The Effects Of Americans On Indian Life

The debate over the legality of sovereignty and acquired lands from the native Americans, specifically the Cherokee, has long been debated. The issues involved have included treaties, land sold, and the right of the Government to physically enforce their rules on Indian land "sovereignty". This paper will examine the strategy used by the Federal Governments, the State Governments as well as those of the Cherokee Indians. The three-way relationship as well as the issues will examine how the interpretation of the Constitution changed society prior to the year of 1840.

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.

In this paper I will discuss the history of the Cherokee Indians in the United States. First by describing the tribes pre-Columbian history to include the settlement dates and known cultural details. Then a brief description of the cultural and religious beliefs of the tribe will be given, as well as the tribe’s history after contact with settlers. Finally discussing John Ross, who he was and how he affected the Cherokee Indians.

“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.

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.

The presidency of Andrew Jackson was marked by extreme government reforms which resulted in the birth of our modern democracy, but the darkest part of Jackson’s presidency was his policy with the Native American Indians. The relationship between the United States government and the Native Americans had long been considered unstable (Marsico 6). With the arrival of European settlers at Jamestown in 1607 two radically different cultures clashed. The meeting of these two worlds was often benign but other encounters proved hostile. The enticement of the new found world and the idea of a new start were powerful incentives for European settlers to flood into America. Indians roamed the land but the European influx brought diseases to which the natives had no immunity, the native populations were severely affected. As more immigrants arrived, the land sacred to the Native Americans was being taken by white settlers, the Indians couldn’t compete with the white man’s population and technology. From 1721 to 1819, more than 90 percent of Indian land had been surrendered, including Cherokee lands (What). With the European belief of superiority the Indians seemed like a far less advanced culture and a people easily conquered. As the white man overpowered various

American colonists and the Native Americans of North America have had challenges getting along with each other ever since they encountered early in the 17th century. During the American Revolutionary war they were allies but once the white settlers gained freedom, they started to seek more land, which happened to be the land Native Americans occupied. After a long ferocious thirty year war, President Andrew Jackson issued The first annual address to congress, this article fulfills Monroe’s Motivated Sequence, contains bias and assertion which marginalize and silence the voice of Native Americans.

Our Savage Neighbors: How Indian War Transformed Early America. Author: Peter Silver. Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company New York (2008)

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.

Many historians speculate that about 20,000 years ago Paleo-Indians migrated to America. How they made the journey is highly speculated as well. Some believe it was by a land bridge between Asia and Northern America while others believed the Paleo-Indians to have migrated via boat. However, how they arrived is not what matters, but what is important is that the Paleo-Indians made it to the Americas where they began establishing their own civilizations. Around 1492, however, countries like Spain, Britain, and France began exploring for new lands to “colonize”. The lands they discovered were already inhabited by Indians, who are portrayed as the bad guy more times than not. Yet, one could argue that they are the opposite of that. Yes, colonists and Indians shared their differences, but if it were not for the Indians many of the colonists and colonizations would have never survived.

This essay will examine the hostile, violent, inhumane, and unconstitutional efforts of the United States government in dealing with the American Indians during the westward expansion from 1877 to 1900s. During this time the US government attempted to contain, control and assimilate the Indians through warfare, treaties, and the reservation system.

Throughout this course, many of the readings focused heavily on land and its connection to every issue and theme associated with American Indians. The land has been a site of much conflict between Indians and colonists. From reservations to relocation and everything in between, the treatment of Native people in the United States is intertwined with the varied ways in which both Indians and settlers understood and used land. Moreover, many of the injustices inflicted on Indians stemmed from the federal government’s insistence that Indians operate on the land in a manner consistent with the government’s ideas and desire about what land use ought to look like.

In Exiles and Pioneers, John Bowes argues that "the history of these Indian communities in the nineteenth century encompasses a contest over geographic and political place” in the United States (3). He focuses not only on how moving west affected the Native Americans, but how the political warfare around them also held a tremendous amount uncertainty over them. These Indian communities would now need to learn the dealings of the Indian tribes in the west, but also learn how to pacify the Americans enough to keep hold of their new land whilst holding enough strength to not be seen as weak and removable. Continually, they now had to learn how to cultivate new land and be prosperous in a completely different environment from their old lands in

In response to the Indian Removal Act of 1830, which expelled Native Americans from their homes, President Andrew Jackson said, “It will separate the Indians from immediate contact with settlements of whites; free them from the power of the States; enable them to pursue happiness in their own way and under their own rude institutions; will retard the process of decay, which is lessening their numbers,” (Jackson). It’s safe to say that Jackson proved to be a bad prophet. Almost two hundred years later, the “first Americans” now possess only a fraction of American land and face a litany of struggles. Of course, the demise of Native American culture and influence didn’t happen suddenly, but was a result of hundreds of years of oppression. Though European colonialism was a factor in Native American genocide, a critical analysis of specific American policies in the 19th century is crucial to understand how we got where we are today. Ultimately, a series of government actions that encouraged American settlement of the west created a snowball effect that drove American Indians to near extinction. The settlement of the American west had serious harmful implications on Native Americans through forced migration westward, theft of Indian land, and a series of wars with white settlers.

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.