Geoncide Against Native Americans

Though warfare and attacks on entire villages took a definite toll on the populations of Native Americans, disease was by far the biggest killer. We’ve all heard the stories of smallpox infected blankets being given to the Native Americans, and other such atrocities, but I was simply dumbfounded at the actual numbers of dead due to Old World diseases being introduced to the New World, North America. While it has been somewhat difficult for scholars to determine the exact count of Indians who died from disease, they have fairly accurate estimates.

Did Europeans purposefully infect the Native Americans? That question will never be answered. Whether intentional or accidental, the truth remains that disease was indeed brought to the early Native American culture due to European expansion. The true question is in Taking Sides, issue 2, Was Disease the Key Factor in the Depopulation of Native Americans in the Americas? In this particular issue two sides are represented; yes by Collin G. Calloway, and no by David S. Jones. Let’s take a look at Calloway’s perspective towards the issue.

July 1868, white settlers were attacked by Indians, 15 men were dead and five women

Native American’s greeted the new colonists in a friendly, welcoming manner from the start. The new colonists considered this a sign of weakness, stating how easy it would be to dominate the native people. When Columbus arrived, there were 12-15 million Native Americans in the Americas, in 1890 there was under 250,000, with 98% of the population gone. With the belief in Manifest Destiny, the colonists forced the Native American’s off their own land, farther and farther from where they originated from, and eventually onto reservations, removing them from their way of life and their culture. During the transition from their homeland to reservations, many of the Native American’s died due to disease, cold, hunger, and the hardships of travel. Along with the annexation, the colonists demanded assimilation.

The persecution of Native Americans began thousands of years ago when the Europeans came over to the Americas to establish colonies. Many Native Americans were killed by the Europeans and Spanish during the colonization, they did not care how the people were treated, the Europeans thought of them as lesser human beings and not as good as themselves. The Europeans had no mercy, “ historians estimate that there were 10 million indigenous peoples living in U.S. territory. But by 1900s, the number had reduced to less than 300,000” (endgenocide.org). These conquistadors were looking for gold, land and other treasure and did not care if they slaughtered all of the Natives. The Europeans were never confronted or tried for this genocide and this was not thoroughly investigated. Some of these deaths were not even from Columbus or any other Europeans that killed the Indians, some Native Americans died just from disease that was brought over, so even if someone did try and investigate what went on in the Americas they

The unjust history of America contains the many Native American genocides executed throughout the 1790s-1920s over

Many people have said that the natives have had the worst genocide of them all. The Natives Culture, land, Natural resources, and their very lives were taken away from them. As wave after wave of the Europeans came to America, all of the natives were forced off of their land. Fifty years after Christopher Columbus had landed in the Bahamas, the

The Native Americans removal can be compared to the Holocaust,but it also can’t not be compared to the Holocaust. I’ll start with how the removal can be compared to the Holocaust,we remove the Native Americans from their land because gold was found and moved the Native Americans,these can be compared to how the Germans took Jews to the camps. Another way to show these two events similar is when Jews had to wear a yellow star on their clothing to show they are a Jew,it’s like the Renaming Program for the Native American to have a christian name or a white man name. Also was the battle of Little Bighorn, the Native American tribe was attacked by the troops of US soldiers attacked without warning or even a reason, just like how the German choose Jews to go to the forced labor camps to work everyday without a reason why they were doing it. Another way to show the two are similar,is the Native Americans didn’t control the reservation land it was the Us Government that ultimately controlled it, just like the Holocaust the Jew did have a choice of what happen in the forced labor camps.

THESIS STATEMENT: The Native Americans were historically doomed because of the Europeans inability to accept elements of Native American culture that they felt were savage, the natives inability to acknowledge the Europeans threat to their lifestyle and land, and the far superior European army used to defeat Indian tribes.

The government was aware of the arid land and the lack of food and did not solve the problems, showing an intent to cause the destruction of the Native Americans on reservations. Furthermore, because the federal government was aware of the problems of “imposed conditions of malnutrition and overwork [that] predictably lowered Indian fertility while increasing miscarriages and stillbirths” various actions against Native Americans also meet the criteria for the fourth qualification of genocide, preventing births (Madley,

For more than 300 years, since the days of Christopher Columbus and the Spanish Government, an attempt of genocide of the Native American Indian has existed. From mass brutal murders and destruction by Spanish and American armies, to self-annihilation through suicide, homicide, and alcohol induced deaths brought about because of failed internal colonialism and white racial framing. Early Explores used Indigenous inhabitants upon first arriving to the America’s to survive the New World and once they adapted, internal colonialism began with attempts to convert the Indians to Christianity, repressing their values and way of life, forcing them into slavery, and nearly exterminating an entire culture from existence.

Historical trauma, as Maria Yellow Horse Brave Heart expressed, is being carried on the genes of Native people without being notice, is something heavy that cause pain and unconformity that it is slowly killing them. As the article refer that historical trauma is “the cumulative emotional and psychological wounding, over the lifespan and across generations, emanating from massive group trauma experiences.” Meaning that the things that happen in the past are still hurting people now, and it needs a great attention and cultural focus. It is really important to show a true respect to Native American culture, so it will be able to accurately help Native Americans from the roots of the problem. A lot of people will argue that what happen to the Native American community happened long time ago, but according to this article, Healing the American Indian Soul Wound, actually is something that kept on happening not so long ago, for example, “it was only in 1994 that native peoples were allowed to practice some forms of religion without fear of reprisal by state and federal government policies” (p. 345). It is surprising that this was still happening in 1994, which is so recent, and it shows a lot of immaturity from the government on the topic of respecting others as human beings. I actually argue with people that cultural genocide over Native Americans is something that I will not doubt is still happening now. I have a strong belief that

b. causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;<br>c. deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part;<br>d. imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group;<br>e. forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.<br>(Destexhe).<br><br>In this paper, I will argue that the act of genocide as here defined, has been committed by the United States of America, upon the tribes and cultures of Native Americans, through mass indoctrination of its youths. Primary support will be drawn from Jorge Noriega's work, "American Indian Education in the United States." The paper will then culminate with my personal views on the subject,

Historians estimate that as much as 95 percent of the Native American population died within a year of Columbus’s initial contact with the New World, and while there were certainly European acts of genocide against the Native Americans that added to

Historically the treatment of Native Americans has been highly problematic, especially throughout the colonization of the New World. Although, when colonising some Europeans took a merciful and sympathetic approach to the Native Americans, generally the treatment towards the indigenous people was not humane. Not only did the Native Americans die at the hand of the settlers, they also died from diseases that had been brought to the new world by explorers for which they had no immunity. In some cases diseases such as smallpox wiped out entire tribes. Together, the introduction of diseases and the actions of the European settlers had devastating effects on the Native Americans.