Native Americans Today Essay

Native American’s greeted the new colonists in a friendly, welcoming manner from the start. The new colonists considered this a sign of weakness, stating how easy it would be to dominate the native people. When Columbus arrived, there were 12-15 million Native Americans in the Americas, in 1890 there was under 250,000, with 98% of the population gone. With the belief in Manifest Destiny, the colonists forced the Native American’s off their own land, farther and farther from where they originated from, and eventually onto reservations, removing them from their way of life and their culture. During the transition from their homeland to reservations, many of the Native American’s died due to disease, cold, hunger, and the hardships of travel. Along with the annexation, the colonists demanded assimilation.

During westward expansion, the Native Americans got kicked to the side. The settlers coming west often saw the Indians as a threat to them and their families. However, this was not the main reason the Indians were pushed aside. The settlers saw the Indians had fertile land and wanted it for themselves. The Indians were the opposite of what the settlers thought they were. The Indians often helped the people moving west across the plains; giving them food, supplies, and acting as guides. However, the U.S. Government did not see this side of the Indians, instead they forced the Indians onto reservations. During the time of the expansion of the United States to the present, the Native Americans went through many things so that the United States could expand; they were pushed onto reservations, and forced to give up their culture through the Ideas of Manifest Destiny and Social Darwinism.

(Horwitz,2). Now 547 tribes have to wait around to be able to protect those around them. “Can you imagine responding to call where there is clear evidence of a crime committed by an individual and you cannot arrest them? I think the community felt cheated,” Michael Valenzuela, the police chief of the Pascua Yaqui Tribe (Culp-Ressler,1). The quote shows how hopeless those who would normally have power to help can not, and though Native Americans are suppose to have sovereignty it seems to not be a true sovereign nation. If it is a claimed sovereign nation, then congress has to let them deal with all issues on tribal land no matter what the race and right now that is not happening. Once it does, maybe they can be better off and not have to worry as much.

The Native Americans were driven out of their land by the Americans and their belief that it was right. In document five it shows the americans as bright, technologically advanced race as the Native Americans are running away into the darkness and being fired at by the americans. This portrays the americans as a civilized country that is perfect and the Native Americans as animals with the Americans erasing the “animals” from their land. Manifest Destiny had a negative impact on

Native Americans in the United States have reported to come from many different tribes. American Indians are likely to experience violent crimes at more than twice the rate of all other U.S. residents. The rate of violent crimes committed against Native Americans is substantially higher than any other minority group in the United States. Yet, little or no attention is paid to them. According to information collected by the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS), American Indians are likely to experience violent crimes at more than twice the rate of all other U.S. residents.

The Native Americans lived in North America for thousands of years, but when the settlers from Europe came, so did conflict and turmoil. The land the Native Americans were on was rich with resources, and the settlers wanted the resources. So the settlers forced them off of their land and gave them new land designated for them. The Natives were left confused and uncertain why they had to leave. Some did not follow the orders of the settlers and fought back, the army won most battles between them. Many battles were fought so that the United States could expand and progress. Some of the Natives only wanted peace between them and the settlers, but the settlers used force a lot, bring the army to relocate them. The settlers wanted to make the Native Americans look evil even though they didn’t do anything, and they didn’t know why. Even after relocating, the were still treated badly by the army and settlers, always leaving them scared and confused. Even after, the settlers tried to eliminate them, but no using violence. While some may say that the settlers were trying to help them by passing the Dawes Act, which pushed american ideals onto the Natives, and giving them land, it really only hurt them. The Dawes Act pushed american ideals onto the Natives, and as a result, the Natives lost their sense of identity, confusing them on whether they are Americans or Native Americans. In addition, the government gave the Native Americans land, but the land wasn’t good land. They couldn’t grow crops as well and they now had to live much closer together. This lead to many problems added onto the

Native American’s have always been the aspect that shapes our culture and history today. The rise of the new world started with the discovery of the land of which the Native Americans resided. They are referred to as the indigenous people because they were the people who lived and survived off this land first. The Native Americans have a unique culture that consisted of a bond with nature. They had similar gender roles just like the white population. The men were hunters, warriors, and protectors, while the women tended to the children, their homes, and farmed. While the late 1800 's into the 1900 's and beyond began to bring the struggle to the Native American Indians, they fought a tough battle in pursuit of protecting their land. Throughout history the Native American’s have been oppressed and exploited of their identity.

In the film united shade’s of america Kamall bell was discussing with the Indians on their reservation about how they don’t really own their land. While Bell was talking to the Indians some key points that came up were all the crime that was happening on the reservation and what can and can’t do on the reservation. When they were talking about all the crime that was happening on the reservation, the big crimes that were happening were sexual assault, drugs, and usage of alcohol. These crimes are happening because some reservations need one hundred and fifty to one hundred and seventy cops and they only have thirty three to cover about thirty thousand miles of land. Another reason why Indians don’t really own their land is they don’t have freedom

The historical context of the documents complicate the narrative of the United States' "colonial beginnings" because it shows that the original treatment of the Native Americans shaped the United States' beginning, much more than what most are lead to believe. This is shown through the timing of certain events, the issues that caused the events, and the people who helped make many of the events happen or end.

Native Americans thrived from nature and their way of life depended on the land of the grassy Great Plains. Their life changed due to horses, and then afterward guns, being introduced to them by the Spanish; which made it easier for them to move and hunt. As settlers moved in, the Native nations were treated poorly and had little to no ability to stand up for what they believed in and how they wanted to live with all the restrictions laid upon them. The federal government made policies towards them when settling in the west such as The Concentration Policy, “relocation”, and The Dawes Severalty Act, which lead to many warfares.

When reading the book Indians Wear Red (2013) you gain an insight on the after-effects of colonization had on the everyday lives of the aboriginal community.The book talks about how the environment they had settled on became an area for dams, which eventually made people leave their settlement due to flooding. These series of actions lead to financial problems, job losses and lack of education, and soon people started to turning criminal activities like gangs.The book also demonstrates to us how the aboriginal community decided to marginalize themselves from the rest of society, to help maintain their culture.In the book, we get to read and develop an understanding of what gang members and Aboriginal people went through and how historical events

Prior to European colonization, North America was home to up to ten million indigenous people with distinct cultures and hundreds of languages. Within 500 years the population was halved through disease and genocide. Today, Native American’s make up 5.2 million or 2% of the US population (US Census 2013). This population has suffered the trauma of genocide, dislocation, poverty and oppression mostly through policies and confrontations with the federal government. Today, reservations are populated by the poorest 1% of US citizens (Koppisch) and have become a hotbed of violent gang culture. To understand the roots of this social condition we can examine how The Indian Removal Act of 1830 started the systematic relocation of tribes away from coveted land rich in resources began the process of forced assimilation of Native American people, but what other factors have contributed to this extreme level of poverty? How has inadequate education, a political system of custodianship where the US government acts as a guardian to tribes, soaring unemployment, and disproportionate substance abuse rates created a climate where native youth have turned to organized crime? What, if anything, is being done to stop gang violence and tackle the systemic issues underlying this social problem?

“Native youths are exposed to violence at higher rates than any other racial or ethnic group in the country, and more than one in three lives in poverty. They also have the lowest high school graduation rates and much higher levels of substance abuse and suicide” (Karaim 361). Native Americans leave their reservations because they too, have a dream to succeed in

When the Europeans came to America, they created new colonies, trade with the Native Americans, and more political freedoms for some. It was a whole new world, an ocean away from the control of their main lands, for the Europeans who had settled on land they thought was their God given right. Soon settlements of hundreds became thousands and people had more rights than they ever had before. However successfully some settlements developed, it came at the cost of the natives that were living there. Making America a new world for not only the Europeans but also for the Indians, the Europeans brought an environmentally destructive fur trade that resulted in the dismantling of the Native American’s traditional and social structures.

Native Americans Indians faced numerous challenges to their survival as people on their own lands in the eighteenth century. The Indians found themselves under severe pressure by settlers and speculators in the new nation interested in expanding east and westward of North America, either by acquiring Indian lands by treaty or by force. The American people at the time viewed Native Americans as uncivilized and savage. In May of 1830, Congress passed The Indian Removal Act, headed by President Andrew Jackson[3]. Even Thomas Jefferson, who often cited the Great Law of Peace of the Iroquois Confederacy as the model for the U.S. Constitution, supported Indian Removal as early as 1802[5]. Its main goal was the removal of the southeastern Indian tribes. Jackson convinced the American Indians that with whites surrounding the Indian, their culture was slowly being destroyed. It was the Native American who suffered most from Andrew Jackson's vision of America. With all this in mind the Indian Removal act was inhuman and in no doubt it should've been done differently. This journey of the removal was called the Trail of Tears, and this paper will show the effect it had on the Cherokee.