Native American Belonging

Identity in Native America is directly associated with culture and language. As a result, some of the issues today which are important in shaping the identity of modern Native Americans include: representations of native people by the media in sports and popular culture; how indigenous languages are being revitalized and maintained; and identity reclamation. The Native American lifestyle has changed significantly during the last half of the 20th century and that is because views on the Native people have drastically changed over time. They have had many hardships that have greatly impacted their culture over the past few centuries leading up to today.

Cherokee Indians have been around for many years, but when the topic of Native Americans is discussed it is only about the struggles and hardships they went through but never their actual culture of how and where they originated or how they came to be. There are many interesting things to learn about Cherokee Indians such as their heritage, religion, language, and their traditional songs, dances, and food.

Some wanted to fight to keep the land that their family has lived on forever.

The biggest impact the United States had on the Native American society was that they kept pushing them off of their land. There is a quote from Chief Joseph from document 4, Perspectives from the Chiefs, talking about how the United States keep taking things that aren't rightfully theirs. He compared the US government to grizzly bears and Native Americans as deer. The grizzlies who repeatedly went at the deer needing more. Even after the US was given more land they asked for more. Year after year they were pushed further west and then all around when manifest destiny began. Document 1 shows a map of Native American land loss from year to year. The NAtive Americans have been pushed around since the first English settlers came over. They had lost most of their land between 1850 and 1870. (Doc 1) The US invaded peaceful lands of the Native Americans out of pure greed. In document 3, 2nd Treaty of Fort Laramie 1868, shows a map of a piece of land owned by Indians with a treaty and a few years after. In 1868 there was a treaty that was signed so that Americans couldn’t even enter the land. After gold was found in that area the treaty did not matter. ( Doc 2) The forced them into a reservation nearly ten times smaller than their original land area. Court actions made it worse, their land was even smaller. America forced the Native Americans to go and move to places they did not want to go despite treaties and people’s actions.

The Native American’s way of living was different from the Europeans. They believed that man is ruled by respect and reverence for nature and that nature is an

Native Americans have been forced out of their culture over time, forced into assimilation, lost their rights, and have lost their land due to policies and laws by the whites that can’t bear the Native American way of life. There used to be many Native American tribes all throughout North America, and now these tribes are spread across the country and are blended into the rest of the population. The native ways have changed drastically in the last two centuries due to relocation programs, Indian boarding schools, and the way to classify which tribe each person belongs to. Native Americans have endured so much pain, which results from everything they have lost over time, and they have constantly paid the price for their ethnicity.

Long ago on the great plains, the buffalo roamed and the Native Americans lived amongst each other. They were able to move freely across the lands until the white men came and concentrated them into certain areas. Today there are more than five-hundred different tribes with different beliefs and history. Native Americans still face problems about the horrific history they went through and today 's discrimination. The removal of American Indian tribes is one of the most tragic events in American history. There are many treaties that have been signed by American representatives and people of Indian tribes that guaranteed peace and the values of the Indian territories. The treaties were to assure that fur trade would continue without interruption. The American people wanting Indian land has led to violent conflict between the two. Succeeding treaties usually forced the tribes to give up their land to the United States government. There were laws made for Native American Displacement that didn’t benefit the Native Americans, these laws still have long lasting effects on them today, and there was a huge number of Native Americans killed for many reasons.

Tribal sovereignty is a highly debated concept and an important aspect of Native American society. It refers to a tribe’s power to govern itself, manage its membership, and regulate tribal relations. As Joanna Barker stated, “Sovereignty carries the awful stench of colonization.” Tribal sovereignty must be traced to the beginning of colonization in North America. Colonizing nations asserted sovereignty over indigenous people and took away their independent status. The term “tribal sovereignty” carries with it multiples meanings and implications for tribal nations (Cobb, 2005).

Since the arrival of the Europeans in 1492 the Native American has systematically been dehumanized, decivilized and redefined into terms that typify a subordinate or minority role, restricted life opportunities persist today as a result.

The definition of Sociology is the study of human societies through the synthesis of theoretical analysis and controlled research, focusing on the social patterns and the different factors that influence humans. I was born in a small town with roughly five hundred people in it; Terrero Negro the most beautiful town in Honduras is where I grew up for the majority of my childhood. Sadly do a corrupt government the majority of the population lives in poverty, however that does not stop anyone from always offering you a cup of coffee or any type of beverage when you arrive at their house. This is one of the most important norms, thus from a young age everyone is taught to be courteous and make your guest feel at home by offering them a beverage.

Culture, as defined by the Merriam-Webster dictionary is stated as “The integrated pattern of human knowledge, belief and behavior that dpends upon the capacity for learning and transmitting knowledge to succeeding generations. The customary beliefs, social forms and material traits of a racial, religious or social group. The set shared attitudes, values, goals and practices that characterizes an institution or organization. The set of values, conventions or social practices associated with a particular field, activity or societal characteristic.” Of these four definitions, I shall be focusing on the second one to discuss what makes up the culture of American Indians.The culture of the various tribes that made up the Native Americans is one of close knit families, highlyspiritual peoples and living together as one with the land they lived on. They believed in spirits, worshiping and honoring them. Some settled into single locations while others were nomadic, but all had a focus on working with the land around them. Because there are so many varying tribes that make up Native

In 1492, the Spanish and English discovered America and the both searched for new areas to take claim so they can settle and make new colonies for the new world up until around 1790. The Spanish were the first successful country to establish wealth and gain from the new world and it was because of their interest in using these colonies for mostly for trade. Although the Spanish and English had an increasingly large grasp over the new world, Africans, other European countries, and Native Americans could not stop fighting so they could band together to fight the higher powers, meanwhile America was trying to become it's own nation, Even though all of the less powerful cultures wanted freedom (Dutch, Native Americans, Germans, Scot-Irish, Africans, Scots, and French) all except the Africans got it because it was a lot harder to figure out who was really a slave if you were white but a lot easier if it was only Black. Even though the odds were not in their favor, The less powerful ethnic groups could not join together and fight the Anglo-Americans , Spanish, and English mostly because of the majority of people were Protestant, cultural pluralism, and of course, Anglo conformity. Native Americans didn’t have much to worry about besides the the struggles of their everyday life up until 1492 when Christopher Columbus arrived. Most people think of Native Americans to be one or very few groups of people, but in reality it was a lot more complex that that. Natives had differences

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.

Native Americans had a great understanding of courage; they understood that without the courage to take risks, they would not survive. They had life figured out back then; they knew

Over the course of time in our country, many groups in our society have experienced being set apart from sustainable communities. Among them are the immigrants, the homeless, the African Americans, those with physical or mental disabilities and the Native Americans. According to McIntosh (1988), “Whites are taught to think of their lives as morally neutral, normative, and average, and also ideal, so that we work to benefit others, this is seen as work which will allow ‘them’ to be more like ‘us’ “ (p. 1). Unquestionably, this was the case back in the nineteenth century when the “White” people thought it