Role Of Indians In Colonial American History

Army and the forceful action used to confine the natives, the construction on Indian land, and the massive slaughter of the buffalo which the Indians relied on in every aspect of life. The mistreatment of the Native Americans has been going on for hundreds of years, way before the Gold Rush began. The American government has taken land that they are unable to return to this day. They have deprived the plains Indians of their culture and freedom. Immigration from other countries was at its peak, but America still wasn’t able to call people, that had resided in the United States for many years, citizens. Even the Native American’s, that had lived on the continent before it was even discovered, were denied citizenship unless they were Anglo-Saxon Protestant. To this day, many look at the Indians as a joke; The Seminoles as “The Tribe that Purchased A Billion Dollar Business.” Children are being taught about friendship between the American Settlers and the Natives, they are being lied to. The upcoming generations won’t understand the horrors of unnecessary warfare against innocent people, and they will only know to take what they want, even if it isn’t rightfully theirs. America as a nation has to be stopped from draping curtains over the defeat of the plains Indians: their wiping out of an entire people, just as they did to the

From the native Americans the American revolution was a total disaster. Before the war patriots worked hard to try and ensure Indians interest, for Indians that could help the military. It was known to most the natives, that independent America had a greater treat to them and what they did then the British. Native land holdings had already been reduced, and an American win would harm what they had and what they owned previously. Treaties created between the British and individual tribes offered Indians some protection against illegally settlers, but if the Americans won and were left with nothing, natives would be left to defend their homelands without any benefit just doing it because they have to. it is important to remember the impact of

We are an ignorant people. Considering that most of our knowledge about Native Americans is based on the “success of our American hero Christopher Columbus” it is clear why. History has painted it as though Native Americans are savages who have no sense of morality and are wild. So, more often than not, we either have this incorrect assumption or know generally nothing at all. Even though most of our information about Native Americans is based upon stereotypes we act as though that information is cut and clear. This is done without considering their experiences and the inaccuracies of our so-called knowledge. To combat these ignorance writers have taken it upon themselves to showcase the clear lies that history portrays and to display the experiences of Native Americans of the past and the present. This is done using things like satire, their personal experiences, and more.

Native Americans, or Indians, as they were mistakenly called, have been the “pathetic footnotes to the main course of American history” (Axtell 981). But James Axtell, the author of Colonial America without the Indians: Counterfactual Reflections, would beg to differ. He says that instead, Indians played a key role in making America great. James Murray gives another term to describe America’s greatness: America’s “exceptionalism.” Throughout his article Axtell makes many points as to why Indians played a vital role in “American Exceptionalism”. He even says that America wouldn’t have been colonized nearly as soon if the Indians were gone, because Columbus would know he was not in the Indies and move on. So because they simply existed in the first place, Axtell says they were significant in the history of our country. Furthermore, he says Indians specifically played a vital role in the exceptionality of America’s early economy, culture, and historical events and places.

Their history is all but erased, their lives destroyed in the pursuit of material wealth (resource extraction). Superficial statues and hollow tributes now stand where vibrant human communities once lived for millennia. The US Government, unrecognized by vast portions of Native Americans, hence illegitimate in their eyes, ruthlessly imposed treaties, laws, cultural mandates and regulations on a population who never asked for such measures. There was resistance, but it was stamped out. Thus, the bloody history of European settlement is never far from the minds of indigenous people living in the US.

Just like this century actually runs longer thematically than just 1800 to 1900, the story of the Indians extends backward before the first shots of the Civil War were fired and stretches forward past Reconstruction. Throughout this elongated era, different tribes had different experiences. Some, like the nations of the Iroquois, started their travails with warfare of white Americans as far back as choosing between the French and British during the French and Indian War. Others, like the Seminole, had fought many independent wars against America (or Spain or Britain) in their homelands long before they faced the Civil War. Still others, like the Cherokee, had attempted to assimilate into white culture, were forced off their lands, thought they were “safe” on guaranteed reservation lands, and then were forced again to participate when the Civil War bled westward into Indian Territory. The concepts of racism and “whiteness” that flowed like a river through themes of religion, progress, immigration, territory, slavery, and Reconstruction during the “long nineteenth century” also affected Native Americans; the “war of a thousand deserts” fought by the native tribes of the Southwest was both a unique experience and a shared experience as almost every tribe fought their own wars against whites and sometimes against other tribes

In Native Populations there was not a true positive effect on Native Americans during the American Revolution. If anything the Native Americans would have to take more of a leap back after the war.

Women in colonial America played revolutionary roles. They played roles that were always changing. “All men are created equal.” It’s the basis in which America was built, but what about the women? Without women, men wouldn’t have been nearly as successful. But what exactly did women do? Well, different races had different roles to play within their population(WiseGEEK).

Having a tumultuous background, the Native American history in itself should be respected, but there seems to be a nuisance doing so. In the 1830’s, after removal policy failed to prevail, “not only did individual Indians remain, but native communities also struggled over the next century and a half to carve out a place for themselves in the South"(Perdue 3). Native American’s were challenged to find a place in the idealistic society, but their ritualistic culture was not fit for the United States. Further on, they dealt with poverty, discrimination, and violence against their community.

I'm sure you have heard countless accounts of how we mistreated the Indians spread out on the frontier and went behind their backs countless times, so I won't make you go to the trouble of reading the whole entire agonizingly boring retelling of events again. Basically, we promised the Native American tribes protected plots of land out west if they willingly move out there. Pioneers massacred the Natives who refused to trudge for thousands of miles just for a land alien to them. Indians who did migrate westward died countless diseases like smallpox, cholera, dysentery and things like starvation and eloped fatigue. America didn't actually give any land to the Native Americans who made the trip westwards to their guaranteed land. It doesn't take a genius to decipher from the reading that pioneers abhorrently disrespected the people who helped our ancestors make it through their first winter in North America, who helped us grow crops efficiently, the people we originally befriended and coexisted with for a long

What is usually left out of our history is just how brutal living at that time really was, and just how much we abused the Native Americans to get what we wanted. The true history of the native americans is no longer taught in schools, they no longer teach about the native americans and what they went through from being invaded, tricked, slaughters and finally removed from their own land.

Throughout history, Native Americans have been victimized by Americans and the American Government. Native Americans were here long before the English settlers found and migrated to America. They tried to buy the land from Native Americans, and money was not important to them so they refused. Over time this costed a lot of Native American lives and most of their land was taken from them. Native Americans were immensely mistreated in the 1900’s by white Americans and are still being wronged by deceiving history in textbooks and other learning aid.

In the 16th and 17th century, the Americas was being explored by Spain, Britain, and other countries. Many of these countries set up colonies in the Americas where Native Americans were living. Europeans moved into colonization of the Americas and brought changes to the land and its people. Europeans traded, hunted to warfare and personal property. As Europeans established their colonies, their societies also became segmented and divided along religious and racial lines. Most people in the societies were not free. They labored long hours as servants or slaves to produce wealth for others. As more Europeans came to settle the land in the Americas, their presence had a tremendous effect on the native peoples who were living in the Americas. The Native peoples’ life in the Americas provided lots for the Europeans to use. They traded cattle, chickens, horses, pigs, sheep, sugarcane, and wheat, for chocolate, pineapple, potatoes, pumpkins/squash, sweet potatoes, tomatoes, and tobacco. The diets of the Natives and Europeans widened as different food types was being traded. The Natives were very open to the Europeans as they came into their land and communicated with the Natives. Over time, the landscape changed as more European communities increased. The Europeans held on to their idea of land ownership while the Natives idea of the land was for the person that need it. Also, the Europeans hoped to change the Natives to Christianity but also trick them into being slaves for the

During the sixteenth century European pilgrims migrated across the Atlantic Ocean to settle in North America. North America had just been introduced to the Western Civilization. The America’s were home to the indigenous people, that were made up of several tribes that were called Indians by the early settlers. Together the Indians and settlers began to thrive. Growth and development in the new world was made possible by the abundant amount of natural resources.

Education is a beneficial tool because knowledge of different subject areas can create opportunities for children. Schools additionally teach students where they belong in a stratified, limiting society in indirect ways. Throughout my history courses, I learned that explorers and settlers enculturated the savage Indians. Textbooks emphasized how whites built their wonderful communities after ridding the land of Native-American influence. I now know this story is not accurate. In Occupied America: A History of Chicanos, Chicano Studies professor Rodolfo Acuña (2015) notes that Western thinkers “disrespect or slight” Indian history because “it challenges the legitimacy of [Western] conquest” (p. 1). Since most history textbooks