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論文

Distorted Histories under Colonialism:
Comparative Study of Native American History in the
United States and History of Ainu People in Japan
Yukari Eto*
Key words：Native Americans, Ainu people, colonialism, history
I.

Introduction
History should be neutral but in reality it may not be because it could reflect theviews of the writer. American history books, for example, were written from a
Eurocentric perspective, especially the perspective of White Anglo Saxon Protestants(WASP). The preponderance of socioeconomic and political power remains in the handsof the descendants of those first Europeans who migrated to the U.S. since Christopher
Columbus accidently reached America in 1492. The distortions found in many
American History books have attempted to justify what was done and have become atactic for maintaining power.
The Eurocentric perspective existed not only in American history books but also
in other traditional academic disciplines. The field of Ethnic Studies in the UnitedStates; therefore, evolved from the civil rights movement of the 60's and took theinterdisciplinary approach. It was the institutional response to non-white minorities
who felt they had been neglected, undervalued, and denied long enough, and demandeda change to a more level playing field.
Today, professors and scholars, including those who are white, are attempting toprovide the parts of history that were omitted. I studied in similar to Ethnic Studies
departments in California that employed the interdisciplinary approach. The focus is on
the economic, social, and political structures and their impact on minorities acquired byconquest and/or annexation, as well as, how these social structures have evolved to theirpresent form. Being a foreigner from Japan provided me with a more neutral third
person perspective, and I was able to assimilate the new information without anemotional reaction. This was not the case with some white students, especially whitemales who had been taught “White” history what Prof. Loewen referred to as “feel-good
history for affluent white males” (1995, p. 301), that Columbus was a courageous
hero. These students felt under attack when their comforting historical myths were*

Department of Language and Culture at Sanyo Gakuen University
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Eto: Distorted
Histories
under Colonialism:
Comparativeof Native
AmericanHistory
theDistorted
Histories
under Colonialism:
Comparative
Study Studyof Native
AmericanHistoryin theinUnitedStatesandHistoryof
Ainu
PeopleinJapan
United States and History of Ainu People in Japan

exposed.
In the United Sates, Columbus Day has been celebrated as a national holiday
since 1937. Schools in most states usually give lessons for the students about Columbus
as a great white male founder and often organize events to honor him before the holiday.
But for Native Americans1 whose ancestors were brutally killed by Columbus (Zinn,
1995), is he a hero? While a great numbers of people in the United States honor
Columbus, a few states like South Dakota2 commemorate the day as an official stateholiday known as “Native Americans’ Day” to celebrate the heritage of Native
Americans.
These ethnic related history classes which I participated in California revealed
why the U.S. does not provide a full picture of its history. At the same time, it caused me
think about the history of my own country, Japan. There are indigenous people called,
Ainu in our society, and I believe the history of Ainu people is very similar to the historyof Native Americans. I believe that rationalized history is not limited to the UnitedStates, but also exists in Japan. In this paper, therefore, I will first discuss historicalsimilarities between Native Americans in the United States and Ainu people in Japan,
and how their histories were rationalized by the dominant group. Then I will further
discuss the social, economic, and political aspects of that surrounding the history. It may
be painful for the people of the dominant group to accept a more complete history, butmore painful yet was that suffered by its victims.
II.

Historical similarities between Native Americans in the United States and Ainu

people in Japan
Strangely enough, as Columbus reached the New World by sailing westward,
and established the new colonization in the 15th century, Japanese began to expand its
territories into “Ainu Moshiri (The land of [Ainu] people in Ainu)”3 in the 15th century.
The conflicts between Ainu people and Japanese caused the “Koshamain’s Battle” in1457. Although the revolt seemed to be successful at one point, the Ainu were notvictorious. Since then, the small conflicts between the Ainu and Japanese repeatedcontinuously over two centuries. And once again, a massive uprising against Japaneseby Shakushain and his 3000 armed Ainu took place in 1669. It looked like the resistancewas going to be successful, but Shakushain was assassinated at the peace settlement.
As a result, Japanese coerced the Ainu into an agreement that guaranteed their forcedlabor. Ainu people were required to supply goods such as deer hides and processedsalmon. However, the Japanese history books make it sound like it was an exchange
trade. The truth is that the Japanese only compensated with 2 cups of rice4 for the“exchanged trade.” Horiuchi compared the amount with what the Japanese government
provided for the migrants from Nara prefecture to “Ainu Moshiri” due to a torrential
downpour disaster of 1889 as 5 cups of rice for adults and 3 cups of rice for a child(Horiuchi, 2013). This means the Ainu forced labor was furnished for less than a2- 68 -

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Japanese child who did not even work. In 1789, Ainu in the Northeastern part of
Hokkaido arose with the Menashi-Kushir rebellion against the Japanese governmentthat was imposing the forced labor. But they were defeated. Like the Native Americansof the contiguous United States, their land, what we now call Hokkaido and thesouthern part of the Kuril Islands, was completely taken over, and Japanese colonizers
divided the land into 85 sections (Horiuchi, 2013). This is a brief history of how the Ainu
lost their land, “Ainu Moshiri”, and how the Japanese government renamed the land as
Hokkaido after the Meiji Restoration of 1869.
Because of forced labor and diseases such as smallpox and tuberculosis brought
over by the colonizers, and for which the Ainu had not yet developed an immunity, theAinu population decreased dramatically in a short period of time. According to Chikapp(1991), smallpox decimated approximately 1/2 of the 8000 Ainu population who were
forcibly removed from Sakhalin into Hokkaido in 1875. In the Americas, epidemics ofsmallpox and chicken pox also took the lives of a great number of Native Americans.
Viola (1990) asserts that within 40 years, new European infectious diseases rapidly
decimated 90% of the inhabiting population of Hispaniola5 where Columbus founded thefirst European colony.
After the 13 colonies declared their independence from British Empire in 1776,
they established the United States of America. The more the number of European
settlers increased, the more aroused became the tensions and conflicts between theEuropean settlers and the native inhabitants. In the 19th century; therefore, Manifest
Destiny, the doctrine that European American settlers were destined by God to expand
throughout the American continent took hold and provided the colonizers with adivinely ordained superiority and the moral authority to govern the UnitedStates. Manifest Destiny called for the massive relocation of Native Americans to arid
and less productive lands called reservations, so the colonizers could take possessions of
the more fertile lands. The other purpose of these relocations was to reduce the amountof land needed by Native Americans, so European American could acquire more lands
for “better use” for themselves. Andrew Jackson before he became the 7th President of
the United States, he had long been an advocate of forced removal of Native Americans,an example would be the Creek Tribe in 1814. After Jackson was elected President, hecontinued the crusade and the American government authorized the “Indian Removal
Act” in 1830. One of the devastating removals was “The Trail of Tears” of 1838; it was
the forced march expulsion in mid-winter, on foot, without food or help from thegovernment. It was estimated that over 4,000 of the 15,000 Cherokees travelers diedalong the way (Viola, 1990).
Just like the Native Americans who were expelled from their land due to theincreasing number of European settlers, the Ainu people were also driven off from their
homelands when a great number of Japanese migrated into Hokkaido after 1868.
Horiuchi observes the process as “It is the universal law for the colonizers to plunder3- 69 -

Eto: Distorted
Histories
under Colonialism:
Comparativeof Native
AmericanHistory
theDistorted
Histories
under Colonialism:
Comparative
Study Studyof Native
AmericanHistoryin theinUnitedStatesandHistoryof
Ainu
PeopleinJapan
United States and History of Ainu People in Japanthe inhabitants’ land in order to settle down successfully instead of developing newly
undeveloped or wilder lands” (2013, p. 34). Nemuro and Sapporo prefectures of
Hokkaido advocated an allotment policy6 in early 1880s. The Japanese authorities
promoted removal by providing Ainu people with 2 square meter (2 hectare) of land forfarming and about 45kg of rice and 90~135kg of potatoes. The author continues to statethat however Japanese officials responded by providing only 1 square meter (1 hectare)of land and no food supplies were given the Ainu. It was commonly known by theJapanese that one needs at least 5 square meters (5 hectares) of land for start farming,and Setsuri, where the Ainu were relocated to farm, for example, was known to be too
cold to grow plants and it was more suitable for grazing. Not to mention, the land which
was taken by Ainu and given to Japanese people from Nara Prefecture in 1889, now
became outstanding grain growing region in Hokkaido (Horiuchi, 2013). Traditionally
the Ainu fished and hunted, but were forced to move to places with harsh andunyielding environments. Coincidently two years earlier in the United States, “TheDawes Act of 1887,” a federal law which intended to convert Native Americans into field
farmers was authorized, and in part, their hunting rights were restricted. Moreover,much of their best reservation lands were eventually taken away by the European
colonizers.
Another similarity is the policy of “civilization” or assimilation by the dominantgroup. The new settlers regarded inhabitants hunting activities as primitive anduncivilized. Making the inhabitants into farmers as I explained above was the part of
the “charitable” civilization policy in order to take their lands. But it wasn’t enough;cultural colonization was advocated by the dominants. The natives were prohibited to
speak their language, sent to schools and forced to live like the dominant groups. In thecase of the Native Americans, they were sent to boarding schools or some Native
American children were removed from their parents, even a federal law of the IndianChild Welfare Act (ICWA) of 1978 was enacted to assure transferring them.
Assimilation meant that the government did not have the responsibility to provide
social services or economic aid, and, since they are now assimilated, they are no longer
Native Americans, and as such, the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) declared such tribes
as "extinct", and the government has taken away their reservations legally. Koning(1993) states that Native Americans owned only 48 million acres of land when theDawes Act was abolished in 1934 while they had owned 138 million acres in 1887. In thecase of Ainu, glossing the Japanese policy over with “protective,” Ainu people were sent
to Japanese schools. There, they were forced to speak Japanese and were taught toadmire the emperor and military discipline. Ainu culture is viewed as primitive andsavage and they were prohibited to practice their hunting and rituals. Moreover,Japanese surnames were given to register them into Japanese society (Horiuchi, 1993).
The historical similarities between Native Americans in the United States andthe Ainu people of Japan are no coincidence. The similarities rest on the fact that they4

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both were victims of forced colonization. The political and economic interests of thecolonizers in their colonized lands created the historical similarities between Native
Americans and Ainu people. And unfortunately, distorted history was used to downplay
and erase the brutal and tragic fate of the colonized people and their lands. There areseveral techniques of justification used by colonizers.
James W. Loewen (1995), who has authored several books on American History
books in state of Mississippi explains that one of the techniques used in American
History books is “heroification.” He uses Columbus as an example of heroification andnotes that the Anglocentric history textbooks devote about two and a half pages topresent the heroic collective account of Christopher Columbus alone, starting with how
he “discovered” the America. The heroification of Columbus and Europeans renderedinvisible what they had really done to Native Americans.
Another procedure that was used by European colonial administrations was the
emptiness of the colonial land. Europeans referred to the continent which was“discovered” by Columbus in 1492 as the “New World.” From the European standpoint,
the Americas were previously unknown to the Europeans7; therefore, it seemed to be the
New World, but they ignored the fact that the Americas were populated with indigenous
people. The numbers of inhabitants vary widely depending on the scholar. Denevan(1992) in his “The Native Population of the Americas in 1492” reveals that somescholars estimate the number as high as 112 million natives while some scholars
estimate the number as low as 8 million. By describing Columbus’ voyage as thediscovery of a "New World" conveyed the idea that the Americas were empty. And thecolonizer attempts to portray the policy of colonization as a natural phenomenon inwhich white people are destined to colonize and rule the Americas. In Japanese history
textbooks, the account of how the Japanese entered the Ainu Moshiri is noted as“reclamation” while Utsugi (1990) refutes it was an “invasion” since Ainu people were
forming their culture before Japanese. “Reclamation” comprises in some what very
positive expression of life in the forward expansion in a settlement just like “American
frontier” of the Manifest Destiny, but what Japanese claim for “reclamation” and what
European settlers transformed as “American frontier” are actually mean “colonial
expansionism” and/or “invasion.”
Blaut (1993) claims that another technique used by the dominant group tojustify the process of taking the land over from Native Americans is to indicate that
Native Americans did not have the concept of private property with regard to land. The
same is true of the case of Japanese “reclamation” of Ainu Moshiri. The Japanese
government induced people by announcing Hokkaido as “the land without lord” andinformed that “There are some Ainu people dwelling (in Ainu Moshiri), but they do notseem to have the idea of possessing property” (Horiuchi, 2013, p. 27).
Whatever the method used, they had one purpose. It was to cover up themurderous savagery with which they stole the land of the indigenous people under5- 71 -

Eto: Distorted
Histories
under Colonialism:
Comparativeof Native
AmericanHistory
theDistorted
Histories
under Colonialism:
Comparative
Study Studyof Native
AmericanHistoryin theinUnitedStatesandHistoryof
Ainu
PeopleinJapan
United States and History of Ainu People in Japan

colonization. History books were used to deceive the reader of the dark past and toproject an image of progress and civilization under the guidance of a divine
hand. Many students were ready to accept this attractive version as fact. Loewen
expresses that “The authors of history textbooks have taken us on a trip of their own,
away from the facts of history, into the realm of myth” (1996, p. 39).
III.

The aftermath of colonization and the teaching of distorted history to thesubjugated people
The distorted history taught by the colonizers caused Native American
students and Ainu students to develop a negative self-image and to develop an
inferiority complex. As a history teacher, Loewen (1996) noticed that African American,
Native American, and Latino students dislike history in particular and learn history
poorly. This is not accidental. This is because “White” history blames victims,
non-whites, and there is nothing to be found in American history books to makenon-whites feel proud. It rather promotes inequality between colonizers and colonized,“conquerors and conquered, masters and slaves, capitalists and workers, dominatorsand dominated in race and gender” (Zinn, 1995, p. 9-10). An Ainu man recalls his
indignation once when he was taking a Japanese history class in Japanese and Ainu
mixed primary school in Hokkaido, his Japanese teacher told his class that Ainu people
are descendants of traitors (Horiuchi, 1993). The dominant groups create "feel-good"history that portrays them in a favorable light. Their teachers enforce the system andthe subjugated people are once again victimized by being depicted negatively.
Chikapp, an Ainu activist argues that “the invaders seek to evade the problem
by defining a different ethnic group (Ainu) as genetically inferior to the invaders(Japanese) in order to illuminate invaders’ justice. And Japanese invaders regard
themselves as naturally superior (Chikapp, 1991, p. 248). The invading Japanese
needed to establish a system of discrimination in order to maintain political control. The
system of discrimination served to justify the invasion. Japanese scholars insisted that
Ainu should assimilate into Japanese society in order to end their discrimination. But
did the assimilation policy really end discrimination? “Not only did the assimilation
policy not eliminate discrimination, it actually served to strengthen it” (Chikapp, p.
250-251). Under the Japanese “charitable” assimilation policy, the Ainu lands weretaken for Japanese new comers, and the Ainu were forced to move to arid andunproductive lands that the Japanese did not want. The situation of Ainu has notchanged at all. According to the “Investigation of the Actual Situation of Ainu Ethnic”8
which was conducted by Hokkaido University in 2008, the number who received welfare
doubled in Ainu: 5.2% of Ainu receive welfare while only 3.5% of Japanese who live in
Hokkaido or 2.1% of Japanese in general receive welfare (p. 4).
Although the dominant groups stereotype their victims as primitive anduncivilized, Bernal Díaz del Castillo, a Spanish who participated as a foot soldier when6

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Hernán Cortés conquest Tenochtitlán, Mexico observes:
When we arrived [in Tenochtitlán,] we saw so many towns and villages built
both in the water and on dry land and on a straight causeway… that we would
not restrain our admiration. It was like an enchantment, because of the hightowers which rose from the water. Some of our soldiers asked if what we saw
was not a dream… All was bright, with many kinds of stone with pictures thatgave reason for thought. Many kinds of birds came to the lake, and I stoodlooking, thinking that never in the world would lands like these be discoveredagain. (Koning, 1993, p. 36)
Inhabitants were actually highly civilized as an example of Tenochtitlán, and it was thecase with the Native Americans in the contiguous United States. So why were theinhabitants unable to defend themselves if they were highly civilized? Blaut (1993)
points out two factors. The first major reason was the pandemic diseases brought by theEuropeans for which the indigenous people had no immunity. The impact of these
diseases decimated the native population drastically in short period of time. The othermain reason was the advanced military developed in Europe. There was no comparing
the steel swords and guns of the Spaniards and the bow and arrows of the native people
which were used primarily for hunting and not the killing of humans. You can see how
peaceful they were in Columbus’ writing when he encountered the Arawaks of the
Bahama Islands, “They do not bear arms, and do not know them, for I showed them asword, they took it by the edge and cut themselves out of ignorance” (Zinn, 1995, p. 1).
Columbus referred to the injury with the sword as “ignorance”; however, from a third
person point of view, it was written from the point of view of a highly developed
militaristic society. The inhabitants of the Bahamas were peaceful and had no need forweapons of human destruction. The question must be asked, who was more civilized thenatives who lived in peace and harmony and had no need for weaponry, or theEuropeans who slaughtered them?
Under colonization, Native Americans and the Ainu people were subjugated
and their cultures devalued. Demoralization was inevitable. They lived undercircumstances that devalued them and they developed an inferiority complex. As aresult, both Native Americans and Ainu people were debouched by alcohol introducedby colonizers. Yet, when the dominant group looked at an indigenous person who may be
drunk on a certain day, they confirm their superiority by humiliating them as
perennially drunk and lazy instead of looking at the root of the problem. Chikapp (1991)
argues that the Japanese scholars are even worse. They came to Ainu as a “shisamu (itmeans “good neighbor” in Ainu) and took most of the important ceremonial goods away
under the guise of “collecting for scholarly work” just like Japanese colonizers who says
their entry into Ainu Moshiri a “reclamation” rather than an invasion. Moreover,scholars who are supposedly “good neighbors” do not mention anything about thepresent discrimination that exists in Japanese society nor the dire situation of the Ainu

7

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Eto: Distorted
Histories
under Colonialism:
Comparativeof Native
AmericanHistory
theDistorted
Histories
under Colonialism:
Comparative
Study Studyof Native
AmericanHistoryin theinUnitedStatesandHistoryof
Ainu
PeopleinJapan
United States and History of Ainu People in Japan

today. They rather confirm that Ainu people are primitive and uncivilized, and Ainu aredying out quickly. For them the Ainu are mere objects that they can add to their fameand fortune by undermining their culture and taking their material wealth. For them,that is all they care about. “We (Ainu people) didn’t abandon our culture or language;
they were extorted from us” exclaims Chikapp (1991, p.175).
“Investigation of the Actual Situation of Ainu of 2006”9 by the Hokkaido
prefecture’s research shows that although Ainu people see the importance in Ainu
language, the young generation (under 30 years of age) is not able to speak theirlanguage and 45.1% of the younger generation “don’t want to speak Ainu.” It is thehighest percentage of all by generation who “don’t want to speak Ainu” and thepercentage in this generation is getting slightly higher each time. I see it as a result of
severe discrimination against the Ainu that still exists in Japan. As in a case of Makoto(Horiuchi, 2013) whose parents are able to speak Ainu, they decided not to teach him
Ainu language or culture thinking that he would be facing much discriminations being
Ainu. Many accounts like this were recorded in Horiuchi’s books.
However this is not the case with many Native Americans now. Despite theirharsh experience of subjugation and discrimination, Native Americans seem to be more
active in pursuing their traditional identity and in promoting their culture, especiallywithin the educational system. They established Native American higher educational
institutions within the tribal territory instead of sending them to non-Indian
communities. Navajo Community College10, the first tribal two-year higher educational
institution, was founded “by Native Americans for Native Americans” in Navajo
Reservation in 1968, teaching Navajo history, language and culture. According toAmerican Indian Higher Education Consortium, currently there are 37 tribal colleges
and universities in the United States including Alaska natives. These tribal institutions
help the younger generations of Native Americans build their self-confidence within a
comfortable environment. It seems like the comfortable educational settings both
economically and physiologically are lacking for Ainu people. There are several research
centers that focus on the Ainu in Japanese universities; unfortunately there no collegesor universities established by the Ainu for the Ainu in Japan. Moreover, many Ainu
have economical difficulty to pursue their studies. Among the Ainu people who
answered “wanted to continue studying” in the “Investigation of the Actual Situation of
Ainu Ethnic,” 76.1% answered that couldn't attend school for economic reason and24.6% answered that they needed to work.
Native Americans are also politically and socially active. The Occupation of
Alcatraz Island in San Francisco Bay in 1969 which lasted for approximately a year andhalf became well known to the public as a Native American protest demonstration. A
group of young native students reached the island and claimed the “right of discovery”
imitating Christopher Columbus’ discovery of America. This focused the spotlight of themedia on the emerging issues. The occupation helped them gain visible results and8- 74 -

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inspired subsequent actions led by American Indians Movement (AIM). The founders of
AIM such as Dennis Banks and Clyde Bellecourt, first focused on spiritual strength
within tribal communities, but soon, they started to get involved in acts of protest suchas “The Take Over of the BIA (Bureau of Indian Affairs) Building” of 1972 and “71day
Take Over of Wounded Knee” in 1973. Unlike Native Americans who in especially large
numbers got involved in publicizing the unfairness of old treaties as well as the current
situation, Ainu people in Japan looked almost passive and their protests were moreindividual level. Genjiro Arai11 during 1930s and Shoji Yûki12 of 1970s~1980s were wellknown Ainu activists during 20th century. But both Horiuchi (2013) and Chikapp (1991)
mention that many Ainu people were in terror of bringing up issues that would
engender more abuse and discrimination and defended themselves with silence.
IV.

Conclusion
There are a great number of historical similarities between Native Americans

in the United States and the Ainu people in Japan. These similarities are notcoincidental. Both American and Japanese societies have historically derived great
benefits from exploitation of indigenous people’s land and labor under colonization. The
exploitation became an essential lubricant for the flourishing of the colonizer’s society.
The monopolistic and despotic political, social and economic control by colonizers iswhat engenders the economic dependence that compromises the sovereignty of all social
institutions, and of course history textbooks. The colonizer needed to erase the true
historical facts in order to justify their immoral and illegal actions; therefore, history is
not neutral, but became “his story” (only one side of the story).
Colonizers used the techniques of "heroification" and "emptiness" inportraying their one-sided "his story.” History books asserted that there were sparse
populations, and those that were there did not have the concept of "private property"
with regard to land. We (colonizer) did what we could to civilize them in our image andcontinue on. Loewen, a history teacher refers to American History as “lies, half-truths,
truths, and omissions” (1996, p. 36). On the surface, the policy of assimilation appears
protective and rational; however, many ethnographical studies have shown that it has acumulative effect. It has only reproduced inequalities: colonizers as elitists andindigenous people as the subordinated. The inequalities and contradictions of thesociety at large are mirrored and reproduced by the educational system and theirpolitical enforcements.
When I stand at the architectural site of the Templo Mayor de Tenochtitlán(now Mexico City) looking aside is the symbol of the conqueror, the Mexico City
Metropolitan Cathedral, which was built on the site of the Tenochtitlán using the stone
from the destroyed temple. I was deeply saddened to recall how beautiful Tenochtitlán
was as described by Bernal Diaz. The monopolistic and despotic political, social andeconomic control imposed by colonization is at the root of the problem. It shames me to9- 75 -

Eto: Distorted
Histories
under Colonialism:
Comparativeof Native
AmericanHistory
theDistorted
Histories
under Colonialism:
Comparative
Study Studyof Native
AmericanHistoryin theinUnitedStatesandHistoryof
Ainu
PeopleinJapan
United States and History of Ainu People in Japanknow that my people, supposedly more civilized, were the colonizers who forcefully took
the land and labor of the inhabitants for their own personal gain.
Chikapp (1991) explains that Ainu people did not exploit their natural
resources as did the Japanese colonizer. “We only catch what we need” she continues.
The Ainu people knew that exploitation would harm nature and that in turn would
harm people. I believe that the key to a contented and peaceful life is to live in harmony
with nature and your fellow man, free of domination. And this is what Russell Means, aprominent activist in the American Indian Movement, meant when he spoke of"wisdom" in a speech to his “relatives,” the young Native American students of Navajo
Community College in 1995. Means advised them to “Learn your wisdom - the missing
link. The Euro-centric, linear, mathematical way of thinking, they only teach limited
knowledge, not wisdom” (Means, 1995).
I believe change is possible through the democratic principle of a united people.
When a sufficient number of people shed the attitudes and thinking of a conditioned
education and begin thinking for ourselves and take action, change will take place.
Despite the awesome power structure, I believe there is hope because I have faith in the
power of a united people. Throughout history, despite overwhelming obstacles, this has
been the case. The civil rights movement in the United States during the 1960’s is agreat example. I have faith that, in time, this change will reach a global level. Somepeople may argue that the cultural differences among people preclude any coalescenceof forces sufficient to bring revolutionary change. However, I disagree with the idea, andstrongly believe that the cultural differences can be overcome because as human beings
we have more in common and can work together towards a common goal. Because ourcurrent system generates the need for protests and change, the time will come when''wisdom" will be shown to be superior to "knowledge." The change may not come in theform that is expected, nor as quickly as we might want. It may take years as in the caseof slavery in the United States. From a Western perspective, this may seem a bit toolong and too slow a process, but when we think of this in terms of the life of the universe,
it is but the blink of an eye.

Notes
1.

The term “Native Americans” refers to the native people of the Americas, and technically, it
includes the indigenous people in North America to the indigenous people of Central and SouthAmerica. Native Americans, therefore, are not geographically homogenous. However, in thispaper I will refer to "Native Americans" as the indigenous people of the contiguous United States
as well as those who encountered Columbus. Native American activists like Russell Means voted
to accept the term ''American Indians" in reference to themselves at an International Conferenceof North, Central and South American Indians held in Geneva, Switzerland at the United Nationsin 1977. But I have decided to use Native Americans as opposed to American Indians, because it is10- 76 -

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historically more accurate since they were natives to the Americas at the time of colonialism andlinguistically they are not “Indians.”
2.

Dakota is the name of a Native American tribe. And the Dakota holds one of the largest tracts of
land.

3.

It refers to the lands where Ainu used to live before Japanese, includes Hokkaido, Kuril Islands
and Sakhalin nowadays (Chikapp, 1991).

4.

Horiuchi (2013) uses the traditional Japanese measurement, “gou (合)” for measuring rice. Here I
translated what he says 2 “gou” as 2 cups of rice. A cup of rice = 1 gou, and it is approximately 150g
of raw rice.

5.

Hispaniola is located in the Greater Antilles in the Caribbean Sea. Columbus named the island“Española” in Spanish or Hispaniola in English (meaning “the Spanish island”), but now part ofHaiti and the Dominican Republic.

6.

「旧土人救済方法」in Japanese.

7.

Although Christopher Columbus was not the first European to reach the Americas, his expeditions
initiated European expansionism into the Americas (his voyages led the first lasting European
contact with the Americas). L’Anse aux Meadows, an Archaeological site of a Norse settlement on
the island of Newfoundland in the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador, is regarded
so far as the first European to land in North America. It was approximately 500 years before
Columbus. It became UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1978.

8.

「平成 20 年度北海道大学アイヌ民族生活実態調査（速報版）」in Japanese. It was held in 2008, but
was publicized in May, 2009.

9.

「平成 18 年北海道アイヌ生活実態調査報告書」in Japanese.

10. “Navajo Community College” later changed its name as Diné College. Cited from the Diné
College’s web site.
11. 荒井 源次郎 in Japanese characters.
12. 結城 庄司 in Japanese characters.

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United States and History of Ainu People in Japan

Bibliography
Books:

Blaut, James Morris. (1993). The colonizer’s model of the world: geographicaldiffusionism and Eurocentric history. New York: The Guilford Press.
Chikapp, Mieko. (1991). 風のめぐみ. 東京：御茶の水書房.

Denevan, William M. (1992). The Native Population of the Americas in 1492. Madison:
University of Wisconsin Press.
Horiuchi, Kouichi. (1993). 軋めく人々. 東京：新泉社.
. (2013). 先住民アイヌの曙光. 東京：社会評論社.
Koning, Hans. (1993). The conquest of America. New York: Monthly Review Press.
Loewen, James W. (1996). Lies my teacher told me. New York: Touchstone.

Utsugi, Takashi. (1990). The context of the Ainu’s Crisis and their Movements forsurvival. Shattering the myth of the homogeneous society: minority issues andmovements. Berkeley: Japan Pacific Resource Network.
Viola, Herman J. (1990). After Columbus: the Smithsonian chronicle of the North
American Indians. New York: Orion Books.
Zinn, Howard. (1995). A people’s history of the United States. New York: Harper
Perennial.
Other sources:
American Indian Higher Education Consortium. Retrieved November, 2014 fromhttp://www.aihec.org/
Diné College. Retrieved November, 2014, from http://www.dinecollege.edu/

Means, Russell. (1995). “Free to be Responsible.” Arizona: Navajo Community College.
Retrieved November 18, 2014, from Russell Means website:
http://russellmeans.com/. (1997). “Declaration of Human Rights of Indigenous Peoples.” FirstInternational Conference pertaining to the sovereign rights of North, Central
and South American Indians. Geneva: the United Nations. Retrieved November,
2014, fromhttp://nagualli.blogspot.jp/2014/07/russell-means-i-am-american-indian-not.html
北海道庁北海道環境生活部 (2006). 平成 18 年北海道アイヌ生活実態調査報告書
Retrieved December, 2014, fromwww.pref.hokkaido.lg.jp/ks/ass/grp/H18houkokusyo.pdf

北海道大学アイヌ・先住民研究センター (2009). 平成 20 年度北海道大学アイヌ民族生活実態調査（速報版）Retrieved December, 2014, fromwww.kantei.go.jp/jp/singi/ainu/dai8/8siryou1_hokudai.pdf

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