Native Americans: Historical And Cultural Identity

Every country and nation has they own special festivals and music, and Native American is no exception. First, the native music related many aspects such as ritual, life and work. They like to combine music with dance, and the Native American music always created rich percussion instruments. For example, the hand drum, log drum, water drum and rattle, etc. Powwow is an important festival and ritual for the Native American, and it is a symbol for the tradition culture of Native Indians. Powwow, is a social gathering by the Native American tribes, and they singing and dancing. Powwow is not only a method that the Native American expresses the enthusiasm of the life and peace, but also enhances the sense of identity and cohesion. Hence,

1. They all wanted to have something done about the Native Americans. England wanted to make them civilized and add them to their colonies. They wanted them to be "civilized" to be clothed, cristianized, fed, and instructed on the English ways, for their native ways were considered "barbaric". But not everyone wanted them included in their new life, many tribes were chased or wiped out. The Native Americans were racially predjeduced by many, which was one of the main reasons they were forced to abandon their traditions and original ways just for survival, and many didn't last long in the Europeans customs and environments.

The first native american tribe is the Cherokee and they were a very empowering tribe from the family iroquoian and with holding the whole mountain region of the alleghenies in southwest virginia . The daily life of the Cherokee was that they ate deer, turkey, berries, potatoes, pumpkin, fish and they lived in villages but in each village there were longhouses not just any ol’ regular house and the cherokee was also called the real people .

Many people think that the African-Americans are the most oppressed group of people ever in the United States. That may be true based on the quality of oppression, but not the length of this type of treatment. The Native Americans have been the most oppressed group of people ever in the United States, and even in the colonies that preceded the US. From the early 16th century until even today, the Native Americans were and are being oppressed in this country. The cause was because of colonization. The Europeans colonization of what is now America led the Natives to despair and destruction.

James K. Polk offered Mexico 30 million dollars for the land, but Mexico turned it down. Polk then moves troops into a disputed zone between the Rio Grande and the Nueces Riverto. Mexico still upset about Texas, responds by sending troops out and it results in the loss of 12 U.S. soldiers. Polk uses this and gets Congress to sign off on a war and in the course of two years proceeds to defeat Mexico. It ends with the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, signed February 1848, which essentially was the submission of all land north of the Rio Grande to the U.S. The U.S. erased Mexico’s debt to them, which was about 3 million dollars and proceeded to give Mexico 15 million dollars for the land now acquired. This land would later be known as Texas (who

cautious what we receive for truth, unless spoken by wise and good men. If any thing disagreeable should ever fall out between us, the twelve United colonies, and you, the Six Nations, to wound our peace, let us immediately seek measures for healing the breach.

In the world today, many are cognizant of the injustices faced by Native Americans as a result of the westward expansion of white settlers. Nevertheless, one incident in the antiquity of White-Indian interactions is, in many ways, distinct, and founds one of the nation’s shadiest moments: the aggressive and forced removal of thousands of Cherokee peoples from their ancestral birthplace in the Southern highlands of Georgia from 1838 to 1839. Known today as “The Trail of Tears,” following their eviction, the Cherokee were made to march hundreds of miles through harsh terrain and weather conditions, in order to get to specific reservations crafted for them in the west at that time. This event, however, was seemingly inevitable, given past interactions between the Natives and the government. The Cherokee people, from the late eighteenth century to the mid-nineteenth, faced issues involving their cultural identity and property, both of which would evermore change their traditions, customs, culture, and lives. Though from first hand documents we see that the Cherokee were of the more “civilized” tribes that excelled at espousing to Euro-American society, this was not enough to protect them from the wrath of the American government and settlers. Despite their great effort to persist in their land, they lost, but not without a fight. In this paper, I intend to examine the logical and moral arguments made by white institutions, like the Supreme Court, white settlers like William

When starting this class I personally did not have a very detailed understanding of what or who indigenous people were, what made them important, and how they helped to shape what is now American history. To think that when settlers first came to the new land native americans made up one hundred percent of the population but now are roughly only one percent of the total population is very disappointing to see. This decline of population was due to many different factors such as, territorial conflicts, war, disease, and being forced to re-settle. When resettling, the journey alone that the native American had to take caused a huge decrease in population. Any population that is still here today is comprised of federally designed reservations. Although it is said that Hawaii and Alaska are two sates that have still refused to put in place any policies with Native Americans that seek out the rights to restrict them. I have learned that many native tribes that were geographically similar, often times came together to form nations, as well as confederacies. With these tribes being so similar yet so different, geographically and with the language, it often times lead to unity or division within these native communities, before the arrival of new settlers. With these differences we saw how each tribe played a part in the history of new settlers in the states as they each contributed something different to our history. This fact however gets looked over a lot of the time,

Native American. Indian. These are the names given to the Indigenous peoples of Native North America so that they may be classified together as one group, a single entity, to define thousands of years of multifaceted cultures, many of which have unfortunately been lost. Prior to European contact, many of these Native groups encompassing present day Canada to Mexico lived their lives ruled by political systems, a complex use of resources available, social stratification, and the creation of a vast array of tools and technology to further expand their cultures and populations. Many of these indigenous peoples with old world belief systems were named by Europeans and forced to acculturate themselves with distinct civilized views. But prior to Columbus’s arrival, these independent groups had created lush and intricate societies that were highly successful, practical, and functional.

Native Americans have remained a prominent aspect of American history; not just a history of the people, but a history of the land and the extensive traditions that shadowed it, like footprints in the sand. However, when the Europeans staggered over with indifference towards the natives and their unusual customs, a conflict erupted that dates back hundreds of years and continues into the present. As the United States grew further more intolerant of the natives, the daring judgment to either assimilate into the American society, or face extinction of the Indian race and culture was presented.

Who are these Native American’s who roamed the Great Plains? They were once a proud and large nation of people, who honor the land, each other, and traditions that were passed down from father to son and mother to daughter. The years were not kind to them when the white man descended upon their great world. There were hundreds of different nations of Indians who lived in the America’s; all had similar goals in life. They wanted a family, provide for that family, and live accordance to the laws that were passed down. The historical trauma delivered to this great people was only equal to the holocaust according to several writers. The American Indians are not classified as a race, but a sovereign nation with the federal government (Warrior, 1995, p. 95). The sovereign nation of Indian cultures still struggles to keep the tribes together. Sovereign identity is a struggle to which scholars acknowledge “dynamic and ongoing process, demanding constant self-assessment and evaluation” (Warrior, 1995).

Following the end of World War II, Native American soldiers returning from the war found themselves returning to a situation in which they were treated as second-class citizens in their own country despite their impactful contributions to the war effort. The era that followed would continue to illustrate some of the issues that plagued the relationship between the government and Native American communities, which, in turn, was destructive to the aims at improving the lives of those that lived in these communities. Many of these issues stemmed from the government’s lack of awareness or insight of the culture of the tribes that they were dealing with. However, contrary to policies used in order to help sustain Native American reservations and

When the Europeans came to explore the Americas, it left the Indians diminishing with the objects they brought over. One of the things the Indians were introduced to were pigs. These creatures reproduced swiftly and happened to be eating fields of the Indians food, such as beans and squash. During the voyage, rats stuck on boats and when they arrived in bunches from multiplying on the boats, they damaged more crops. Also, with the new plants Europeans brought, came new weeds. This caused the crops to be suffocated, meaning fewer ears of corn were furnished. Most Indians were going hungry. Not only were they were suffering of malnutrition from the lack of nutrients, but new diseases struck in the Americas that natives did not have resistance

Americans have for some time been intrigued with the symbolism and legend of Native Americans. From early students of history to Mark Twain to Hollywood, Native Americans have been seen as savages, aggressors, monotonal in voice, and drunks. Local Americans have impacted America's origin including natural issues to the eating regimen and sustenances we eat. It was not until the entry of the European pilgrims that Native Americans confronted the decay of their progress and culture. Occasions of the past have demonstrated the relationship between European pilgrims and Native Americans have not generally been lovely. The expanded history between these two gatherings has negatively affected indigenous individuals, because of the death toll and

The Native American population has suffered many tragedies at the hands of the United States government, from their first interactions through the mid-twentieth century. Government policies concerning American Indians worked in conjunction with the prejudices harbored by the majority of the white population in the United States to suppress Native American liberties and strip them of their cultural identity. These policies gave little to no regard for Native American customs, personal expression, or the future of Native American traditions, and had profound effects on the Native American individuals and families who encountered them. The boarding school policies enacted by the United States government regarding Native Americans that were formulated to encourage the destruction of native customs and force an entire race to assimilate into white American culture ultimately led to the alienation of Native Americans from their native heritage and a loss of their personal sense of self.