The Misunderstanding About Native Americans and Americans Within the nineteenth century, many Americans saw Native Americans as heathens that occupied land. These people saw the land as theirs because of how they fought to become independent. They also claimed that the Native Americans did not claim land or have a concept of property. Others understood that it was wrong to take the land forcefully. These people understood the land was not rightfully theirs for the taking. It is also perceived that all Americans disliked Native Americans. When in fact there were people who sympathized the natives. They wanted to live in peace and not war. Although, they still believed Indians were below them and had ideas of reserves. Looking at history, …show more content…
That the United States should not come barging in. Another suggestion was reserves. People on both sides, whether they supported or opposed Native Americans, tended to support this. They did not know this would be bad. In July 1847, Henry Nagle wrote a letter and he said, “I would respectively call your attention to the necessity of publishing some decree forbidding all persons from trespassing upon the indians”. It does not say anything about a reserve or even hint at one, but it shows how Americans would cause problems with Indians. Because of these issues, some felt it necessary to move Native Americans to this land that had been set aside and out of their way. Reserves, in a way, were the easiest and simplest way to deal with them. Another letter comes from, Edward A. Stevenson, an Indian Agent in 1855 who said, “Their situation as it is is truly a pitiful one, and calls aloud for action on the part of the Government. They are desirous to know when the policy of the U.S. will be extended to them, and I think there will be no trouble in removing them to reserves”. The situation he is referring to is one of Native Americans living horribly and hopes to help them. It seems the some report is true on the behalf of him specifying an actual location. Again, while Stevenson is not trying to move them out of the way, he is trying to help them. Stevenston believes this is the best way since they cannot help themselves. It is ironic since Indians live off the land, and
Europeans had different ideologies than indigenous peoples when it came to land in terms of who could own the land. As a result of European entitlement, they assumed that the land was available to be taken. The process of removing indigenous people from their land began, and the settlers were justifying it by suggesting that is was not necessarily “stealing” land, but rather it was “saving” the land from being misused by the savages that lived there previously (Sahlins 19). Mindsets such as these finalized the traumatic process of Native American invisibility as they were forced out of their land and their homes.
Anglos continued to encroach upon the Natives’ lands and settle there. This caused conflict between Anglos and Natives, which usually did not end well for the latter. Natives would often, “ ... fall under the assault of our [American] troops” (Pratt 1). American troops would often kill the Native people whenever there was a conflict. America showed its power and dominance over Natives by bullying and hurting them. Anglos did not respect the Native people and continued to assert their dominance. Many people of the time thought that, “... the only good Indian is [was] a dead one...” (Pratt 1). Anglos did not believe that Natives deserved to live here; Anglos thought they were of the past and did not belong in America. The oppression of the Natives caused them to lose the will to fight
Throughout the 19th century Native Americans were treated far less then 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. 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. In this essay I will explain why and how the Native Americans were treated by the United States’ government, in
All the Europeans wanted from the Native Americans were their land, their gold or their labor. Unfortunately for the Native Americans, the Europeans succeeded in taking advantage of the Native Americans and in the end the Europeans did get them. Native Americans did not understand European ideology. Native Americans had no idea why the Europeans could fight for land, "Death makes us owners of nothing" (Dear John Wayne) is what the Native Americans believed.
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.
It is clear that throughout many years there has been an exemption of treatment when talking about the Native Americans in the United States. Supposedly every individual is endowed with the right of freedom, equality, and of seeking for happiness, but Native Americans were treated irrationally. From the discovery of America, to the founding fathers and settlers, the treatment and attitude towards Native Americans has been unsettling at best. The colonial policies toward the Native Americans affected the Indians in ways that changed their relationship between their tribes and the new nation. Cabeza de Vaca, Roger Williams, Cotton Mather, and Benjamin
Most of the American population believed that the "Indian" people are inferior, treat them as the barbarians, and often as foolish children. The Indians could not claim equal status with other nations, because initially, by their nature they are not equal to the white people.Forcible relocation to Mississippi rivers was a clearing the land for white occupancy and national police didn’t have any changes from 1790s only expansion and reformulation of the law.Since the English settlers arrived in the New World they have continually driven the Native Americans out of their native lands.
Native American history is, almost definitely, one of the bloodiest and most tragic series of events ever recorded. From the time when Europeans first landed in America, Indians were enslaved, persecuted, used, violated, and slaughtered by explorers and, later, colonists and
The United States socially saw themselves as superior to the Indians before and after Andrew Jackson’s Indian removal in the early 1800’s. For example, Tecumseh says in his speech in the Winter of 1811 that “the white men despise and cheat the Indians; they abuse and insult them; they do not
On Thursday September 22, I attended a common reading event with a classmate. Dr. Adrienne Keene, Native scholar, writer, blogger, and activist, was the guest speaker for the particular event. She is known to be a part of the Cherokee Nation. Dr. Keene gave a presentation on how people in today’s society tend to misrepresent Native Americans through pop culture and media. She mainly talked about stereotyping and cultural appropriation. Classmates told her that she did not appear to be an Indian and they thought all Native Americans were extinct. Even her faculty said hurtful things to her.
Eventually in the 1830s, Andrew Huxley evacuated large portions Native Americans starting with their terrains in the Southern United States. The majority of the tribes were moved under to the midwest what might have been marked “Indian Territory”. is they were guaranteed by the administration on the given land a chance to be viewed as countries of their own. At the Civil War break out in 1861, the Union and Alliance. Understanding that a solid cooperation of these Five tribes might be a chance to be an insightful relationship will make the Indians may bring men to fight, and additionally show help to state’s privileges on legislating framework done in Washington. The New York Times published, with respect to the Admiral in 1863, that, “The address for subjection in the Indian Territory and in the States will be a chance to be made out about domains of the United States, achieving the disintegration of the Union, and the beginning of the Civil
Native Americans were unable to resist invasion by the new United States because of overwhelming pressure from white officials and settlers therefor undercutting their society from maintaining independence and freedom. Disease, immigration, and forceful relocation would be the demise of both the populations and the spirits of the Native American tribes. White officials and new settling communities came in droves, some saw the Native American as either peaceful or logical, therefor capable of assimilation into the American populous; or they were seen as savages and hostiles capable of only bloody warfare and guerrilla tactics. Both images of the Native American residents were true, they tended to side with whoever they believed would help them keep their land during wars, for example the French in the French and Indian war, and the British in the American Revolution.
The United States perspective on the Native people has drastically changed from President to President. “George Washington originally started the ‘Indian Civilization Campaign’, which encouraged the Native people to adopt Western-European culture along with Christianity.” (Sturgis, pg 5) The United States was to recognize the Native groups as the owners of the land they inhabit, with the rights to sell or retain them. This ideology was later adopted and implemented by Thomas Jefferson who believed that it was, “established by Jus gentium for America, that a white nation settling down and declaring that such and such are their limits, makes an invasion of those limits by any other white nation an act of war, but gives no right of soil against the native possessors.” (Sturgis, pg 5)
American identity has been created by many events throughout the course of history. This country was founded on the clashing and mixing of many different cultures and lifestyles. One of the most important periods of time for this country was during the period of conflict between Americans and Native Americans over land rights. Americans had an idea of manifest destiny and that this land was theirs for the taking. The Americans were going to walk through anyone who opposed them in this quest for land. The treatment of the Indians during this time period was harsh, cruel, and violent to say the least. It is in this treatment that Americans came to view the Indians as a ?racialized other? and
From the conflict in non-physical it leads to the conflict in physical aspect. To the Native Americans, land is something that they have to respect. On the contrast, the European considered land as a tool to enrich them. As a result, tribes lost massive amounts of land to the U. S. Government, for which they were often neither paid nor compensated. “By 1820, they had lost claim to over half of Michigan's Lower Peninsula. Most Native Americans and some whites thought that the government's relations with Native Americans were marked by dishonesty, corruption, and deception. By 1838, almost all native villages in Michigan had been abandoned.”