The concern James Loewen has with the historical marker in Minnesota is that the information displayed on it is distorted and untrue. The maker would have you believe that American’s were the great liberators of the Philippines. It shows a Philippine woman on her knees before soldiers that are liberating her, but what it should have shown is her running away fearing for her life. Brig. General Jake Smith was told to “pacify” the island and this what he told his troops, “Turn the entire Island into a howling wilderness, I want no prisoners. I wish to kill and burn; the more you kill and burn the better it will please me.” This marker in Minnesota isn’t the only one; there are about fifty of these statues around the country. Basically, every line on this monument is a lie or deception. It tries to lump the Spanish-American war and Philippine-American war into one big pot. The words on this monument say that the Spanish-American war lasted five years from “1898-1902” and mention nothing about the Philippine-America War, which American historians now agree to be more accurate. In fact, military historian John Collins judged that the war dragged on to 1913 and serious incidents continued as late as 1916 in the Philippines. The United States tried to portray this war as some kind of uprising by a few tribes to hide our imperialist ways, but by referring to the people as tribes and their leader as “Chief” are simply ways to deceive the American people by using derogatory language in much the same way we called our American Indians savages.

It seems to be easier to convince and gain support from our people to kill others if they are savages, Chinese, Indians, or any other race that is not white. Buy sweeping the Philippine-American War under the carpet of the Spanish-American War our officials hope to keep us ignorant about how American