"Our founding fathers"

[Sharer73]

thought it was gonna be on bitcoin founders lol

[Samupaha]

Aaron Huey: America's native prisoners of war (TED talk)

[santaclause102]

The wikipedia article paints a different picture and probabaly it is not all all that undifferentiated. But the wikipedia article doesnt put the questionable quotes in context. I searched a bit more and found this:
"Thomas Jefferson warned John Adams in this letter that despite the progress of some Indian Nations, such as the Cherokee, to adopt representative government, many Native Americans "will relapse into barbarism & misery, lose numbers by war & want, and we shall be obliged to drive them, with the beasts of the forest into the Stony mountains." In a previous August 28, 1807 letter to his Secretary of War Henry Dearborn, Jefferson stated "if ever we are constrained to lift the hatchet against any tribe, we will never lay it down till that tribe is exterminated, or driven beyond the Missisipi."
http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/jefferson/jeffwest.html

European colonialism was devastating and inhumane (rooted in a similar attitude)! I couldnt imagine someone here priding him/herself with the achievements of colonialist conquerors (I am not saying that any nationalism is any less worse - all the same stupidity).

[dannotestein]

Thanks for the link, it got me motivated to do a brief search, where I found this wikipedia article that gives better context for Jefferson's quote (certainly not trying to apologize for his behavior here, just thought the original link neglects some aspects of it as do most quotes taken out of context):
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Jefferson_and_Indian_removal

Also, as a side note, I think pretty much all world powers at that time could be classified as having "Imperial ambitions".

[santaclause102]

Having come across Roosevelt's not so benevolent attitude to early empirial objects (indians)... I took a look at the track record of some other founding fathers and remembered the "libertarian" talk about how today's america has departed from the original intention of the founding fathers:
http://www.greatdreams.com/lies.htm
Maybe it's the opposite way (at least in terms of imperial attitude towards "others") around and the USA's imperial politics today are just a continuation (regarding the attitude) of the land grab and genocide a few hundred years ago?