Bullies of the Frontier

Let's just say that on the whole the "white man" didn't care much about getting along with the Native Americans.  More like the pioneer bully, they refused to honor agreements or play fair.  For instance, once the white settler had decimated the buffalo and Indians became dependent on the white man, settlers refused to pay tolls to cross bridges built by the Indian, rejected compensation for destroying grazing lands, exhausting reserves, and depleting their water supply.

Frontier outlaws, disguised as Indians, would rob camps and run off stock, playing on the settlers fears of Indian attack.  This "joke" went on for years and in 1859 a woman was raped and shot by these "white natives" who were discovered only because they had not painted their entire bodies.

It was considered funny to fleece an Indian in a trade even to delighted Christian settlers.  As one newspaper wrote "As there was no one to contradict, and no one to know the truth, a large margin was left for the play of fancy and imagination was drawn upon with great freedom and success."  However you justify it, a bully is still a bully - whether on the frontier in the 1800s or on the Internet in 2012.

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