The Loss of Centeredness of the Native American and the Loss of Their Identity Through the Nineteenth Century to the Early Twentieth CenturyABSTRACTLoss of centeredness of culture affected many cultural groups. This paper will discuss the loss of centeredness of the Native American and the loss of their identity through the nineteenth century to the early twentieth century.
SOCIAL DIVERSITYSOCIAL ISSUESThis document shall attempt to scrutinize and decrypt the subsequent quotation: “The confrontation of Western civilization with other peoples whose values were often dramatically opposed to the Wests…suggests that by the dawn of the twentieth century, the tradition and sense of centeredness that had defined indigenous cultures for hundreds, even thousands, of years was either threatened or in the process of being destroyed. Worldwide, non-Western cultures suddenly found that they were defined as outposts of new colonial empires developed by Europeans, resulting in the weakening of traditional cultural practices, political leadership, and social systems that had been in place for centuries.” (Sayre, 2012) Also explained will be what the “loss of centeredness” of culture would have meant for the Native Americans in the later 19th and earlier 20th century.
The Native American “cultural identity” was a key to establishing the American West and Western civilization over the millennia. As such, it was important to develop a culture that held the Western tradition. As such, the “Native American ethnic identity” was considered “contemporary” to the Native Americans in the late 19th century.
When the American West was finally created and established in 1848, President Theodore Roosevelt signed an act to implement the Native American cultural identity law, which established that Native American tribes could not establish a national identity for themselves while in full sovereignty or control over a territory, such as Hawaii.
The law also established that Native Americans were not eligible to participate in political, economic, professional, political, educational, sports, and social activities, despite the fact that most of their economic and social resources were appropriated to create this new society.
But the issue remained that the laws violated the First Amendment:
“In fact, it seems unlikely, then, that the ‘national identity’ the Act was designed to prohibit was intended as a means, or even the basis, for further development of the American West….”
Although the First Amendment is a cornerstone of the American Republic, it was only recently recognized that it was at the center and foundation of the Constitution to protect cultural and historic rights and freedoms. Since it was not just the First Amendment itself that the country had in this case, but the Constitution as a whole, it was at its forefront in the First Amendments and therefore, the act needed to be removed. So many things required to be done to ensure the “nation” and its people would not have the “national identity” that it purported to protect – including the right to “take all necessary care of ourselves.”
As such, the act required an end to “the practice” of “non-native” peoples who only retained their culture and lived in complete tribal sovereignty. This meant that the “American West,” which was in full Native American sovereignty, would continue to be a place of American colonialism in and of itself.
Now:
“By removing the Native Americans who possessed an indigenous homeland, the act will also strip our country of all its ties and responsibilities, and will thereby allow us to separate ourselves and build a new America, one that is not the land of our ancestors, but one that can now be managed democratically. The nation will no longer be the nation in which we were born, and there will no longer be a “nation,” as the Native Americans were originally. And, because our nations have not existed for more than a thousand years, our new country will be nothing but ruins. The nation’s inhabitants will know that they have no homeland in their own language, and that these were their ancestors’ first language once they had been expelled from them. Without any self-determination of their own, it is impossible for us to live in any civilization other than ours. They will have taken this land and their culture, as well as their language, and are no longer able to maintain self-determination from either of us, only from America.” “After such a great and lasting separation between the nation’s aboriginal peoples and their “people,” it is our hope and belief that a new, fully integrated Native American nation will take shape… We have a country with its own laws and statutes. To take a minority and establish a republic has always been unthinkable, and it has been our duty to do so,” wrote James Madison in 1833.
The Native American “labor, trade, commerce, and other forms of government have always been
This passage is examining the ethnic individualities of the non-Western civilizations being endangered and put into destructions way by the Europeans when they commenced to colonize their nations. Social uniqueness is formed from various influences, for example a peoples or societys language, religion, ethnicity, foods, traditions, etc. The Europeans entered into countries and wanted to set up their status classes, where they were the superior people and the natives were the inferiors. They attempted to do away with all the values, characteristics, history and culture of the natives of the lands they invaded. They established slave trade to improve the land by agriculture, industry and just the general and daily care of themselves. What a shock it was to the natives of other lands for westerners to not only invade their lands, but to enslave them, separate them from their families and loved ones, thrust them into unfamiliar lands and customs. This caused a total loss of centeredness for these natives and, as seen in the Native Americans, they never did regain their centeredness. This is because the colonist from Europe stripped them of everything they possessed; their land, their religion, and their customs.
This document will examine the Seminole Indian Tribe of Florida and their loss of ethnic character through the 19th to the early 20th century. Beginning with describing the account of the Seminole Indians and what their manner of life was like before they had interaction with the Western civilization. Once the Seminole Indians culture is understood, discussion of the