Native Indians In Native Americans

Cherokee Indians have been around for many years, but when the topic of Native Americans is discussed it is only about the struggles and hardships they went through but never their actual culture of how and where they originated or how they came to be. There are many interesting things to learn about Cherokee Indians such as their heritage, religion, language, and their traditional songs, dances, and food.

I am of the opinion that the Native Americans were treated badly by the Americans who came and took over their land. The Indians fought back because what they owned and the lifestyle that they were accustomed to were being stripped from them. Furthermore, I believe the assimilation forced upon the Native Americans fueled an even greater hatred for the white man. Instead of making quality relationships with them, the Americans forced the Natives to become like them or else face war. Unfortunately, this is yet another example of greed rearing its ugly head in the history of our country.

When the colonists came to America, they classified the Native Americans as complete brutal savages. But was that a correct assumption? The Native Americans lived a life that was a complete opposite from the way that the Europeans were accustomed to. The Native Americans believed that the land was shared by everyone and not one person could own it. The Native Americans also had a polytheistic religion which completely went against the beliefs of the colonists. The colonists viewed the Native Americans as savages and barbarians because their ways of living were different.

Native Americans have been forced out of their culture over time, forced into assimilation, lost their rights, and have lost their land due to policies and laws by the whites that can’t bear the Native American way of life. There used to be many Native American tribes all throughout North America, and now these tribes are spread across the country and are blended into the rest of the population. The native ways have changed drastically in the last two centuries due to relocation programs, Indian boarding schools, and the way to classify which tribe each person belongs to. Native Americans have endured so much pain, which results from everything they have lost over time, and they have constantly paid the price for their ethnicity.

Long ago on the great plains, the buffalo roamed and the Native Americans lived amongst each other. They were able to move freely across the lands until the white men came and concentrated them into certain areas. Today there are more than five-hundred different tribes with different beliefs and history. Native Americans still face problems about the horrific history they went through and today 's discrimination. The removal of American Indian tribes is one of the most tragic events in American history. There are many treaties that have been signed by American representatives and people of Indian tribes that guaranteed peace and the values of the Indian territories. The treaties were to assure that fur trade would continue without interruption. The American people wanting Indian land has led to violent conflict between the two. Succeeding treaties usually forced the tribes to give up their land to the United States government. There were laws made for Native American Displacement that didn’t benefit the Native Americans, these laws still have long lasting effects on them today, and there was a huge number of Native Americans killed for many reasons.

In 1492, the Spanish and English discovered America and the both searched for new areas to take claim so they can settle and make new colonies for the new world up until around 1790. The Spanish were the first successful country to establish wealth and gain from the new world and it was because of their interest in using these colonies for mostly for trade. Although the Spanish and English had an increasingly large grasp over the new world, Africans, other European countries, and Native Americans could not stop fighting so they could band together to fight the higher powers, meanwhile America was trying to become it's own nation, Even though all of the less powerful cultures wanted freedom (Dutch, Native Americans, Germans, Scot-Irish, Africans, Scots, and French) all except the Africans got it because it was a lot harder to figure out who was really a slave if you were white but a lot easier if it was only Black. Even though the odds were not in their favor, The less powerful ethnic groups could not join together and fight the Anglo-Americans , Spanish, and English mostly because of the majority of people were Protestant, cultural pluralism, and of course, Anglo conformity. Native Americans didn’t have much to worry about besides the the struggles of their everyday life up until 1492 when Christopher Columbus arrived. Most people think of Native Americans to be one or very few groups of people, but in reality it was a lot more complex that that. Natives had differences

One famous Indian tribe is the Cherokee. The Cherokee are original residents of the American southwest region, but now they occupy most of Oklahoma.There are three recognized Cherokee tribes. Most Cherokee people speak English today, but many still speak the Cherokee language. Children had jobs to do after school just like men and women had their own jobs. Many Cherokee Indians died when president Andrew Jackson forced them to leave their homes in Georgia. In the following essay I will be talking about the Cherokee life before,during,and after the Westward Expansion.

     The Cherokee culture went through some drastic changes. Schools were set up to instruct the Indians. Men farmed instead of hunting. They established some of their own laws. In 1827, the Cherokees wrote a constitution that provided for a bicameral legislature, a chief executive, and a judicial system (Perdue 13). The Americans tried to make the Indians become Christians. They developed their own writing system. They even began to publish their own newspaper called the Cherokee Phoenix (Perdue 14). The Cherokees became more civilized than in the past. The Cherokees tried to become civilized to make their relationship with the Americans better.

The Cherokee Indians were one of the civilized tribes in the United States. They were located in the southeastern part of the U.S. This includes the western parts of North and South Carolina, The northern parts of Alabama and Georgia, Southwest Virginia and the Cumberland basin of Tennessee. It appears the Cherokee settled in 1000 A.D. to 1500 A.D. Their development took place in two stages or phases. The Pisgah which took place 1300 A.D. to 1540 A.D. and the Qualla which took place 1540 A.D. to 1750 A.D. The first period was primitive and the second was influenced by European contact. They were a large tribe that was part of the Iroquian language group even though their language is very different. Despite this the

Many European settlers have been using the term savages to refer to many indigenous people like the Yuchi, Mariames, Salinan, Cherokees, and the Puebloan. The indigenous people have always been underestimated by the Europeans settlers when being called savages due to their different mindsets and the ways of living that they had. All these tribes were called savage unjust and untrue because in the Journal of Christopher Columbus, Christopher describes them as “very well made” they look like they have very well built bodies. (qtd. in American Yawp, The Journal Of Christopher Columbus, 37-68) The Indians were really smart people but really different in many ways to the European Americans. The indigenous people are thought of as noble savages according to the article “Thanksgiving and the Myth Of Native American “Savages”” by John Horgan. Indigenous people should not be considered savages because they have were able to survive for a long time.

Before the "Black Plague" of America the natives had a very different lifestyle. The native population was much more massive with number in the millions, but then these number dropped as a majority of them died from diseases and wars. Many people have a stereotypical view of the people of the "New world." The warped perspective many non-native people share is that the "Indians" are savage barbarians who roam the landmass known as North America. However, most of the natives had families which they went to great lengths to feed, clothe, and shelter. Additionally many people group all the indigenous tribes into one general category labeled "Indians." But the truth could not be more contrasting, they all live in extremely diverse ecosystems that they all adapt to in different ways .Their entire culture was based off of their local milieu. Two interesting tribes in specific are the Cheyenne and the Powhatan.

After reading the piece by Mary Rowlandson, one can see why the settlers were persuaded that the Indians were savage and barbaric. One may think this because of the many mentionings of how they shot children and neglected people making them seem like animals. She also speaks about how the Indians destroyed and burned their village. The Indians killed people inhumanely and took many prisoners which they later neglected. This was expressed by explaining how a man met his demise, “He begged of them his life, promising them money (as they told me) but they would not hearken to him but knocked him in the head, and stripped him naked, and split open his bowels.” All of these statements of what happened may now persuade someone to think that the Indians were savage and brutal.

Brian, the story of Indians throughout American history is a tale of greed, land lust, and inhumane treatment by the majority of Americans. Additionally, I have tried to place myself in their shoes, wondering how I would react to individuals arriving at my native home bringing with them disease and suffering. The Indians response was considerably kinder than mine would have been. However, the Cherokee response was to attempt to assimilate into white American culture only to be uprooted.

Whites settlers were moving West to the Great Plain. They were looking to start over with their new land that were wild and untouched. However, many Native American had already been there and the government were building railroads and roads. People rushed to settle in the west to mine for gold. Cities and town along with railroad and roads building at a rapid pace changed the habits of the buffalo. Buffalo were an important symbol in the Native Americans live they used buffalo as their main food source and they use the skin to make clothes and teepee covering , bones for silverware and hunting tools like arrow. The Native Americans make use of the buffalo not a single part was wasted. While White hunts buffalo as a sport and the government hired professional hunter to supply buffalo meat to railroad workers. Before settlers were in the west, the west was home to 60 millions buffalo. By the end of 1870s the buffalo population was less than 1,000 and nearly became extinct. With the nearly extinct buffalo population the Native American understands they have to fight and defend their homelands.The railroads brought numerous changes to Native American. The rails ran through many tribes territories and this bring conflict to both Whites and Native Americans as Native American had different cultural views on how land should be used and used to live on. Railroad also multiply the number American in the West as they can travel faster. The buffalo was the main food source for the

Life before the Trail of Tears but after the arrival of the new Americans was more or less simple for the Cherokees. They spend time hunting and fishing. Some of them even worked on plantations and even own their own slaves, in an effort to accommodate to some of the American ways of living.