Amerindian Apotheosis

by William Scott, Jr.

THE “New Age” craze has merged with “liberalism” in several interesting ways. Both new-ageism and liberalism spring from the same kind of reality-denying mentality. Both elevate wishful thinking to a kind of moral and philosophical principle, and both operate on the basis of an unremitting hatred of European civilization and the race that created it. In this latter characteristic we find both crystal-gazers and neo-Communists united in a frenetic promotion of the superior civilization and spirituality of the aboriginal inhabitants of North and South America, the Indians.

You’ve seen it all, I’m sure, from documentaries on the achievements of the Aztecs and Incas which were wiped out by the wicked Spaniards, to Hollywood’s Dances With Wolves, to anti-Columbus pronouncements on Columbus Day, to the ridiculous compeers of Shirley MacLaine all decked out in their Indian feathers and moccasins.

I note in passing a catalog which crossed my desk. It was from a firm which sells New Age trinkets by mail, including “magic Indian stones” found at the “precise center of the North American continent,” devices to “catch evil spirits” before they can “disturb your dreams,” etc. I was astounded to discover that they do not accept wampum in payment for these goods, just Visa or Mastercard. But on to more serious things.

Was the civilization of the Mongoloid peoples, sometimes called Indians or Amerindians, who migrated across the Bering straits some 14,000 years ago, actually superior to our own?

First, it must be pointed out that the trans-Bering migrants and pre-Columbian inhabitants of what is today the United States and Canada did not have a civilization. They were nomadic hunters and gatherers, with a few exceptions. They did live in harmony with their environment, but only out of need, not out of choice or design. No moral superiority can be assigned to them thereby, since all peoples at the savage stage of development live in a generally similar manner relative to their environments.

As to the more advanced cultures of Central and South American Amerindians, the Inca and the Maya and the Aztec, we have a more complex question. As I make no claim to be an authority on the subject, I defer to the judgments of Dr. John Baker, Chairman of the Physical Anthropology Department at Oxford University. In his book Race Dr. Baker goes into some detail comparing various cultures around the world and analyzing their relative positions. Baker starts by making it clear that the only Indian cultures that can even be compared to non-Indian cultures are the Aztec, Mayan, and Inca cultures.

Baker shows that these Indians did have noteworthy achievements in mathematics, astronomy, and architecture. While recognizing their talents he goes on to state:

“When all these great achievements are held in mind, one might be inclined to pronounce these people as civilized without further consideration. But further consideration is precisely what is necessary.”

He then goes on to state that they had no comparable written language, no money (only barter), no weights for measuring, no metal-bladed agricultural implements, and they had never invented the wheel. With regard to their much ballyhooed “spirituality” he says:

“Their religions, which actually governed their lives, contained no other element than superstition… [and] did not enter into the field of ethics.”

So we see that there were many areas where these cultures never really came close to European or Oriental civilization.

Another area covered by Mr. Baker that the Politically Correct cadres do not like to discuss is the cannibalism that was openly practiced in these so-called civilizations and which was a major part of their “deep spirituality.” On this he comments:

“It was their custom to make war with the sole purpose of obtaining prisoners, who were kept in cages until required and then killed at special ceremonies by a cruel method involving the slitting open of the living body and tearing out the still beating heart. At one festival each year, babies were killed instead…. The slaughter was not all… the custom of eating flesh of sacrificed persons became almost universal. For instance, the Maya reserved the hands and feet of the victims for the high priest and supreme lord.”

Of course these descriptions can only to a small degree convey the horror that would be felt by any normal White man or woman were he or she to witness these acts personally. Finally to sum up the professor’s opinion he states bluntly:

“The mathematics, astronomy, and calendar of the Middle Americans suggest unqualified acceptance into the ranks of the civilized, but other features flatly forbid it.”

Keep in mind that these were the most developed of the native cultures and nothing of this scale existed in what is now the United States or Canada. I have tried here to deliver a factual counterbalance to the ideas propounded by the liberals and the New Agers, but I’m sure that there will be some who still do not want to see the plain truth. The belief in “noble savages” and the other hokum dished out for the public in the media will continue, and many will continue to watch Hollywood’s sophisticated propaganda like Dances With Wolves and believe that they have actually taken a trip back into time and witnessed the Amerindians as they really existed. But the plain truth cannot be — and will not be — suppressed forever.

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Source: Free Speech magazine, February 1995