Some people nowadays call Hensly a sellout and that all he wanted was money from the white man. i personally and strongly disagree. i think that we are far better off than the Natives in the lower 48 who actually were and still are in reservations. i honestly cant imagine my people on a reservation. Can you?
As Hensly says in his speach that he gave in '69 "When Alaska was first sighted in 1741, the Native population was about 74,700. thirteen years after Alaska was sold by the Russians, the population was decimated to 33,000. and the Eskimo population went from about 54,000 to 18,000 in just 150 years." i was just aastounded at how much we lost as a people and im honestly surprised we still survived. to me William Hensly is a hero.
I personally havn't heard a person call Hensley a sellout. Where did you here this from?
ReplyDeleteMost of the people died from deseases. Tuberculosis was particularaly dangerous to native peoples. Scientists think that this had to do with the fact that Native peoples had never had contact with deseases. Some say that as many as 95% of peoples in the lower 48 and south died from Colombus' landing, as there was a sick man aboard. The reason that Natives did not die as much was because vaccines were invented by then.
Hensley was indeed a hero. He brought a large amount of justice to a people often taken advantage of.
I have heard people call William Hensley a sellout before. I had not known who William Hensley was at the time and I do not know who the people that believed him to be a sellout. It was only a heated conversation between two natives at a gathering I attended who seemed to truly believe he had just wanted money from the white man.
ReplyDeleteI agree that a lot of the sudden deaths that happened in Alaska after the Russians came over was from diseases, but I do not agree that disease would be the only cause worth taking note of. We often read in the history books that Columbus was the man who "discovered America," and seems to be portrayed as a hero in every history book I've come across. Yet never have I seen a history book that mentioned how Columbus then, after discovering America, starting enslaving and murdering natives and molesting their women. Whether or not that happened in Alaska, I don't know. If it had, then that would be a cause of death worth taking note of. Alcohol was also introduced with the Russians, perhaps this may have caused deaths as well? Russians over hunted animals in Alaska to extinction. Would this not effect whether or not the natives starved?
I agree that Hensley was a hero, we should count our blessings and realize just how much he did for the natives of Alaska. It makes me sad just how much the American Indians lost, their culture, their land, their ways, they all seem to be a thing of the past. Alaskan natives are not a thing of the past. We have everyone who helped and supported ANCSA to thank for that.
Where did you hear about all those things of Colombus? the only person I ever heard that from was a man at the TCC who was very vehemant about a lot of things and had no evidence for this. I think that if Colombus did do any of those things, he was evil. I also do not think that Native peoples were not lined up and shot. that was what I was trying to say, that they were not massacared, for the most part. the Tlingits and the Russians were bitter enimies at the fault of the Russians, and the Aleuts were made slaves. But I do not think that any of these things have anything to do inland.
ReplyDeleteI am actually not angry about these things. I do know the Russians overhunted the seal and did cause a lot of deaths with drugs, which cause problems up to today. There is one thing we all agree on: the Russians were not heroes, the opposite in fact. What they did was evil. Why did they do it? dunno.
ReplyDeleteI never seen Colombus as a hero. Each time we come across when Colombus so called "discovered america" when the native americans was here in the first place. I get angry each time I think about this. But we are doing much better then the native people down in the lower 48. And no i cannot see my people on a reservation. So yes William Hensley is a hero.
ReplyDeleteI've never seen Columbus as a hero either, but I know that some people do. Most natives who really know anything about their culture I've never heard call him a hero, but, not to be racist, I hear white people say it. That Columbus "discovering" America took real guts, determination, and adventure, and although that's true, in my opinion, it doesn't make Columbus a hero who didn't DISCOVER America and who's interactions with the indigenous was not right or moral.
ReplyDeleteI was told second hand at first that Columbus was doing these things. I looked it up on the internet, when I was about 9, and found two sites supporting what the person said. Although I never heard or read of Columbus lining the natives up to be shot. Last year, Romer mentioned it herself.
The Russians weren't the first to take land like this. Nor were they the last.
The people who call Hensley a sellout are obviously either misinformed or hold very strong opinions. I also agree, Hensley is one of my role models and icons, he is one of the reasons why I am inspired to be a future leader. Thank you to Willie Hensley!
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