Why harping on what tribes American land was taken from is a tired narrative

Leading up to last night's Mount Rushmore event in South Dakota, the NY Times put out an article questioning if this is a monument worth keeping and celebrating due to the history behind it(I also wrote about my feelings on statues/monuments, so feel free to check that out also). One of the criticisms pointed out, was that the land Mount Rushmore was built on was taken from the Lakota tribe. This point isn't anything exactly groundbreaking. People have been criticizing aspects of American history for years over the nature of how we procured the land and who it was taken from. Many Americans have guilt over taking land from Native Americans.

I feel for any civilization or tribe that has their land taken from them. I've never experienced anything like that and most people in America alive today haven't either. I honestly can't relate to how it would feel like being driven from your home and being either outcast or slaughtered. However, you can both separate your empathy for those who've lost land to conquests and also acknowledge that this is a part of history that needs to be accepted. America is no different than any culture or civilization throughout history. Territorial conquests are as much a part of humanity as the need for food and water. Go back as far as you want through human history and you will always find one kingdom, empire, nation trying to conquer another. Ancient Egypt, Ancient Greece, Ancient Rome, The Vikings, The Conquistadors, The Mongols, Medieval England, The Ottoman Empire, Great Britain, and on and on. Not to mention Native American tribes fighting other Native American tribes for land.

Conquering land is what homosapiens do. It's the innate human desire to want more of what you already have and establish grander civilizations. There will always be a desire for dominance to secure your place at the top of the "food chain." If you are going to critique America for having a history of taking land of others, then you'd essentially have to critique every civilization in human history, which makes this entire narrative redundant. Every piece of land that is currently held by a nation today at one point in human history belonged to someone else. I hate to be so blunt, but even in the animal kingdom fortune favors the strong. This doesn't apply to just humans. With all living organisms, the biggest and baddest tribe takes territory until someone else stronger can come along and take it from them. It's unfortunate, it's bloody, it's dark, but it's also life. Not all life is sunshine and rainbows, there is an animalistic territorial aspect to all dominant species.

America is not without its problems. Most people would admit that. However, "where we got our land from" is not one of them. I think most of this comes from people who mean well and the concerns come from a good and honest place, but are talked into having national guilt instead of national pride; and those who just simply hate America and want to pick apart every morsel of its past. The past is something we can't change, all we can do is improve going forward. Improvement will never occur if people are still fixated on centuries-old seizure of dirt that we now stand on. Go outside, light a sparkler, and take pride in the fact that land your people procured became something that, while flawed, is also incredibly great. And grew to a nation full of many freedoms, amazing technological and medical innovations, and sports... yeah, mother fucking sports.