The fourth installment of this series of quotes and related questions from An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz as I make my way through the book while taking part in a Zoom book group with East Suburban Unitarian Universalist Church in Murrysville …
The original settlers of Massachusetts Bay Colony, founded in 1630, adopted an official seal designed in England before their journey. The central image depicts a near-naked native holding a harmless, flimsy-looking bow and arrow and inscribed with the plea, “Come over and help us.” Nearly three hundred years later, the official seal of the US military veterans of the “Spanish-American War” (the invasion and occupation of Puerto Rico, Cuba, and the Philippines) showed a naked woman kneeling before an armed US soldier and a sailor, with a battleship in the background. One may trace this recurrent altruistic theme into the twenty-first century, when the United States still invades countries under the guise of rescue.
FROM “CHAPTER three: CULT OF the COvenant” IN AN INDIGENOUS PEOPLES’ HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES BY ROXANNE DUNBAR-ORTIZ