Jonestown Massacre

Wounded Knee was a terrible event in US history. It showed how the US government didn't understand the Native Americans and treated them badly and unfairly.

It held many struggles and disagreements, which lead to many retaliations, from both the Indians and the settlers. The Indians had been alliances with the white men until the massacre, which stated the settlers betrayal to all tribes.

The word “Cult” has not always had such a negative connotation attached to it. Many religions would’ve been considered cults when they first began. By the end of the 19th century many visionaries had revealed radically new religious systems, claiming immunity to the impurities of the old ones (Powers, 1997). These were no more than a group of people organizing themselves in worship and devotion for a person, object, or movement. They practiced rituals different to other “mainstream” religions, and were therefore considered cults.

When he failed to do so at the point time and place they ordered his arrest General Nelson A.Miles on December 28.The Army casualties were 25 dead and 39 wounded. The Following the massacre the soldiers left the wounded Native American to die in a three day blizzard that followed and later hired civilians to remove the bodies and bury them in a mass grave.Then they got 20 medals of honor were later given to honor the U.S soldiers who participated in the massacre.Even so,Miles to continue to criticize Forsyth and promoted the fact that wounded knee was a deliberate massacre.

A little more than 35 years ago, a man named Jim Jones shocked the world when he led almost 1,000 of his followers in an act of mass suicide; amongst those dead were more than 270 children1. On November 18, 1978, Jones and his followers drank Kool-Aid laced with cyanide in what he had presented to them as a peaceful escape to injustices of this world. The Jonestown Massacre was an incredible tragedy that sent waves through the whole world. Though the event was tragic, scholars have used our knowledge of what happened in order to deepen our understanding of cults, religions, and how both can influence people’s decisions.

Cultic activity has taken place since the practice of religion was established thousands of years ago. Since then, literally thousands of denominations have been inoculated throughout the world, especially in the United States. A cult, according to Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary is a system of religious beliefs and rituals. By definition, this includes organizations such as Baptists, Catholics as well as Satanists and Witches. While this maybe true, cults have been popularly perceived as Separatists who are consumed by the belief of apocalyptic events, and the leader is someone who believes he or she is chosen by God or some other deity to lead those who are to follow him or her. One group that fits this description is the

The 1870’s and 1880’s in America was marked with growing nativism towards the Chinese, accumulating to the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 (Yung 54). Competing immigrant laborers effected the entire country, including the Midwest, where people sought employment in coal mines. Animosity towards the Chinese was also largely uncontroversial in the territories, with the Wyoming Republican party declaring that the Chinese were an undesired group (Storti 98). There is no definitive date that hints at the beginning of the Rock Springs Massacre in 1885, where many Chinese miners were killed by white miners. However, origins of this conflict can be traced back to when the Chinese were first brought in as strikebreakers in 1875 unde the Union Pacific Coal

At one level, the deaths at Jonestown can be viewed as the product of obedience, of people complying with the orders of a leader and reacting to the threat of force. In the Peoples Temple, whatever Jim Jones commanded, the members did. When he gathered the community at the pavilion and the poison was brought out, the populace

Cults have existed throughout history since the beginning of time. A cult is defined in Webster’s dictionary as a “system of religious worship with a devoted attachment to a person, principle, etc.” Over the past thirty years numerous religious cults have caused “ tens of thousands to abandon their families, friends, education’s, and careers to follow the teaching of a leader they will never meet”(Beck 78).

The Merriam-Webster online dictionary defines cult as: "a religion regarded as unorthodox or spurious; also: its body of adherents." Indeed, any religion involving unconditional worship and unquestioning obedience to God could be labeled as a cult (using the derogatory suggestion of the word), since such a religion would have that high level of dependency, obedience, and unwavering compliance ascribed to cults by definition. Many mainstream religions still require their members to believe in God unquestioningly, to have faith that he is good and that what he does is good, to consider one's own wants and needs as unimportant while accepting the will of God as paramount. All of these are certainly characteristics commonly attributed to cults, but while it would not be unreasonable to apply this definition of a cult to any dogmatic religion that requires strict compliance with God's word and will as a condition of membership, the notion of applying the word "cult" to Christianity, Islam, Judaism, or any other major world religion today is considered absurd. There are those who make this very claim: that those who worship God fit the classic depiction of cult members in their dogmatism, unswerving

On November 18, 1978, followers of Jim Jones shot and killed United States Congressman Leo J. Ryan and four others traveling with him on a fact finding trip to Guyana. Ryan was there to investigate complaints about the community called "Jonestown," which was largely inhabited by his former California constituents.

The worst mass murder suicide was the Jonestown Massacre which happened on November 18th, 1978. Have you ever head the saying “Don’t drink the Kool-Aid?” this originates for the Jonestown Massacre, which killed over 900 members of the Peoples Temple. James Jones made a concoction of a powered drink, like Kool-Aid mixed laced with cyanide and prescription drugs. James Jones used psychological manipulation instead of physical force with the members of Peoples Temple.

“If you see me as your friend I’ll be your friend, if you see me as your father I’ll be your father, if you see me as your savior I’ll be your savior, if you see me as your God I’ll be your God” (Jonestown: The Life and Death of Peoples Temple; hereafter, Jonestown). At one time, these words had power behind them. People would go as far as selling their homes and leaving the lives they once knew to follow the man who spoke those exact words. The man who I am referring to is none other than Jim Jones. To put it at best, Jim Jones was a man talented at making people feel like they had a purpose and were “exceptionally special” (Jonestown). He was a very charismatic man and he would use his charisma to lure people to join his church, Peoples Temple. He watched the church he had founded with less than a hundred members grow

The story of Jonestown began in 1955 when a man named Jim Jones Started a Religion called Wings of Deliverance. The group was very active with civil rights and equality, which is something that some groups at the time looked down on and also part of the reason why Jones started his own church. Jones and his wife were the

This case study introduces the reader to Jim Jones and his cult, the Peoples Temple. The organization is described as a communal society, where “everyone would be treated equally and share in the common good” (as cited by Ciulla, 2003, p. 193). Jones is described as a selfless leader, who opened his group to society’s outsiders. He was not interested in wealth, even though the group accumulated a large sum of money, and is described as wearing borrowed suits and working over 20 hours daily. He was deeply devoted to his congregation and his idea of creating an “interracial socialist community” (as cited by Ciulla, 2003, p. 194). As the congregation grew, however, Jones began to grow his own legend. He made outlandish statements about being God incarnate, and his followers grew more