If the Indians in the 1870s had AK-47’s and Ar-15’s and IED’s would there have been an
Estado de Tejas de Tamps. A Republic of The Rio Grande, A Lone Star State…Texas of the United States, or would there have been no nada?
Could it have remained the Empire of the Comanche and the Lipan Apache. With modern weaponry and the means to pay for it then, Texas could be “Injun Country” today. But as it turned out the pale eyes had a few extra tricks up their sleeves…The US army didn’t wipe out the Comanche’s, the Texas Rangers total war did that. More important than both these armies however, Buffalo Hunters for their own reasons (i.e. money) applied the most ancient bio weapon of war against the Indians, without even thinking much about it one way or the other… That was food. Without Buffalo, the horse culture of the plains was doomed, The US Army mopped up and fought the few large engagements.
But supposing that the Comancheros rolling out on their carts from Santa Fe onto the Llano Estacado were trading high powered weaponry to the “Lords of The Plains” (as the Comanches were called in those times). Would that have evened the score? You bet it would have. There would be only one problem, the same problem that the Comanches had dealing with the Comancheros in the 1800’s. The same reason they couldn’t buy in any substantive quantities Henry Repeating rifles, or Sharps 50 Calibre Buffalo Guns, or Colt 44 Peacekeepers, or Gatling Guns, or light artillery. They didn’t have the cash. They had buffalo robes, and slaves (the majority of them Mexican), some stolen livestock and not much else. This was about the only means of exchange they had. Nobody wanted genuine Native American Art and handcrafts, pottery etc. Not even the Comanches. They lusted for iron pots and steel knives and of course weapons and ammunition, but they had precious little to offer in exchange.
But what if they had the cash to finance the war against the invading white men from Texas? Say for instance, dinero to the tune of tens of billions of today’s dollars. Would the “Lords Of The Plains” have held back the American invasion for another 50, maybe 100 years? No one can say for sure, but most likely it would have slowed the advance quite a lot.
If they could have brought marijuana and cocaine, and opium up from Mexico they could have made billions, but no one thought of it. Opium wasn’t illegal, no one other than some Mexican Indians thought to smoke marijuana. It wasn’t an option, or even something I think even the most far out visionary shaman could ever envision. In fact the Comanche were on the other side of the issue. They loved the firewater and paid well for it. In the end, as in most wars, the war material and supplies, and necessities of life ran out and then the war is essentially lost.
A century and a half later, and this alternative reality is the new reality
Now Injun Country has moved south. Just a stones throw away or a pistol shot across the Rio Grande River the west goes from pretty well tame to wild to savage and barbaric in a way to rival the excesses of the great reavers and slayers, raiders and mad emperors of history. Ancient and modern Mexico, as well as much of Latin America, fell to the Spaniards in the 1600’s through a combination of trickery, psychological warfare, divide and conquer techniques, as well as more to a more modern warfare technology. It worked just fine because the indigenous peoples had lived under tyranny for generations. They were easy to fool . Like in chess, it’s only necessary to capture the king and then… game over.
The Meso-Americans had hierarchies of priests and kings and were used to knuckling under to authority completely and totally. And they had an innocence that seems incredible today, until we exam all the crap that we have fallen for, especially in the last ten years or so. They would even give up their own sons to slaughter and their own lives as well, if required. All the church and king systems fall of their own accord in the eventuality of time. The priests no longer believe in their gods, the king and the nobility become so dissolute and corrupt that the government grinds into total dysfunction. The Spanish only slipped into seats already warmed by the butts of the bloody Aztecs, Mayans, and Incas. Mostly the players changed, the game was much the same.
Mexico, stayed a slave colony of Spain up until the Mexican Revolution. More than 200 years have passed, but still things are very much the same. An educated, free thinking citizenry, self ruled and independent has yet to emerge. The Elite are still very much in charge, local government is weak and all decisions flow from Mexico City. The Church has lost much of its power and even relevance, and change has come. In many ways the old system has died, and the new one is yet to be born.
The Pri party during its 70 some odd year reign controlled the various vested interests and institutions through a most curious system. It co-opted and managed it’s minions by allowing them to sup upon the throats of the public. Each functionary was allowed a sum of the public’s blood as befitting his station. For a mosquito official, it was just a nose full, for a vampire, well… a revenants share, for a chupa cabra, well a goatful. For El Presidente, Condado Dracula, well, there’s six years of constant sucking sound.
Now, if you were to consume more than your share and draw unwanted attention, there could be trouble. And every once in a while there has to be a show of rooting out corruption, so someone has to be thrown to the wolves. But people learn how the game is played….Now in return the bled by corruption people pay as little to the government as possible, feel no guilt on cheating on their taxes. The underground economy is huge, compared to the above ground economy.
Now getting back to the Title Theme, Injun Country. From a history of dependency, both financial and psychological, that was imposed centuries ago
a seeming perpetual decay must, in the end terminate in impotence and dissolution.
Smuggling both human and substance, starting with prohibition in the 1920’s, has now become a 30 to 50 billion or more business, essential to the Mexican economy. We must give the Pri political mafia that ran Mexico for so many years, credit where credit is due. Their authoritarianism was total, but accomplished mostly though bribery, payoffs, subsidies to the press, sleazy diplomacy and pragmatism. Play their game, don’t compete politically, or economically for that matter, and everything would be fine. In light of the present day, it almost seems like the good old days. One way to win a war is just never go to war in the first place.
But war has come to the Americas and to the World and shows no sign of going away. Like other imperialistic wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and Pakistan, if the dying and suffering is borne by foreigners outside of U.S soil, well then people seem to accept it. Of course this has never worked yet. Burning poppy fields, torching bales of marijuana, and poisoning coca fields has never substantially cut usage, and will never do so, and the torchers, burners, and poisoners know it will never work. It’s kind of like emptying the ocean with a small cup…but working or not that is not the point. The ulterior points are well hidden.
The “controlled substances” are going to show up on our doorstep…there is no doubt. Countries have prohibited certain drugs, with some success. Mao-Zhe Dong just killed all the drug users. That’s one way, extermination by police state. But no one has won by fighting overseas against inebriant or psycho-active plants.
The way to win against the Mexican Drug Cartels (which increasingly are becoming American Cartels as well) is to figuratively take their buffalo and horses away from them…meaning the cash, the funding…that buys the arms, the soldiers, the thugs…
Just like chasing Indians over plains and mountains and forests was unproductive, so the same is for pursuing drug thugs. The Mexican Army is waging an increasingly dis-spirited war of attrition against Cartels who have unlimited recruits from the vast army of unemployed young men of Mexico.
Legalize prohibited drugs, regulate and tax them, and most important, undercut the price that would make it profitable to sell them outside the system. There will still be lots of extortionists, kidnappers and armed robbery. They can be mopped up with time using real police and judiciary. There will be plenty of indigenous, Mexican Indian people to our south as always…But it will no longer be: INJUN COUNTRY…
