In my post to Paddymac's heading, I used the term strikalight, having in mind the bundle containing fire-making materials carried by Indians and early settlers alike. The initial post did seem to be one asking for opinions; it struck a light with me because of my dislike of proselytizers ("propagators of the faith"). Not only history but the present illustrates the harm they can do, albeit unknowingly. I did not mean to denigrate anyone's personal beliefs, only the overt propagation of those beliefs, usually in conjunction with a pressuring society. Some missionaries I consider harmless, among them the young men of the LDS who, however much I dislike their purpose, are well-educated, polite, and, until they develop a thick hide, embarassed at approaching people who are emphatic in their response. Priests and nuns have been killed in Latin America for espousing the needs of their native parishioners (there is tentative peace in Guatemala and Chiapas but the problems are not being addressed in any meaningful way). Medical missionaries, especially those like the eye surgeons working with the Seventh Day Adventists, I applaud.
Here in Canada, many young Indians were sent to church schools, abetted by the government, to learn the faith and customs of the white man, and to get a smattering of "education." Unfortunately, they learned just enough to turn them away from their parents and tribal elders and toward a white society that did not, and does not, want them. The education was sufficient only for the most menial of jobs. A considerable number of young boys were sexually assaulted by their teachers and administrators. Many ended up on skid row or in jails, an extremely disproportionate number in relation to whites. The schools are mostly closed today, but the legacy goes on. Assaulted former pupils are suing the churches, to the point that church administrators are asking for government protection from the suits because they would be bankrupted. Little was, and is being done to improve the reserves, the suicide rate is high and drug use incapacitates many, housing and services are inadequate, schools are inadequate and literacy low. The prayers of the natives to the white man's God, as well as to their own Gods, go unanswered. This is not history, it is current. Similar situations exist in the plains states. The pueblos and the nations of the United States southwest are making strides, but not much has happened yet in the plains and forests of the north.
It is these current situations that mostly "struck a light" with me; although, much interested in history, I have cited examples from the past as well.
I repeat again, I am not attacking anyone's personal faith- only the unthinking and forceful propagation of that faith. I apologise to those I may have offended, it was not my purpose.