Reality In 'New People's And New Societies'

The Lakota, an Indian group of the Great Plains, established their community in the Black Hills in the late eighteenth century (9). This group is an example of an Indian community that got severely oppressed through imperialistic American actions and policy, as the Americans failed to recognize the Lakota’s sovereignty and ownership of the Black Hills. Jeffrey Ostler, author of The Lakotas and the Black Hills: The Struggle for Sacred Ground, shows that the Lakota exemplified the trends and subsequent challenges that Indians faced in America. These challenges included the plurality of groups, a shared colonial experience, dynamic change, external structural forces, and historical agency.

“The Indian presence precipitated the formation of an American identity” (Axtell 992). Ostracized by numerous citizens of the United States today, this quote epitomizes Axtell’s beliefs of the Indians contributing to our society. Unfortunately, Native Americans’ roles in history are often categorized as insignificant or trivial, when in actuality the Indians contributed greatly to Colonial America, in ways the ordinary person would have never deliberated. James Axtell discusses these ways, as well as what Colonial America may have looked like without the Indians’ presence. Throughout his article, his thesis stands clear by his persistence of alteration the Native Americans had on our nation. James Axtell’s bias delightfully enhances his thesis, he provides a copious amount of evidence establishing how Native Americans contributed critically to the Colonial culture, and he considers America as exceptional – largely due to the Native Americans.

In the first Chapter of Occupied America by Acuna we get an introduction and learn about the evolution of Mesoamerica and the people who lived there before other began to discover what was already there. In this chapter we also get to learn about the Native Americas who lived in the settled areas that were later conquered and colonized by the Spanish Conquistadors. Learning about these different tribes and cultures that coexisted with one another gives the reader a new perspective on the colonization showing the true ways in which this hurt the tribe and culture. One of the common misconceptions about the Native Americans and Indian tribes were that they were uneducated, improper savages that needed saving however when expressed in our history books they fail to mention

One extreme change for the Indians was the arrival of Anglo-Europeans. Native peoples’ lives were changed at the blink of an eye while new ideas, practices and beliefs were shown to them. The arrival of the Europeans changed the way the Indians viewed their world and manipulated their resources. This new change could be viewed as positive as well as negative, for while some tribes entered into trade relations with the Anglos, others were used as slave labor and all were subject to disease brought on by the European newcomers. However, despite all the advantages and disadvantages, no other introduction changed the lives of the Indians more than firearms and horses. West outlines one of the most important evolutions for Native life and how it represented a new way to harness resources and gain power. In just a few chapters, we are able to see the great advancements the Indians made in hunting and trade due to these new technologies and how they allowed the Cheyennes to rise to a new purpose as the Called Out People.

The first settlements in America thrived by themselves before European contact. However, many things would change on that fateful day in 1492. The Spanish conquistadores superior military technology and tactics caused newly conquered Indians to become alienated in colonial societies due to ethnicity and religion. The social hierarchy caused Indians to stand in the lower classes and to continue to be under pressure from Catholic friars to convert. To Spaniards, the Indians were barbarians in need of a way to become civilized and the Spanish were more that willing to “help”.

Many Treaties were made between Europeans and Indians tribes to ensure the peaceful land trade. In the second paragraph, the writers talk about the removal and the relocation of the Indians tribes on the period from 1828–1887. The authors explain how the immense cultural differences between the new comers and the indigenous people, have made the assimilation and the fusion unrealistic, especially after several bloody confrontations. The new generation supported the idea of the expansion of the land and the removal of Indians across the Mississippi. The Indian Removal Act was passed on 1830, flowed by massive Indian migration to the west. However, The European expansion continued to reach the west and the politics of removal came to a dead end, letting place to a period of “ALLOTMENT AND ASSIMILATION” which runs from 1887 to 1928 (8). According to the book, the central idea was to assimilate Indians by giving them a land and changing them to farmers. Indians had to choose between moving west or taking allotments, what can allow them to become citizens. However, many Indians were unable to work their land since the investment for seeds and equipment’s was very

In Richter's “Facing East from Indian Country” he changed the stare of early American past around and services the reader to reflect stories of North America during the period of European foundation rather than of the European establishment of North America. Well familiar to historians and early Americans for his significant study of the Iroquois, Richter has now wrote what might prove to be the final work in the effort to reintegrate Indians into the history of North America. Reviewers can’t visualize any historian or student dismissing the role of Native people in the history of colonial and early America after reading this book and learning about its many lessons. For this reason Facing East will enjoy a long shelf-life as one of the best

Calloway employs lucid prose and captivating examples to remind us that neither Indians nor Colonists were a monolithic group... The result is a more nuanced appreciation for the complexity of cultural relationships in Colonial America... He surveys this complex story with imagination and insight and provides an essential starting point for all those interested in the interaction of Europeans and Indians in early American life." -- David R. Shi, Christian Science Monitor Although many Americans consider the establishment of the colonies as the birth of this country, in fact Early America already existed long before the arrival of the Europeans. From coast to coast, Native Americans had created enduring cultures, and the subsequent European

"The Colonization of North America." In Modern History Sourcebook. April 1999- [cited 17 September 2002] Available from http://www.fordham.edu/halsall.mod/modsbook.html., http://curry.eduschool.virginia.edu.

Readers learn of General Carleton’s ferocity against the Indians and his great hunger for tribal land and the minerals found on it. This, together with the settling of

What is an American? This question cannot be answered by one word. There are so many different characteristics, qualities, and features that can be used to describe an American. Besides features, someone is only a real American if they take advantage of all of the many privileges that are given to them. Any person that is not grateful for the privileges that are given to them to me are not real Americans but this is only my opinion. Real Americans use their privileges to benefit themselves and everyone around them. In today's society there are certain things that are expected from American citizens, for instance being a responsible citizen.

What does it mean to be an American? In today's day and age, the general perception of an American is to be free, free to practice any religion, free to speak your mind, free in general. However, America has only been able to be perceived as a promised land due to the obstacles and barriers that have been challenged by early Americans. From having to accept others religious beliefs to the abolishment of slavery. A good example is J. Hector St. John de Crevecoeur’s Letters from an American Farmer (1782). Letters from an American Farmer is a collection of twelve letters written from the perspective of a fictional character. These letters do a magnificent job at emphasizing on how America is similar to the environment and the people who feed

Talking Back to Civilization , edited by Frederick E. Hoxie, is a compilation of excerpts from speeches, articles, and texts written by various American Indian authors and scholars from the 1890s to the 1920s. As a whole, the pieces provide a rough testimony of the American Indian during a period when conflict over land and resources, cultural stereotypes, and national policies caused tensions between Native American Indians and Euro-American reformers. This paper will attempt to sum up the plight of the American Indian during this period in American history.

Calloway begins to tell his view of the European influence on the Indian natives. He shares,” Names on a map reveal patterns of movement and accommodations as well as patterns of conquest.” “ Such renamings were part of the process of dispossessing Indian peoples and redrawing the map of North America.” These excerpts from page 12 and 13 express the rapidness of the European influence changing and scraping the landscape. Upon Columbus voyage in 1492, where the story starts to pick up, he didn’t discover or expose a "New World" for Europeans; he really just connected two worlds. Native peoples numbering in the millions, with their own cultures, and religions, had occupied the

The long history between Native American and Europeans are a strained and bloody one. For the time of Columbus’s subsequent visits to the new world, native culture has