Settlers viewed themselves as above the Native Americans resulting in conflicts between the two. These conflicts escalated, and the white settlers viewed Native Americans as a threat to the country. The U.S. government forced Native Americans onto land that was viewed unimportant, or of no value at all. This has broken their circle by forcing them away from their homeland and they had to restart their lives in a new land. This was the beginning of the downfall for the Native American culture and its circle.
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.
When one passed on he/she would be reborn as a spirit through one of these elements. The white men believed the red people were savage yet they were the ones taking everything away from the red people. The white people tried making the red people civilized by teaching them about Jesus. Chief Seattle says (pg 1189) “..for the dead are not altogether powerless.”, this is ironic because the white peoples Jesus is dead but he is not powerless. So the same would apply to the red peoples beliefs.
It seemed to me that Franklin had a lot of respect and admiration towards the Native American Indians by the amount he quoted them. The speech at the college about educating the Indians was never quoted. The same went for the minister, who wasn’t quoted about his speech on Christianity, but rather just stated the basic subject of his sermon. Franklin quoted what the Native American says, from the subject of education to their religious views and how his perception about the white people meeting to learn good things was merely about ripping off the trade of beaver fur for less currency. Franklin (1784) writes, “whatever they pretended of meeting to learn good things, the real purpose was to consult how to cheat Indians in the price of beaver” (p. 230).
Indians for example, had rituals they performed to placate the spirits of the animals they had killed. Because Indians did not have a sharp distinction between natural and supernatural, or secular and religious traditions, Europeans believed Indians actually lacked religion or worshipped the devil. For Europeans, religion dictated to them that uniformity was essential to public order. They found freedom through servitude and churches dictated what forms of religious worship and beliefs were acceptable. Europeans were ruled by a king who claimed authority over them via God.
There was also an issue that the Dawes Act was to promise US citizenship to all Native Americans. But this was not so; they wanted to take the Indian children and “kill the Indian in him and save the man”. However in 1924 the Citizenship Act was put into place to grant all Native Americans US Citizenship. This was to be a good thing or so they thought. Indians still lived in poverty, inadequate housing and had poor health.
Between 1785 and 1829, the cultures of Native Americans were greatly changed by American territorial expansion. Attempted reforms made by whites to change the Native American ways greatly altered their culture and way of living while expansion led to the loss of Indian land. American settlers attempted to reform the Native Americans by introducing them to Christianity and their reaction was "we only want to enjoy our own" religion (C). The Native Americans agreed that together that this could not be imposed on them without full consent by stating "any sale not made by all is not valid"(D). They believed that "the white people have no right to take the land from the Indian, because they had it first; it is theirs"(D).
They then felt that this was an evil thing, as it has resulted in conflicts within the tribe; but to my own concept I really wonder of how they make use of the bottle, the bottle becomes a very unique tool that they use for different purposes. One man’s trash becomes another man’s pleasure. This is very relevant to the anthropologists because it directly reveals the life of people living in this world today never knew that there are metal tools, cities or planes that fly. The main character, Xi, then went on a journey to throw the bottle away and this was when he first met the whites. First, the movie brings across an interesting view.
Based on Parrillo's essay, we will analyze what caused C.P. Ellis to be prejudice and how he changed. Ellis was a white male from a low-income class. His frustrations and misfortunes lead him to become a member of the Ku Klux Klan. His father always told Ellis to stay away from blacks, Jews, and Catholics’ and he obeyed his father’s wishes.
The Native Americans were outraged by the white people trying to take their land that was set aside for them. The result was reservations wars broke out between the white people and Native Americans. As battles broke out, reformers wanted to put in place a new humane policy. The policy was to destroy native ways but save the Indians from themselves and make Indians into what white people thought they should be. After the reservation wars broke out and the conflict between the Native Americans and whites continued to rise, the new focus was the idea of civilization.