Tarnport on Nostr: In reading US history I'm consistently alarmed by the words "to settle." As in, ...

In reading US history I'm consistently alarmed by the words "to settle." As in, "...they signed a treaty in 1851 and momentum was building to settle the land." The term permeates supposedly neutral sources. I'm helping edit a Massachusetts history right now that uses it liberally.

Usurpation is what it was. Theft. Genocide before there was even a word for it. Euphemisms excuse some people's past and make it easier to indict others for the same things in the present, starting with vocabulary.