The people of Hawaii and other Pacific Island Nation groups have experienced great injustice from their colonial powers and the acts of imperialism. Lands were seized, cultural practices banned, language lost, and people were even forced to move away from their homes for the purpose of bomb testing. The United States and other countries abroad sent out representatives to do their work for them; in return their future actions would be justified in describing the Hawaiians and other Pacific Islanders as savages that need to have wider powers enforced upon them; thus resulting in a tangled web of political mythologies.
The first step in legitimizing the take over of an indigenous person was to make them less human. In Stannard's article he says the way that this was achieved was by a ""blotting out of knowledge" of native people or the making of them into "people without history." Once the natives have thus been banished from collective memory, at least as people of numerical and cultural consequence, the settler group's moral and intellectual right to conquest is claimed to be established without question." (Stannard, 382) "The fact that indigenous societies had their own system of order was dismissed...they were not fully human, they were not civilized enough to have systems, they were not literate, and their languages and modes of thought were inadequate." (Smith, 28)
In some instances the erasing of a history was not enough though; to further justify the take over and occupation of a given area, historians maintain "that there were very few indigenous people in the area of colonization prior to the arrival of colonists. And... the colonist historian dismisses those few native people as primitive and savage types who act...
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...have been destroyed and hundreds of thousands of people have reaped the consequences, yet they are only Pacific Islanders; they lay dying from cancer, being born with birth defect, and even mothers giving birth to stillborn babies. (Keever, 1-23)
In each of the cases stated above, the people of Hawaii and the Marshall Islands lost what they had, everything from safe drinking water to their native homelands. In the process they were made out to be savages and another less significant races in order for the United States to justify what they knew was wrong.
Keever, "Chain Reaction: Neutrons, News, News Zero" from News Zero:
The New York Times and the Bomb
Smith, Tuhiwai, excerpt from Decolonizing Methodologies: Research and Indigenous Peoples
Stannard, David E., "Recounting the Fables of Savagery: Native Infanticide and the Functions of Political Myth"
Often times, the history that is being told is one of Hawaiian weakness, and defeat. The Bayonet Constitution of 1887, the Overthrow of 1893, and the Annexation of 1898, are all often used as examples of moments of powerlessness in the Hawaiian Kingdom. What about all history prior to, in between, and after, these major dates? Surely, it did not just disappear. In the last few decades, Hawaiian history has changed dramatically due to the works of many Hawaiian historians. The history that was lost has been found, and new discoveries are still being made. Hawaiʻi’s history is a story of resistance, pride, and unity. Included within this history is a man named Robert William Kalanihiapo Wilcox. Wilcox was a revolutionist, and a leader, but he enjoyed being a politician the most. Wilcox was the beacon of hope that helped guide the people of Hawaiʻi through darkness. Wilcox was and still is today a symbolic figure in Hawaiʻi’s political history.
To many of the English colonists, any land that was granted to them in a charter by the English Crown was theirs’, with no consideration for the natives that had already owned the land. This belittlement of Indians caused great problems for the English later on, for the natives did not care about what the Crown granted the colonists for it was not theirs’ to grant in the first place. The theory of European superiority over the Native Americans caused for any differences in the way the cultures interacted, as well as amazing social unrest between the two cultures.
It was no secret that when Japan bombed Pearl Harbor, countless Americans were frightened on what will happen next. The attack transpiring during WW2 only added to the hysteria of American citizens. According to the article “Betrayed by America” it expressed,”After the bombing many members of the public and media began calling for anyone of Japanese ancestry။citizens or not။to be removed from the West Coast.”(7) The corroboration supports the reason why America interned Japanese-Americans because it talks about Americans wanting to remove Japanese-Americans from the West Coast due to Japan bombing America. Japan bombing America led to Americans grow fear and hysteria. Fear due to the recent attack caused internment because Americans were afraid of what people with Japanese ancestry could do. In order to cease the hysteria, America turned to internment. American logic tells us that by getting the Japanese-Americans interned, many
Native American’s place in United States history is not as simple as the story of innocent peace loving people forced off their lands by racist white Americans in a never-ending quest to quench their thirst for more land. Accordingly, attempts to simplify the indigenous experience to nothing more than victims of white aggression during the colonial period, and beyond, does an injustice to Native American history. As a result, historians hoping to shed light on the true history of native people during this period have brought new perceptive to the role Indians played in their own history. Consequently, the theme of power and whom controlled it over the course of Native American/European contact is being presented in new ways. Examining the evolving
Fighting a war against the oppression and persecution of a people, how hypocritical of the American government to harass and punish those based on their heritage. Magnifying the already existing dilemma of discrimination, the bombing of Pearl Harbor introduced Japanese-Americans to the harsh and unjust treatment they were forced to confront for a lifetime to come. Wakatsuki Ko, after thirty-five years of residence in the United States, was still prevented by law from becoming an American citizen.
A small company of thirty-four New England missionaries came to Hawaii between 1820 and 1930, were the first modern immigrants. (Lind p.59) Missionaries were powerful agents of cultural destruction, coming to Hawaii to settle and teach their ways and beliefs. Bloodthirsty priests and despotic chiefs had ruled one reason for missionaries arriving and settling in Hawaii, due to the fact that they believed ancient Hawaiians. (Trask p.14) Bringing along cultural havoc by establishing a western style educational system, which included the first textbook as the Bible. The most critical change was in the use of language as a tool of colonization. Language had once been inseparable from the Hawaiians and their history by communicating their heritage between and among many generations, now came to be used as the very vehicle of alienation from their habits of life.
In An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States, historian Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz’s reexamines the American historical record and moves it passed the typical narratives of colonialism, revolution, and American exceptionalism. Dunbar-Ortiz’s analysis will impact the field of Native Studies and even general United States history with its examination and focus on settler colonialism as a genocidal policy. It is, as Dunbar-Ortiz argues, impossible to write American history without the acknowledgment of Indigenous peoples. Dunbar-Ortiz shatters the myth of “free land” and conquered Natives. She instead focuses on “the absence of a colonial framework (7),” which she believes is the reason that most historians overlook Indigenous history. In other words, historians need to view colonization as an ongoing process and not a
Both, the Oceania government and the U.S government had forced their citizens to do what they say even though it was against their individual rights. After, the Pearl Harbor attack Japanese-Americans were forced into internment camps. Not because they were found guilty of anything but just for the fact that they were Japanese and their ancestors were from Japan. It did no matter if they were born in the states or if they were the second generation to live in the states. The U.S government thought all Japanese-Americans were a national threat. In order to feel safe in the United Sates, all Japanese-Americans were ordered to evacuate their homes, sell all their items for low prices, leave their whole life behind, some were even separated from some of their family members, and were taken to camps across the nation. Once, at the camps they were obligated to check in, get a number, assigned a bunk, and required to stay within the barbwire camp. Japanese-Americans weren’t criminals, yet they were treated like they were. The Oceania government treated their citizens the same way; like prisoners. Instead, the Oceania government brainwashed their citizens into believing everything they had to say. The citizens of Oceania were convinced that Big Brother was always watching, the Thought Police could at any moment in time catch you for thinking something unlawful, or knowing there was nothing was illegal, but if caught it would end in death or twenty-five years in forced labor camp. (9) The Oceania society was not allowed to have thoughts or even opinions knowing their government has the capability of punishing them. The government had total and complete control of their people.
The beginnings of colonialism, allowed Europeans to travel the world and meet different kinds of people. Their first encounter with the New World and these new peoples, created the opening ideas of inequality. These new people were called indigenous people and alien like. Europeans began to question if these people were really human and had the same intellectual capacity as Europeans did. “Alternative ideas about the origins and identities of indigenous peoples also began to appear early in the 16th century...
Since 1840 the Hawaiian Islands have been an escape to a tropical paradise for millions of tourists. People all over the world encounter alluring, romanticized pictures of Hawai'i's lush, tropical vegetation, exotic animals, beautiful beaches, crystal clear water, and fantastical women. This is the Hawai'i tourists know. This is the Hawai’i they visit. However, this Hawai'i is a state of mind, a corporate-produced image existing on the surface. More precisely, it is an aftermath of relentless colonization of the islands' native inhabitants by the United States. These native Hawaiians experience a completely different Hawai'i from the paradise tourists enjoy. No one makes this as clear as Haunani-Kay Trask, a native Hawaiian author. In her book, From a Native Daughter: Colonialism and Sovereignty in Hawai'i and through her poetry in Light in the Crevice Never Seen, Trask provides an intimate account of the tourist industry's impact on native Hawaiian culture. She presents a negative perspective of the violence, pollution, commercial development, and cultural exploitation produced by the tourist industry. Trask unveils the cruel reality of suffering and struggling through a native Hawaiian discourse. Most of the world is unaware of this.
...eoples as uncivilized and potentially violent in hopes of promoting the view that the forced separations of Native peoples from their lands and the murderous practices that pursued were inevitable as part of the hegemonic system (Carleton, 2011, p.111). Currently, social studies standards often take on a tone of detachment, focusing on political actions and court rulings rather than examining how these actions consequently affected the lives of Native Americans (Shear, 2015, p.88). This serves to disillusion students on the affairs of Native American conditions, keeping Native Americans locked in history and in the hindsight of American people. By furthering their frameworks, I will illustrate how these colonial discourses negatively impacted Native Americans in their fight for civil liberties and continue to negatively impact them today in their fight for awareness.
American Hawaii Hawaii is known for its beautiful beaches, it’s nice year-round weather, and its culture. Thousands of vacationers come to Hawaii each year to get away from the stressful city and relax. But do they know how cruel the Americans were to the natives? Do they know how we corrupted their culture and their religion? Do they know how Hawaii really became a state? Probably not. When most people think of Hawaii, they think of happy Hawaiian babes hula dancing and palm trees swaying in the warm breeze. Hawaii has still held on to many of their traditions although they were invaded by Americans. But you have to go to a museum to see their old way of life. Hawaii is now populated mostly by Americans. Native Hawaiians have adapted to our American lifestyle and much of their old traditions and beliefs are lost in history books. America dominated over the Hawaiians just as they did with the Native Americans. The Hawaiians didn’t even stand a chance against big brother. They probably feel the same way towards America just as a child does with stubborn parents. Now I will tell you about the history of Hawaii so you will see how the United States came to annex Hawaii. Hawaii was first inhabited by the Polynesians. They came in canoes from other islands around the pacific. They called the new found island "Hawaii", which means "home" in Polynesian language. Hawaii was their home until the white man came in and took advantage of these simple, happy aborigines. The corruption of this unique and fragile culture first started when Captain James Cook ran into the islands on January 18, 1778. After Cook’s discovery, many other foreigners (mostly American) visited the islands. They brought clothes, livestock, orange trees, horses weapons and souvigners. Foreigners also brought with them a handful of deadly diseases such as smallpox, measles, syphilis, tuberculosis, and whooping cough. During the time period of Cook’s arrival in 1778 to 1820, the population of Hawaii dropped from 300,000 to 135,000 due to the diseases! Another problem was the introduction of alcohol. Like the native americans, Hawaiians were not immune to alcohol. Hawaiian’s were very sensitive to alcoholism. Hawaiians religion was a very complex one with many gods. They worshiped idols and they belived in many f...
Looking back on the Native American time period, I've come to a realization that the way all of them adapted to life with how they lived was much different then than how things are today. Going from the way they talked, how they dressed, how education was done, to how they live everyday, etc. I think it's all somewhat different with how people are today in those categories. But some of those things that the Native Americans were used to doing everyday, were being forced to change by different kinds of people. The Native American experience was a genocide act.
The removal of Indian tribes was one of the tragic times in America’s history. Native Americans endured hard times when immigrants came to the New World. Their land was stolen, people were treated poorly, tricked, harassed, bullied, and much more. The mistreatment was caused mostly by the white settlers, who wanted the Indians land. The Indians removal was pushed to benefit the settlers, which in turn, caused the Indians to be treated as less than a person and pushed off of their lands. MOREEE
The Native Americans were the earliest and only settlers in the North American continents for more than thousands of years. Like their European counterparts, the English colonists justified the taking of their territories was because the natives were not entitled to the land because they lacked a work ethic in which shows that the colonists did not understand the Native Americans system of work and ownership of property. They believed the “Indians seemed to lack everything the English identified as civilized” (Takaki, Pg. 33). Because the settlers were living far away from civilizations, to ensure that they were civilized people, the settlers had negative images of the Native Americans so that they would not be influenced and live like the how the natives do, ensuring that these groups are savages who are uncivilized. Many began to believe this was God’s plans for them to civilize the country in which many would push westward and drive the Indians out to promote civilization and progress. While the United States was still in its early stages of development,