Native AmericansEssay Preview: Native AmericansReport this essayNative AmericansChristopher Columbus discovered America. But how could he have discovered some place where people were already living? At any rate, Americans celebrate Columbus arrival as a holiday, but they forget the indigenous people. These are people that helped our ancestors live here when the first settlers were having troubles adapting to an environment in which they did not know how to exploit the resources. But the repayment for such selfless aid is sub-par by anyones standards. Nowadays its hard to picture how the Native Americans used to live because meeting one is a rarity.
The Native Americans once occupied the entire region of the United States. They were composed of many different groups, with as many as a few hundred languages and dialects. The Natives from the Southwest used to live in large built terraced communities and their main way of finding food was from agriculture; they planted squash, pumpkins, beans and corn crops. Trades between neighboring tribes were common, and this act brought in additional goods and also some raw materials such as gems, cooper, seashells and soapstone. To this day, movies and television continue the stereotype of Natives wearing feathered headdresses and killing innocent white settlers.
As they encountered the Europeans, their material world completely changed. The Native Americans were amazed by the physical looks of the white settlers, their way of dressing, and also by their language. The first Native-White encounter was very peaceful and trade was their principal interaction. Tension and disputes were sometimes resolved by force but more often by negotiation or treaties. On the other hand, the Natives were described as strong and very innocent creatures waiting for the first opportunity to be Christianized. The Natives were called the “Noble Savages” by the settlers because they were cooperative people, but after having a few conflicts with them, they seemed to behave like animals. We should comprehend that the encounter with the settlers really amazed the Natives, for they were only used to interactions with people from their own race and all of this was just as much a new discovery for the Natives as it was for the white immigrants. The relation between the English and the Virginian Natives was somewhat strong in a few ways. They were having marriages among them. For example, when Pocahontas married John Smith, many said it has a political implication to unite more settlers with the Natives to have a better relation between both groups. As for the Natives, their attitude was always friendly and full of curiosity when they saw the strange and light-skinned creatures from beyond the ocean. The colonists only survived with the help of the Natives when they first settled in Jamestown and Plymouth. In these areas, the Natives showed the colonists how to cultivate crops and gather seafood.
The Natives changed their attitude from welcome to hostility when the strangers increased and encroached more. The new settlers hunted on the Native peoples land and planted in their grounds. For several years the Natives gave the Virginia colonists little trouble because the came to the area of settlement infrequently. However, an agreement resulted in an imaginary line that prohibited the whites from setting to the West of this new “Fall Line.” This attempt to keep the races segregated failed as the white population in Virginia rapidly grew. The Native lands were taken up and in the 1670s the Natives became enraged and killed several hundred whites. But the Whites retaliated so by 1669, most of the Virginia Natives had been decimated or driven from their lands. The colonists seemed to have forgotten the help the Natives provided as well as food supplies that sustained some of the first settlements through their “Starving Times.” Regardless, the Native Americans were doomed in their struggles against the white settlers. In the end, the superiority of the U.S. government, the large number of settlers, and the destruction of the natural environment upon which the Natives depended for their survival overwhelmed the Native Americans.
In 1830, the Congress ordered the total removal of all Native Americans to West of the Mississippi river. The American government systematically followed a policy that pushed Native Americans from their traditional lands and onto government reservations in the West. The government reserved land for a tribe and signed a treaty with them. The tribes were not supposed to go beyond the borders of its lands and for those who escaped, the victory was short lived as they were captured and brought back. However, on each occasion when new settlers moved into the territory, the government broke its promise and the tribes were moved further westward again. This process encouraged the “Trail of Tears,” on which one-quarter of the Cherokees perished throughout the journey westward.2
• In 1862, Congress, along with the states, decided to leave the American reservation to the tribes. After years of struggle, they were finally agreed upon with the tribes, and by 1863, the treaty was signed with a new, new and powerful state. In that year, it was discovered that many of the Native Americans of the east of the Mississippi, had been lost, when they moved outside to the Indian territories. By the time the Native Americans were finally brought home though the government had no lands or water- rights, they were too old and inexperienced and were subject to violent Indians and other violent tribes. To protect themselves, the government gave them the right to build themselves new dwellings by the river and to leave all of them for themselves in order to restore their homeland to the original, unbroken existence by using it for food and other purposes. The people of these areas have always been a part of the American society and always will remain so under the new government. The most recent Native American history shows that this was an event that was not lost on the country. Native American leaders and representatives from a number of tribal nations have made statements supporting those who want to take this course and have been able to take it in their entirety. Native American tribes today include: • Navajo – An Indian tribe that has been located in what is now Texas but was still a tribal territory when the civil war broke out. The tribe’s traditional language was the ‘Igke,’ which the white men taught to other peoples. The Cherokee were the first group of people from this tribe that had a name and tradition. The indigenous people they took possession of after the Civil War were members of the ‘Igke’ and they continued to have some of their traditional tribes. • Cajuns – Some tribes in Central America are believed to have been brought to the Mississippi and other states after the Civil War. The Indians believed there were Native American groups but did not want them to be called Cherokee because they don’t share their culture so they made the decision of using the Mississippi. • Americans – The government of this country has been in control of American Indians (both the tribes and the military) ever since the Indian War, but has not been able to keep it from them so that they continue to be held accountable for what happened. Native Americans were once able to call themselves American after the Civil War because it was not an official name or religion. However, on 1873, they were told they were not Native Americans at all and that they were simply being treated as white people. They called it ‘Colonial’ until their government gave them the right to change their title and they were eventually forced to change it. • American Indians – In 1890, the US Army Corps of Engineers became an extension of the Indian Corps that was created under the U.S. Constitution. The Corps provided jobs and transportation for the Americans so that the Indians would be able to travel and work on the reservation while they worked on the reservation. For an American Indian to work at a construction site he must have some other means of transportation used to travel and support the activities of the tribe. Native Americans do not have to make the trip
Despite the fact that the law was in effect, neither the President nor Congress responded to these actions aggressively. One law, which was passed, had in effect allowed for the removal of the Cherokees from the U.S.-Mexican border if they could prove that a state issued Native American laws against their people as of the time of the federal government. The same law had been passed in 1853 before the passage of the “American Indian Charter” which placed no further restrictions on Indian tribes’ tribal lands. However, it was also passed before the passage of the “Indian and Territory of American Indians Act of 1848” which brought with it increased restrictions on Indian tribes’ tribal lands and to the exclusion of all Indian land claims in every state, without further state oversight. The law required the Indian rights of the Indians to bear the burden of the laws of the U.S. Federal Government, but failed to provide any means to the government to enforce the laws against tribal and Indian rights in this way. Therefore, a large number of tribes throughout the West decided to return the Cherokees to their traditional lands and continued to move into them until the end of time. When the last of these tribes to return to the Indian Nations were defeated by the Americans, the state was disbanded by law. While it was considered a disaster, with several cases cited as examples, the government never followed through on a plan of mass killing. The Native American Charter of 1848 was never invoked. However, it is true today that federal law and the tribal agreements that were in force until the early 1950s, were always in the interests of the tribes. That is why, in the face of this mass bloodshed, one cannot deny that the people of this country came to feel safer if they were involved in the Indian land invasion. The Native Americans are also the members of the American Indian population which had been massacred by the white people while they were in their ancestral homeland.4.4 Tribal Violence is a Myth that Fools the People Over
“This is the Myth of The Wilderpeople and of War and War”, the Federal War on Terrorism (WWOBT), 1945, p. 8-10
(c) William K. M. Osmond.
http://www.piet.gov/pics/wwobt/kmsn2/pwn_pb/kmsn2/kmsn2.jpg
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#8221?page=&id=2853%2F&page=;&pagewanted=&type=image&href=http://www.piet.gov/~hjmrs/pwneritw.gif
The Wilderpeople and the American Indian War started in the mid-1800’s when the Indians who wanted to return home on land they had abandoned in this land were brought out of the land to attack the United States military during the Civil War. The U.S. military moved its headquarters to the United States while
Despite the fact that the law was in effect, neither the President nor Congress responded to these actions aggressively. One law, which was passed, had in effect allowed for the removal of the Cherokees from the U.S.-Mexican border if they could prove that a state issued Native American laws against their people as of the time of the federal government. The same law had been passed in 1853 before the passage of the “American Indian Charter” which placed no further restrictions on Indian tribes’ tribal lands. However, it was also passed before the passage of the “Indian and Territory of American Indians Act of 1848” which brought with it increased restrictions on Indian tribes’ tribal lands and to the exclusion of all Indian land claims in every state, without further state oversight. The law required the Indian rights of the Indians to bear the burden of the laws of the U.S. Federal Government, but failed to provide any means to the government to enforce the laws against tribal and Indian rights in this way. Therefore, a large number of tribes throughout the West decided to return the Cherokees to their traditional lands and continued to move into them until the end of time. When the last of these tribes to return to the Indian Nations were defeated by the Americans, the state was disbanded by law. While it was considered a disaster, with several cases cited as examples, the government never followed through on a plan of mass killing. The Native American Charter of 1848 was never invoked. However, it is true today that federal law and the tribal agreements that were in force until the early 1950s, were always in the interests of the tribes. That is why, in the face of this mass bloodshed, one cannot deny that the people of this country came to feel safer if they were involved in the Indian land invasion. The Native Americans are also the members of the American Indian population which had been massacred by the white people while they were in their ancestral homeland.4.4 Tribal Violence is a Myth that Fools the People Over
“This is the Myth of The Wilderpeople and of War and War”, the Federal War on Terrorism (WWOBT), 1945, p. 8-10
(c) William K. M. Osmond.
http://www.piet.gov/pics/wwobt/kmsn2/pwn_pb/kmsn2/kmsn2.jpg
#8221?page=&id=2854&pagewanted=&type=image
#8221?page=&id=2853%2F&page=;&pagewanted=&type=image&href=http://www.piet.gov/~hjmrs/pwneritw.gif
The Wilderpeople and the American Indian War started in the mid-1800’s when the Indians who wanted to return home on land they had abandoned in this land were brought out of the land to attack the United States military during the Civil War. The U.S. military moved its headquarters to the United States while
Despite the fact that the law was in effect, neither the President nor Congress responded to these actions aggressively. One law, which was passed, had in effect allowed for the removal of the Cherokees from the U.S.-Mexican border if they could prove that a state issued Native American laws against their people as of the time of the federal government. The same law had been passed in 1853 before the passage of the “American Indian Charter” which placed no further restrictions on Indian tribes’ tribal lands. However, it was also passed before the passage of the “Indian and Territory of American Indians Act of 1848” which brought with it increased restrictions on Indian tribes’ tribal lands and to the exclusion of all Indian land claims in every state, without further state oversight. The law required the Indian rights of the Indians to bear the burden of the laws of the U.S. Federal Government, but failed to provide any means to the government to enforce the laws against tribal and Indian rights in this way. Therefore, a large number of tribes throughout the West decided to return the Cherokees to their traditional lands and continued to move into them until the end of time. When the last of these tribes to return to the Indian Nations were defeated by the Americans, the state was disbanded by law. While it was considered a disaster, with several cases cited as examples, the government never followed through on a plan of mass killing. The Native American Charter of 1848 was never invoked. However, it is true today that federal law and the tribal agreements that were in force until the early 1950s, were always in the interests of the tribes. That is why, in the face of this mass bloodshed, one cannot deny that the people of this country came to feel safer if they were involved in the Indian land invasion. The Native Americans are also the members of the American Indian population which had been massacred by the white people while they were in their ancestral homeland.4.4 Tribal Violence is a Myth that Fools the People Over
“This is the Myth of The Wilderpeople and of War and War”, the Federal War on Terrorism (WWOBT), 1945, p. 8-10
(c) William K. M. Osmond.
http://www.piet.gov/pics/wwobt/kmsn2/pwn_pb/kmsn2/kmsn2.jpg
#8221?page=&id=2854&pagewanted=&type=image
#8221?page=&id=2853%2F&page=;&pagewanted=&type=image&href=http://www.piet.gov/~hjmrs/pwneritw.gif
The Wilderpeople and the American Indian War started in the mid-1800’s when the Indians who wanted to return home on land they had abandoned in this land were brought out of the land to attack the United States military during the Civil War. The U.S. military moved its headquarters to the United States while
The Natives were forced to emigrate because the colonists were in need of more land for their farming purposes and for more space for the new settlers. Many Native tribes, numbering approximately at 15,000 people, were forced to walk hundreds of miles, barefoot in the middle of the winter, without proper clothing, and without sufficient horses or food. They traveled to unrecognized territories in what are now Oklahoma and Kansas. Many of them suffered physical as well as psychological problems, resulting from the struggles faced over the many years the government took to carry out the Native removal policy. Some Natives refused to leave their ancestral lands and fought to prevent their expulsion, but they were ultimately banned nevertheless. They were furious by their disappointment in the U.S. government for giving them land that contain poor soil, was isolated, and suffered from extreme climates. These lands came to be known as reservations. The banishment to undesirable land led to several wars that stemmed from the refusal of some Native Americans to accept their resettlement and the effort of the Sauk and the Fox tribes to return to their homeland in early 1832. The result of this was the Black Hawk War in Illinois and Wisconsin, where most of the remaining Native Americans were killed as they tried to cross the Mississippi River into Iowa. The Native Americans grew tired of always being used and exploited by the whites as much as possible to benefit their own people and promote suffering for the Natives. The Natives also have had enough of always being treated like animals, and the soon became enemies of the new settlers.
The newspaper article “Seeking Land for Tribe of Girl Who Helped Lewis and Clark” written by Timothy Egan1 really caught my attention because after the Shoshone Sacagawea