Amerindian Arguments and Actions Essay

Before Europeans came over to the Americas, the Natives lived together as an union and had peaceful lives. Native Americans hunted animals seasonally but eventually turned to commercial hunting when they began trading more with the Europeans. They had so much different goods that the Natives have not seen before including scissors, guns, alcohol, European red paint, and other metal based items. That forced competition to arise between tribes so they could purchases the goods. There was less agriculture planting since they spent a majority of their time hunting animals and purchased their food from the Europeans. It looked like the Natives found a new trading country to work with but becoming friends was not what the English to do. They wanted to colonize their land and push the Natives away in any possibly way they could. Past experiences  has marginalized Natives today because of the mental struggles and trauma they deal with, the fight for their rights, and the loss of culture today.

Native American’s greeted the new colonists in a friendly, welcoming manner from the start. The new colonists considered this a sign of weakness, stating how easy it would be to dominate the native people. When Columbus arrived, there were 12-15 million Native Americans in the Americas, in 1890 there was under 250,000, with 98% of the population gone. With the belief in Manifest Destiny, the colonists forced the Native American’s off their own land, farther and farther from where they originated from, and eventually onto reservations, removing them from their way of life and their culture. During the transition from their homeland to reservations, many of the Native American’s died due to disease, cold, hunger, and the hardships of travel. Along with the annexation, the colonists demanded assimilation.

Since the very first contact, the Native Americans have been treated as subordinates, being mistreated, shamed, embarrassed, and oppressed by white settlers. After the Revolutionary War in the late 1700’s, matters only got worse for the Native Americans. Population was skyrocketing due to a great deal of immigration of white settlers in the early to mid 1800’s, and there wasn’t enough space for everyone. With this came expansion, and to reach the goals they had set out for it, the Native Americans had to go. A prime example of this is shown in Howard Zinn’s “A People’s History of the United States,” where in chapter seven he talks about the forced removal of Native Americans from their lands, carelessness and failure by the American government to protect, and multiple slaughters carried out by the American military on the Cherokee, Chickasaw, Creek, Choctaw, Sac and Fox, and the Seminole tribes. Closely related is “Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee,” written by Dee Brown, his writings from chapter thirteen focus on the Nez Perces tribe that resided in Oregon, and their attempt at a journey in Canada, and other western Indian tribes’ affairs. To go along with Zinn and Brown, is Alan Brinkley’s “American History,” which posed an unbiased view of what modern day textbooks are informing students across the nation about what happened to the Native Americans. An article titled “The North American Indian Holocaust,” written by

It appears that the majority of the actions of the Native Americans towards the new European colonists were in peace and acceptance. Unfortunately the colonists dreams conflicted with the views of the Native Americans. The ‘free living’ philosophy of the Native American’s left them open to an unexpected overtaking by the colonists. The Europeans believed in making a new world out of America while completely disregarding the fact that

Many prominent historians argue a clash between culture and religious philosophy was the primary cause of conflict between European settlers in North America and Native Americans. However, a closer analysis of American history suggests otherwise. While a clash in cultures and religious differences did exist, the European domination of Native Americans was primarily fueled by European economic motivations, a desire for valuable natural resources and a craving to expand the American colonial system. Due to this, the conflict was inevitable.

In the time span of 1689 to 1763, some great changes began to happen in the New World. To begin with, various European nations began to compete for their own land in the New World. The Spanish was one of the first to have already settled in parts of North America. However, later England began to also settle. During this time England began to create colony after colony; building and expanding their control over land in North America.

The Indians were at peace with many of the early settlers, but in some cases, there was conflict. The settlers needed the Indians help when they first arrived to the New World. The Indians were masters at farming, hunting, and making crafts. “ Their crops included corn, beans, squash, pumpkins, sunflowers, and tobacco” (Waldman 1). They taught the Europeans how to

The appearance of Europeans in the Western Hemisphere created a major change in the Native Americans’ lives. We know this because, “As historian James Merrel has described, the invaders created a “new world” for Native Americans…” (2). We can tell that their lives had changed because before they came, they didn’t have to worry about giving their land away or other people taking it. The invasion caused the Native Americans to suffer a lot because they couldn’t live like how they did before the Europeans came. They had to try their best to

The seventeenth century marked the start of great colonization and immigration to the New World that was North America. Mainly in on the eastern coast of what is now the United States, England established colonies on this new land to thrive socially and economically. The English government readily sent its citizens to America to exploit its abundant source of raw materials and the English people exponentially came to the colonies to start a new life for themselves and to thrive socially. In Virginia during the seventeenth century, the geographical attributes in this region allowed the establishment of the cash crop tobacco to rapidly transform the colony socially and economically. Particularly in the Chesapeake Bay, the goal of social and

Native Americans are the first inhabitants of North America by centuries; however, many believe that American history started when Christopher Columbus sailed the ocean blue in 1492 and discovered a new world . Although the English, French, and Spanish arrived around the same time, they all interacted with the Natives in different ways to achieve what they were seeking, such as land, riches, etc. However, once the European pursuit of riches and land became brutal and malicious, the Natives attempted several revolts, such as the Pueblo Revolt or King Phillip’s War, that unfortunately, has some dire consequences, such as death and slavery.

Many people associate the word “genocide” with the Holocaust in Nazi Germany. However, there is a particular genocide much more severe than the Holocaust, the American Indian genocide. It is roughly estimated that ten million Native Americans died due to European contact. Many documents attempt to effectively recount the experiences of the Native Americans and provide accurate information pertaining to their cultures, but the reading that best does this is chapter one of America’s History by James Henretta et al. This reading encompasses a variety of topics; covering Native American society prior to European contact, geography of the Americas, European hierarchy, conflict in the Old World, Native American and European empires, trading networks,

Millions of Englishmen wanted it and would pay good money for it. This caused Virginia to not be as structured because in everyones backyard was a tobacco farm. Exporting millions in dollars worth of tobacco, Virginia had plenty of food shipped back over. New England suffered greatly from disease and famine. Only 50% of the settlers survived the first

In response to the Indian Removal Act of 1830, which expelled Native Americans from their homes, President Andrew Jackson said, “It will separate the Indians from immediate contact with settlements of whites; free them from the power of the States; enable them to pursue happiness in their own way and under their own rude institutions; will retard the process of decay, which is lessening their numbers,” (Jackson). It’s safe to say that Jackson proved to be a bad prophet. Almost two hundred years later, the “first Americans” now possess only a fraction of American land and face a litany of struggles. Of course, the demise of Native American culture and influence didn’t happen suddenly, but was a result of hundreds of years of oppression. Though European colonialism was a factor in Native American genocide, a critical analysis of specific American policies in the 19th century is crucial to understand how we got where we are today. Ultimately, a series of government actions that encouraged American settlement of the west created a snowball effect that drove American Indians to near extinction. The settlement of the American west had serious harmful implications on Native Americans through forced migration westward, theft of Indian land, and a series of wars with white settlers.

The followers of John Smith and as well as himself arrived in the state of Virginia and established the first permanent English colony in 1607 in the Chesapeake region. In Most of the settlers who came to the land were filled with motives to make profit the forming of the three g’s ( God,gold,glory). Also they found profit for the plantations of tobacco and trading. The settlers were very selfish and most of them were just single men starting their lives.

In 1607, the Virginia Company of London sponsored a group of one hundred settlers, mainly well to do adventurers, that established the first English colony on the Chesapeake Bay, Jamestown, currently the state of Virginia. They came with the intent of finding gold and getting rich by trading with the Indians. But as a result of their eagerness for money, they failed to put enough thought into the location they chose to settle which ended up being a swamp. This environmental condition started the colony off to a negative start, with the colonists suffered high mortality rates early on due to disease and famine. John Rolfe, a farmer and scientist, introduced a new tough strain of tobacco and it became perhaps the most important reason for Virginia’s survival. It certainly