Native American Colonialism And The Colonialization Of Native Americans

When the English and Dutch settlers arrived around the early 1600’s they were very surprised to find the new world already inhabited with Native Americans. This was an act of Colonialism, which is well known for hurting the indigenous population. There was almost a backwards nativism. As the Native American’s far outnumbered and were the original people to the continent, White people were given favor over most things. This is because of their military and economic superiority. Genocide was discussed in class and this was something that Colonists did to the Native Americans. Around 1500 A.D. historians believed that the native population was around 10 million, but by 1900 A.D. only 300,000 remained. That means their population declined by

This was first done by the churches trying to turn the natives against their religion, but as the United States grew they tried to assimilate the natives to white culture. The hope was to turn them closer to our ethnic identity rather than give them their own.

One major difference was that of ethnicity. Each culture “White” and “Native” had their own ethnic identity. This led to racialization. Miscegenation was stopped as early as a law in 1691 the law banned interatrial marriage between white people and the natives. These laws continued and most were not revoked until the mid-1900’s. Boarding schools were the first idea of assimilation. They started in 1860 when the Bureau of Indian Affairs established the first Indian boarding school. In these schools the kids are taught to value private property, material wealth, and monogamous nuclear families. The programs would give the students white names, cut off their long braids, and ban native foods and dress. The end goal of the schools was to destroy the culture that the natives had created for themselves. While the intentions of these schools were to make the Indians self-sufficient. These programs were destroying the collectivism views and other values of the

However, students who went to the schools would often resent their parents breaking a bond between them. This allowed the culture to not be passed on to the children. The long term effect of this racism is alarming as Native Americans have the highest rates of suicide out of any ethnic group in the United States. As time went on the ethnic differences slowly become less, as the Natives began to use the modern technology we use. However, due to white privilege, these “assimilated and civilized” natives found it hard to get jobs. This is true back then as it is for now. Currently a white person is two times as more likely to get a job. The unemployment rate for natives has been at 11% for the past five years. This unemployment is due to the lack of schooling within the modern era. Most Native American Schools are subpar, poorly kept, not given enough funding, and built decades ago. Some schools cannot even afford to fill each classroom with desks. One in Four Native Americans live in