Our Hearts Fell to the Ground Exam Essay

The history of the Plains Indians and the American West is very interesting. The book Our Hearts Fell to the Ground by Colin G. Calloway really goes in depth on how life was for the Native American people, as well as the progression of the American West. I really felt that the book was a good source of information on the lives of the Native Americans and had an excellent outlook on how they lived their everyday lives. This book possesses many illustrations and documents that have their advantages and disadvantages. It also touches on the subject of how White soldiers really took over the Native American land and why this time was considered “a world in flux.”

The Native Americans are a prime example of the repression, poverty, and discrimination many minority groups have had to endure throughout the years. The Native Americans had their own land, culture and language. They were people able to adapt well to their particular region by hunting, fishing and farming crops. Their cultures primarily rested on wise use of all natural resources available. Many historians believe there were between 6 and 10 million Native Americans living in what later became the United States before the arrival of the Europeans (Parrillo, 2011). This paper will analyze the views the Europeans had about the Natives, what came about from these views and where the Native American

government has unspecified and unorganized policies, which were unprotected for Native Americans who lived in the west because of all the new coming Americans. During westward expansion, a majority of who moved were whites, who didn’t know the Native Americans who already lived in the west. The Natives felt their land was being conquered, because of the U.S government policies(Louisana Purchase & Homestead Act) and the whites not wanting them to be there, which lead to fighting between the Natives and the whites. These acts and policies such as the Indian Removal Act often resulted in violated treaties and violence. The Indian Removal Act was the removal of Native American homes and tribes. “This also confines the Indians to still narrower limits, destroys that game which in their normal state, and constitutes their principal means of subsistence.” Resulting in westward expansion, Native Americans began rapidly decreasing in the area by wars and new diseases caught by new coming

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.

For years, the Native Americans lived a very solitary life with their own unique way of living, that was until the European’s showed up with their very complex way of living. Harmony with nature was a very important aspect of Native American culture. The Native people embraced nature with no intention to modify it unlike the Europeans. They simply cared more about nature and what it had to offer. The spiritual connection between the land and these Natives were distinctive from the Europeans also due to the fact that to the settlers, land meant wealth. As a European, if you owned any land you were considered a wealthy upper class human being. As a Native, no one owned the land and anyone could benefit from the land.

The Native Americans lived on millions of acres of land in Georgia, Tennessee, Alabama, North Carolina and Florida, they inherited all of these lands from their ancestors who cultivated for generations. According to Elias Boudinot the natives considered themselves to be just as equal as the Whites, he states, “What is an Indian? Is he not formed of the same materials with yourself?” (Boudinot, 1826) The natives saw themselves to be no different from the Whites, in fact they cared for one another as a whole, they lived in kinships, where there was never an Indian left alone without a family. They followed a society based off of the concept of interdependence, they had in their mind that everything is dependent of something. The Indians were very advanced, and were able to prosper in their society, although the Whites believed otherwise, and believed that the natives were uncivilized.

"Their bows and arrows were no match for the Europeans' firearms, and their bodies could not defend against the foreign diseases" (DiBacco, 1995).

From its birth, America was a place of inequality and privilege. Since Columbus 's arrival and up until present day, Native American tribes have been victim of white men 's persecution and tyranny. This was first expressed in the 1800’s, when Native Americans were driven off their land and forced to embark on the Trail of Tears, and again during the Western American- Indian War where white Americans massacred millions of Native Americans in hatred. Today, much of the Indian Territory that was once a refuge for Native Americans has since been taken over by white men, and the major tribes that once called these reservations home are all but gone. These events show the discrimination and oppression the Native Americans faced. They were, and continue to be, pushed onto reservations,

Westward expansion during the 19th century had several far reaching effects on many people. During the period of Manifest Destiny Indians were forced onto reservations, deprived many of their resources,and most of their land, and of course, their culture. At the start of the twentieth century, there were approximately 250,000 Native Americans in the USA – just 0.3 per cent of the total population. The United States’ Indian removal policies, laws, and acts changed many Indians’ lives for the worse. During the 19th century, the removal of Indian tribes had many negative environmental, social, and cultural effects on Native Americans.

When America was first created, Native Americans were believed to be less than the White Men that were in charge of the American takeover. They were stripped of their rights and forced to make room for their intruders. As Chief Seattle’s Treaty Oration says, “the Red Man no longer has rights that [the white man] need respect”. Many Early Americans tried to justify this takeover. Thomas Hart Benton writes in his essay The Destiny of the Race, “civilization, or extinction, has been the fate of all people who have found themselves in the track of the advancing Whites.” Along with the argument of the White Man being the “dominant race”, people believed that God had given them this land, and that they had a right to take it because of this. Again, as Chief Seattle writes, “you God is not our God! Your God loves your people and hates mine!” None of these supposed “justifications” were an excuse for the pain and torment the Native Americans were put through. In other words, though the Colonists tried to justify the removal of the Native Americans, they had no good reason to uproot these people from the only home they have ever

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.

Ever since Columbus came to the Americas, white people have massacred Native Americans. They stole all their land and killed their people while Native Americans could do little to defend themselves. In the nineteenth century, The Long Walk and The Trail of Tears were series of forced removals where the U.S. government forced Native American people of different tribes to move from their native ancestral lands to specially marked territories. Thousands of people died along the way. Nowadays, there are reservations where the U.S. government gives managing power of a certain piece of land to Native American tribes. There are often problems of poverty, drinking, and gambling on the reservations. This book provides a little insight on the lives of many Native Americans living on reservations through the eyes of Junior (which is based on the author’s experiences) and is also an eye-opener to people who were not familiar with discrimination towards Native

An Indian Reservation is a legal territory managed by a certain Native American tribe given to them, with only partial sovereignty, by the United States government. Only 326 of the country’s 567 recognized tribes were granted land, but even the land they were granted is not sufficient enough to support a sustainable lifestyle. With no rights to their land, no sense of home, and a rapidly dying culture, native americans have been dealt with in the worst ways possible after their own massacre and consistently broken treaties. An analysis of the Indian reservation system in the US provides deeper insight to the idea that the treatment of natives has left profound, long-lasting negative impacts on the lives of native Americans.

During the westward expansion the Indians were the only Texans who had any real knowledge of the land west of the present day Interstate Highway 35. Soon settlers began to push homesteads farther west into this uncharted region. The new explorers faced several dangers such as weather, water shortages, and uncertain relations with Indians. New explorations and developments in transportation and establishments brought more movement to the west. Residents began arriving in the west hoping to get rich land and political representation. The men and women who went out to establish the last frontier lived lives that would decisively shape the American character. The settlement of the frontier was driven by profit and political purpose. U.S. citizens pursued the work and adventure of subduing their country’s last frontier. Settling the frontier brought out the best and worst in people of all varieties that wanted to make their mark in the west.

The idea most central to all Americans is our right to freedom. These freedoms are things that are listed in Declaration of Independence and our nation's Constitution. Numerous President have used the idea of freedom to gather support for war such as the Civil War, World War II, and the Cold War. In America freedom has been sought after and fought for by different groups, even though it is the basis for what America stands for numerous groups have been deprived. These groups of African American, women, Native Americans, and other minorities have fought to include themselves in the freedom that was guaranteed to them. Native Americans have suffered for a long period of time by the people who settled their land, starting in colonial times. The American government has wronged them in numerous ways and the Native Americans have had to fight for the freedoms and equalities they have.