Thesis On Native Americans

THESIS STATEMENT: The Native Americans were historically doomed because of the Europeans inability to accept elements of Native American culture that they felt were savage, the natives inability to acknowledge the Europeans threat to their lifestyle and land, and the far superior European army used to defeat Indian tribes.

Throughout the films I have watched this semester, American Indians have been constructed and represented in many different ways. Throughout this semester, different films in different eras have led to stereotyping American Indians and poorly portraying the construction of Native life. At the beginning of this semester, films portrayed Indians as savages who couldn't kill a cowboy, but at the end of the semester, that stereotype changed into American Indians represented as helpless people who cannot be rescued from the alcoholism and distress found on reservations. The ways the Native Americans are portrayed in these films create an image that America views Indians in today's society. In the first films viewed in class, they created the life

The only reason the Europeans and Native Americans met when they did was Spain was looking for a more direct route to India. The King and Queen of Spain funded Christopher Columbus’s journey to the new world. When arriving to what we know as the Caribbean he believed it was an actual country not just an island because of the sheer size of it. After sailing the coast he soon found out it was an island. When arriving he called these natives Indians because he believed he was in India.

Not to be left out, The Economist published an article about alcoholism affecting Native Americans titled “The Wounds of Whiteclay An Alcoholism Epidemic Among the Lakota Sioux”. The article claims that “shops have been making immoral profits from the misery of vulnerable residents of the reservation” (Economist). Substance abuse is one of many reasons that many Natives do not go to college or receive higher education, as seen when Alexie writes “So what was I doing in racist Reardan, where more than half of every graduating class went to college? Nobody in my family had ever gone near a college” (Alexie, Forney, 56). All of these literary works show that alcoholism, along with other disadvantages brought to America by Europeans, hinders the success and the future of Natives.

How did the Native American people groups who shaped North America for centuries become reduced to stereotypes portrayed in movies and other media? What is the place for advocacy and social justice ministries in these communities? These questions captured my attention during my education at Taylor University. At Taylor, most students are not aware of Native American tribes beyond the media portrayal in westerns or sports logos. As I conducted research for the Butler Undergraduate Research conference and the Emmaus Initiative, a nonprofit tracking religious freedom for Christianity, Islam, and Judaism in the United States, it became evident the blind spot regarding Native American studies and advocacy was a national trend. During my future

Native Americans have struggled to rise above and escape their impoverished reservations because they use alcohol to cope. The alcohol causes the Natives to lower their ambitions and become self destructive. Many might claim that alcohol abuse is not that common on reservations and is not the main source of scarcity of Native success. Not all Native Americans engage in alcoholism. There are “many tribes and individual Native Americans [who] practice abstinence and drinking in moderation, aligning the substance abuse levels of their tribe with the rest of the country” (addictiontreatment.org). It is evident that there is no absolute when it comes to the amount of Native Americans who abuse alcohol. Many are conscious of the disastrous effects

1) Analyze The challenges Native Americans faced in both allying with and waging war against

Should settlers take into consideration the heritage and cultural ties to geographic areas of native people when instituting policies? The past has shown that native people have been mistreated. But we still see hatred towards them currently. History shows that Native Americans should have every right to decide what happens on their land in the United States. Not only is this true for Native Americans, but it is also true for the First Nation in Canada, Indigenous Australians, and Amazon Natives.

As I continued my journey trying to find my Buffalo herd I kept thinking about the Nez Perce tribe and Chief Joseph. The clothing they wore, the headpieces, their hair everything about them was unique. It would be a shame if they changed it because of the wishes of another. Culture is a big part of everyone's life and one can simply not have culture, even us Buffalo have culture. I remember before my herd left me we would all sing songs and enjoy time together while we traveled across the land of the free. I ended up traveling all the way to Oklahoma and I wished I hadn’t. As soon as I arrived I saw a sign that said, “Save the man, kill the Indian”. The Americans had changed the Natives, ripping them of their culture and love. It was a horrendous

There are many important points in this paper. First of all, the predisposition that the new arrivers had towards Native American people, I believe that that selfish and wrong way of thinking that they had was the source of the holocaust that followed. Because, these new arrivers had the belief that everybody that thought in a way different to theirs, was mistaken and that they have the right to change the others’ “wrong” thinking, simply because they thought that the way they perceived things was the “correct” one. Therefore they did not allow the Native American people to show them or to share with them their beliefs, they simply imposed all their rules, beliefs, values and way of thinking. The previous fact also reveals the feeling of superiority

Throughout history, Native Americans have proven themselves to be integral towards the storyline of the new world. Beginning with the First Contact, Native Americans exchanged goods and ideas with their European visitors, promoting advancement of both cultures. This transfer of global information allowed the world to advance at a much faster rate, leading to new technologies and ways of living. Though bringing the world to a more modern state, the First contact brought upon many negatives toward the Native peoples of America. The misrepresentation of America’s indigenous peoples occurred throughout this time, becoming detrimental to their way of life and causing much distress on their people. In assessing the ways in which misrepresentation constructs a contemporary view of racial identity, the factors of Native American stereotypes, disruption of the Native way of life, and Native American media

Native Americans were a strong source for the success of America due to their agriculture, hunting and great inventions

Native American history spans tens of thousands of thousands of years and two continents. It is a multifaceted story of dynamic cultures that in turn spawned intricate economic relationships and complex political alliances. Through it all, the relationship of First Peoples to the land has remained a central theme.

When Columbus first set foot in the New World, he believed that he had arrived in the islands just off the coast of Cipango, known today as China. Thinking this, he called the people that he met Indians, as they lived on the islands that he falsely believed were the Indies. The term Indian spread back to Europe, as did the term Indies, and to this day, Native Americans are known as Indians, and the Caribbean islands are referred to as the West Indies. The Indians populated a much greater area than Columbus could have imagined, covering the land of two Continents. The Native people of these lands, known already by a term in their languages that roughly meant "the people", were now thrown into one large group called Indians, which stretched

A few thousands of years before the famous and high recognized explore Christopher Columbus’ ships landed in the Bahamas, a distinctive group of people discovered America. The ancestors of modern Native Americans who hiked over a “land bridge” from Asia more than 12,000 years ago. In fact, there is an estimate that more than 50 million people were already living in the Americas. As time passed, these migrants and their descendants pushed south and east, adapting as they went. In order to keep track of these diverse groups, anthropologists and geographers have divided them into “culture areas,” or rough groupings of contiguous peoples who shared similar habitats and characteristics.