Injustices to Native Americans

In 1886 during a speech in New York future President Teddy Roosevelt said; “I don't go so far as to think that the only good Indians are dead Indians, but I believe nine out of every ten are, and I shouldn't like to inquire too closely into the case of the tenth.” Though this was over 250 years after Jamestown and almost four decades after the Trail of Tears Teddy Roosevelt’s attitude toward Native Americans in the late 19th Century seems to have changed little from many of those men and women who first colonized America. After hundreds of years of violence, discrimination and forced assimilation the Native American culture remains endangered and continues to suffer from higher rates of poverty and social distress than any other minority community in the United States. During the era of colonization in the United States, Native Americans were subject to a barrage of unscrupulous despair to include ravaging diseases, conversion to Christianity, unconquerable technology, and acquisition of indigenous land.

With the arrival of Europeans in America, diseases spread rampantly among indigenous peoples. Separated from the Eurasian Landmass for thousands of years, Native Americans had no immunities to common ailments in Europe. Afflictions such as smallpox, measles, and influenza killed hundreds of thousands of Indians and exhausted the morale of the survivors. It is estimated that diseases generated epidemics that decimated 25-90% of Native Americans. Europeans used this deadly advantage to exploit the Indian population and ultimately gain control over land and wealth.

The downfall of indigenous peoples also incorporated the spread of Christianity. Sometimes accomplished with force, Spanish missionaries would inflict corp...

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...gion, technology, and territorial acquisition infringed by European settlers had on the indigenous population. With meticulous reflection, hopefully future generations will learn from the past tribulations of injustice centered upon Native Americans and evade forthcoming situations.

Works Cited

1. The American West. Native Americans. Retrieved from website: http://www.americanwest.com/pages/indians.htm, accessed 22 March 2010.

2. Henretta, James A. and David Brody. America: A Concise History, Volume I: To 1877. 4th ed., (Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2010).

3. Lange, Karen. 1607: A New Look at Jamestown. (Washington D.C.: National Geographic, 2007). 41.

4. National Gaming Impact Study Commission. 1999. Native American Gaming. Online. Available from internet. http://govinfo.library.unt.edu/ngisc/research/nagaming.html accessed 22 March 2010.