many Europeans arrived from Europe to escape civil war, religious persecution, and famine, seeking to open up a new frontier. Initially, North America was primarily a site of territorial disputes between Britain and France, while places like California and Texas were contested by Spain and Mexico. The battles between Britain and France involved the local Indians and greatly changed their fates. By the time the United States gained independence from Britain and acquired major control over North America, the local Indians were, to the American state, merely appendages to the land. Despite having fought over land with Britain and France, the border lines drawn were only for the white men; the Indians, as minority groups without a state living there, could only watch as their land was taken over by others without their consent.

To the state of America, the Indians were the same as the deer and bears living on the land—and like rattlesnakes, they were considered better off gone. Although there were initial attempts at coexistence, such as learning corn cultivation from the Eastern Indians or trading for beaver pelts, the Indians, who were not suited for slavery, were increasingly targeted for exclusion as a matter of national policy. This was an era when the South was importing vast numbers of slaves from Africa as labor for large cotton plantations.

The American Civil War, in which the U.S. fought divided between North and South, roughly overlaps with the period of Japan's end of the Edo period and the Meiji Restoration. Once the Civil War ended, America moved all at once toward the West. This was the Westward Expansion. The war between the so-called Plains Indians and the United States began. This is the setting for Western movies: the war between Indians and the Cavalry. Although called a war, the Indians had no concept of a "state," even though they held territories such as hunting grounds. They were nomadic hunters who lived alongside the seasonally migrating buffalo, divided into many tribes that traded while forming alliances or conflicts. After the arrival of white men, they acquired horses and transformed into skilled horse-riding peoples, and through trade with white men, they also acquired iron tomahawks, knives, guns, and gunpowder.

To the American government, the Indians were an obstacle to the effective use of "their" promised land. To safely secure land for ranches, wheat plantations, mines, and railroads, they gathered tribal chiefs and established reservations, attempting to confine the Indians there. This was the destruction of their lifestyle and culture. They also carried out the thorough extermination of the buffalo, their source of livelihood. Naturally, the Indians resisted and were attacked by the Cavalry for the slightest reasons. Even if the Indians, who were superior warriors in individual battles, were victorious, their opponent was a state. Even if Custer's Seventh Cavalry was wiped out, plenty of replacement cavalries would arrive. By the end of the 19th century, most Indians had been killed or relocated to reservations. The words of a general of that era remain: "The only good Indian is a dead Indian."

I wrote this because of a sense of chagrin, wondering if it is right to just stand by and watch the treatment Israel is meting out in Gaza today.