Oppression In America, And Dehumanization Of Native Americans

Before, during, and after the Civil War, American settlers irreversibly changed Indian ways of life. These settlers brought different ideologies and convictions, such as property rights, parliamentary style government, and Christianity, to the Indians. Clashes between the settlers and Indians were common over land rights and usage, religious and cultural differences, and broken treaties. Some Indian tribes liked the new ideas and began to incorporate them into their culture by establishing written laws, judicial courts and practicing Christianity, while other tribes rejected them (“Treatment”). Once the United States purchased Louisiana from the French in 1803, Americans began to encroach into the Indian lands of the south and west

Post-bellum America began in 1865 after the Civil War and slavery. Slavery continued in a different form; the African Americans were bound by law to their employer. The Native Americans were forced out of their land and into a different culture. The truth is one ethnic group was not more oppressed over the other. In order to examine the corresponding oppression of the African Americans and Native Americans in post-bellum America it is important to compare their transition into society.

Europeans tore through America in the 1700s and destroyed the lives of Native Americans, and yet their culture remained principled with a high level of respect and honor. This is shown in a meeting that was held by the six nations of the Iroquois, where Chief Red Jacket gave a speech on the Native Americans view on missionary stations that the Europeans wanted to set up. Red Jacket explained their past with the first settlers, “We gave them corn and meat; they gave us poison in return” (1). These first Europeans set the tone for how these new colonist treated the natives. They took what they wanted and left a trail of death and destruction in their path. However, the natives acted in return with upstanding respect and treated these missionaries

Imagine a person bought something that the person valued. The person was the owner of the product and took good care of it.Then, all of a sudden, a stranger comes and takes that product and declares it “discovered”. Now since the stranger “discovered” it, the product now has to be shared among them. This is similar to what happened to Native Americans in North America. Native Americans owned and lived in North America for several thousand years. Then, all of a sudden, European explorers came to North America and claimed the land “discovered”. Europeans started moving into the land and later, started sharing the land. Encounters between Europeans and Native Americans in the colonial era led to the exchange of diseases with Native Americans,

Knowing some of the issues that Native Americans and the U.S. Government faced back in the 1800’s, believe it or not, there is still some that arise today, along with a lot of other issues that Native Americans have within themselves.

How can counselors work to lessen the effects of racism and discrimination that have impacted Native Americans and Asian Americans?

In this course we learned about many different types of oppression, from the time America was first “discovered” and the discoverers began oppressing the Indians, to slavery, to the oppression of the mentally handicapped, all the way to more “modern” times in schools were students are being oppressed.

America has always been labeled the “melting pot” and the “land of the free,” but when one is analyzing the history and social norms of the country, these statements are far from true. America has thrived through the oppression of minority groups and social pressure towards these groups to conform to the majority culture. In any historical sense, from the near extermination of Native Americans to the racial profiling of Muslim individuals after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, minority groups have always been the victims and have always been viewed as different if they do not assimilate into the “typical” American culture. Numerous works of literature have successfully displayed the struggles that minorities face when attempting to conform. Two works in particular, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Alexie Sherman and When the Emperor Was Divine by Julie Otsuka, tell stories of two different minority groups: Native Americans living in the 21st century and Japanese-Americans during World War II. While these stories are separated by several decades, it is clear that American culture has not changed, as each story exemplifies how difficult it truly is to leave old cultural norms behind in order to be accepted by the majority.

Throughout history, Native Americans have been victimized by Americans and the American Government. Native Americans were here long before the English settlers found and migrated to America. They tried to buy the land from Native Americans, and money was not important to them so they refused. Over time this costed a lot of Native American lives and most of their land was taken from them. Native Americans were immensely mistreated in the 1900’s by white Americans and are still being wronged by deceiving history in textbooks and other learning aid.

Two-hundred years ago, there was a scientific study on the brains of Native Americans called the craniology and phrenology. The Europeans examined only indigenous people’s heads and were forbidden to use any European’s brains. The Europeans did three experiments, such as decapitating the tops of the heads and filling them with sand to see if their brains were smaller than blacks. The Europeans also looked at the bones and said that if the bones were in a certain way (such as natives cheek bones being up higher) the person was thought to be stupid. The last experiment the Europeans did to American Indians was that they had a small devise that they would put on the head and it would slice the brain open. There would be an award for

Decades of discrimination against the Native American people including the Indian Removal Act, the Trail of Tears, and the Massacre at Wounded Knee has led to a so called “compromise” and the much needed formation of the American Indian Movement to try and keep Native American culture and customs alive. This unfair treatment and discrimination has been fueled by many different people and reasons, but ultimately boils down to the greed and intolerance of the white man. Numerous indian tribes were already living in the United States when the european people settled here. The act of living and existing in nearly complete peace for a great deal of years started its swift decline in the years leading up to 1830, again fueled by greed for land and materials along with intolerance of the indians obliterated any chance of fair treatment, or the two groups living in complete peace again.

Imagine living in a world that consistently devalues your existence and is heavily populated with individuals who are quick to use and abuse your resources, but are slow to share the wealth that is accumulated from those resources. How would you feel? Unfortunately, certain populations do not have to visualize the disparity that is pictured above. This is because inequity is one of the most demoralizing social issues that plague America today. The worst thing about inequity is the fact that it continues to disproportionately burden individuals who are categorize as being minority in today’s society.

Nearly every Native American Indian tribe has experienced some kind of neglect or discrimination. The white man has forcefully moved tribes from their homes, broken

I agree that the treatment of American Indians during the mid-1800s could be considered as ethnic cleansing. The value of land increased dramatically when cotton became the major product in the south. Many whites wanted to push west and acquired the Native American’s fertile soil. Still, many Native Americans had remained in the South. They adopted white Americans culture, attended to school, owned private property and formed constitutional, republican governments. Most southern whites, however, denounced the Indian civilization as a shame and believed the Indians could never be civilized. Although federal policy had been to respect the rights of American Indian to inhabit the land, President Andrew Jackson abandoned this policy and adopted

American identity has been created by many events throughout the course of history. This country was founded on the clashing and mixing of many different cultures and lifestyles. One of the most important periods of time for this country was during the period of conflict between Americans and Native Americans over land rights. Americans had an idea of manifest destiny and that this land was theirs for the taking. The Americans were going to walk through anyone who opposed them in this quest for land. The treatment of the Indians during this time period was harsh, cruel, and violent to say the least. It is in this treatment that Americans came to view the Indians as a ?racialized other? and