Race, Racial, And Culture And Heritage

Since the very first contact, the Native Americans have been treated as subordinates, being mistreated, shamed, embarrassed, and oppressed by white settlers. After the Revolutionary War in the late 1700’s, matters only got worse for the Native Americans. Population was skyrocketing due to a great deal of immigration of white settlers in the early to mid 1800’s, and there wasn’t enough space for everyone. With this came expansion, and to reach the goals they had set out for it, the Native Americans had to go. A prime example of this is shown in Howard Zinn’s “A People’s History of the United States,” where in chapter seven he talks about the forced removal of Native Americans from their lands, carelessness and failure by the American government to protect, and multiple slaughters carried out by the American military on the Cherokee, Chickasaw, Creek, Choctaw, Sac and Fox, and the Seminole tribes. Closely related is “Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee,” written by Dee Brown, his writings from chapter thirteen focus on the Nez Perces tribe that resided in Oregon, and their attempt at a journey in Canada, and other western Indian tribes’ affairs. To go along with Zinn and Brown, is Alan Brinkley’s “American History,” which posed an unbiased view of what modern day textbooks are informing students across the nation about what happened to the Native Americans. An article titled “The North American Indian Holocaust,” written by

Throughout the essay, Race, Culture, Identity: Misunderstood Connections, I found Kwame Anthony Appiah’s claims about social scripts to support my idea that we present ourselves differently depending on the circumstance. There are times when we try to play into the majority, as well as times where we try and fall into the minority; we choose which group we want to highlight depending on which will get us where we want to go.

The Native Americans once thrived on the rich land of the Americas, and they built a long-lasting civilization with the help of nature, gods, and organized roles within the tribes. However, the thriving population plummeted after their encounter with diseases and forced labor brought upon them by the Spanish and Portuguese conquistadores. Although at first the conquistadores mistreatment of Native Americans seem shallow and unethical, their conquest of the Americas only partially reflects the claims of the English Black Legends..

During the end of the nineteenth century, the United States had formed policies which reduced land allotted to Native Americans. By enforcing these laws as well as Anglo-American ideals, the United States compromised indigenous people’s culture and ability to thrive in its society.

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,

Native American resistance against European assimilation dates back to the colonial period. Governmental pressures for adaptation and eradication of customs, communities, and identities through various federal policies gave Native Americans a valid reason to fight and preserve their culture. During the 1880’s, the United States government managed to confine Native Americans on poverty-stricken reservations with limited resources and supplies (Young, 1990). Although these conditions caused reservations nationwide to suffer, it produced a necessity for movements to end injustice and abuse. Tribal leaders attempted to reassert their independence and create new spiritual

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.

Upon Columbus’s arrival, approximately 30 million Native Americans populated North America. Since then, 90 to 95% have been wiped out. Throughout the 1700’s, a number of wars broke out between Native Americans and whites. A population of 200 million people inhabiting the Americas found themselves subject to the will of foreigners who happened to have relatively lighter skin tones than them. The barbaric subjugation of indigenous peoples by whites is illustrative of the impact

Similar to African Americans and women in 1800’s (and arguably now), these Amerindians were minorities that arguably possessed no value nor contribution the cultivation of the United States. Ideas initially encouraged by Christopher Columbus, where he refers to Native Americans as ignorant savage beasts, has been preserved and acknowledged by the Americans where the belief of inferiority resonates with their perspective of the Native Americans. Immoral as this notion sounds, the Americans would then enfranchise to urbanization, industrialization, and acquisition of abundant resources without pondering on the consequences it has on the Native Americans. In 1830, in order to proceed in territorial aggrandizement, newly-inaugurated President Jackson scribed a congressional message promoting the removal of Indians for the vain benefit of the United States. In the intermediary of his message, he states a rhetorical question: What good man would prefer a country covered with forests and ranged by a few thousand savages to our extensive Republic, studded with cities, towns, and prosperous farms embellished with all the improvements which art can devise or industry execute, occupied by more than 12 million happy people, and filled with all the blessings of liberty, civilization, and religion? (Jackson 1) The inclusion of this rhetorical question is to exclude the care for Native Americans as they are perceived as “savages”, and place more stress on the significant

It can be said that the ruin of the Native Americans started as far back as when the first settlers landed in North America. The main progression of their forced emigration, however, was due to the War of 1812. A professor of history, David Koch states, “There is no question, the alliance with the English destroyed any slim chance the natives might have had to retain any lands in the east.” (Bulletin, n.p). The War of 1812 is seen as a step in the United States’

I would like to focus my response to the reading in Gabbidon & Greene, Chapter 1, generally around the idea of social construction. Furthermore, I would like to specially provide responses to discussion questions number one and two as posed in the conclusion of chapter one. Discussion question number one asks to “Explain the origin of race and its implications for race and crime.” Discussion question number two asks “Do you believe there are distinct races?” I will also provide perspective on issues surrounding the term “minorities”.

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.

The stories Columbus, the Indians, and Human Progress and A Patriot’s History of the United States have a greater difference than they do similarities. Each story has a different tale of how Native Americans were treated by the Europeans. One story told of gallons of bloodshed, torture, enslavement, and overworked Indians, while the other one told of glorified Europeans here to help their fellow man. Even though, both stories had their differences; they did tell of a similar time in which explorers reach the New World to establish colonies, and to use and turn the native tribes against one another for the benefit of the European nation.

America has come a long way since Columbus began his voyage in 1492. In “Beyond 1492: Encounter in Colonial North America,” James Axtell explains that when it comes to the Indian-European encounter, there’s more to the story than what the average person grasps. Most people know of how the Natives were mistreated and killed off by the Europeans with biological warfare and that a couple thousands of years later the Pilgrims and Natives had their first feast together known as “Thanksgiving”. However, in chapter four, Axtell’s essay describes that surprisingly, there was a “variety of ways Indians responded to the Europeans that invaded their lands in the wake of Columbus.” Axtell chronologically recapitulates the history of the Indian reactions to the European encounters up until the 1700’s and categorizes them into 5 strategies.

Native Americans were once the only inhabitants of America, but today, while still technically around, they are really only a minority. Despite this, their influence is still evident in many of the values and overall culture that modern Americans have held, and continue to hold, close. In fact, a lot of the United States’ government systems are heavily inspired by, if not entirely based upon, the Iroquois in particular.