You will find the Buffalo Soldiers a prominent part of the history of the U. S. Cavalry both from an official as well as unofficial point of view. I have no idea what you are referring to in that regard and I doubt that you do either. You will not find any official reference or any other verified reference to support the smallpox blanket theory for the simple reason that it never happened. It is unfortunate that a recorded staff meeting during the French and Indian Wars contained a speculative reference to the possible use of this tactic against the indians, which was later dismissed along with another suggestion involving the use of trained packs of dogs. In any case, by the time the U.S. Cavalry came on the scene in the old west all the disease damage that could be done was pretty much over with. I would also hasten to add that no matter how much you might believe in a thing that does not necessarily make it so. Sorry to have to mention that last one and, yes, it does cut both ways.

There are numerous diarys and documents that mention that the indians were infected with many of the diseases that the white man was immune to, simply through incidential contact in the normal day to day activities. I guess when you have never been exposed to a particular germ that it can be deadly. This began happening soon after the first whites started arriving in North America. They didn't have to try to spred the disease, it was going to happen anyway.

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God and the Soldier we all adore,
In times of trouble and then no more
when war is over and all things righted
God is forgotten, the old soldier Slighted.

I can’t speak for anyone else but I for one am willing to concede that someone probably passed tainted blankets to the Indians either on purpose or by accident. That was not the question. It was stated here that the US Cavalry used smallpox contaminated blankets as a form of germ warfare. That just flat did not happen.

I think Hollywood found some success with a movie showing the Army giving smallpox blankets to the Indians and then the concept was copied in additional productions, as it often does. Once Hollywood finds a successful story line they go with…. They could care less about truth or accuracy or anything else but the bottom-line. It’s too bad that so many of us have so much trouble separating fact form fiction.

I have been a long-standing critic of Hollywood’s rewriting of history long before this discussion began. Oliver Stone is probably the worst offender. He simply has no respect for the facts at all. But how many people go to see his movies and them later you hear them referencing incidents in the movie as if they were the gospel.

>>We generally expect Hollywood to take some liberties with facts. But what if Hollywood turns history upside down? Ironically, that's the key to understanding the movie JFK. In scene after scene, the impression conveyed by the movie is at odds with the historical record — even at odds with what conspiracy buffs will admit is the record.<<

http://mcadams.posc.mu.edu/jfkmovie.htm

<small>[ February 15, 2003, 07:36 AM: Message edited by: JFlosum ]</small>

http://www.isop.ucla.edu/article.asp?parentid=1352

Smallpox: Bioterror of the Conquistadors and the U.S. Cavalry

Smallpox originated in Western Europe. It has served, particularly in the Americas, as an unwitting and later deliberate agent of biological warfare. The disease was brought to America by the Spaniards in the early 16th century. Conquistador Hernando Cortez introduced smallpox to Mexico in 1520, and in two years it killed 3.5 million Aztecs. In wars with the Indians in the early United States it became a common practice to attempt to induce smallpox among the Native Americans. During the Pontiac rebellion in 1763, the British army provided Delaware Native Americans with blankets and handkerchiefs taken from smallpox hospitals. This “gift giving” of disease-ridden blankets was a common practice by the American military after independence from Britain, particularly in the late nineteenth century. Today smallpox is extinct in the world, thanks to heroic efforts of the World Health Organization. Samples of the virus, however, remain in laboratories of the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta and in Moscow. A major concern of health officials is that terrorists may try to capitalize on the fact that smallpox vaccinations ceased in 1971 to reintroduce the dread disease to populations that have lost their immunities.

<small>[ February 15, 2003, 04:39 PM: Message edited by: Dagger ]</small>

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If all the atheists left the United States it would lose 93% of the National Academy of Sciences but less than 1% of the prison population.

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Considering the increased use of the word "evil" since Bush II, I think it should be mandatory for people to read Nietzsche's Beyond Good and Evil before using it. Bush misused it so much even his handlers made him stop.

I love biblical prophecies, they make some of the best fiction.

610 Bible Contradictions
http://members.cox.net/galatians/tension.htm

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"Know ye not why We created you all from the same dust? That no one should exalt himself over the other." -Baha'u'llah

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