Our Hearts Fell to the Ground Exam

1094 Words3 Pages

Americans have many ideas of freedom, which often were conflicting. The roots of these conflicting ideas were often based on race and stunted our growth as a country. Although much of the focus in U.S history has been placed the conflicting ideas of White American freedom and African-American freedom, another main conflict was between Whites and Native Americans. White Americans believed that freedom was the right to own property, economic autonomy, and the right to participate in democratic elections. The White Americans also believed that these freedoms were guaranteed only to natural-born, White Americans. The Native Americans had a much different view of freedom, which included the choice to remain nomadic, self-governance, and the right to keep their native culture alive. These disagreements led to many extreme conflicts and struggles, which helped shape the future relations of White Americans and Native Americans.

The first point of conflicting ideas of freedom was the Native tribes remaining slightly nomadic when hunting. This conflict was highlighted in the selection “On taking the new road” by Carl Sweeny on page 127. In the selection, Carl speaks of how his tribe’s traditions changed when forced to hunt within the reservation and also maintained lifestyles different to those of whites. The Whites often used these differences to reinforce the idea that the Native Americans were inferior. Carl mentions in the selection that Whites disapproved of the Natives withdrawing their students from school during the winter. It would have been common for the Whites to attribute this to the natives being “lazy” (Sweeny, p.127), instead of recognizing it as a cultural difference. White Americans did not want to accept that the Nativ...

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... 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.

Works Cited:

All selections used from Our Hearts Fell to the Ground, edited by Colin G. Calloway.

Individual selections:

-On Taking “the New Road”. Carl Sweeny. Page 127.

-Learning the White Man’s Ways. Carl Sweeny. Page 160 and 163.

-Attending the White Man’s Schools. Colin G. Calloway. Page 168-169.

-Killing the Dream. Colin G. Calloway. Page 196.

Website Citation:

-New Evidence Puts Man in North America 50,000 Years Ago. Sciencedaily. 2004. Retrieved from http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2004/11/041118104010.htm

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