Actually, most Europeans subscribe to a belief system in which all nature is our relative too; and certainly one in which Native Americans are our relatives. It's called evolutionary biology. But many of those same Europeans and Euro-Americans have no problem killing, raping and murdering their relatives.

Big difference there, Nerd. The evolutionary model suggests that humans are the pinnacle of development and that our place on the evolutionary ladder makes us of intrinsically greater value than the rest of creation. And the biblical philosophies that have been the engine of our current way of life are that humankind is the pinnacle and that we have a right to do whatever we wish with all of the rest of creation.

The same has always been true of Native Americans, as previous posters on this thread have pointed out. Slavery, war, and exploitation--including one people driving out or politically dominating another--were not unknown among the native peoples of the US and Canada. There's no reason to assume they'd be unknown or even uncommon if natives were in charge today, either.

I didn't say none of those things ever happened. But if I am going to be dominated by someone (and make no mistake, I am being dominated by some people even now), the philosophy I articulated before is the one I would be more comfortable with than that of the ones who are doing it now.

You also have neglected the southern half of North America (Mexico and points south), where large empires grew up based on the exploitation of land, slave labor, and human sacrifice.

If we're going to go back that far in time, we would also need to be comparing those practices to the ones that were being practiced in the "old world" at the same time. If we do that, it seems to me, I think we probably come out about equal. Six of one, half dozen of the other.