[AuthenticBlackAmerican5305]

Ill prefece that I respect Native Americans (I have relatives on my fathers side who were full blooded native American).

But

Lets be real here Native Americans have no more of a claim on the United States of America than people of English (West European) or Black American(west African) decent.Natives were all over the "Americas" and had no concept of what a country was.. This is not my opinion but fact thats backed up by historical and physical evidence and its also the official position of the British Royal Family that all three cultures were critical to the foundation of the United States.. Here is colonial williamsburg which is a tourist destination that I advise everyone to visit, its the first settlement of the cultures who created the NATION of United States and tells the story of the people who built America. The blacks were a mixture of slaves AND colonist as was the English..
http://www.history.org/

Whites and Blacks and Natives have a equal claim on the United States So lets respect these brave men bulilt and made this country.

http://www.usatoday.com/travel/destinations/2006-12-26-jamestown-400th-birthday-america-founding-queen-england-visiting_x.htm
Jessicah: Natives have a claim to the CONTINENT but others have equal claim on the COUNTRY.

[Jen0704]

Garbage. These nations were founded by clearing out or subjugating the peoples already here. There were numerous treaties, promises, guarantees made and broken time after time. Law does not just vanish because the lawbreakers stall the cases, in their own court system, for generations.

Many of these cases are fact... the promise of so much whisky, beads and guns for the right to build a church and a trading post, has become 200 years later, yeah OK so we never paid even that rent, whatever, we own it now. How does that work? Breach of contract, nobody is asking us to go back to Ireland or whatever, just renegotiate the rent and carry on from today.

And the churches were sent on genocidal missions. Convert them, teach them English only, beat the kids into a good servant class away from their families, and share out smallpox infested blankets to thin the herd. Classy.

[Jessicah6825]

Really? You really think we have no claim to our country. It was ours long before anyone(white, black, yellow, etc.) else showed up. Seriously, they arent exaggerated claims. They are legitimate.

[soulrebel]

I agree. All three groups contributed different, very important things. Sure, we haven't always gotten along perfectly, but nothing in this country would be where it is today without those who played that role in history. Natives had the LAND before anyone else and they contributed their knowledge of it, but the whites colonized & formed a government, and the blacks did a lot of the labor and invented many things. America doesn't and shouldn't "belong" to any one group.

edit: yes, the LAND is of the native peoples. But it's not as though they created the government. There's a huge difference between the LAND and the COUNTRY, you guys have entirely missed what I was trying to say...

[Earls]

when Kennewick Man was discovered, the "Native Americans" claimed him. Scientific tests showed he was here before the American Indians.

It used to be believed that there was one massive migration from Asia to North America. Now is it believed there were many smaller migrations over a longer period of time.

In other words, there is no one Native American people. And the ones the Europeans settlers found intermarried with the prior ones or killed them off.

[TrofimL9915]

Horse manure. And that is all the words I will waste on this tripe.

[mpressvern]

Native Americans were here first and because of the disruption and enslavement of their people they dissolve to have claim of American land.

[CailinCeilteach]

Jen you are a star

[NOBlTCH-ASSNESSNOMCCAIN]

Here is another fact:

Native Americans NEVER claimed the American territory as theirs, they believed that it belonged to the Earth (which it obviously does). Of course they didn't found a country on this land, they were a nomadic type of civilization, but they believed that everyone had the rights to share this land. In other words, like you said everyone had equal claims to this land.

However, I am very grateful that I am living on this land in MODERN TIMES and I thank the men for that, but I do not give thanks on how the foundation of this country was built on. Even though Native Americans didn't have claims to the land, the fact of it is that they were here before the European settlers, on top of that think about how many innocent Native Americans were killed in the process and how they were relocated.

Out of all the treaties that were signed between the Europeans and Native Americans, none of them ever remained in effect.

[coquinegra]

That makes no sense. If I move into your house, beat you up, sit you outside under pain of death and get 15 of my friends to hold guns on you so you don't try to come in...we all have an *equal* claim on your house? Really? So, I'll be over to your place to move in. After all, we have equal claim to it, right?