The US is responsible for the majority of death amongst Native Americans

(I know this is rather long in terms of what you were asking for, sorry, but I had a lot of fun with it.) These are questions I must raise for my argument in the context of this topic. Who are the natives? What does it mean to be known as a native American? Do they have to be the indigenous(original) race? Or can they simply be *people who are born in the Unites States?* I have a firm belief that native Americans should simply be considered as people who are born in the United States, meaning, on U.S. soil. The opponent has installed this instruction/regulation for the 2nd round of the debate: "...stating what you believe with factual, debatable belief...". As a disclaimer, this is not a claim "against" my opponent, I am merely acknowledging this rule. This belief is in relation to what it means to be a native of a certain area. One of the definitions for native American: "a person born in the United States" (Dictionary.com). This definition is the one I will adhere to in accordance to what I "believe". Now, before anyone claims that this argument is one based on semantics, since I have a firm "belief" (strongly emphasizing this) that the term "native Americans" is one that should be considered as for people born in the US, I have read the description of the topic using my 1st choice of the definition of a native American. This is of course, primarily not a debate centered on what the definition of a native American is and again, the matter of the regulations for the debate , so I cannot be held accountable for not following any other intentions of the usage of the definition. Now, I will address the issue of the topic directly in my argument. Is the US responsible for the majority of deaths among Native Americans? In my context of the definition of native American, that is virtually the same as asking: Are native Americans responsible for the majority of deaths among native Americans? I would say this is true in respect to evidence of US campaigns within the time period of 1776 to 1875. During this time period, there was notably the Civil War that started in 1861.For the most part, native Americans had fought against native Americans. The Civil War was 85 years later than when the United States officially became a country. One counter to my argument-in-progress would be that this was a time of immigration and that Civil War soldiers likely comprised also of immigrants. However, discussing the demography of Civil War soldiers, it is said that young native Americans had largely been in the majority considering that the population of the US expanded more people were born on US soil and had been drafted by the union and confederate side of the Civil War. "In fact, far more of the rural, native-born poor were forced into service than their urban immigrant counterparts" (Meyers). The main focus currently in my argument, will be on Civil War battle statistics concerning the battle deaths that resulted from the Civil War. Indirect deaths will not be counted as battle deaths are more than sufficient for this argument, even though the US is responsible for starting the Civil War by itself and therefore can potentially be seen as being held accountable for other related native American deaths such as disease. US battle deaths in the Civil War were estimated between confederacy and the union. Calculating both together, the estimated battle deaths for the Civil War is 214,938 (calculated from estimates on infoplease.com). Estimated battle deaths from the War of 1812 up until the start of the Civil War were 4,993 (Not factoring in the American Revolution as the US was not officially a country for the most part in the duration of that war). In the time period you had given, "between first European contact and 1875", the time period from the first point of time (around 1500 perhaps) up until 1776, when the US as a country had been created and the declaration of independence ratified, is irrelevant in regards to my belief, since the landmass/territory was not considered the United States until after that time. This is stated in order to refute possible statements and not as a direct rebuttal to your main argument you have created, such as if I am purposefully disregarding deaths of some other group of people you would place under as native Americans. Therefore, who is responsible for the "majority of death(s) amongst Native Americans?" Mathematically, from the perspective of debatable belief I have provided with factually created points, the US is the one primarily responsible for the majority of deaths among native Americans in the topic creator's given time period, and not any other group of people such as the Europeans. Sources utilized: - http://dictionary.reference.com... - http://immigrationtounitedstates.org... ^ (click for quote: http://prntscr.com... ) - http://www.infoplease.com...