Theories Of Endogenous Conflict

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In the town of Flatwater, tensions run high amongst the white farmers and the local Native Americans. Racism is abundant between the two groups, both taking shots at the other. In regards to this situation Robbins, S. P., Chatterjee, P., & Canda, E. R. (2011) theory of Endogenous Conflict, which is when conflict happens within a group or community. Robbins, S. P., Chatterjee, P., & Canda, E. R. (2011) states “It includes conflicts over changes, values, the distribution of desired resources, and authority” (pp. 61). The Indians are fighting with the farmers and the government over getting the rights back to their tribal land. The farmers are fighting with the Indians because they do not want to lose their land, which is their livelihood …show more content…

For the local Indians, the land that way owned by the farmers was set up with faulty land treaties and Tom, Mary Ann’s childhood friend is using that to get his tribe 's land back. According to Feagin (2014) Native Americans lost their right to create treaties with the United States government in 1871. Since then, federal administration has moving almost all living Native Americans to federally supervised reservations (Feagin, 2014, p. 37). Some federal policies even allowed whites to take even more land from the Native Americans, and pushed the Natives to incorporate the ways of the white man (Feagin, 2014, p.37). Mary Ann is being constantly torn between the two groups because she understands Tom’s issue and why he’s doing what he’s doing, plus she still sees him as one of her childhood best friends. On the other hand she is also a part of the Township Defense League, which includes her ex-husband and father as active members. The league strongly dislikes Tom and what he is trying to do. For Mary Ann she would be losing her family 's land along with her job at the factory which pays the bills and keeps food on the table. This internal battle with Mary Ann came to a head during a press conference that was held by Tom and a local Senator to …show more content…

Her emotional reactions this difficult situation could easily make her a target in her own group because she could be seen as a sympathizer for the Indians cause. Using Delgado’s (2012) Intersectionality theory based off of Critical Race Theory, Mary Ann’s plite puts her in two categories in the eyes of her peers, one being she is a woman and two she is an Indian sympathizer. Despite those two factors on Mary Ann her situation can be compared to Tom’s situation where both of their issues overlap one another despite having opposite views. Mary Ann wants to save her family 's land and her job ultimately to protect her family. Tom wants to regain his tribe 's land that is being butchered by the potato farmers so that he can protect his tribe, aka: his family, from becoming extinct eventually. Both want what is best for their group and both can see where the other is coming from in their views on the situation at hand. Mary Ann grew up with a racist father who moved them to get away from the African-Americans in the south to then be surrounded by Native Americans in the north. Mary Ann grew up with how her father talked about the different races and was ignorant to how the world was towards the Native Americans, this is shown when her friend Tom got called and “Apple” at school and she did not understand what they meant by

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