Christopher Columbus, The, And The United States

It has been 186 years since the Indian Removal Act was passed by Congress during Andrew Jackson’s presidency. The way other people view Native Americans, particularly the Choctaws and Chickasaws, has changed drastically over time; but how has that changed the way Native Americans view themselves. I plan to explore what it meant to be Native American at the time of Indian Removal and compare it to what it is believed to mean to be Native American today. I plan to look at the cultural attitude that was in place at the time of removal and how the Native Americans reacted and compare it to modern day opinion.

Much of European criticism of Native American was based on differences in religion, land use, and gender relations. Most Europeans reasoned that Indians needed to be converted to the “true religion” of Christianity (Give Me Liberty, 11). In fact, Verrazano concluded that the Indians had “no religion or laws” (Voices of Freedom, 10). The Europeans did not understand the Indians’ use of the land and thus justified overtaking it, reasoning that they did not truly “use” it. Some Europeans criticized gender relations, claiming that women lacked freedom due to their work in the fields (Give me Liberty, 12-13). Others, like Verrazano, criticized the Indians for having “absolute freedom” in which they did not abide to any laws due to ignorance (Voices of Freedom, 10). Regardless of

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.

These stereotypical binaries of the childlike and savage Indian are directly linked to the narratives of white settler society and colonization. Essentially, by classifying all First Nation cultures under a monolith of a few stereotypes the white setter society claimed dominance over the First Nation peoples as they created the lens through which the First Nation’s history and identity would be read. The influence of the press and government policies lead to the acceptance of these stereotypes as defining truths about First Nations people which aided the settler societies in solving the Indian problem by destroying what it meant to be Indian. In this way, the stereotypes not only developed the idea of assimilation to save the Indian, but they

Vance (1995) stated, “For nearly 500 years there has been a very oppressive, dishonest and manipulative message being voiced by the dominant white Angelo culture towards Native Americans, This has caused a great distrust, anger and conflicting attitudes for the Native American community” (p.1).

If one thing is to be respected and understood about the American Indians, it would be that their history and culture goes much further back than contemporary American history. Consequently, the relationship developed between American Indians and the United States is as unique as it is complicated. This unique relationship started because the American Indians were the first faces seen by fresh colonials from Europe. Despite this fact, the American Indians have faced cultural appropriation on a level that cannot be compared to any other ethnic group or minority. Any American who has been through kindergarten can associate Indians and Pilgrims with Thanksgiving, but how many of those Americans can tell about the Battle of Little Bighorn or the Alcatraz Proclamation? The unique relationship between the United States and American Indians has grown over time to allow for the level of appropriation that can be observed today. It is this unique relationship that has allowed the American Indian culture to be exploited because

Before Cuba became a nation, Cuba was first a Spanish colony. In 1492, Christopher Columbus, an Italian explorer, claimed Cuba as a colony of Spain after he was sent by the Spanish monarchy to find a route to Asia, specifically Southeast Asia. Columbus enlisted the help of the native people in Cuba, known as the Taino, to find consequential resources on the island for Spain. The Tainos’ willingness to aid Columbus caused the native people to become enslaved under Spanish rule. Despite the encouragement from Hatuey, a Taino leader who tried warning fellow Taino the horrors of Spanish subjugation, uprisings to remove the Spanish failed. In 1570’s, the economic success of the farming industry fueled Spain to import Africans to work as slaves.

In Four Arrows introduction to Unlearning the Language of Conquest, scholars expose anti-Indianism in the United States. Within the introduction Fore Arrows examines the role that scholarly men have written slandered works on Native American belief systems, knowledge, and wisdom. This is in part a four wave process to eradicate and disprove Indigenous people. The four waves of systematic eradication of indigenous people are enacted through the first assault, which was Violence and disease, then to control land, water, language, culture, identity and sovereignty, next is was led by men of scholarly reputation pushing publications that discredit and attack world views, histories, and philosophies, finally the forth wave is an accumulation of

The Europeans looked down on the Native American culture because of the differences between their lifestyles. They also present them as people with no morals because the Native Americans were not Christians like they were. The word “savage”, one of the most popular terms used to stereotype Indians, was popularized by these seventeenth century settlers. This became the bases of people’s false assumptions about the Native American culture. America’s growing population increased the labels that Native Americans still deal with today.

When Christopher Columbus landed in America he thought he landed in the East Indies, but it was the West Indies instead. There were millions of indigenous people when he reached the New World in 1942. He named the indigenous people Indian’s. According to Lehnardt (2015), there are 566 federally recognized Native American tribes. The largest tribal groups in the U.S are the Sioux, Navajo, Chippewa, Choctaw, Cherokee, and Iroquois. In today’s society, we see many Native American cultures being used in various ways. However, there are also many ways that the Native American culture can be used in a positive or a negative manner. Native American’s are clearly misunderstood, especially their culture and

In education today, Christopher Columbus is known by the majority of students as the man who so called “discovered” the Americas accidentally on his voyage to India. Students learn about the “Indians” that Columbus stumbled across and the cultivations that Columbus and his crew were able to accomplish on the new lands. Books tell of new resources, materials, and goods that made it all the way across the sea from Genoa, but students have not been introduced to the carryover of disease(s) that Columbus and his men effortlessly passed on to the Native Peoples, the inaccuracies of the pre-Columbian North America, or the government 's influence on historical beliefs. The tales of Columbus that are popularized across education only offers a

America has a long standing history of viewing Native Americans as bad people because of the vast differences of Native American culture compared to American culture. There is a misconception about Native American culture based on how Native Americans are portrayed through American made stories. The longstanding misconceptions of Native American culture stems from the fact that Americans have never tried to understand Native American culture, therefore they don’t know what Native Americans Identity really is. In the past, instead of embracing Native American culture Americans felt they had to help the Native Americans, which meant assimilating them into American culture. Attempting to assimilate the Native Americans further showed a complete lack of understanding because the Native Americans were happy in their way of life.

Even with the recent positive changes in the way Native Americans are shown in the media and in historical texts, the general population still has a very limited knowledge of the diverse and complex Native American cultures. Even in this day and age, many people’s perceptions of Native Americans are taken from old style western movies that depict "Indians" to be the opposite of civilized. In this

Many people think of Christopher Columbus as the person who discovered the Americas. However, Leif Ericson, a Norseman or Viking, was the first European to see the Americas. Columbus was born to Domenico Colombo and Susanna Fontanarossa sometime between August 25 and October 31, 1451 in Italy near Genoa (Heat-Moon 4). “Columbus had four other siblings” (Phillips 64). Columbus’ childhood was a tough one, even though he had a great parental guidance. “Columbus grew up in a medieval world exhausted by war and bigotries, religious corruption and intolerance, a time of widespread spiritual dissolution and social pessimism, a continent deeply in need of a rebirth”(Heat-Moon 5). The era of which Columbus lived in was really in need of a make-over. The way people acted, their decisions, and the changes in their religion were not acceptable to any standard. That time period was very boring and depressing and it was difficult to be happy. “Christopher spent some of his early years at his father’s trade of weaving and later he became a sailor on the Mediterranean [Sea]” ("Christopher Columbus"). “By the time he was 31 or 32, Christopher had become a master mariner in the Portuguese Merchant Service” ("Christopher Columbus"). Later in life, Columbus had married Doña Felipa Perestrello o Moníz (Heat-Moon 7). After eight years of persistence and two rejections from Portugal, Columbus was granted the finance needed to complete the voyage from Spain ("Christopher Columbus"). He wanted

Nowadays, the world is not difficult to see that human rights are the words. I think the human right suggests that the size of the Board. Christopher Columbus’ discovery of the America is frequently considered one of the most important incidents that propelled the West to the front stage of history until today. It is because since the late 15th century the West began sailing across the oceans and founded colonies wherever they landed. All the places the European conquistadors took over, however, none incurred more horrifying damage and suffering than the indigenous peoples in the Americas.