Native Americans: Changing Environmental Conditions

Environmental ethics has widely circled around human interactions with biotic ecosystems. Little voice has been given to city residents who are overexposed to environmental hazards. It is a subject rarely touched upon by mainstream environmentalist. Though conservation efforts receive much media attention and advocacy, environmental pollution in urban areas inhabited by minorities and the impoverished receive less attention despite it clearly being a grave injustice. It fact, it can be argued that minority and impoverished neighborhoods are deliberately targeted by corporations and governmental agencies because of the inherit vulnerability of the inhabitants. It is no secret that the impoverished in this country frequently live in areas characterized

In result, the Europeans forever altered the lifestyle of the native peoples. The Exploration and Colonization greatly impacted the spread of disease in the new world. For example, (Doc 6). States “when the newcomers arrived carrying mumps, measles, whooping cough, smallpox, cholera, gonorrhea and yellow fever, the Indians were immunologically defenseless.”

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).

Culture wasn’t the only thing that the Europeans brought over to the Americas. Along with their customs and rules, came the diseases that the Native American’s have never been exposed to. The Europeans brought many communicable diseases such as small pox and measles which were transmitted to the Native Americans through trade goods or someone infected with them. This quickly annihilated most of the Native American population.

“Native Americans have faced centuries of atrocities to their people, their land, and their culture - all under various presidents who took an oath of office to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States” (Markwayne Mullin). Native Americans have been living a hard life ever since Columbus arrived in North America but, we need to change that. Native American have been living here before any of us, and we’re just living in their land. Native Americans have struggled since white people first arrived in North America. Some contemporary issues Native Americans face are their ability to prosecute crimes such as rapes against their community, as well as land rights, and the ability to be recognized by the government. It is important that we, as a country, address these issues.

Native Americans never came in contact with diseases that developed in the Old World because they were separated from Asia, Africa, and Europe when ocean levels rose following the end of the last Ice Age. Diseases like smallpox, measles, pneumonia, influenza, and malaria were unknown to

There are plenty of There are plenty of minority groups who are undeniably disparaged against but none as much as the Native American community. Not only did we take their lives and their land but we continue to disrespect the entire community every single day. Our negative attitudes, misconceptions, and offensive stereotypes that we direct their way are not only hate induced but have an extremely negative impact on the Native American Identity. Our poor media representation of the Native American community is overwhelmingly harmful to its citizens and does not seem to be going anywhere anytime soon. We are hearing quite a bit about the Native American community right now with the protesting going on in North Dakota. Oil big business has plans to build a pipeline that will transport crude oil across North Dakota, South Dakota, Iowa, and Illinois. This project will undoubtedly have major environmental impacts on the land that is runs under. The oil company responsible for the project meticulously mapped out where this environmental blunder should be built, and it is unfortunately no surprise as to where they decided it should be. The underground pipeline is set to be built across thousands of acres of Native American land. Of course it is. The level of disrespect and blatant disregard we have as the majority monstrous with dealing with Native Americans. History is once again repeating itself. We are taking land that does not belong to us, destroying it, and then expecting a

The Columbian Exchange had a major effect on people residing in the United States. Disease was the number one cause of death amongst the other tragedies that came with the Columbian Exchange such as violence, culture, trade, and people that had followed Columbus. Many Native Americans died from diseases that were brought from Europe. The Europeans who had brought the diseases over did not seem to have done it intentionally. The Europeans were just in search of the New World. Native Americans lived free from the terrible diseases that destroyed populations in Asia, Europe, and Africa. Therefore, when Europeans came to America no one knew how to treat the diseases or how to handle them. Native Americans lacked the ability to fight off bacteria

When the European travelers came to America they brought over may diseases including small pox, influenza, measles, and Scarlett fever. The Native Americans had never been exposed to these diseases before consequently they did not have antibodies to fight of these diseases which meant that many people would die from the exposure to the various diseases. The introduction of these diseases created a high death toll in the Native American population, killing more than half of the original population.

Due to Native ways that called for comforting the sick closely this further spread illnesses such as small pox around killing at most 90 percent of a village it was in. With these low populations the Natives were in a way forced to react in joining other tribes or neighbors with greater numbers as a mine to survive and flourish. While doing that many Native tribes had to relocate around America due to the changes of the settlers. This was a difficult objective to accomplish because of the different environments. Some moved into forgotten pieces of land, some moved in French settlements, but trying to distant themselves from the settlers proved to be not in their best

One of these significant changes was the introduction to new disease to the new world. When the Europeans came over and started to interact with the Native Americans they brought with them new diseases that Native Americans weren't accustomed to. Since Native

One of the most devastating and destructive consequences of European exploration and settlement was the spread of disease. Until the arrival of the explorers and settlers Native American culture had been very isolated with no exposure to diseases common in Europe and Africa.

Considered the first humans in North America, Native Americans have been embroiled in a long and destructive relationship with European settlers. Ever since the arrival of European settlers and the establishment of the United States of America, the Native Americans have suffered through disease, war, and cruel treatment. They were introduced to smallpox, measles, and other foreign diseases that could not be cured with their herbs and shamanistic rituals. They fought in the French and Indian War in order to drive out the British settlers who wanted their land. Following a series of treaties and policies from the United States government, many of the Native American tribes were

And death is something that ran rampant through the native population. The Indians were not able to combat these new afflictions because they were new to their systems. Small pox, whooping cough, chicken pox, scarlet fever, influenza and many more had long been around in Europe and the colonists had developed resistance to most of them. (Crosby, 198)

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.