Prohibition and Native Americans
As early as the nineteenth century, the United States government tried to impose prohibition for Natives. They also attempted temperance on their own as an anti-colonial movement through Iroquois Handsome Lake and the Shawnee Tenskwatawa (1775-1836). In late 1790s, Handsome Lake once an alcoholic became very ill. He was addicted to rum and is family felt he would die soon. In a delirium, he claimed to have met three men sent by the Creator, where they told him of the evil practices of his people, which included alcohol. Handsome Lake had many other visions, including one where he met Jesus who told him, “Your people with become lost when the follow the ways of the white man”.5
In his second vision,
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Handsome Lake’s code called for the men to become farmers and to build a home for his wife and children, removing the tradition where women owned and worked the lands. He prescribed four sacred rituals to be followed: (1) the Great Feather Dance to honor children and life, (2) the Drum Dance to honor the spirit beings who watch over the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois), (3) the Men’s Chant to honor the Creator, and (4) the Peach Pit Bowl Game and the Sustenance Dance.7 With the help of Handsome Lake’s nephew, Blacksnake, the Code of Handsome Lake was written down and published in 1850. Though there was resistance to changes in their religion, the Code of Handsome Lake is still practiced among the Seneca and is considered to be a traditional Indian …show more content…
After losing the Indian Wars of the 1870s, the United States created several smaller reservations for the Native populations and the government confiscated 7.7 million acres of the Sioux’s sacred Black Hills. The government assigned the Oglala to live on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota. In the 1900s, the U.S. Supreme Court ordered the federal government to pay the Sioux tribes millions of dollars in compensation for illegally taking the Black Hill, but the Oglala’s desire to have the Black Hills returned to them remains strong and they refuse to accept settlement money.11
The Pine Ridge Reservation is designated as one of the poorest areas in the United States. The Reservation has very few natural resources and no industry and many of the residents must travel more than 120 miles to Rapid City for seasonal employment. Only one Oglala in five has a job. A severe housing shortage forces hundreds into homelessness while thousands of others live in overcrowded, substandard accommodations. Sixty-nine percent of Pine Ridge residents live below the poverty line, and residents must make do on $2,600 per year, less than one-fifth of the national average
The population of Native Americans living in poverty is double compared to the U.S overall population rate living in poverty. Williams wrote, “Unemployment is extremely high (90%on some Canadian reserves during winter months), and income levels are extremely low.” Federal housing program often allow Native Americans to be able to afford housing at low cost, but are not considered to be the best living conditions. Reservations are often located in rural areas where it is hard to obtain employment due to location and where access to resources is limited. In the article mentioned above Williams wrote, “Run down trailers and shacks are not uncommon.”(P.386) This kind of housing can be almost unlivable and sometimes even dangerous. It’s even common to see living situation without basic utilities of electricity or water in remote areas (Williams,
The case Worcester v. Georgia (1832) was a basis for the discussion of the issue of states' rights versus the federal government as played out in the administration of President Andrew Jackson and its battle with the Supreme Court. In addition to the constitutional issues involved, the momentum of the westward movement and popular support for Indian resettlement pitted white man against Indian. All of these factors came together in the Worcester case, which alarmed the independence of the Cherokee Nation, but which was not enforced. This examines the legal issues and tragic consequences of Indian resettlement.
On the east coast people were also being taken advantage of by the government. As a result of the building of the Transcontinental Railroad, the government began giving out land grants ‒through the Homestead Act of 1862‒ for Americans to live on and farm; the only problem was that another culture was already living on the land: the Sioux Nation. After the S...
Lakota Woman Essay 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.
Andrew Jackson, who was the 7th President of the United States, signed the Indian Removal Act in May 28th, 1832 and this policy granted Andrew Jackson the right to forcibly move the Native Americans to land west of the Mississippi. Even though “it is presumed that any explanation of Jackson’s purposes is an attempt to justify the mass killing of innocent people…” (Remini, 45) some would say his childhood affected him; seeing and hearing Indians Attacking places near his home. Or how he was the second President to make it into the business without an education. Some people thought that with gold being found in Georgia, this led many new white settlers looking to buy land from the Cherokee Indians. Although a lot could be said about Andrew Jackson’s Removal Policy one thing is for certain, the way the Policy was carried out was a horror. If you could just imagine this with your heart and soul how the policy was carried out, then you could see how terribly the Indians were treated. All because they occupied the land they were given in a treaty. The policy affected many people, some in good ways; some in bad. Obviously the only people this policy affected in a good way were the white settlers looking to buy the Indians land. The Chickasaw Indians were the only Tribe to not have land in the New Territory even though they were promised it. They sold their land for $500,000 to the United States Government, and when they showed up and had no land they decided to lease land from Choctaws. The purchase of the land from the other tribe created a trust fund that gave the Chickasaw Indians up to $75,000 a year, and then enabled them to have a cash economy and not rely on the natural environment (Kidwell). The unfortunate situation in this enti...
There were many leaders like Handsome Lake, for instance there was Tenskwatawa of the Shawnee tribe. He was also an alcoholic, and he was one-eyed and fat (Johnson 47). He had an experience very like Handsome Lake’s, he also fell into a coma and was assumed dead. When he awoke he claimed to have had a vision (Johnson 47). His message was for all Natives, not just his own tribe. He taught that all Natives must give up alcohol and fighting among themselves (Johnson 47). He claimed that they must return to their traditional ways and give up European tools (Johnson 47). Anyone who disagreed with the new old ways must be put down by force (Johnson 47). He borrowed a mean, punishing monotheistic god from the Christians (Johnson 47). He claimed that if everything was
From the beginning of the 20th Century, there were nearly 250,000 Native Americans in the United States who accounted for approximately 0.3 percent of the population. This population was mostly residing in reservations where they executed a restricted extent of self-government. Native Americans have experienced numerous challenges related to land use and inconsistent public policies. Actually, during the 19th Century, Native Americans were dispossessed of a huge section of their land through forced removal westwards, through a series of treaties that were largely dishonored, and through military defeat by the United States in its expansion of control over the American West (Boxer par,1). Moreover, Native Americans have experienced
Alcohol Prohibition was supposed to improve the country’s social problems but it only led to the rise of powerful criminals. Prohibition was the first of the many culture wars that would divide the United States in the twentieth century. For centuries alcohol has been part of the American life; the prevalence of alcohol in daily life was plainly visible. According to Lerner, “the Americans can fix nothing, without a drink. If you meet, you drink; if you part, you drink; if you make acquaintance, you drink … you start it early in life, and you continue it, until you soon drop into the grave” (1). As the consumption rate of distilled spirits increased, American’s love for drinks caused problems: domestic violence, crime, neglected families, economic ruin, disease, and death. It was these combined effects that led reformers to warn against alcohol. Waves of temperance reformers, and temperance groups like the Washingtonians had tried to change drinkers through voluntary abstinence, but those who believed that moral courage and personal resolve could conquer alcoholism were quickly disappointed (Lerner 2).
Prohibition was a period in which the sale, manufacture, or transport of alcoholic beverages became illegal. It started January 16, 1919 and continued to December 5, 193. Although it was formed to stop drinking completely, it did not even come close. It created a large number of bootleggers who were able to supply the public with illegal alcohol. Many of these bootleggers became very rich and influential through selling alcohol and using other methods. They started the practices of organized crime that are still used today. Thus, Prohibition led to the rapid growth of organized crime.
The movement westward during the late 1800’s created new tensions among already strained relations with current Native American inhabitants. Their lands, which were guaranteed to them via treaty with the United States, were now beginning to be intruded upon by the massive influx of people migrating from the east. This intrusion was not taken too kindly, as Native American lands had already been significantly reduced due to previous westward conquest. Growing resentment for the federal government’s Reservation movement could be felt among the native population. One Kiowa chief’s thoughts on this matter summarize the general feeling of the native populace. “All the land south of the Arkansas belongs to the Kiowas and Comanches, and I don’t want to give away any of it” (Edwards, 203). His words, “I don’t want to give away any of it”, seemed to a mantra among the Native Americans, and this thought would resound among them as the mounting tensions reached breaking point.
Native Americans were using alcohol long before Europeans colonized America. Alcohol was consumed mainly for spiritual reasons, and their beverages contained only diluted alcohol, as much effort was required to produce it. Native Americans used alcohol to communicate with spiritual forces, and only highly ranked priests had access to it. Distillation, then a European process of making more potent alcoholic beverages, was unknown to them, but when the Europeans started trading with the Native Americans, the newcomers introduced them to methods of making more potent drinks. The sudden abundance of more potent beverages did not permit the natives to regulate their use of alcohol, in contrast to the Europeans, who had thousands of years of experience and had regulated its distribution centuries before. Due to the history of alcohol in the New World, factors such as socioeconomics, culture, and genetics have influenced modern Native Americans to abuse alcohol comparably more than other ethnic groups, and it has had a destructive effect on their society.
Natives were forcefully removed from their land in the 1800’s by America. In the 1820’s and 30’s Georgia issued a campaign to remove the Cherokees from their land. The Cherokee Indians were one of the largest tribes in America at the time. Originally the Cherokee’s were settled near the great lakes, but overtime they moved to the eastern portion of North America. After being threatened by American expansion, Cherokee leaders re-organized their government and adopted a constitution written by a convention, led by Chief John Ross (Cherokee Removal). In 1828 gold was discovered in their land. This made the Cherokee’s land even more desirable. During the spring and winter of 1838- 1839, 20,000 Cherokees were removed and began their journey to Oklahoma. Even if natives wished to assimilate into America, by law they were neither citizens nor could they hold property in the state they were in. Principal Chief, John Ross and Major Ridge were leaders of the Cherokee Nation. The Eastern band of Cherokee Indians lost many due to smallpox. It was a year later that a Treaty was signed for cession of Cherokee land in Texas. A small number of Cherokee Indians assimilated into Florida, in o...
In the early 1820s to 1830s, Christian Values re-awaked the banning of drinking alcohol in the United States. The State of Massachusetts passed a law in 1838 banning the sale of alcohol in anything less than a 15-gallon container. Two years later that law was revoked. This set an example for the banning of alcohol and a structure for other states to try. Later throughout the years Maine passed the first state prohibition law in 1846 , and a couple other states had followed by the time the Civil War.
Prohibition, which was also known as The Noble Experiment, lasted in America from 1920 until 1933. There are quite a few results of this experiment: innocent people suffered; organized crime grew into an empire; the police, courts, and politicians became increasingly corrupt; disrespect for the law grew; and the per capita consumption of the prohibited substance—alcohol—increased dramatically, year by year. These results increased each of the thirteen years of this Noble Experiment, and they never returned to the levels that existed before 1920. Prohibition did not happen instantly, it settled on the country gradually, community by community, town by town, and eventually state by state for almost a century. The onset of National Prohibition in 1920 was merely the final blow. The first of the laws, such as the one in Virginia in 1619, through New Hampshire's law of 1719 were against drunkenness, not against drinking. The first law that limited liquor sales was implemented because of the religious beliefs of citizens. This particular law was passed in New York in 1697; it ordered that all public drinking establishments be closed on Sunday because, on the Lord's day, people should be worshiping the Bible not the bottle. In 1735, the religious had a prohibition law enacted for the entire state of Georgia. The law was a complete failure and was abandoned in 1742. For the most part, however, during the 1700s and early 1800s, those opposing liquor on religious grounds used sermons and persuasion rather than politics and laws to make their point. These persuasive efforts were known as the Temperance Movement, and its goal was to get everyone to voluntarily temper use of spirits. Maine went completely dry in 1851 and, by 1855, so had New Hampshire, Vermont, Delaware, Michigan, Indiana, Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, and New York Alabama passed a Prohibition law in 1907 which became effective on January 1, 1909. Also in Alabama, the publishing of liquor advertisements and the circulation of other materials containing alcohol and liquor advertisements were prohibited in 1915. By 1920, thirty-three states encompassing 63% of the country had already voted themselves dry (Cherrington 344).
The prohibition era lasted from 1920 to 1933. Many people, especially politicians running for office during this time, wanted to see the sale and manufacturing of alcohol banned. Prohibition in the United States was a plan that politicians designed in order to put a stop to drinking. They wanted to reduce drinking by eliminating all businesses that either manufactured, distributed, or sold alcoholic beverages. The Eighteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution took away licenses to do business from the all brewers, distillers, vintners, and the sales of alcoholic beverages.