I agree they balance people and make them more inclined to freedom, which is why I defended them in my earlier post.
Large predators, especialy those that are relatively predictable and can be dealt with using common sense cause people to be less inclined to focus on petty issues. A tame world becomes a restrictive world relatively quickly. When people are more concerned with minor things other people are doing rather than staying safe from the elements and the wildlife they create mountains of restrictive legislation.
California was one of the most free states in the nation for a lot of its history.
I imagine if we still had large grizzlies and similar predators it would be more firearm friendly for example.
The really petty population develops much faster when things are too tame.
p.s. Many of the natives were rather aggressive themselves. I would have been too considering what had happened to those on the East Coast by that time, The treaties not honored and the atrocities commited. Yet history is often misrepresented.
In many instances the natives themselves were the agressors, they despised the foriegners coming in, displacing them and living a lifestyle that could not coexist with thiers. You cannot clear all the land, plant farms in mass and raise livestock and still have a good size hunter gatherer population exist.
The ways of the natives were also pretty savage to the people. They usualy did many things to the bodies of thier victims that added insult to injury. Genital mutilation of thier enemies' bodies for example was a common sign used for disrespect, but made them seem even more barbaric to the settlers.
When a farm was raided the men were usualy killed early in the mornign when they went out to tend the farm. The women were sometimes killed and sometimes captured. Babies usualy were swung by thier feet and thier heads popped on a near hard surface. Livestock was killed and the place was set on fire (often resulting in a lot of feathers rising and falling since they were used as filling.) Then the bodies of the victims had things done to them as a message.
When neighbors would arrive usualy after seeing the fire that is the type of scene they would come across. That is not lone instances, but a rather common occurance throughout the frontier.
In all wars in American history, the "Indian Wars" had the highest support from the population of the United States, even higher than the support during world war 2. Not a single war before or since had the same level of support throughout its duration.
We properly recognize the wrongs commited against them as we are the victors now, and they have become a defeated minority. That was not the way it was seen at the time though when farms and settlements were being attacked and slaughtered by raiding parties on a regular basis.
Large predators, especialy those that are relatively predictable and can be dealt with using common sense cause people to be less inclined to focus on petty issues. A tame world becomes a restrictive world relatively quickly. When people are more concerned with minor things other people are doing rather than staying safe from the elements and the wildlife they create mountains of restrictive legislation.
California was one of the most free states in the nation for a lot of its history.
I imagine if we still had large grizzlies and similar predators it would be more firearm friendly for example.
The really petty population develops much faster when things are too tame.
p.s. Many of the natives were rather aggressive themselves. I would have been too considering what had happened to those on the East Coast by that time, The treaties not honored and the atrocities commited. Yet history is often misrepresented.
In many instances the natives themselves were the agressors, they despised the foriegners coming in, displacing them and living a lifestyle that could not coexist with thiers. You cannot clear all the land, plant farms in mass and raise livestock and still have a good size hunter gatherer population exist.
The ways of the natives were also pretty savage to the people. They usualy did many things to the bodies of thier victims that added insult to injury. Genital mutilation of thier enemies' bodies for example was a common sign used for disrespect, but made them seem even more barbaric to the settlers.
When a farm was raided the men were usualy killed early in the mornign when they went out to tend the farm. The women were sometimes killed and sometimes captured. Babies usualy were swung by thier feet and thier heads popped on a near hard surface. Livestock was killed and the place was set on fire (often resulting in a lot of feathers rising and falling since they were used as filling.) Then the bodies of the victims had things done to them as a message.
When neighbors would arrive usualy after seeing the fire that is the type of scene they would come across. That is not lone instances, but a rather common occurance throughout the frontier.
In all wars in American history, the "Indian Wars" had the highest support from the population of the United States, even higher than the support during world war 2. Not a single war before or since had the same level of support throughout its duration.
We properly recognize the wrongs commited against them as we are the victors now, and they have become a defeated minority. That was not the way it was seen at the time though when farms and settlements were being attacked and slaughtered by raiding parties on a regular basis.
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I think this was a case of being in the wrong place at the wrong time on both parts. A tragic event occurred. Hopefully the girl will recover. I'd be willing to bet she does not want to exterminate the entire Grizzly species. 
