Essay On Native Americans

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.

There are hundreds of Native American tribes and millions of people that are within North America that identify themselves as Native Americans. Each tribe has their own unique customs, language, and myths. However, within the confines of this paper I will take a broad view with regards to Native American customs and traditions from a small sample of tribes that were observed prior to the vast expansion of colonizing the west.

The European colonists and the Native Americans of North America had very different views on nearly everything they encountered in their lives. Living in vastly different cultures lead both groups to have two extremely different outlooks on four main topics; religious beliefs, the environment, social relations, and slavery, differences which the colonists used to their advantage when conquering the peoples of the New World.

What if everyday in America there was not an action someone could take because someone of an opposite race sexually assaulted or domestically abused that person? Often news outlets only focus on major even in cities or towns, but never the reservations. With the lack of awareness of the number of rapes and domestic abuse victims on reservations, at large society is saying America doesn’t care due to reservations having sovereignty. Even with new laws signed into place by President Obama to deal with the rape and abuse problems to Native American women, that come from non Native Americans, the problem with this is it’s a pilot only on three tribes (Culp-Ressler,1).It is said it will expand soon, but how soon? America is not known for being

Due to the wide range of habitats in North America, different native religions evolved to match the needs and lifestyles of the individual tribe. Religious traditions of aboriginal peoples around the world tend to be heavily influenced by their methods of acquiring food, whether by hunting wild animals or by agriculture. Native American spirituality is no exception. Traditional Lakota spirituality is a form of religious belief that each thing, plant and animal has a spirit. The Native American spirituality has an inseparable connection between the spirituality and the culture. One cannot exist without the other.

The first interaction that took place in the New World, occurred between a group of European settlers and Native Indians, who inhabited the borders of the United States. Indian tribes, who resided in the North, lacked the skills and literacy Europeans had obtained, such as craftsman’s ship of tools, weapons, and wheeled vehicles. However, their simplistic lives allowed them to master skills, which would become important and useful to new settlements, such as farming, hunting, developing structures, and engage in far-reaching networks of trade. Europeans viewed the Natives one of two ways, “they were regarded either as noble savages, gentle, friendly, and superior in some ways to Europeans, or as uncivilized and brutal savages.” (Give Me Liberty

The United States today has been divided. This division is between the Native Americans who were the first people on this land and the rest of the nation. In the past, the British settlers came to America and over the years forced the Native Americans from their homelands. They were constantly moving them west. Their living conditions were never ideal on the journey or when they reached “Indian Territory.”

When white settlers attempted to come to a new land in hopes of a new life, co-existing with Native Americans, they were met with much hostility.

The cherokee indians were removed after gold was found in georgia, they left behind farms, homes and their land.The government made The Treaty of New Echota which promised the indians land in indian territory,livestock, tools, and other benefits. They lost about 4,000 indians on the trail due to hunger,exposure and disease. They called it “The trail where they cried” and they mark the graves of the ones that did not survive.

During the early to mid 1800 's the U.S. was deeply entrenched in a debate over the Native Americans living in Georgia. The somewhat newly formed United States had been pushing westward since its inception and continually ran into Native Americans already occupying the territory. Georgia along with other states had passed a series of treaties with the Natives to decide these land disputes but conflict still arouse. Many settles pushed for the federal government to make a final decision and remove the natives from these lands which sparked the debate about the natives. The debate came down to two sides those believe it was a matter of human rights and those who believed it was about economics.

Who are these Native American’s who roamed the Great Plains? They were once a proud and large nation of people, who honor the land, each other, and traditions that were passed down from father to son and mother to daughter. The years were not kind to them when the white man descended upon their great world. There were hundreds of different nations of Indians who lived in the America’s; all had similar goals in life. They wanted a family, provide for that family, and live accordance to the laws that were passed down. The historical trauma delivered to this great people was only equal to the holocaust according to several writers. The American Indians are not classified as a race, but a sovereign nation with the federal government (Warrior, 1995, p. 95). The sovereign nation of Indian cultures still struggles to keep the tribes together. Sovereign identity is a struggle to which scholars acknowledge “dynamic and ongoing process, demanding constant self-assessment and evaluation” (Warrior, 1995).

The Native Americans and the Explorers did not have the best relationship. They would fight with each other constantly. While there were some tribes that treated the Explorers with respect, most of the time the Explorers treated the Native Americans poorly. This is how America is set up today. America was built on hate and discrimination. If the the Explorers and the Native Americans had treated each other fairly and with respect maybe America wouldn’t be as hateful as it is today.

Everyone has a different idea of how nations were first created and what characteristics are required to call something a nation. It is personal because everyone has a different world view – the fundamental values, ethics, and beliefs a person ascribes to. This makes creating an over-encompassing theory of nationalism difficult. In this paper, we will be looking at different individuals throughout American history and what theory of nationalism they might agree with most.

The language used in the lonely londoners is in the native Trinidad , the dialect denoting that the emmigrants are not fully integrated into English society. Moses is an authority figure, mentor, and guide in the eyes of the newcomers. He is aware of the changes to his own position as an immigrant and more importantly in the English attitudes towards the newest influx of West Indians. The new arrivals meetings with other immigrants and Moses binds them into a mutual understanding of how it feels to be a minority in a big city such as London.

The United States was a new nation in the 18th century when most of the world was divided among the European imperialist governments. Looking right of religion, technology and military power, people from these nations began to claim the land and lock up new worlds of natural resources to meet their needs, that is why some decided to immigrate to the United States seeking freedom and the opportunity for economical improvements; but this search for improvement, among other things, only brought suffering and death to Native American tribes.