From as early as the time of the early European
settlers, Native Americans have suffered
tremendously. Native Americans during the time of
the early settlers where treated very badly. Europeans
did what they wanted with the Native Americans, and
when a group of Native Americans would stand up for
themselves, the European would quickly put them down.
The Native Americans bow and arrows where no match
for the Europeans guns and cannon balls. When the
Europeans guns didn’t work for the Europeans, the disease
they bought killed the Native Americans even more
effectively. In a poem by Louise Enrich called Dear John
Wayne a line from a cowboy and Indian movie states the
position of many European settlers in the Americas
…show more content…
All the Europeans wanted from the
Native Americans were their land, their gold or their labor.
Unfortunately for the Native Americans, the Europeans
succeeded in taking advantage of the Native Americans
and in the end the Europeans did get them.
Native Americans did not understand European ideology.
Native Americans had no idea why the Europeans could
fight for land, "Death makes us owners of nothing" (Dear
John Wayne) is what the Native Americans believed. They
also couldn’t understand on how one person or group can
own land since he or she "could not own the sky".
The Native Americans were getting sick and tried of being
oppressed so one glorious day the Native Americans
decided to ban together to stop the oppression.
"Sometimes it’s a good day to die" (Smoke Signals) was
an idea that was present on that day. That day was when
the Battle of Wounded Knee happened. Unfortunately for
the Natives Americans, they lost that battle and Native
American resistant was shattered.
Native Americans have been through a lot in America.
They were the first ones here and they still are here. But the
problem is that Native Americans are still treated with
disrespect. There are still a lot of prejudice and racism
against the Native Americans. I believe that if a race could
survive after all the wars and disease that the Native
Throughout the history of our great nation, over and over again, the white man has bullied the Native Americans. They have ultimately been pushed off land that originally belonged to them and been allotted meager portions of land to live on which the government (run by the white man) has felt that they have little use for (reservations). Looking passed the fact that the Native Americans have been stripped of their land, these feelings of white Ethnocentrism throughout America’s history has also caused great violence against the Native Americans, massacring them time and time again and diminishing their population to only a minute percentage of what it once was. For example, in the final defeat of the American Indian in 1890, known as the Massacre at Wounded Knee, nearly 300 Lakota men, women, and children - old and young - were massacred in a highly charged, violent encounter with U.S. soldiers because the soldiers incorrectly perceived a ritual ghost dance as a war dance. Native American corpses of men, women, and children laid still and lifeless in the dirt on that cold December night all due to the ethnocentric beliefs of the white man.
Since the very first contact, the Native Americans have been treated as subordinates, being mistreated, shamed, embarrassed, and oppressed by white settlers. After the Revolutionary War in the late 1700’s, matters only got worse for the Native Americans. Population was skyrocketing due to a great deal of immigration of white settlers in the early to mid 1800’s, and there wasn’t enough space for everyone. With this came expansion, and to reach the goals they had set out for it, the Native Americans had to go. A prime example of this is shown in Howard Zinn’s “A People’s History of the United States,” where in chapter seven he talks about the forced removal of Native Americans from their lands, carelessness and failure by the American government to protect, and multiple slaughters carried out by the American military on the Cherokee, Chickasaw, Creek, Choctaw, Sac and Fox, and the Seminole tribes. Closely related is “Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee,” written by Dee Brown, his writings from chapter thirteen focus on the Nez Perces tribe that resided in Oregon, and their attempt at a journey in Canada, and other western Indian tribes’ affairs. To go along with Zinn and Brown, is Alan Brinkley’s “American History,” which posed an unbiased view of what modern day textbooks are informing students across the nation about what happened to the Native Americans. An article titled “The North American Indian Holocaust,” written by
Because of how bad they treated them the Native Americans began to revolt and even waged wars against the colonists. But in the end the colonists still took control over them and made them leave their lands that they had lived on for centuries.
The Native Americans have been cheated, experienced unfair and bloody hardships along with broken treaties, been judged for their
I agree with you that that the Native American was treated brokenly when it comes to the harsh difficulties many Native Americans face every day, the saying "out of sight, out mind" hits home. The past and present injustices suffered by Native Americans started from before way back in Christopher Columbus’s time where they were stolen from, enslaves and killed for their lands and natural resources.
Ever since Europeans began to colonize land in the New World, Native Americans have suffered immensely. Europeans colonized the entirety of both North and South America fairly easily. Most people attribute this to the fact that Native Americans were inferior to Europeans in the aspect that they were not as advanced militarily or diplomatically. For example, most Americans see Native Americans as inferior due to the fact that Europeans were able to take over all of the Native Americans land, which is a completely wrong way of thinking. European colonization and domination in North America is centered around diseases and the fact that Native Americans had never been exposed to certain diseases that Europeans brought over from the Old World. The
In school when I was younger, Native Americans were portrayed in the history textbooks in a negative manner. After returning to school, it’s nice to see that textbooks are making a great effort to get it right. But after reading our textbook and studying about everything the Native Americans had to go through, at the beginning of our nation. I think their deaths were the results of a broken heart, along with diseases. Which were brought from settlers to North America, including measles, scarlet fever, influenza, chickenpox, and colds. The proverbial broken heart threatens Native Americans, who were brave enough to put their trust into the European settler’s hands or choose to believe what they were told. In fact, some Indians, surprisingly helped many English settlers. Which brought different conflicts between their own people, because some choose to believe the settlers were their friends. Consequently, we can say most conflicts between European settlers in America and Native Americans were about land. The Indians used large amounts of land to survive and the Europeans wanted it. In many cases, Europeans simply took what they wanted. The Indians were taken advantage of by the settlers for a long time, so the Indians were cheated out of trades, goods, and land. Other conflicts between the Indians and the settlers was due to their belief they could take over the Native Americans too. One example, is when settlers forced Natives to be baptized, stripping them of all their
Since the first settlers came to America in 1607, the Native Americans have been treated poorly by the Europeans. The settlers came and stripped the Natives of their land by wars that the Natives were not equipped to fight. Native Americans were forced to move towards the west into uncharted territory and many died on the journey. The American government later made many promises to the Native Americans that were unkept, which had a very troubling effect on their communities. The promises the United States government made to the Native Americans were for health care, education, religious freedoms that are legally binding by the 6th amendment, which the United States have not always honored. One major issue within Native American
Indigenous peoples throughout the world have suffered and continue to suffer ever since white people stepped foot onto their lands. In the Americas, countless incidents of genocide and blatant violations of human rights have occurred time and time again. Those indigenous to North America, known commonly as Indians or Native Americans, have faced an immense amount of racism, hatred, and oppression on the very same land that was once their own, before it was stolen by the colonists. Native Americans have faced economic hardships that are unmatched by any other race in the United States; the statistics are absolutely staggering and horrifying to know that such
In the early days of English settlement in the American colonies, the Indian-European relationship of each area was the determining factor in the survival of the newly established colonies. By working together and exchanging methods of food production and survival, an English colony could maintain its population and continue to support the arrival of new settlers. However, a colony that had trouble maintaining ties with their Indian neighbors had a tough time attracting settlers and adapting to their environment. The role of the Indian helping the white man in North America played an important part in the survival of the American colonies. In the Jamestown colony, very few people survived the disease and sickness which accompanied the
I imagine her to be multi-ethnic, like me. Her grandfather is Italian, having fled Mussolini’s dictatorship for South America, finally settling in Peru and falling in love with a native Quechuan woman. As a result of her mixed background, my friend has adopted numerous perspectives and is perpetually adopting new ones. She has learned how to host a good fiesta for both sides of her family, to prepare Peruvian ceviche and huancayo-style potatoes as well as Italian focaccia bread and tiramisu. Like me, she’s a huge foodie and dedicated cook; she is unafraid to experiment with combining different cooking styles and spices into her own scrumptious creations. When we chat, she’ll describe what it’s like to hike up the stark, steep slopes of the Andes mountains, bargain her way through the labyrinthine, multi-storey markets in Lima, and dance in vibrant costume during the March carnivals. She’ll teach me all about the different cultures and customs of her people, from street slang and idioms to folklore and silly New Year’s superstitions. Late at night, we’ll be up laughing while attempting to show one another the steps of some of our traditional dances. Hopefully I’ll be learning a
“Native Americans”… what’s the first thing that comes to mind when you think of them? Some people think of savages who are bent on serving their gods and spirits. Most others think of peaceful people who are welcoming, very spiritual and very traditional. Unfortunately, the Native Americans were treated very poorly when the white man arrived. As time went on it got worse for them. The Westward Movement and the Trail of tears were a horrific time in history for the Native Americans. White Americans were needlessly cruel to the Native Americans during this time period.
Beginning at the times of European colonization, Native Americans have suffered an immense amount of discrimination (“A Brief History” 2006). These same discriminations are the same as the economic and social problems that minorities have suffered with for years. For the Native Americans, though, the problems are a little different. On top of employment and educational discrimination Native Americans have been unable to hold their old land, traditions, beliefs, and language. Native Americans just wanted to bring back what they once had, and like America’s Forefathers, America continued to take away and prevent them from getting just that
Americans have long been fascinated with the imagery and lore of Native Americans. From early historians to Mark Twain to Hollywood, Native Americans have been viewed as savages, aggressors, monotonal in voice, and drunks. Native Americans have had a strong influence on America’s birthplace including environmental issues to the diet and foods we eat. It was not until the arrival of the European settlers that Native Americans faced the deterioration of their civilization and culture. Events of the past have proven the relationship between European settlers and Native Americans have not always been pleasant. The extended history between these two groups has had a negative impact on indigenous people, due to the loss of life and culture. Since the arrival of Europeans, Native Americans have been culturally degraded and discriminated against in the United States through the taking of land, the denial of religious freedom, and the direct impact of health and welfare.
Historically, relationships between European colonists and their descendants, on the one hand, and the native population of America, on the other, were extremely complex. Moreover, from the beginning of European colonization of America, Native Americans have become vulnerable to oppression and physical extinction because colonists wanted their lands and the pursuit of maximum profits moved settler westward wreaking havoc, diseases and destruction of the traditional lifestyle of Native Americans. Ironically, throughout the history of the development of relations between white Americans and Native Americans, the biased attitude to Native Americans emerged and white Americans had grown accustomed to view them as a threat but, in actuality, Native Americans were rather victims of white Americans, who oppressed Native Americans and forced them from their land causing numerous deaths and destruction of the traditional lifestyle of Native Americans.