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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.
In 1969 Native American college students at Alcatraz island occupied the empty federal prison. They did it to get media attention and to push the government to listen to their social, economic and political problems. The Alcatraz proclamation that set up by the students was a clear indication of grieves of the Indians of all tribes (Grossman). The proclamation had the power to incorporate all the historical development that had happened for centuries. They requested Caucasians to stop the severe oppressions of all kinds of rights. The proclamation also listed what needs to be done. They requested for modern health facilities, fresh water, and industrialization in the reservation. These were the causes for their high unemployment rate, lack of health, and education. For example, th...
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...ot satisfied with the government’s policies that put them away from their country’s system. The struggle for equal opportunity of Native Americans has long way to go to make them part of the “new land” which is old enough to them. Their representation in government offices, Media, and investment areas are almost null. Overall, they are hardly participating in every game of this country; they still watch from distance.
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Grossman Mark. The Native American Right’s Movement. Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO, 1996. Print
It had previously been the policy of the American government to remove and relocate Indians further and further west as the American population grew, but there was only so much...
Bio.com. A&E Networks Television, n.d. Web. The Web. The Web. 25 Mar.
Unfortunately, this great relationship that was built between the natives and the colonists of mutual respect and gain was coming to a screeching halt. In the start of the 1830s, the United States government began to realize it’s newfound strength and stability. It was decided that the nation had new and growing needs and aspirations, one of these being the idea of “Manifest Destiny”. Its continuous growth in population began to require much more resources and ultimately, land. The government started off as simply bargaining and persuading the Indian tribes to push west from their homeland. The Indians began to disagree and peacefully object and fight back. The United States government then felt they had no other option but to use force. In Indian Removal Act was signed by Andrew Jackson on May 18, 1830. This ultimately resulted in the relocation of the Eastern tribes out west, even as far as to the edge of the Great Plains. A copy of this act is laid out for you in the book, Th...
... many setbacks and problems for the Natives, including poverty, alcoholism, and underperformance in education. With better acceptance of the Native culture, and aid from America as a whole, the Native American idea of freedom to self govern, roam freely, and preserve the Native culture can greater be aligned with that of American Freedom.
They felt that this country was rightfully theirs, and wanted an equal opportunity to be able to live where they pleased. Also, they were constantly discriminated against. Many stores and establishments had signs that read “No Indians Allowed.” AIM would go to these places and protest openly, sometimes getting violent. Many acts of violence and murder also occurred on reservation lands against Native Americans, and the white men who committed the crimes would receive a light sentence in court, sometimes not even be punished at all.
military aggression and unjust U.S. government policies, the Native American occupations of Alcatraz Island set out to rein in nationwide attention to the unjust conditions inflicted on Native Americans in the past that continued to the present. The first occupation of Alcatraz Island occurred in 1963. Prior to the occupations, the U.S. had transitioned into Termination policy, seeking to resolve reservation poverty by relocating Native Americans from Indian reservations to cities. By the 1960s, over 60% of the 40,000 Native Americans in San Francisco were settled there as a result of federal work programs; while in cities, Native Americans continued to face poverty as they became exposed to the declining job market and lack of housing ("Native American Civil Rights”). In response to the Termination policy and overall poor living conditions on reservation land, six Lakota mean sought out to occupy the former San Francisco Bay prison. The group cited the Sioux Treaty of Fort Laramie in 1868, stating that "an abandoned federal facility must revert back to Indian ownership” ("Occupation of Alcatraz"). However, overall, the occupation received little attention from the media and federal government with both groups refusing to view the event as a sign of a serious issue brewing in America ("Occupation of Alcatraz"). While the occupation failed to produce immediate action, the event would prove not to be completely unsuccessful as it would set the foundation for the second and third occupations of Alcatraz Island in
The United States government's relationship with the Native American population has been a rocky one for over 250 years. One instance of this relationship would be what is infamously known as, the Trail of Tears, a phrase describing a journey in which the Native Americans took after giving up their land from forced removal. As a part of then-President Andrew Jackson’s Indian Removal Act, this policy has been put into place to control the natives that were attempting to reside peacefully in their stolen homeland. In the viewpoint of the Choctaw and Cherokee natives, removal had almost ultimately altered the culture and the traditional lifestyle of these people.
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
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
Churchill claims that during the 1970s, the U.S. government carried out a "counterinsurgency war against the American Indian Movement" (Churchill 219) and their objective was to oppress and halt the American Indian Movement's ability to "pursue an agenda of Indian treaty rights, land recovery, and national sovereignty in North America" (Churchill 219) making them a target of negative propaganda and oppression. I believe that Churchill's claims are valid and deserve merit due to the fact that he supports his claims with evidence and refers to reliable authorities and sources. He also cites specific examples, uses valid numbers, statistics and facts to support his thesis and claims. I will also be using several outside sources, including the book Prison Writings written by Leonard Peltier to strengthen my position.
A&E Television Networks, 2009. Web. The Web. The Web. Feb. 2014 -.
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.
African Americans have a history of struggles because of racism and prejudices. Ever since the end of the Civil War, they struggled to benefit from their full rights that the Constitution promised. The fourteenth Amendment, which defined national citizenship, was passed in 1866. Even though African Americans were promised citizenship, they were still treated as if they were unequal. The South had an extremely difficult time accepting African Americans as equals, and did anything they could to prevent the desegregation of all races. During the Reconstruction Era, there were plans to end segregation; however, past prejudices and personal beliefs elongated the process.
In today’s society, you can notice that many Native Americans cannot be seen in the United States of America, even though they lived in America for more than a thousand years. This is all started when whites conquered the American. Taking control over the lands left Natives Americans without much of freedom and rights. After Civil War, three Amendments for minority people in the United States passed on. These are 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments. When the 14th Amendment passed, Indians did not gain the right that the 14th Amendment has as African Americans have. According to one article, “The Amendment was intended to give citizenship to the African-American former slaves and not to Indians… Government agencies (the Bureau of Indian Affairs, the Department of the Interior), and the courts (state, federal, and, ultimately, the Supreme Court) consistently held that the Fourteenth Amendment did not confer citizenship on Indians.” This statement shows that even living in the same nation and getting involved in each other lives, natives were not considered as citizens of the United States. Moreover, natives are not as
History.com. A&E Television Network, 1996. Web. The Web. The Web.