In 1838, the US army forced the Cherokees from their homelands in the Trail of Tears into Indian Territory. As people moved west and Western Movement pushed on, more and more Indians were removed and eventually they were nearly annihilated from America. Western Movement is often given the stereotype by Americans as a glorious expansion of our brilliant country into the lands of the setting sun. But, this vision is not true. American expansion caused more harm than good.
Many of the Native Americans suffered from disease, starvation and death because of the forced relocation to the west. A change in climate and environment did not assist with the relocation of this society that had first existed on the American soil. This tragic incident is most remembered as the “The Trail of Tears”. Furthermore, the lack of compensation, by the government, to the Native Americans destroyed, the already diminishing, numbers of their eastern tribes. Many Americans opposed the removal of the Native Americans and argued that they too had been civilized and should be allowed to remain on the homelands, specifically Davey Crocket.
This led to conflicts and therefore partially led to the destruction of the Native American way of life. The white Americans quickly claimed land and would move the Plains Indians around as they saw fit, usually affected by where gold had recently been discovered. This culminated in putting the Native Americans on reservations. In many of the agreements and treaties signed over land the settlers would claim never to go back on their promises “as long as grass grew” and “the mountains stood”. Breaking the promises would have shown the Native Americans that the settlers thought little of their intelligence, and also would instil a lack of trust in the settlers, as now every apparently solemn vow to not attack certain areas or to treat the Plains Indians better etc.
Fast forwarding these effects through time, “What You Pawn I Will Redeem,” a story of a homeless Spokane Indian named Jackson Jackson by Sherman Alexie, captures the drastic loss that Native Americans have experienced and the effects that their losses have created up to the modern day. Though it took hundreds of years for the modern effects to develop, the structure of “What You Pawn I Will Redeem” outlines these effects on a 24 hour time scale to exaggerate how quickly life has changed for the Native Americans and how quickly hope can be restored. Time also helps capture the symbol of the yellow bead on the powwow regalia, which represents Jackson and his fragile, broken identity as a member of the Spokane native tribe and which represents a seed that will sprout into life. “What You Pawn I Will Redeem” begins at noon, the time that the sun is the highest in the sky, to show a time of contentment in Jackson’s life, but when he discovers his grandmother’s regalia, the sun begins to slowly set to bring a dark and gloomy atmosphere; however, after midnight, when he hits his lowest point and comes very close to facing death, Jackson’s hope for redeeming his grandmother’s regalia begins to grow as the sun slowly rises. Then the following day at noon, when the sun is once again at its highest point in the sky, Jackson is completely transformed as the little mustard seed of a yellow bead springs up new life, hope, and purpose inside of him.
The King tried implementing several policies to increase the food supply, such as price controls on livestock and restrictions on the production of ales and other products made from the limited supply of grain. None of these policies worked, because there simply was just not enough food (32). People hoped the harvest of 1315 would be the end of it, but heavy rainfall in 1316 continued the hunger. The shortage of food became so severe that paupers were forced to eat dead bodies of cattle to survive. People from Northern France are rumored to
It was a sad day for the Sioux with many tears shed and many prayers sent. As time went by the great buffalo was almost driven to extinction. Unfortunately I cannot blame the white man entirely for this tragedy, as I and all Lakota Sioux many times killed to many buffalo to use and wasted much. With more and more white men pouring into our lands, by the 1850’s we were at conflict with one another mainly over land. Treaties were signed but rarely honored and many were nothing more than underhand ways to steal our land.
The first revolution in 1917 overthrew the Tsar, hoping that a new government would be formed, and that this new government would end the war. The war had caused the price of food to be multiplied by seven, had weakened the government, which received less money since alcohol sale had been forbidden, and the state had a monopoly on alcohol. The soldiers sent to the front were exhausted and had lost hope, and many of them did not want to fight anymore. Thus, when the Provisional Government came to power and did not do anything to end the war, people were still hungry and angry. This is very important because food is one of the most important and basic things people want, and lots of revolutions broke out because of famine.
Unfortunately, because of such extreme poverty and no resources for food, the Batwa are disappearing. Those that have chosen to integrate into society are faced with constant discrimination and prejudice. “Batwa children say they dislike going to school because other children throw things at them and call them dogs” (Matthews, 2006, Para 12). The degrading has been so horrific that the Batwa people are ashamed of whom they are. In 1906 a young man named Ota Benga, lived one of the most degrading and appalling 12 years any one person could ever live.
When they won the French and Indian War, England had to make a few reforms. King George III declared the Proclamation of 1763, which forbid American colonists from settling west of the Appalachian Mountains in an effort the stabilize relations with the Native Americans. However this angered many colonists who had land grants there and in turn, the Proclamation Line was ignored. This was the start of a series of disagreements between the two lands, as the American citizens began to gain a stronger taste for independence. Enlightenment writers such as John Locke, who patented the idea that it
“It will be a place dense and civilized population now occupied with savage hunters” (Source C). Andrew Jackson Presented this statement to congress when he was trying to pass the Indian Removal Act. This is not entirely true the Indians were just doing what they had been doing for many, many years. The Indian removal Act is genocide and is looked over by so many people as not a big deal, but it is a huge deal. The NCAA (National Collegiate Athletic Association) is trying to get many sports teams to change from using Indians as they’re Mascot.