To the editor:

Although the reading was laced with horror, and sadness, I must say that I appreciate the July 2 opinion piece in the Adirondack Daily Enterprise by George J. Bryjak. It gave a glimpse into the wickedness that this country expressed against this land’s First Nations. Their land was stolen, many died, and the 350 treaties between the First Nations and the U.S. government were broken by the government.

Additionally, according to the research of Henry F. Dobyns, the population of Native North America is estimated to have ranged from 18 million in 1492 to the lowest number of a half-million in 1900. This was the result of disease, slavery and war. Further insight can be gleaned from “American Holocaust” by David Standard, “An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States” by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz and “A Little Matter of Genocide” by Ward M. Churchill.

John Fadden

Onchiota