According to Guenter Lewy, the author of “Were American Indians the Victims of Genocide?”, American Indians greatly suffered due to European settlers, but the American Indian deaths were mostly caused by uncontrollable circumstances that the Europeans could not control. The American Indians' population decreased due to highly contagious diseases, internal warfare between Native American tribes and the European’s hostility, violence, and cruelty towards the Native Americans. According to Article II of the Genocide Convention, genocide is a crime or series of crimes “committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group” (Lewy 61-62). Throughout the article, Lewy gives many examples, based on …show more content…
When looking at these events we should remember the morals and rules of the time frame. These military engagements also include internal warfare between rivaling American Indian tribes. Which, according to Lewy, these events and deaths should not be counted against the Europeans in deciding if the Natives were victims of genocide since these wars were not brought on by the Europeans.

Another point Lewy makes that contributed to the death of American Indians was the cruelty and violence the Europeans had towards them. One historical example is when Europeans forced Natives to surrender by pushing them into winter camps, where it's very harsh, cold weather with lots of snow, which killed many Natives, but was acceptable in their time for a war strategy.

To most historians, the American Indian deaths were a sign of genocide, but Lewy challenges these ideas by saying this was an inevitable conflict that was bound to happen from the deaths alone caused by diseases. Although this event was a tragedy, Lewy shows that the Native Americans deaths do not fit within the definition of what genocide really