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Mistreatment of native Americans
Native american rights movement background essay
Mistreatment of native Americans
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American Civil Movement- without the images and their captions American Indian Movement (AIM) Who were they? What did they suffer? The American Indian Movement (AIM) began with 200 US native ‘Indians’ who called out for a meeting by a group of Native American Communist Activist leaders: George Mitchell, Dennis Banks and Clyde Bellecourt as well as Russell Means. The latter 20th century saw a great increase of institutionalized racism and legal discrimination against citizens of African descent in the United States. Throughout this post-Civil War period, poll taxes, acts of terror such as lynching (often perpetrated by groups such as the reborn Ku Klux Klan, founded in the Reconstruction South) and discriminatory laws such as ‘grandfather clauses’ (which prevented poor and illiterate African American former slaves and their descendants from voting, but without denying poor and illiterate whites the right to vote) kept black Americans alienated, particularly in the Southern States. Was the AIM inevitable, even if these individuals hadn’t formed it? The American Indian Movement was the symbolic unity of Indians who are protesting and fighting for the rights to be treated equally. The movement was forwarded by people, who have suffered racial consequences and segregation, people who unite together with courage to direct their lives towards a better path and determined to create racial harmony within the US. Therefore, even without the inspirational individuals such as Russell Means, the movement may still have occurred. Evidence before the creation of the AIM have shown the dissatisfaction of American Indians towards the imbalance of rights in the society. The so-called “justifying” law at that time greatly favours white men over... ... middle of paper ... ...ence. However, is that what we would have done if we were them? There are many better ways that could have solved these chasms of racism between native and non-indigenous Americans during the 60s, 70s and 80s. Our methods are rather abstract, but if there are even several White people supporting and raising awareness of the racism towards Indigenous Americans, it would go a long way to hire people to teach children (esp. non Indigenous) how racism is wrong and show that mixing different ethnics in one community could work well. I personally think that although violence and media attention worked well in the end, they weren’t necessary. Now it 's up to us as current members of the global community. Thank you for going through the journey with us, and hope YOU can consider the past Native American history as a inspiration to promote multiculturalism and anti-racism!
The population of African Americans from 1865 to 1900 had limited social freedom. Social limitations are limitations that relate “…to society and the way people interact with each other,” as defined by the lesson. One example of a social limitation African Americans experienced at the time is the white supremacy terrorist group, the Ku Klux Klan or the KKK. The KKK started as a social club formed by former confederate soldiers, which rapidly became a domestic terrorist organization. The KKK members were white supremacists who’s objective was to ward off African Americans from using their new political power. In an attempts to achieve their objective, Klansmen would burn African American schools, scare and threaten voters, destroy the homes of African Americans and also the homes of whites who supported African American rights. The greatest terror the KKK imposed was that of lynching. Lynching may be defined via the lesson as, “…public hanging for an alleged offense without benefit of trial.” As one can imagine these tactics struck fear into African Americans and the KKK was achiev...
American Indians shaped their critique of modern America through their exposure to and experience with “civilized,” non-Indian American people. Because these Euro-Americans considered traditional Indian lifestyle savage, they sought to assimilate the Indians into their civilized culture. With the increase in industrialization, transportation systems, and the desire for valuable resources (such as coal, gold, etc.) on Indian-occupied land, modern Americans had an excuse for “the advancement of the human race” (9). Euro-Americans moved Indians onto reservations, controlled their education and practice of religion, depleted their land, and erased many of their freedoms. The national result of this “conquest of Indian communities” was a steady decrease of Indian populations and drastic increase in non-Indian populations during the nineteenth century (9). It is natural that many American Indians felt fearful that their culture and people were slowly vanishing. Modern America to American Indians meant the destruction of their cultural pride and demise of their way of life.
In Lakota Woman, Mary Crow Dog argues that in the 1970’s, the American Indian Movement used protests and militancy to improve their visibility in mainstream Anglo American society in an effort to secure sovereignty for all "full blood" American Indians in spite of generational gender, power, and financial conflicts on the reservations. When reading this book, one can see that this is indeed the case. The struggles these people underwent in their daily lives on the reservation eventually became too much, and the American Indian Movement was born. AIM, as we will see through several examples, made their case known to the people of the United States, and militancy ultimately became necessary in order to do so. "Some people loved AIM, some hated it, but nobody ignored it" (Crow Dog, 74).
Talking Back to Civilization: Indian Voices from the Progressive Era edited by Frederick E. Hoxie is a book which begins with an introduction into the life of Charles Eastman and a brief overview of the history of Native Americans and their fight for justice and equal rights, it then continues by describing the different ways and avenues of speaking for Indian rights and what the activists did. This leads logically into the primary sources which “talk back” to the society which had overrun their own. The primary sources immerse the reader into another way of thinking and cause them to realize what our societal growth and even foundation has caused to those who were the true natives. The primary sources also expand on the main themes of the book which are outlines in the introduction. They are first and most importantly talking back to the “pale faces”, Indian education, religion, American Indian policy, the image of the Indians presented in America. The other chapters in the book further expanded on these ideas. These themes will be further discussed in the following chapters along with a review of this
In the late 1870’s, while the American-Indian war was still being fought, another war began against Native American culture. It began when the American government took Native American children away from the families and placed them into boarding schools that were far from their homes and taught them the ways of the white man. Native Americans have since struggled to survive on the lands where they were placed many years ago, a place of destitution and mostly despair. Reservations are amongst the poorest places in the Western hemisphere. They have the highest rates of addiction, domestic violence, and suicide in the United States. Is this a situation of cause and effect; and is there hope for a better future for those that seem to be haunted by the past?
Native Americans have been fighting till this day for freedom. Millions of Native Americans have lost their lives fighting for freedoms and their lands. So far, not much have been done to the Native Americans and they have not achieved everything they had hoped for. Most Native Americans are still living on reservations and government are doing little to help them. A book titled “Lakota Women” by Mary Crow Dog takes us into the lives of the Native Americans, her childhood, adulthood, and her experiences of being an Indian woman.
In the 30 years after the Civil War, although government policy towards Native Americans intended to shift from forced separation to integration into American society, attempts to "Americanize" Indians only hastened the death of their culture and presence in the America. The intent in the policy, after the end of aggression, was to integrate Native Americans into American society. Many attempts at this were made, ranging from offering citizenship to granting lands to Indians. All of these attempts were in vain, however, because the result of this policies is much the same as would be the result of continued agression.
Toward the end of the Progressive Era American social inequality had stripped African Americans of their rights on a local and national level. In the 1896 Supreme Court case of Plessey vs. Ferguson, the Supreme Court sided with a Louisiana state law declaring segregation constitutional as long as facilities remain separate but equal. Segregation increased as legal discriminatory laws became enacted by each state but segregated facilities for whites were far superior to those provided for blacks; especially prevalent in the South were discriminatory laws known as Jim Crow laws which surged after the ruling. Such laws allowed for segregation in places such as restaurants, hospitals, parks, recreational areas, bathrooms, schools, transportation, housing, hotels, etc. Measures were taken to disenfranchise African Americans by using intimidation, violence, putting poll taxes, and literacy tests. This nearly eliminated the black vote and its political interests as 90% of the nine million blacks in America lived in the South and 1/3 were illiterate as shown in Ray Stannard Baker’s Following the Color Line (Bailey 667). For example, in Louisiana 130,334 black voters registered in 1896 but that number drastically decreased to a mere 1,342 in 1904—a 99 percent decline (Newman ). Other laws prevented black...
American Indian political activism played a tremendous role throughout history, which has laid the foundation for how Indians are being treated with more respect in today’s society. In 1961, about the same time as the meeting in Chicago, the National Indian Youth Council (NIYC) was founded (Hudson). The goal of the NIYC was to protest against civil disobedience and to bring awareness to Indian heritage (Document of Indian Militancy, pg. 527). To promote the NIYC, young Indians would speak at colleges, important national organization meetings and hearings of government agencies (Document of Indian Militancy, pg. 527). This group of activists served as a new generation that was proud of their heritage and not willing to accept being sucked into a white society (Document of Indian Militancy, pg. 527). Clyde Warrior played an important role as a leader of in the NIYC (Document of Indian Militancy pg. 257). Warrior encouraged Indians to “take pride in their Indian heritage, and to hold on to traditional values in modern times” (Document of Indian Militancy pg. 257). Warrior later became the president of the NIYC and continually advocated through speeches and writings (Document of Indian Militancy pg. 527).
The government of the United States and the citizens at large has been in support of the removal of the Indian claiming that they have occupied their territories long enough. The Indians have been perceived as the source of embarrassment and distress to the American soil, and their disposal will do the Americans proud. According to the Americans, the native Indians should be decreasing as they add nothing but fail to the economy of the United States. Therefore, the Americans offer full support to the emigration of the Indians to their ancestral soil in Mississippi, by guaranteeing the emigrant's transportation expenditures cover (Cass, 1830). The Indians are made to understand the government in place has no plans for them and therefore looking up their support is just but being hopeless. The support of the removal of Indians from American territories on the hand gives the Indians full independence of being self-dependent, embracing their cultural diversity as well as enjoying their humanity as aboriginal people.
The American Indian Movement was inspired by the success of the Civil Rights Movement. Therefore, they adopted some peaceful practices that worked for the Civil Rights Movement, most of which were protests and marches. However, these while these marches and protests started out tranquil. Though they eventually, when provoked, became and anarchist rebellions; fully fledged with property destruction and violent occupation. The most well-known of AIM’s marches is the Trail of Broken Treaties (a play on the forced long march that the Cherokee made from their homes in the heartland of the South to Oklahoma, called the Trail of Tears). A group of activist left the West Coast and planned to drive all the way to BIA headquarters located in the District of Colombia. AIM let BIA know ahead of time that they were coming, and in the same letter they presented a list of demands the must be met. Things included in this list were:
The Native Americans have come across long journey of difficult times since the occupation of their land by European settlers. There are still two sides of a coin- a world of civilization and a world of underdeveloped society in this one country- USA. The paradox is that the constitution which seems to be a model of democracy to many nations of the world lacks a lot for not acting accordingly. Those organized and unorganized struggles of Native Americans were challenged by the heavily armed white majority settlers. This history is among the worst American experience because of the massacre and the violation against human right. In order to be heard, they protest, occupy land, and write books. The Native Americans have raised several human and civil right issues in several ways for hundreds of years including the seizing of Alcatraz Island in 1969, the occupation of Wounded Knee in 1973, and the consequences had left a meaningful impact in their lives.
Some of the goals of the American Indian Movement (AIM) are to retrieve land taken by the US government, autonomy, and to have protection over sacred sights. Currently AIM is both successful and unsuccessful in gaining these goals.
The purpose of this paper is to bring attention to the negative impact that White Supremacy has had and continues to have on Native Americans.
The American Indian Defense Association’s (AIDA) was a part of a broad intellectual movement called Cultural Pluralism. It was inappropriate to judge the success of another culture by the success of your own culture. Furthermore, assimilation was not viewed as