Save The Man Anthropology

1. Describe Samuel de Champlain’s attitude toward his Indian hosts as he traveled down the river of the Iroqouis. Do you think he respected their customs or was he repelled by them? Why?

After reading “Second Thoughts of Colonial Historians and American Indians” by James H. Merrell, it is important to acknowledge the symbolicism of the language used by so many Colonial Historians as they recount significant instances throughout our Indigenous American History. In many comparisons, word selection used to describe the Native peoples, tend to simplify their existence as merely hunters and gatherers.

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

Native Americans have existed in the different regions-the plains, mountains, marshes- of the North American continent- long before the United States existed. Yet, most were not treated with the respect and dignity that the white American settlers were given. Viewed as outlandish and savage by white settlers, series of negotiations to “correct” the Indian way of life were implemented- through forced relocation, war, and assimilation into white culture. Those who stood up against the American government were viewed as beacons of hope by their fellow Native Americans. Many Native American traditions still exist today, but unfortunately most of them have been lost along with their people.

At first, it came as a surprise to me that there are still many tribes who are trying to become federally recognized and colonize land again just like before to continue their culture and identity. By now, I would had imagined that the Native Americans are at peace and can continue their traditions. However, I have come to discover that Natives Americans are still fighting for social justice when they have existed here way before Christopher Columbus discovered their land and called them, Indians. The impact that these social justice issues has on me is that the issues in which Native Americans face cannot be entirely solved. It is an impossible action to fix.

Additionally, Royal gives clarification for Native Americans’ positive stereotypes. He explains, “ But this is far from modern concepts of ecology. Native Americans in fact overhunted deer and beaver even before the arrival of the white man, and did not seriously try to preserve the resources in the vicinity of their villages. As a result, the typical woodland village, having exhausted local soil and game, had to move on average every eight to 10 years” (Royal 47). Although the Native Americans did not destroy the environment like Europeans on such a large scale, they are not trying to protect the environment either. This opposes the stereotypes that Native Americans are model ecologists. Royal also examines the inhumane sides of Native American tribes. Royal reveals, “The

The fascination with Native Americans has been a constant with outsiders since explorers first “discovered” the New World. The biggest surge in this fascination came in the mid-19th century when the Indian Wars were starting to come to an end and the belief that Native Americans were disappearing, walking into the sunset never to be seen again. This led to an increase in the collecting of anything Native American, from artifacts to stories to portraits. The inevitable outcome of this was that Native Americans, who were never considered very highly to begin with, where now moved into a category of scientific interest to be study. This scientific interest in Native Americans is what many museums and other institutions based their collections and exhibits on and is one of the issues that many Native Americans have with how both their people and their culture were, and to some extent still are, represented in these places.

6. What ultimately happened to the estimated 10 million Indians living in North America at the time of Columbus' arrival?

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.

The Indian Removal Act was a bill signed by President Andrew. This act enabled the president to give grants for unsettled land west of the Mississippi river, “in exchange for Indian lands within existing state border”( "Primary Documents in American History." Library of Congress, 2015). So, the Indian tribes were forcibly taking form their homes and moved to the west, because of this act.

Looking throughout the overwhelming events the American Revolution had on everyone involved, allows us to examine how the governments’ policies toward the Indians changed over time. It shows how the policy changes effected the Indians as well as the Americans’, their attitudes toward each other as the American’s pushed westward and the Indians resisted. Then the actions on both sides which lead up to the final removal of all Indians to west of the Mississippi in 1830’s.

This act served to encourage the citizens of the United States to pursue the course of westward expansion and permanently settle the land on the other side of the Mississippi River basin, the land that was “acquired” by the government from the Native Americans. In accepting the government's offer to make way into the western frontier, each man would receive 160 acres of “public land” to farm and eventually make profitable in the long run. This newly accessible “public land” was the result of the Indian Removal Act and caused the development of new problem for the United States government. After eradicating the Natives,the government came to the realization that their success was limited due to the mass population of Indians that were now without some sort of residence and facing certain starvation from the lack of buffalo. In order to “keep the promises” that were made to the Natives, the government devised the Reservation System which would allow them to facilitate the needs of the Indians without posing a threat to any of the settlers. These reservations are still in use today, although they do not serve the same purpose as they once did and are now scared places that many house the remaining culture and traditions of several

Thomas King’s The Inconvenient Indian tells the story of Indigenous people in Canada and the United States, it challenges the narrative on how Indigenous history is taught and explains why Indigenous people continue to feel frustrated. King’s seeks to educate the reader as he provides a detailed accounts of the horrific massacres Indigenous people endured, yet he simultaneously inserts humorous moments which balances out the depressing content and enhances his story. The books highlights the neglect and assimilation that Indigenous were subjected to and how their survival was seen as an inconvenience to western culture. King directs his message at a Euro-centric audience to offer an accurate explanation of Indigenous culture and

By the middle 1800s, almost all the Indians had been moved west of the Mississippi River. They were given land

Between 1790 and 1920 it was a tough time for the Indians. During that period Native Americans were forced to convert to the European-American Culture. Their whole life changed, the way of living, religion, and especially their children’s future. It was wrong of Americans to convert natives into a different society that they saw fit and not letting them express their own culture and treating them as an unworthy society.