September 27, 2006

If Indians were in charge

The Bureau of Caucasian AffairsCertain barbaric white customs will, of course, not be allowed. Whites will not be allowed to practice their heathen religions, and will be required to attend Indian ceremonies. Missionaries will be sent from each tribe to convert the whites on the reservations. White churches will either be made into amusement parks or museums or will be torn down and the bricks and ornaments sold as souvenirs and curiosities.

One famous Indian movie director has even announced that in his upcoming film, Custer’s Last Stand, he will use many actual whites to play the parts of soldiers, speaking real English, although, of course, the part of Custer will be played by noted Indian actor Jay Silverheels.

3 comments:

Rob said...

I've seen White Man's Burden. Good concept, but they didn't do enough with it. Read Lion's Blood by Steven Barnes for a real treatment of the race-reversal issue.

Rob said...

It would be difficult to postulate a world in which the Indians conquered the Europeans in America. But see Aztecs Won in "Gate of Worlds" for a world with Indian empires and without European empires.

Another book in this vein is The Years of Rice and Salt by Kim Stanley Robinson. Again, the Indians didn't conquer anyone in this alternate history. They simply weren't conquered themselves.

The book Pastwatch: The Redemption of Christopher Columbus by Orson Scott Card implies that the Aztecs conquered the Americas and then Europe. But this happened off-screen, so to speak. Regardless, this is an excellent book and I highly recommend it.

Rob said...

Another book worth mentioning is Apacheria by Jake Page. Again, the Indians don't conquer the Americans, but they defeat them militarily and remain independent.