“The settler colonial logic of elimination in its crudest form, a violent rejection of all things Indian, was transformed into a paternalistic mode of governmentality which, though still sanctioned by state violence, came to focus on assimilation rather than rejection.” –Patrick Wolfe, After the Frontier: Separation and Absorption in US Indian Policy, 13 Wolfe’s statement illustrates how the US government put more emphasis on legalized absorption of Indians into the White society rather than using forceful and violent methods to acquire the Natives’ land. After the colonization of the westward land and the end of the Frontier era, the US government’s method of assimilation of the Indians started revolving around allotment and blood quanta. With no place to further push the Natives away, the established Bureau of Indian Affairs and the government took action to eliminate the Natives culturally and spiritually instead of physically.
“Indian Givers” “Indian Givers: How the Indians of the Americas Transformed the World,” by Jack Weatherford, is a book about the American Indians and their contributions to the rest of the world. The book goes into great detail about the changes that occurred from when settlers first arrived to the Americas and began interactions with the Indians to the modern century of when the book was published, which was 1988. Weatherford did an outstanding job as putting into perspective how much the world has learned and obtained from the American Indians and their land. The book sheds light on these topics with a positive mood, yet also points out some failures of the Indians and their legacy. Jack Weatherford is a retired “DeWitt Wallace Professor
The migration of Americans to the west was a good thing for innovation and building up the United States as a country, but the Native Americans who lived in these lands were changed forever. Any Native Americans found in lands where United States citizens wanted land was immediately excavated from their land and brought to an Indian reservation of some kind. Overtime though, these Indian reservations began to limit due to the rising population in Americans during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. “They [Lewis and Clark] provided valuable information about the topography, the biological sciences, the ecology, and ethnic and linguistic studies of the American Indian. The mysteries of
Before the 1860’s the native americans were living in peace until the Colonists attacked. The Western Expansion of 1860-90 greatly affected the lives of Native Americans, due to the powerful role
Throughout history, there have been many literary studies that focused on the culture and traditions of Native Americans. Native writers have worked painstakingly on tribal histories, and their works have made us realize that we have not learned the full story of the Native American tribes. Deborah Miranda has written a collective tribal memoir, “Bad Indians”, drawing on ancestral memory that revealed aspects of an indigenous worldview and contributed to update our understanding of the mission system, settler colonialism and histories of American Indians about how they underwent cruel violence and exploitation. Her memoir successfully addressed past grievances of colonialism and also recognized and honored indigenous knowledge and identity.
Losing one’s cultural knowledge, and therefore the reality of their culture, allows others to have control over their collective and individual consciousness as well as their destiny. In this case, it is clear that the United States government has had the dominant relationship over the Native
This story of the Seminoles’ struggles for identity and sovereignty is a microcosm of the true horrors inflicted on Indian nations by the federal government. The Seminoles remarkably defied federal, state, and local government pressures of removal in the early nineteenth century. They also disputed Creek insistence on tribal consolidation, and other Indian nation claims to their property. Among the federal tactics were the illegal removals, and treaties that meant little to the federal government when land, as part of Manifest Destiny, and wealth the federal government sought entered the equation. The Seminoles also endured the paternalism, coercion tactics, and pressures from Bureau of Indian Affairs agents who made promises to them that were frequently broken.
In the Fools Crow novel, I have learned, again, that the Pikuni, even all Native American tribes, were in fear for their traditions, land, and lives, because of the white people’s greed for land and power. Throughout the years, the majority of American schools have taught their classes about Native Americans. Most students understand that the immigrants from Europe were greedy for land and resources, providing constant treaties to relocate Native American reservations. If one tribe decided against the colonists’ wishes, they were brutally removed or depleted, typically in massacres. In Fools Crow, the author James Welch gives a better understanding of how the Native Americans, specifically the Pikuni, felt.
In the late 1800s, tensions were rising between white Americans and Native Americans. The white Americans wanted the Native Americans to conform to their definition of civility. The Native Americans had clung tightly to their culture and religious practices during a time of continuous encroachment and governmental pressure by the white Americans. By this time, Native Americans had already been forced westward onto reservations through government action. Andrew Jackson had set this migration in motion earlier in the century, and the migration pattern would later be referred to as the “Trail of Tears”.
Indians were being surrounded a whole nation and not willing to give up their life style and costumes, relocation was best option in order to stay alive and take care of their culture. During the late 1820s a number of small “civilized tribes” had become a part of American society; some have moved into cabins, houses, and even mansions. After the Indian Removal Act of 1830, there was great unpleasant experience among the Indians who decided to remain on the natural land and way of life. Some of the Indians rejected the money given by Americans for their land. They stated that too much of their land had been taken already in the past 20 years and would defend and die for the land if it was necessary.
Carlos, a founder of the Society of American Indians, called for an immediate end to the practice of this system. From 1916 to 1922 he published his journal called “Wassaja” in which he relentlessly assailed anyone who was for the system. He called for an end to this system as it halted Native “progress” throughout the US. “Colonization, segregation and reservation are the most damnable creations of men,” Montezuma declared (cscum.edu, 4). His work on reservations as a physician also allowed him to see the terrible living conditions Native
The Allotment and Assimilation Era brought about many policies to make Native Americans act “americanized.” Two extremely impactful policies were boarding schools and the allotting of American Indian land. These both affected Native Americans and their culture by splitting up families and tribes and forcing them to assimilate into American culture. Although both policies are extremely devastating for their culture, allotment and boarding schools had slightly different impacts and legacies on the culture. Allotment had a bigger impact on Native American communities at the time, whereas boarding schools had a more significant lasting legacy.
With the arrival of Anglo-Americans, Native Americans lost much more than just their land. Tribes were forced onto reservations, stripped of their culture, wealth and place in society, with no hope of regaining what they owned unless by complete assimilation. For the latter half of the 19th and early 20th centuries, many Anglo-Americans continually pushed for Native Americans to abandon their cultures and “savage” ways. However, despite the many attempts to force Natives into Anglo-American culture, many Native Americans found ways to negotiate with the demands of the Anglo-Americans through mainly social, economic and legal means.
Native Americans flourished in North America, but over time white settlers came and started invading their territory. Native Americans were constantly being thrown and pushed off their land. Sorrowfully this continued as the Americans looked for new opportunities and land in the West. When the whites came to the west, it changed the Native American’s lives forever. The Native Americans had to adapt to the whites, which was difficult for them.
Throughout the 19th century Native Americans were treated far less than respectful by the United States’ government. This was the time when the United States wanted to expand and grow rapidly as a land, and to achieve this goal, the Native Americans were “pushed” westward. It was a memorable and tricky time in the Natives’ history, and the US government made many treatments with the Native Americans, making big changes on the Indian nation. Native Americans wanted to live peacefully with the white men, but the result of treatments and agreements was not quite peaceful. This precedent of mistreatment of minorities began with Andrew Jackson’s indian removal policies to the tribes of Oklahoma (specifically the Cherokee indians) in 1829 because of the lack of respect given to the indians during the removal laws.
