Our history mirrors the troubled histories of many other countries in North and South America and Australasia that were ‘discovered’ and settled by Europeans between the sixteenth and nineteenth centuries.  The indigenous populations were conquered, some were enslaved and nearly all lost their ancestral lands.   As Chief Red Cloud of the Sioux observed: “They made us many promises, but they kept only one: they promised to take our land – and they did.” Some indigenous people died resisting the invaders – but many, many more succumbed to the settlers’ diseases – perhaps as many as 90% of the population of South and Central America.