Injustices to Native Americans Essay

The Native American’s were the first known settlers in North America, ten thousand years before Columbus came to the continent. Their origins completely unclear, anthropologists believe there were three to five million Native Americans in North America in the year 1492 (Hoxie and Iverson, 1997). As early as the Revolutionary War in 1775, European settlers started taking note of the Native Americans. Unfortunately, the Native American population plunged significantly in the first decades after their first contact with Europeans. Native Americans were now unprotected and exposed to deadly diseases like smallpox, influenza, and measles which did not previously exist in their society (North American Natives, 2016).

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 Native Americans have come across long journey of difficult times since the occupation of their land by European settlers. There are still two sides of a coin- a world of civilization and a world of underdeveloped society in this one country- USA. The paradox is that the constitution which seems to be a model of democracy to many nations of the world lacks a lot for not acting accordingly. Those organized and unorganized struggles of Native Americans were challenged by the heavily armed white majority settlers. This history is among the worst American experience because of the massacre and the violation against human right. In order to be heard, they protest, occupy land, and write books. The Native Americans have raised several

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.

There are many reasons Native Americans and European Colonists did not have a good relationship. The reason for conflict between Colonist and Indians was due to the Colonists insatiable greed for power and land. Some of the reasons not only included physical mistreatment but also an ethical mistreatment of the Native Americans. European Colonists not only brought with them many different diseases that would later aid in the genocide of many Native American tribes, but also a mindset in which they felt superior to there Native neighbors. This feeling of superiority led to an outbreak of violence and many different civil wars. Due to the Native American and the Colonists irreconcilable

Native Americans were deeply effected by colonization. It was extremely unfair of the Europeans to destroy Native American way of life. If the Native Americans had the weapons, like guns and disease, that the Europeans did, then maybe they could have fought for what was theirs. Europeans came to America and changed the Native Americans lives forever. This contact between the Native Americans and Europeans was called the Columbian Exchange. While both Native Americans and Europeans received advantages and disadvantages from the Columbian Exchange, Native Americans definitely suffered more while the Europeans were benefited

The genocide I want to research is the Native American. I would like to research this because I have always been interested in Natives/Indians since I was little and I want to know how cruel it was for the Natives and why the Americans wanted to kill them and use them as slaves.

Native Americans were somehow powerful and had everything that English colonists wanted. They were seeking wealth and they had the answers in Jamestown. When tobacco start growing, the English colony became powerful and expanded their colony over Jamestown peninsula. Powhatan Indians were disappointed when English did not maintain a trading way with them. In 1622 Native Americans took a step forward by attacking the colony. They killed 347 colonists. As it is stated on the second chapter of the book, The American Yawp, “The colonist retaliated and revisited the massacres upon Indian settlements many times over. The Massacre freed the colonist to drive the Indians off their land.” Once the English colony gained power, they forgot about the people who kept them alive, they forgot about Native Americans. English colonists were so ungrateful and blind because they had one goal in mind, and that was to be wealthy. They didn't care how they would gain wealth. The only thing that mattered to them was gaining

The American government's treatment of Native Americans in the 19th century should be considered genocide. Genocide is the deliberate killing of a large group of people, especially those of a particular ethnic group or nation. And what American governments were doing is literary killing innocent Native Americans which are one hundred percent genocide. They were killing a lot of Indians, but they didn’t want to kill all Indians because they needed some of them to work in the fields. There were a lot of diseases and bacteria speared around which was killing a lot of them. There were estimated about 12 million Indians and about 75-80% were killed by the strategic diseases. In 1890 the last major battle between Native American Indians and U.S. soldiers occurred. It was called the Battle of Wounded Knee and occurred near the Wounded Knee Creek in South Dakota. Approximately three hundred Sioux Indians were slaughtered. Native Americans found themselves overwhelmed by Anglo-Americans' financial and military resources. But their response to events was neither

From the very moment that the Europeans stepped on American soil, they displayed their extraordinary military power and savage outlook towards the native peoples. Their experience with civilized society with access to plenty of firepower gives them an advantage when it comes to military attacks, and when they use this against the Native Americans, it is almost unfair. They attack the Native Americans immediately when they step foot on US soil, and kill them as if they are trophy hunting. Barry Lopez, in The Rediscovery of North America, states about the barbaric Spanish attacks on Native Americans, “The Spanish cut off the legs of children who ran from them. They poured people full of boiling soap. They made bets as to who, with one sweep of his sword, could cut a person in half” (5). This quote shows how much power the colonists held over the Native American and how their doom was essentially inevitable. Killing the Native Americans was practically a hobby for the colonists at this point. The countless battles and land that they gained from the Native Americans also symbolized their power, such as when the Spaniards invaded the town of Acoma. They

To better understand the conflict between the Europeans and the Native Americans, one must closely examine the state of Europe’s economy at the time. Europe struggled with difficult conditions. This included poverty, violence and diseases like typhus, smallpox, influenza and measles. There were widespread famines which caused the prices of products to vary and made life very difficult in Europe. Street crimes and violence were prevalent in cities: “Other eruption of bizarre torture, murder, and ritual cannibalism were not uncommon”.2 Europeans

The Native Indian history of violence and debasement changed their views and self-image as well. This change later affects how they adapt to American culture and education after being dissuaded from embracing their own for so long. The violence and indifference shown towards the Native Americans during the “Trail of Tears” contributed greatly to this change. In this dreadful journey, Natives of all kinds were forced off

How can counselors work to lessen the effects of racism and discrimination that have impacted Native Americans and Asian Americans? (1

As far as warfare was concerned, the Native Americans suffered great losses upon the first conflicts with the Europeans. Many Indians were armed with bows, arrows, and spears, and clad themselves in a type of leather armor. This proved ineffective against the heavy artillery of the Europeans who had thick metal armor along with guns that easily penetrated the Native Americans. Because of the disadvantages that the Native Americans held in warfare, they had to change the way that they had been fighting for centuries. The Native Americans adopted a new strategy for war that consisted of guerilla style attacks. This way, the element of surprise brought them on a somewhat more level playing field due to their technologically inferior weapons. However, over time the Indians began trading with the Europeans to get guns. This completely revolutionized warfare for the Native Americans. Never before had they been in possession of such powerful arms. This made the Native Americans much more lethal during warfare.

The image of Native Americans primarily consumed by all of America is more often offensive, stereotypical, or downright fictional. And this is all because a non-indigenous person is always the one teaching us about indigenous people, thus their bias is forever unconsciously tied to the “facts”, which could very well be just a “common sense racism” agreed upon by many others. For those who have no contact with a minority group, television is their best source of information on said group, and both the news and entertainment shows us what gets the best reaction; the Dakota Pipeline won’t get news coverage because it’s peaceful and not affecting 60% of America, but soon as black people snapped in during the Watts Riots of ’65 and they white life was in danger, everyone had their cameras pointed. And some went as far as to not know why the civil black man was no so up in arms all of a sudden, despite the recent court ruling of the police responsible for the assault of Rodney King. There is no looking at the cause of the anger, just like the argument to change many sports mascots from racial caricatures of Native Americans seems completely invalid for someone unwilling to see why it might offend someone. The only way to obliterate stereotypes fueling miseducation of the minority is to have everyone correctly educated on each minority group, through schools is good but through media (television mostly) is even better.