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Effects of colonialism on native americans
Effects of colonialism on native americans
The effect the native american boarding schools had on the native americans
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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 …show more content…
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
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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
tremendously. Native Americans during the time of the early settlers where discriminated against and still are today. At the arrival of the Europeans there was an estimated one million to eighteen million Native Americans (meaning living above Mexico) in population. There is also said there was about three hundred languages spoken at the time. Anthropologists have tried to summarize “the cultural practices and reduce the cultural complexity and they have come with twelve major cultural areas. But, material artifacts and mode of subsistence give a geographical area rather than on social organization or a people’s way of life, including their family relationship.” ( Mindel, 1998, p.382) The similar family structures can be traced in almost every Native American family from their basic family structure to marriage rituals. Europeans introduce disease to the Native Americans. The introduction nearly killed the total population. Diseases like the small pox, measles, chickenpox, influenza, and many other help to the extinction of almost half of the languages known today. When Europeans settle in the Native American land the quickly tried to acculturate them by taking their land, fighting them for land, and later using reservations to almost incarcerate them for the outside world because the did not want to live like the white man. Native Americans did not like the way they were being treated. Every generation that passes, there would be fewer and fewer Native Americans around the Americas. The Native Americans saw what the Europeans were doing to their land, they wanted their old way of life, and they wanted the Europeans to leave.
Today there are more than a million Indians in America in all phases of development, some still attempting to adjust to American civilization, others completely Americanized and some still holding on to their Native heritage. There are 300 federal Indian reservations and about 21 state reservations present in the United States today. These reservations are considered sovereign nations, however these people still poses American citizenship. In my opinion, the process of assimilation in the United States was an extremely cruel and unnecessary one. Although it did work out for the best in the long run and today the Indian Americans have the freedom to live the way they chose on their reservations, I firmly believe that the process of getting to where we are today could have been much better had it taken a different route.
... “ the majority of [Native Americans] turned to the invaders’ cultures and religious for empowerment, knowledge and skills with which to sustain native identities and values in other guises” , many of them stilled called themselves “true people” by keeping their native names (116-117).
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
Considering historical evidence, the notion: Native –Americans was not the first inhabitant of America is a complete false. For centuries, history kept accurate and vivid accounts of the first set of people who domiciled the western hemisphere. Judging by those records, below are the first set of Native-American people who inhabited America before the arrival of another human race; the Iroquois: The Iroquois of Native Americans was one of the tribes that lived in America before other people came. Based on historical evidence, it is believed that the Native Americans came from Asia way back during the Ice Age through a land bridge of the Bering Strait. When the Europeans first set foot in America, there were about 10 million Native Americans
The Native Americans were once a proud and power race but now they are become discriminated upon. As the united states continue expand and improve in technology; it pretty much left the Indians
Native Americans were abused by Spanish officials when the Spanish invaded their lands. In an attempt to control the attacks of the Native Americans, they enlisted fear into the minds of the Indians.
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).
Two-hundred years ago, there was a scientific study on the brains of Native Americans called the craniology and phrenology. The Europeans examined only indigenous people’s heads and were forbidden to use any European’s brains. The Europeans did three experiments, such as decapitating the tops of the heads and filling them with sand to see if their brains were smaller than blacks. The Europeans also looked at the bones and said that if the bones were in a certain way (such as natives cheek bones being up higher) the person was thought to be stupid. The last experiment the Europeans did to American Indians was that they had a small devise that they would put on the head and it would slice the brain open. There would be an award for retrieving a male’s brain that was five cents. By retrieving a woman’s brain the price would be three cents, and lastly a child’s brain which would be two cents. This is when the term redskin was invented (Poupart, 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.
This triggered the largest population decline in all recorded history. Fifty percent of the Native American population had died of disease within twenty years. Soon after, Native Americans began to question their religion and doubted the ability of the shaman to heal. This was the first step towards the destruction of Native cultures. The Native Americans had never experienced anything like these deadly diseases before, and they came to believe that Europeans had the power to kill or give life.
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
The Indian Boarding School Experience sanctioned by the U.S government decultralized Native Americans through Anglo Conformity which has led to a cultural smudging of the Native American mores generations later, disrupting centuries of cultural constructions and the norms and values of the Native American people.
All so called "Native Americans," were once immigrants. There were two waves of immigration between the early 1800’s through the early 1900’s. The first wave of immigrants called the "old immigrants" came to America between 1890-1897. They were primarily from Northern Europe: Great Britain, Germany, and Scandinavia. The second wave of immigrants called the "new immigrants" came to America from 1897-1924. The "new immigrants" primarily came from Southern and Eastern Europe countries such as Poland, Russia, and Italy. Nativist parties, like the Know-Nothings and the Order of the Star Spangled Banner verbalized their distaste and disapproval of immigrants. Actions and regulations against immigration did not begin until near the end of the "old immigration" and the beginning of the "new immigration." Nativists had many fears and concerns regarding immigrants. These concerns included being socially ill-suited to live with the older stock Americans, stealing jobs from the native work force, and bringing new, radical ideas to the country. These fears and concerns caused nativists to come up with schemes to keep immigrants out of the country. These strategies had a great impact on immigration in our country.
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.