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Impact of colonization on the native indians
Impacts of colonialism in Native America
Impacts of colonialism in Native America
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Throughout United States history, Americans have treated Native Americans as unequals and forced suffering on Native American tribes. Events such as the Trail of Tears, the Sand Creek Massacre, and the Navajo Long Walk, just to name a few, will forever be a dark moment in American history. At the arrival of the Europeans, the population numbers of Native Americans are estimated from five million to fifteen million, with liberals preferring the higher estimates, and conservatives preferring the lower estimates. Today, the population of Native Americans in the United States is estimated to be two million, which is determined by the census. The number of Native Americans dipped down to nearly 250,000 during the late nineteenth century. The loss of population and treatment of Native Americans should be discussed more throughout high school and college course work, to ensure that this treatment does not occur to any other race.
It is a miracle that the numbers of Native Americans has reached nearly two million since the almost extinction of the Native American race in the late nineteenth century. Today, the Indian population is increasing at exceeding rates. The article, The Popularity of Being Indian: A New Trend in Contemporary American Society, written by Vine Deloria, Jr. in 1984, describes the increase in Native American populations in greater detail. The article suggests a different outlook on the increase, not that there is a remarkable increase in Indian birthrate, rather a new social phenomenon. During the 1970s, there has been a new outlook, as Vine Deloria, Jr. suggests “the establishment of Indian ancestry as proof of respectability and acceptance in American life has replaced the older concept of American respectability...
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...ficult for Native Americans to overcome racial barriers.
Overall, the population of Native Americans have increased significantly since the late nineteenth century. Much of this population rise can be attributed to more self-identification within Native American tribes. However, even with the rise with population, Native Americans are still suffering in the twenty-first century. The United States government needs to stand up and take more accountability that has been shown. One of the only apologies by the United Staes government occurred on September 8th 2000. The chairmen of the Untied States Bureau of Indian Affairs, formally apologized for the agency’s participation in the “ethic cleansing” of Western tribes. However, this is not enough, with Native Americans still suffering, more needs to be done in order to ensure the humanity within Native American tribes.
In the fourth chapter titled “Native Reactions to the invasion of America” in the book, “Beyond 1492: Encounters in Colonial North America, the author James Axtell shares with us an essay he wrote and shared at a conference at Vanderbilt University. Historical accounts are followed beginning at the arrival of explorers and settlers until the 1700’s with various Native tribes in North America. Axtell’s goal is to educate us on the multitude of ways Native Americas reacted during various periods of colonization, and the various methods that the Native Americans perished. Axtell also educates us in his essay on the ways that Native Americans tried to ultimately prevent their extinction at any cost.
In order to understand the lack of morality on the part of the United States, the actions taken by the group in favor of removing the Indians and their opponents needs examining. The seeds of the Indian Removal Act of 1830 are rooted in colonial times and continued to grow during the early years of the American republic. To comprehend this momentous tragedy we must first examine the historical background of the Indian '"'problem'"' and seek rationale for the American government"'"s actions. This includes looking at the men who politically justified the expulsion of the Cherokee nation and those who argued against it.
This program is part of the PBS series American Experience. In this episode, a critical eye is cast on the early efforts by Congress to "civilize" Native Americans. This homogenization process required the removal of Native American children from their homes and placing them in special Indian schools. Forced to stay for years at a time without returning home, children were required to eschew their own language and culture and learn instead the ways of the white man. Archival photographs and clips, newspaper accounts, journals, personal recollections, and commentary by historians relate the particulars of this era in American History and its ultimate demise. ~ Rose of Sharon Winter, All Movie Guide
Talking Back to Civilization , edited by Frederick E. Hoxie, is a compilation of excerpts from speeches, articles, and texts written by various American Indian authors and scholars from the 1890s to the 1920s. As a whole, the pieces provide a rough testimony of the American Indian during a period when conflict over land and resources, cultural stereotypes, and national policies caused tensions between Native American Indians and Euro-American reformers. This paper will attempt to sum up the plight of the American Indian during this period in American history.
In our day and age where our youth are becoming more aware of the history of the country and the people who inhabit it, the culture of Native Americans has become more accessible and sparks an interest in many people young and old. Recent events, like the Dakota Access Pipeline, grab the attention of people, both protesters and supporters, as the Sioux tribe and their allies refuse to stay quiet and fight to protect their land and their water. Many Native people are unashamed of their heritage, proud of their culture and their ancestors. There is pride in being Native, and their connection with their culture may be just as important today as it was in the 1800’s and before, proving that the boarding school’s ultimate goal of complete Native assimilation to western culture has
As white settlers poured across the mountains, the Cherokee tried once again to compensate themselves with territory taken by war with a neighboring tribe. This time their intended victim was the Chickasaw, but this was a mistake. Anyone who tried to take something from the Chickasaw regretted it, if he survived. After eleven years of sporadic warfare ended with a major defeat at Chickasaw Oldfields (1769), the Cherokee gave up and began to explore the possibility of new alliances to resist the whites. Both the Cherokee and Creek attended the 1770 and 1771 meetings with the Ohio tribes at Sciota but did not participate in Lord Dunnmore's War (1773-74) because the disputed territory was not theirs. On the eve of the American Revolution, the British government scrambled to appease the colonists and negotiate treaties with the Cherokee ceding land already taken from them by white settlers. To this end, all means, including outright bribery and extortion, were employed: Lochaber Treaty (1770); and the Augusta Treaty (1773) ceding 2 million acres in Georgia to pay for debts to white traders. For the same reasons as the Iroquois cession of Ohio in 1768, the Cherokee tried to protect their homeland from white settlement by selling land they did not really control. In the Watonga Treaty (1774) and the Overhill Cherokee Treaty (Sycamore Shoals) (1775), they sold all of eastern and central Kentucky to the Transylvania Land Company (Henderson Purchase).
Towards the development of the United States of America there has always been a question of the placement of the Native Americans in society. Throughout time, the Natives have been treated differently like an individual nation granted free by the U.S. as equal U.S. citizens, yet not treated as equal. In 1783 when the U.S. gained their independence from Great Britain not only did they gain land from the Appalachian Mountains but conflict over the Indian policy and what their choice was to do with them and their land was in effect. All the way from the first presidents of the U.S. to later in the late 19th century the treatment of the Natives has always been changing. The Native Americans have always been treated like different beings, or savages, and have always been tricked to signing false treaties accompanying the loss of their homes and even death happened amongst tribes. In the period of the late 19th century, The U.S. government was becoming more and more unbeatable making the Natives move by force and sign false treaties. This did not account for the seizing of land the government imposed at any given time (Boxer 2009).
American Sociological Review, 3, 672-682. "Native American Youth 101." Aspen Institue. Aspen Institues, 24 July 11. Web.
Through all stages, a conflict existed between the Indigenous peoples and the United States. Under the illusion of forging a new democracy, free of hierarchies and European monarchies, the United States used the plantation labor of enslaved Africans and dispossessed massive numbers of Native peoples from their lands and cultures to conquer this land.15 Many Americans continue to experience the social, political, cultural and economic inequalities that remain in our Nation
The history of the relationship between Indigenous Peoples of the North America and European settlers represents a doubtlessly tragic succession of events, which resulted in a drastic decline in Indigenous population leading to the complete annihilation of some Native groups, and bringing others to the brink of extinction. This disastrous development left the Indigenous community devastated, shaking their society to its very pillars. From the 1492 Incident and up to the 19th century the European invasion to the North America heavily impacted the social development of the Indigenous civilization: apart from contributing to their physical extermination by waging incessant war on the Indian tribes, Anglo-Americans irreversibly changed the Native lifestyle discrediting their entire set of moral guidelines. Using the most disreputable inventions of the European diplomacy, the colonizers and later the United States’ government not only turned separate Indigenous tribes against each other but have also sown discord among the members of the same tribe. One of the most vivid examples of the Anglo-American detrimental influence on the Native groups is the history of the Cherokee Nation and the U.S. Indian Removal Policy. The Cherokee removal from Georgia (along with many other Indian nations) was definitely an on-going conflict that did not start at any moment in time, but developed in layers of history between the Native Americans, settlers of various cultures, and the early U.S. government. This rich and intricate history does not allow for easy and quick judgments as to who was responsible for the near demise of the Cherokee Nation. In 1838, eight thousand Cherokees perished on a forced march out of Georgia, which came to be called the T...
Times were very hard for Native Americans during the mid to late 1800s. The reasons for their afflictions could only be blamed upon the United States of America. For thousands of years, Native Americans had roamed around the Americas. There had also been many tribes spread across the West that fought between each other in order to have their land.1 It wasn’t until after reconstruction in the United States, that the white Americans started having ordeals with the Native Americans. The main tribes involved in the conflict starting around 1850 were the Lakota people and the Sioux. The relationship between them can only be remembered for broken treaties and wars. It is true that these tribes had only mind there own business for many centuries for the White Americans. It wasn’t around the 1850’s, that the United States were interested in the gold that was existing in the territories the belonged to the Native Americans. This would be the starting point of what historians call the Indian Wars that would last about half a century. The question is though, why? Why were there so many battles between the United States government and the Native Americans? Why was there so many hatred between them? Finally, who caused the violence? Many historians would believe that the government only wanted to have gold and then leave the Indian’s at peace and that they were the ones that acted irrationally. However, this is in fact a lie. It is genuine that they also wanted to rob them from there identity and who the Native Americans were as people. There was something much more than just gold in the Indian Wars. Although it may seem that the United States government only wanted riches from the Native American’s land, they actually wanted to extract t...
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
The circumstances the Native American people endured clarify their current issues. American Indians have poor education and a high percent are unemployed when equated to “U.S. all races” (Spector, 2009, p. 205). Many American Indians still live on reservations and work as a
Although the work is 40 years old, “Custer Died for Your Sins” is still relevant and valuable in explaining the history and problems that Indians face in the United States. Deloria’s book reveals the White view of Indians as false compared to the reality of how Indians are in real life. The forceful intrusion of the U.S. Government and Christian missionaries have had the most oppressing and damaging affect on Indians. There is hope in Delorias words though. He believes that as more tribes become more politically active and capable, they will be able to become more economically independent for future generations. He feels much hope in the 1960’s generation of college age Indians returning to take ownership of their tribes problems and build a better future for their children.
Native-Americans make up one of the smallest portions of our population, but are still victims of mass incarceration and police brutality Many Native-American reservations have high unemployment rates. Poverty in these areas is also common. Reserved, sacred land for Native-Americans is also disappearing as more and more land is being taken away by United States government. The government also disobeys treaty rights by exploiting their land for natural resources to gain profit. Low graduation rates are common in Native school districts. Suicide is much more prevalent among Native-American youth when compared to the rest of the nation. They also generally receive poor healthcare. Violence and abuse of children and women is more common in Native-American communities as well.