American Settler Colonialism

America, land of the free, home of the brave, unless you’re not white. The United States of America was built on immigrants, but the more proper term would be imperialists. It is widely known that Native Americans were here first, but they barely acknowledge it. Instead children are taught about Christopher Columbus, the pilgrims, and the founding fathers. Colonists felt the need to kill, annex, and annihilate an entire culture to capitalize off of “undiscovered” lands. As a result, Native American culture is almost extinct, the impact that colonists had on Native Americans were catastrophic; natives were forced to change their way of life and culture to adjust to new conquerors brought by Columbus, when westerners kept pushing west, battles and massacres ensued and Natives were forced to assimilate into American culture. Native Americans are still ignored and are pushed to the back burner. We claim that we are progressive, but the Dakota Pipeline Project seems to contradict that statement. Today, we still aren’t progressing and it shows when we still have a holiday celebrating Christopher Columbus “discovering” the new world.

The Indian removal acts in 1830 but wasn’t really in force until a year later (“Trail of Tears”). In 1832 Marshall, Chief justice said that “the Georgian government had no real power in the Cherokee domain”. The Native Americans were moved to land that couldn’t support their crops and lifestyle (McGill). The Indians fought the U.S. for four years to keep their land (BlackBarn), and the Cherokee tribe tried to develop a government in 1820, but the U.S. didn’t stand for it (McGill).

The Indian Removal act of 1830 was passed by President Jackson. President Jackson wanted the Natives land so he made false treaties with them in order to speed up the process of taking their land. Some of the Natives agreed to go to Indian territory on their own but, the majority of them didn’t like the idea of leaving their home. Many of the natives fought and raided the settlers many of the natives tried to make peace with the white men. Soon many of the Natives grew weary and finally decided to cede their land and move to Indian Territory. Still many Natives had to be forced to make the journey. Many of the natives didn’t survive the journey. The Five Tribes that were removed were the Choctaw,Creek,Chickasaw,Cherokee, and the Seminole.

In the 18th century, life in the English colonies had begun to calm down a little bit. European territories still continued to expand, but many colonists settled down for a more domestic life. The original towns bloomed into cities, especially around the ports. The colonial civilizations developed into a safer and more comfortable environment. Men got jobs and earned a living, children went to school, and wives cooked and cleaned the house. Much of colonial life was similar to the English lifestyle they left behind. However, there were multiple aspects to the colonial life that set it apart from its English counterpart. The life of the average settler experienced politics, education, and even daily life that could only be found in America.

Colonization DBQ Although America is based on democratic values, and early colonies demonstrated democratic features, certain aspects of colonial life were not democratic. Virginia’s House of Burgesses was a legislature that was comprised of representatives chosen by the people, an example of a representative democracy (Doc. 6). This was the first democratic government to be established in America. In the house of Burgesses, a group of representatives were elected by the people to represent them and make decisions.

In the early years of the United States’ formation, the country had its roots in the original thirteen colonies. Through years of expansion, the United States grew into the country we know today. Without the migration movements like the pilgrims’ voyage to America, the colonization founding of the original thirteen colonies, and the westward migration in the 1800s for gold and prosperity, the country could not be the way it is today. The colonization of the 1600s and the migration in the 1800s impacted the course of American history and its development.

First, Andrew Jackson started the Indian removal act That moved Indians out of their home towns to Oklahoma. In http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part4/4p2959.html they said “ more than 4000 people died in the Indian removal act.” That is a lot of people that died in the Indian removal act that Andrew Jackson forced to

Andrew Jackson (from Tennessee) was apart of the Indian Removal. In 1814, he commanded the U.S, Military that defeated a fraction of the Creek Nation. The Creeks refused to migrate, but the Chickasaws saw the removal as inevitable and did not resist. Then in 1823, Supreme Court handed down a decision which stated that Indians could occupy lands with the U.S. but couldn’t hold the title to those lands, which was called the “Right of Occupancy”. Later in March 1832, a treaty was signed and opened a portion of Alabama land. The Natives were guaranteed protected ownership of remaining portion. By 1837, Jackson had removed forty-six thousand Natives Americans’ land east of Mississippi, which had then opened twenty-five million acres of land to white settlement and slavery. Cherokees used legal means in attempt to safeguard their rights and the Chickasaws were forced to pay the Choctaws for their right to live on part of western allotment. President Martin Van Buren sent General Winfield Scott and seven thousand soldiers to expedite the process because some Natives wanted to stay and fight, they then forced the Cherokees into stockades at bayonet point. In 1907, Oklahoma became a state and Indian Territory was gone for good. Going back, there were many Seminole Wars or also called Florida Wars. There were three Seminole Wars and they were the longest and most expensive Indian Wars in U.S history. Thousands and thousands of lives were lost during the wars. The first Seminole War lasted from 1817 to 1818. Andrew Jackson’s attitude toward Native Americans was patronized and

“The settlement of the Western Hemisphere by native peoples and the ‘discovery’ of the ‘Americas’ by Europeans were actually parts of the same human impulse; the need to explore and discover what lies over the horizon. In that sense they are more similar than different.” This is a valid statement applicable to both the Native Americans and the Europeans. The first people to live in the Western Hemisphere are believed to have migrated from Asia. These Native American people now living in America had traveled in hunter gatherer groups, often following after animals to keep a steady food source. Yet, the Native Americans also had a drive to continue exploring the vast land on which they were living. The farther they journeyed the more they

The economic history of the United States began with American colonization in the 17th and 18th century. The 1820’s was one of the most productive decades during the development of the United States. Furthermore, it was a time of significant political and international affairs. To begin with, founding father James Monroe was the fifth American President of the United States.

Classical Colonialism occurs when metropolitan nations fuse new territories or peoples through means which are virtually involuntary such as war, conquest, capture, and additional forms of enforcement and control. (Biauner 1987,150) Classical colonialism is distinguished by economic exploitation, forced entry, and cultural imperialism through the establishment of new institutions and methods of thought. (

In April 1995 Pamela George, an Ojibway women, was brutally murdered in Saskatchewan. Her murderers Steven Kummerfield and Alex Ternowetsky, young middle-class white men, were convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to merely six and a half years in prison. George’s story is one of the many Indigenous women who have been murdered or missing over the past years. There are over 580 cases of missing and murdered Indigenous women, close to half are put aside and left unsolved. Only 53% of these cases have lead to charges of homicide (Klement 8). Drastically, statistics indicate that Aboriginals are faced with more hardships throughout their life compared to the average Canadian. Indigenous groups, particularly women, suffer from a lower rate of education, higher suicide rates and an array of health risks. This paper will examine the role settler colonization history has played in perpetuating conditions for violence to indigenous women, many of which are still experienced today. This will be accomplished by first assessing the history of settler colonization and its negative repercussions. Secondly, it will use Sherene Razak’s concept of “spatial segregation,” to illustrate how state institutions have facilitated violence through space, race and the law. Lastly, this paper will use evidence from the film “Finding Dawn” to further demonstrate how violence towards indigenous women is institutionally produced.

The founding of the New World fascinated many Europeans because of the possibilities of the economic, political, and social growth. Europeans packed their belongings and boarded the boat to new beginnings. Arriving in the Americas was not what they had expected. Already pre-occupied in the land, were the Native Americans. The Native Americans refused the Europeans colonization in the America’s, but not all colonies in the Europe just wanted to colonize with the Natives. The intentions of the Europeans colonies were all different, as the Dutch solely came for business transactions. The Dutch business transactions resulted in the change of economic, political, and social movements, changing the lives of the Native’s.

Over the course of history, indigenous people have been the target of discrimination, racism, and systematic oppression. Beginning as early as 1492 when Columbus reached the Caribbean, indigenous people were either attacked, enslaved, or forced to move back to make way for European expansion, which ultimately led to the destruction of Native American livelihood. Multiple wars broke out between the Europeans and indigenous groups, like the Pequot War in 1637 and King Philip’s War in 1675. Many indigenous people were forced to assimilate into white culture or otherwise, risk execution. Then in the 1800s, when President Andrew Jackson enacted the Indian Removal Policy, the Trail of Tears occurred (over 4,000 of the 15,000 Cherokees died on the

Colonialism often took place in pre-populated areas. This gave rise to culturally and ethnically mixed populations such as the mestizos of the Americas, as well as racially divided populations as found in French Algeria or Southern Rhodesia.