Essay On Native Americans

Grade school and even beginning level college history classes have taught early American exploration from a largely one sided view of the conflict between early explorers and Native Americans. The traditional image of the Native Americans as the sole victims, is an oversimplification of the conflict that existed between early explorers, settlers and Native Americans. Through the readings from Columbus, Bradford and some selected Native American writings, the traditional view of the Native American victim will be challenged and a broader view of the conflict will be presented.

The Constitution provides clear Native American protection from governmental land confiscation in Article VI, Section 2. The relevant section states, "…All Treaties made; or which shall be made, under the Authority of the United States, shall be the supreme Law of the Land"(Farber [9]). The United States signed 371 treaties with Indian tribes between 1790 and 1870 (Churchill, Struggle for the Land 20). Treaties were made for a variety of purposes, such as "mutual protection, peace, in support and regulation of trade with the Indians, to provide for military posts, [and] to wrest land from the Natives"

Native American’s have always been the aspect that shapes our culture and history today. The rise of the new world started with the discovery of the land of which the Native Americans resided. They are referred to as the indigenous people because they were the people who lived and survived off this land first. The Native Americans have a unique culture that consisted of a bond with nature. They had similar gender roles just like the white population. The men were hunters, warriors, and protectors, while the women tended to the children, their homes, and farmed. While the late 1800 's into the 1900 's and beyond began to bring the struggle to the Native American Indians, they fought a tough battle in pursuit of protecting their land. Throughout history the Native American’s have been oppressed and exploited of their identity.

America’s greatest flaw throughout history is how it treats its minorities, especially the Native Americans. From the beginning of European involvement in America, Native Americans have been cheated and mistreated. Even before the United States became a country, European traders would do whatever they could to make a profit, even use the diseases that they carried to begin an epidemic. As shown in the early Franciscan missions, Native Americans were considered heathens that were, at best, simply objects of conversion and at worst subhuman converts that could be used to till fields until they died of disease or maltreatment. Treaties with Native Americans were rarely honored, and they were used as mere pawns in struggles such as the French and Indian War. In “the land of the free”, Native Americans were systematically denied their “inalienable rights,” and the period that most clearly shows this are the 19th and early 20th century. Government policy regarding Native Americans changed from the 1830s to the 1930s, often reflecting the way Native Americans were viewed in that time period.

On May 28, 1830, President Andrew Jackson’s Indian Approval Act was approved by the U.S. Congress. This act relocated the Native American tribes to the land beyond the Mississippi River. Some tribes went peacefully, but many others did not. As a result, these tribes were forced to move in the dead of Winter. In the end, approximately 4,000 Cherokee died. It could be argued that the government did try to be peaceful, but the Native Americans didn’t deserve to be to lose the only home they had ever known. They were right to fight for there their rights, and the government was wrong to deny them the land they had lived on for years. Unfortunately that was just the beginning, the government would persist for years to “civilize” the Native Americans, and in the end, they succeeded. They moulded them into typical Americans and lost a valuable culture. No matter how hard the government may try to fix their mistakes, they can’t ever completely bring back the Native American

Built by immigrants across the globe, the United States has flourished tremendously for the past 100 years. But what we tend to overlook are the millions of unheard voices deep in the plains, those of the non-immigrants, the Native Americans. Rich in their culture and heritage, the Native Americans built a system, and co-existed with the environment, in which they hunted and gathered, and shared amongst one another. Their reign was long, and their territory plenty, but this would only last until the early 1490’s when Christopher Columbus would reached the Americas and instill a change and fear that would offset the balance for centuries. With weapons that surpassed that of the indians, they were soon overpowered, leading to years of oppression and division of the races.

N. Scott Momaday, novelist and part Native American, describes the ancient American Indian who has no regard for the well being of his land in his novel The Man Made of Words. Man cannot be like the paleolithic indian Momaday describes, but rather, he must understand the “vital link between the earth and himself, a link that implies an intricate network of rights and responsibilities”, and also the idea that, “he has the ability to devastate and perhaps destroy his environment” (Momaday 31). For generations Native Americans have successfully thrived on their land, a tradition that has allowed them to develop their perception of their place in our world. The Native American worldview is a complex yet fascinating topic, specifically in contrast with the worldview of Western Europeans. With the constant pressure to develop and commercialize land in the United States, Native Americans and western developers bring different worldviews to an important debate in the Grand Canyon with regard to the spiritual and historical values of the land.

Native Americans are known to be the first inhabitants of the territory which is now known to be North America and as a result the United States of America. They fought through treacherous battles and countless endeavors to be able to live in their homes only to be relocated by American settlements. Centuries past, yet the Native American people still stay loyal to their land. From aggressive resettlements to forced cultural assimilation, they gave up everything they had to stay alive. In modern times, the Native American people have sought agreements and were granted trade-offs in respect to previous events that shocked their ancestors. Of these including but not limited to, territorial reassignments, healthcare coverage, and other governmental

The Native American tribes of today, are nothing compared to their ancestors. The treatment, hostility, and silver tongues of the past damage can never be fixed no matter how many words, medals, promises, and gifts you give them. The late Native American culture and its tribes have been unfairly mistreated and misrepresented with lies from propaganda, breach of treaties, and harsh antagonization from American business owners and regular people alike. These actions have put a horrendous reputation on the local native tribes, from past to present, that some Americans may never understand.

The mistreatment of Native Americans begun the moment the first early settlers set foot on American soil. Early settlers saw the Native Americans as savage and uncivilized. This belief was reflected in their treatment of the natives. Over time, the early settlers murdered, enslaved, and oppressed the Native Americans. Laws were enacted to legalize this treatment and to oppress natives further. The government and early settlers forced natives to “assimilate” to American (White) culture. The government and early settlers used this pretense of “assimilation” to strip Natives of their culture, traditions, and pride in order to be seen as civilized. They were trying to erase the Native American’s identity. Native Americans have been

For the better part of American history, the Indians have been viewed and portrayed as dimwitted, helpless victims that aimlessly stood by while the Europeans conquered their land, but this view has recently come under fire and has been overturned, as it was determined to be misleading and inaccurate. Two historians that have questioned the legitimacy of past beliefs regarding the Indians are Charles Mann and James Axtell. Each has made it plainly clear in their articles that the actions of Indians should no longer be treated as useless footnotes on the pages of history. While their articles are on seemingly different subjects, their views and beliefs on the importance of Indians in American history are incontrovertibly the same as both

Today, a high school diploma is a stepping stone, a rite of passage, and not as an impressive accomplishment compared to that of a college degree or getting a first job. Though it is just as important to have, it is seen as basic and necessary, with 82% of public education students graduating high school during the 2013-14 year (nces.ed.gov, 2016). However, for a variety of reasons, many students drop out of high school. Native American students have the lowest high school graduation rate of any non-White group in the U.S. Granted that reasons may vary from drug issues, work, family, or just disinterest in school, but there is an underlying problem that has been passed through generations. The lack of bridging the two cultures together and instead of keeping them segregated, and lack of resources significantly hinders Native American students from successfully finishing high school.

Just when the human history of the Americas actually began is the subject of scholarly debate. The disciplinary tools of anthropology and archaeology continue to provide us with ever more refined and exact knowledge about early Native American communities, but the exact time frame remains murky, broadly defined, and subject to disagreement. This lack of precision results from the absence of writing among most of the Native American cultures, depriving us of the benefits of the account of any eyewitnesses to help guide the inquiry. Although the isolation of the western hemisphere allowed the humans there to develop distinctive cultures, some disadvantages became clear the moment Europeans appeared.

The consequences of colonization of 1942 has left many Americans to forget about the first people who inhabited the lands we now call the United States. Not only has it made us forget, but has dramatically affected Indian Country by the lost of culture, language, families, health, food sources, environment, and their overall traditional ways of living. As indigenous people are restoring what was taken away from them, Indian Country is also battling the disease of alcoholism, drug abuse, mental health, physical abuse, lost of Identity, high rates of suicide, poverty, unemployment and systemic oppression. Not to mention, their rights as Sovereign people.

The historical mistreatment of people of color is one of the largest, yet insufficiently discussed, blotches on the tapestry that is this country's history. While the enslavement of African peoples remains arguably the most well known humans rights violation committed in the United States, the displacement and virtual genocide of Native Americans is an equally detrimental and influential event. The Bureau of American Ethnology estimates the total Native land loss to be somewhere near 1.5 billion acres, and the group currently makes up just over 1 percent of the nation's population. As a consolation prize for the theft of their land, the United States government designated multi acre land plots as reservations to be managed by tribes. These