Annotated Bibliography: Kill The Indian And Save The Man

“Build a fire under them. When it gets hot enough, they’ll move”. There are many opposing opinions as to if Andrew Jackson abused his presidential power under the Indian Removal Act of 1830, and accordingly, each side can be justified. However, there is more solid evidence proving that Andrew Jackson did indeed misuse his duties as president by transforming the free movement of Indians to a forced one. Although many believed that Andrew Jackson demonstrated a genuine concern for the well being of the Native Americans, Jackson abused his power as president by unfairly enforcing the Indian Removal Act that did not authorize him to repeal treaties or force the relocation of Indians.

In the poem, “Some like Indians Endure,” Paula Gunn Allen (Laguna Pueblo) novelist compares two different types of people to talk about oppression and injustice. The two types of people being compared is about lesbians, which Allen refers as ‘dyke’ to Indians. Her usage of ‘dyke’ is to present how it can be seen as offensive to lesbians, just like how ‘Indian’ is offensive to many Native American people. Novelist Allen represents strongly as a lesbian and a proud Native American. With the understanding that she is a lesbian, the usage of dyke lessens the fact of it being used as a derogatory term.

Popular culture has shaped our understanding and perception of Native American culture. From Disney to literature has given the picture of the “blood thirsty savage” of the beginning colonialism in the new world to the “Noble Savage,” a trait painted by non-native the West (Landsman and Lewis 184) and this has influenced many non native perceptions. What many outsiders do not see is the struggle Native American have on day to day bases. Each generation of Native American is on a struggle to keep their traditions alive, but to function in school and ultimately graduate.

In her book American Indian Stories, Zitkala-Sa's central role as both an activist and writer surfaces, which uniquely combines autobiography and fiction and represents an attempt to merge cultural critique with aesthetic form, especially surrounding such fundamental matters as religion. In the tradition of sentimental, autobiographical fiction, this work addresses keen issues for American Indians' dilemmas with assimilation. In Parts IV and V of "School Days," for example, she vividly describes a little girl's nightmares of paleface devils and delineates her bitterness when her classmate died with an open Bible on her bed. In this groundbreaking scene, she inverts the allegation of Indian religion as superstition by labeling

Andrew Jackson, The United States seventh president, was possibly one of the worst human beings to be president and treated the Native Indians horribly. He, was a bully and used his position to get acts and petitions like the Indian Removal Act passed, to help push Native Indians around so he could get his own way. The Indian Removal Act in and of itself seemingly doesn’t contain that much power, however it was all the power Jackson needed. The circumstances of Jackson’s character and the debates surrounding the Act also lend and interesting lens to examine what Jackson intentions were. When looking at Jackson and how he managed to relocate the Native it becomes substantially more integral to examine all the documents with a wide scope to see how he even managed the relocation of Natives.

To complete the paper I will be researching and presenting, secondary data will be reviewed initially through the university library using a range of information sources such as the JSTOR system, ProQuest, academic and commercial abstracts, bibliographic databases, and Internet search engines. The website GratonRancheria.com will be used as primary data for the analyzation of the Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria.

Tribal sovereignty is a highly debated concept and an important aspect of Native American society. It refers to a tribe’s power to govern itself, manage its membership, and regulate tribal relations. As Joanna Barker stated, “Sovereignty carries the awful stench of colonization.” Tribal sovereignty must be traced to the beginning of colonization in North America. Colonizing nations asserted sovereignty over indigenous people and took away their independent status. The term “tribal sovereignty” carries with it multiples meanings and implications for tribal nations (Cobb, 2005).

There are so many different definitions of the word racism, but how does each peron define it? One individual, Richard Henry Pratt, clearly knew how to thoroughly define the word, “Segregating any class or race of people apart from the rest of the people kills the progress of the segregated people or makes their growth very slow” (Howard 2016). Unfortunately, we are still living in the repercussion of Pratt’s word. The United States’ history is full of examples that have led to the ethnocentric development of the country. One of the most remote examples of this ethnocentric belief is displayed with the construction of off-reservation boarding schools for Native Americans first started in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, by former general, Richard Henry Pratt. The purpose of the schools was to strip Native Americans of their cultural traditions and teach them the skills necessary to function in American Society. Pratt keyed this belief with the saying “Kill the Indian, save the man,” in order to justify his reasons to assimilate the Indians to the white culture. However, were the American Indians really forced to assimilate because society wanted to help them, or because they wanted America to be solely made of true Americans with American culture? How was the assimilation of the Indians satisfactory when it created cultural genocide? Having assimilated the Indian man did not save him, it merely replaced him.

Alcoholism is one of our nation’s largest social issues to date, and carries with it many negative aspects, the most dire being death at the hands of this disease. Alcohol and alcoholism have been part of societies for centuries. This habit was brought over to the new world when the first settlers landed on the shores of what was to become America. Furthermore, in bringing alcohol to this new land an entire nation of Native American Indians were introduced to a product that has affected them more negatively than any other to date, and continues to suffer from today and probably well into the future.

One of the many acts put into place during Andrew Jackson’s time as president includes the highly controversial Indian Removal Act. The Indian removal act was signed and put into place by President

Robert V. Remini argues that Andrew Jackson’s Indian Removal Act of 1830 was socially motivated by humanitarian impulses, and that Jackson’s actions where driven by the desire to save the culture and populace of the Native

Live Indians were seen as problematic because they refused to die out and they were not wanted in society (61).

After reading Kill the Indian, Save the Man: The Genocidal Impact of American Indian Residential Schools by Ward Churchill, I have come to realization of some matters. First of all, while your goal might had been to civilize the Indians by teaching them English, manners, and change their whole appearance, the outcome was totally different. Your goal might have been successful to you, in the end you got what you wanted: to kill the Indian and Save the Man. But also, you stole those kid’s identities by taking them away from their families. You traumatized them, and making them go through so many forms of abuse. “Kill the Indian, save the men” or like U.S. Indian Commissioner William A. Jones said in 1903, the goal was to “exterminate the

In 1830, congress passed The Indian Removal Act, which became a law 2 days later by President Andrew Jackson. The law was to reach a fairly, voluntarily, and peacefully agreement for the Indians to move. It didn’t permit the president to persuade them unwillingly to give up their land by using force. But, “President Jackson and his government

The Indian Removal Act was supposed to give Native Americans the option to stay on their sacred land, but they were driven out involuntarily anyway. Jackson did not abide by the Indian Removal Act passed through congress, which exemplified absolute abuse of his power as president. “ In both houses of Congress, a substantial block of legislators