How To Change And Civilize Native Americans

People know about the conflict between the Indian's cultures and the settler's cultures during the westward expansion. Many people know the fierce battles and melees between the Indians and the settlers that were born from this cultural conflict. In spite of this, many people may not know about the systematic and deliberate means employed by the U.S. government to permanently rid their new land of the Indians who had lived their own lives peacefully for many years. There are many strong and chilling reasons and causes as to why the settlers started all of this perplexity in the first place. There was also a very strong and threatening impact on the Native Americans

During westward expansion, the Native Americans got kicked to the side. The settlers coming west often saw the Indians as a threat to them and their families. However, this was not the main reason the Indians were pushed aside. The settlers saw the Indians had fertile land and wanted it for themselves. The Indians were the opposite of what the settlers thought they were. The Indians often helped the people moving west across the plains; giving them food, supplies, and acting as guides. However, the U.S. Government did not see this side of the Indians, instead they forced the Indians onto reservations. During the time of the expansion of the United States to the present, the Native Americans went through many things so that the United States could expand; they were pushed onto reservations, and forced to give up their culture through the Ideas of Manifest Destiny and Social Darwinism.

To begin with, whites were against the Native American ways of life. In the 1700 and 1800’s, native tribes were given the worst land for how the needed to survive with their lifestyle (Urban Relocation Program). Most were forced to live on reservations where most of the people were at or below poverty levels. The urban relocation programs were set in place to move more natives off reservations to nearby cities for better job opportunities, where they were supposed to receive stipends to live while they found work, which was not always given (Urban Relocation Program). Many natives did not prosper in the city and resort to drugs and alcohol, in which some ended in death. The idea behind relocation was to turn the natives into “urban Indians”. By

Army and the forceful action used to confine the natives, the construction on Indian land, and the massive slaughter of the buffalo which the Indians relied on in every aspect of life. The mistreatment of the Native Americans has been going on for hundreds of years, way before the Gold Rush began. The American government has taken land that they are unable to return to this day. They have deprived the plains Indians of their culture and freedom. Immigration from other countries was at its peak, but America still wasn’t able to call people, that had resided in the United States for many years, citizens. Even the Native American’s, that had lived on the continent before it was even discovered, were denied citizenship unless they were Anglo-Saxon Protestant. To this day, many look at the Indians as a joke; The Seminoles as “The Tribe that Purchased A Billion Dollar Business.” Children are being taught about friendship between the American Settlers and the Natives, they are being lied to. The upcoming generations won’t understand the horrors of unnecessary warfare against innocent people, and they will only know to take what they want, even if it isn’t rightfully theirs. America as a nation has to be stopped from draping curtains over the defeat of the plains Indians: their wiping out of an entire people, just as they did to the

Long ago on the great plains, the buffalo roamed and the Native Americans lived amongst each other. They were able to move freely across the lands until the white men came and concentrated them into certain areas. Today there are more than five-hundred different tribes with different beliefs and history. Native Americans still face problems about the horrific history they went through and today 's discrimination. The removal of American Indian tribes is one of the most tragic events in American history. There are many treaties that have been signed by American representatives and people of Indian tribes that guaranteed peace and the values of the Indian territories. The treaties were to assure that fur trade would continue without interruption. The American people wanting Indian land has led to violent conflict between the two. Succeeding treaties usually forced the tribes to give up their land to the United States government. There were laws made for Native American Displacement that didn’t benefit the Native Americans, these laws still have long lasting effects on them today, and there was a huge number of Native Americans killed for many reasons.

We took their land, gave them almost nothing, grouped them amongst their own kind, tried to civilize them, and tried to change their culture to benefit the white people. The Shawnee tribe and mostly the Cherokee Indians fought again this for their freedom and to retain their lands against the white settlers. Whites need it to grow cotton, tobacco and staple crops and use slaves as the work force. The Indians did not speak the English language, or hold a Christian based religion, so they could not be of the same race, so it lead to the thought that if they could be converted from hunters into farmers, it would be to the benefit of the white settlers of the western lands that belonged to the Native Americans. Convert them to the colonist living style and make them white-brown men and they would not need the lands and the white people could prosper even

Historically, the people of the United States and the Native tribes couldn’t live together, they fought because the two sides competed for superiority. The United States Government sought to put an end to the violent clashes with the American people and the Natives tribes. A resolution was the Indian Removal Act, with this, the United States became safer, wealthier, and stronger; And the Natives, which they saw as inferior, would leave. This Act wasn’t easy for the Native tribes, they left the land their ancestors had built them, and experienced a long road ahead of them to rebuild again.

During Westward Expansion, white settlers saw the Indians as a hindrance to civilization. Therefore the mindset of settlers were to convert Native Americans into white culture. To begin assimilating, the government should, “cease to recognize the Indians as political bodies,” adult male Indians should become a citizen to the government, Indian children shall be taken away and “be trained in industrial schools,” and Indians should be, “placed in the same position before the law.” Assimilating Indians wasn’t a simple teaching of a new culture instead, it was brutal. The boarding schools were merciless towards the Indians, mainly because they wanted to force Indians to drop their culture. Native Americans were obligated to change and lost their

When the Europeans arrived in the Americas they were looking for riches, spices, and new trade routes to India. When they found this new world and the Native Americans that lived there, they deliberately mistreated them. Looked at as obstructions, the Natives were driven from their land and homes and pushed west. Europeans that encountered the Native Americans had different ideas about them depending on their political and religious beliefs but none were positive. Those ideas ranged from pity for them as non-Christians to be converted (Doc. A2) and treated as children to a lower status of human to be taken advantage of for profits. The Natives were forced to mine precious metals, and farm sugar cane and tobacco. They were not viewed or treated as equal persons. They were considered part of the wild land to be conquered, enslaved, killed, and beaten into cooperation.

In the early 1800’s, The United States and Spain had continuously argued with the Native people. The Louisiana Territory was purchased from France in the year 1803, Americans continued to push farther west for fertile land that could be used for farming. Due to overcrowding of eastern cities like New York City and Boston many settlers moved out west for a new start. It allowed for colonists to spread out and own untouched fertile land. When white settlers arrived they had realized that most of the land acquired from the territory was occupied by Native Americans for thousands of years. For decades Americans had thought that the land west of the Appalachian Mountains were unoccupied, but they were wrong. There were many tribes that had occupied this land. This included tribes like, The Choctaw, Cherokee, and The Chickasaw. In a sense, Americans had violent outbreaks with the Natives the minute the colonists’ had arrived in the United State. As the colonists’ tried to establish complete dominance and superiority over the Indians, ongoing heated debates over land ownership, and demanding requests to satisfy greed made forceful attacks between the groups unavoidable.

When the Europeans and Spaniards first “discovered” North America all was well. The Indians at first were truly intrigued with the white man as the brought all sorts of new stuff to trade. Matter a fact the first set of settlers would not been able to survive without the help of the Indians. Unfortunately, the settlers had very little respect for the land and resources. The Europeans then starting using violence to get what they wanted and as the number of settlers increased the Indians new that they were in over their heads. With all the new settlers came diseases such as small pox and measles. These diseases hurt the Indian tribes severely, and with the ignorance the settler’s wars began; the Indian Wars, the Indian Removal Act, Wounded knee, and the trail of tears are only a few of the many. The U.S. Government took it upon themselves to start relocation programs, with these programs the Indians were ripped from their homes, required to speak only the language of the settlers and robbed of their customs. The children of the tribes were taken away and sent to special schools to Americanize them and forget about their heritage. Then in the late 1800’s the government started

The treatment of the Native Americans by the United States government to try to control all the land was poor. The United States Government pushed the Native Americans to the coast. At first, they gave the Native Americans the Great Plains then realized that they could use it. The United States held a meeting with the Cheyenne, Arapaho, Sioux, and Crow tribes. They signed treaties with the Native Americans saying that if they moved they would give them more land that they could keep, they broke all of these treaties which angered the Native Americans.

Spotted Tail, Lakota Sioux Chief stated: "This war did not spring up on our land, this war was brought upon us by the children of the Great Father who came to take our land without a price, and who, in our land, do a great many evil things....This war has come from robbery from the stealing of our land. (Lazarus 1991). To me, this statement sums up the significant affect white settlers had on the Native American's world. It all started in 1492 when Christopher Columbus first discovered the Native people with the idea that they may be able to "adopt to

Long ago on the great plains, the buffalo roamed and the Native Americans lived amongst each other. They were able to move freely across the lands until the white men came and concentrated them into certain areas. Today there are more than five-hundred different tribes with different beliefs and history. Native Americans still face problems about the horrific history they went through and today 's discrimination. The removal of American Indian tribes is one of the most tragic events in American history. There are many treaties that have been signed by American representatives and people of Indian tribes that guaranteed peace and the values of the Indian territories. The treaties were to assure that fur trade would continue without interruption. The American people wanting Indian land has led to violent conflict between the two. Succeeding treaties usually forced the tribes to give up their land to the United States government. There were laws made for Native American Displacement that didn’t benefit the Native Americans, these laws still have long lasting effects on them today, and there was a huge number of Native Americans killed for many reasons.

            The Native Americans were forced to change their religion, culture, and ways of living to live as a white man. They had no say they either had to accept and if they did not there would be repercussions. According to Dr. Gayle, he states