Native American Settlers Essay

American Indians have been discriminated against since the Europeans came to North America. They were driven from their homes and forced to surrender their land. They tried to build an alliance with France during the Revolutionary war, but ultimately they were defeated by the English. From then on, they were referred to as “savages”. The Proclamation of 1763 tried to separate the Native American land from the American colonial land. In the end, the American Indians lost their land and were forced to occupy smaller land areas, referred to as reservations, which were given to them through treaties. In 1979, a report from America’s Compliance with Human Rights Accords stated that

government has unspecified and unorganized policies, which were unprotected for Native Americans who lived in the west because of all the new coming Americans. During westward expansion, a majority of who moved were whites, who didn’t know the Native Americans who already lived in the west. The Natives felt their land was being conquered, because of the U.S government policies(Louisana Purchase & Homestead Act) and the whites not wanting them to be there, which lead to fighting between the Natives and the whites. These acts and policies such as the Indian Removal Act often resulted in violated treaties and violence. The Indian Removal Act was the removal of Native American homes and tribes. “This also confines the Indians to still narrower limits, destroys that game which in their normal state, and constitutes their principal means of subsistence.” Resulting in westward expansion, Native Americans began rapidly decreasing in the area by wars and new diseases caught by new coming

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.

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 had inherited the land now called America and eventually their lives were destroyed due to European Colonization. When the Europeans arrived and settled, they changed the Native American way of life for the worst. These changes were caused by a number of factors including disease, loss of land, attempts to export religion, and laws, which violated Native American culture.

Native Americans are entitled to the same Constitutional protections that guard other citizens from federal government infringement. Plenary power and the accompanying seizure and use of indigenous land bases have violated the rights of Native Americans and demonstrated the inability of the federal government to manage Indian affairs. The United States should give ownership and control of original, non-privately owned land bases back to tribes. This course of action would end treaty violation, compensate tribes for land takings, prevent bureaucrats from implementing policies that obstruct the ability of Native Americans to participate in their

Since the first pilgrims and puritans crossed the Atlantic, there were disputes between white settlers and the Native Americans. Consequently, there were resentments and death on both sides. The Relocation Act (1830), signed by Andrew Jackson, resulted in the mass migration of Native Americans to the west and government confiscation of their lands. Banished to the west, Native Americans’ lives were relatively peaceful until white settlers started to infringe once again lands promised to them. White settlers felt they had a divine entitlement to the western lands and felt no remorse taking it from Native Americans.

When America was first created, Native Americans were believed to be less than the White Men that were in charge of the American takeover. They were stripped of their rights and forced to make room for their intruders. As Chief Seattle’s Treaty Oration says, “the Red Man no longer has rights that [the white man] need respect”. Many Early Americans tried to justify this takeover. Thomas Hart Benton writes in his essay The Destiny of the Race, “civilization, or extinction, has been the fate of all people who have found themselves in the track of the advancing Whites.” Along with the argument of the White Man being the “dominant race”, people believed that God had given them this land, and that they had a right to take it because of this. Again, as Chief Seattle writes, “you God is not our God! Your God loves your people and hates mine!” None of these supposed “justifications” were an excuse for the pain and torment the Native Americans were put through. In other words, though the Colonists tried to justify the removal of the Native Americans, they had no good reason to uproot these people from the only home they have ever

For generations the Native Americans were forcefully removed from their lands, enslaved and murdered. The harsh treatment of Native Americans by both the Europeans and the Americans led to a change in how the native people acted and to their subsequent distrust of the white races.

Prior to this course, I had a general understanding of the history and colonization of Native Americans. Coming from a family that celebrates our Native American culture, I knew that it was my responsibility to accept and embrace who I was and share my knowledge with others. My family is from the Pine Point community of the White Earth reservation; growing up I was always sure to listen to the stories of my elders and understand the hardships that have taken place in my family. I have always tried to help and correct those around me who have incorrect preconceived ideas about Native Americans. Even though I have never looked the part of being American Indian with my Swedish bright blonde hair and blue eyes, I have never been discouraged to embrace my culture and be an advocate.

Before Europeans arrived in present-day America, the Native Americans were living on millions of acres of land their ancestors had occupied and cultivated. Many Native Americans were initially somewhat willing to share land with original settlers. However, when settlers began taking land that already belonged to the Natives,

From what we learned in chapter one, Native Americans had a thriving civilization and Samuel de Champlain's sketch verifies the fact that Indians had a well-structured society. Before the arrival of English immigrants, Indians had societies that were much more advanced than what they were depicted as back in England. They cultivated fields, innovated canoes in order to fish, and were people that had developed a highly functional community, that greatly contradicted the statements of the English settlers. Colonists wrote accounts to England and prospective immigrants about how the New World's natives were nothing more than savages and immoral people that did not deserve the area they resided in because they did nothing to "improve" the land

White people could not enter these territories without a license. After 1849 California Gold Rush this status quo changed drastically. Miners rushed into Indian territories in search of fast enrichment. Government had to react accordingly and started to use concentration policy which meant that big tribes were assigned specific lands. The tribes’ way of life was nomadic and they moved around to hunt for buffalo. Thus, they did not want to stay within confined boundaries. White miners, on the other hand, were trespassing reservation borders and then calling for the government to protect them. This situation led to a lot of bloodshed and massacres on both sides. This is how one of such tragic examples is described in the class textbook:

In the beginning, the whites had enough land to satisfy their own needs. However, in enough time, the whites settlers started craving more and more land, because of their fast growing settlement and need for space. Instead of buying more territory, or trying to condense their already large settlements, the Whites suggested the idea to move the Indians to the west. As, there was gold found in the already fertile and animal-populated lands of the Natives, not many Whites argued against taking it. When White settler officials, such as generals, presented the idea of taking over the chunk of land, the government could not refuse, and decided to pass a law. The law stated that whites had the right to move Indians westward, and since they wanted

Intro: Ever since the first white settlers arrived at America in 1492, the Native American population has been seen as a minority. People who weren’t as good as the new “white” settlers and unfit to live the new found land of America. As America expanded westward with the Louisiana Purchase and war with Mexico that ceded the south west to the U.S. as a result of the treaty of the 1803 Guadaplupe-Hildago Treaty, white settlers continued to move westward. They found rich fertile land, but there was a problem. The land they so desperately wanted was already occupied by Native Americans. The stage was set of inevitable conflict as a full out war between the U.S. government and natives then ensued. Some tribes fought back, like the Sauk, Fox,