Racism "Racism breeds racism in reverse." These words so candidly written by Mary Crow Dog, a Lakota Sioux, describe the reverse effect indian boarding schools had upon their pupils. These old Indian boarding schools were intended to push Native Americans into accepting a new way of life as a white man. In lieu of attempting to live peacefully along side the Natives, the white settlers felt they had to force the Indian population to become "civilized". The word civilized, as defined by Websters, means to have an advanced or humane culture, society, etc.. White men did not see the Indian culture as advanced or humane and therefore began forcing white man's way of life upon the Native American Tribes.
Apess begins his story talking about the conditions of the reservation that Indians are living in and having to deal with, and blames the white men for these conditions. This is due to them “supposedly” being the masters or overseers’ of the reservations. He talks about how the white men could care less if the Indians lived or died. That the white men would take a lot of the Indians vegetation and taking their timber which is of most value to the Indians or any other items for free and then selling it to get a profit for themselves off of it. He feels that with no education the Indians are feel they cannot take care of themselves or their land.
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.
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.
It was a widely held belief that Indigenous people were an inferior race and would eventually die out. Many policies enacted on them had a greatly detrimental effect upon their cultural heritage. Policies such as the forced Indigenous people off the land and into government reserves, the assimilation policy tried to force Indigenous people to adopt a Western lifestyle by giving up their traditional lifestyle and beliefs. They were expected to live and act like ‘white Australians’ but were denied equal wages, work conditions and welfare benefits received by other Australians. Other policies attempted to ‘breed-out’ Indigenous Australians by pairing an Indiginous individual with a white partner.
History has been cruel to Native Americans. Slowly, new settlers forced the natives to migrate from their cultural tribal lands to unknown territory. These settlers also pushed the natives to abandon their native values and accept their European beliefs as true. The natives had no choice but to find a new place to call home, a new means of survival and a new way to preserve their culture. 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.
Having no respect for others beliefs they simply would just push them off their land in the thought that they would find homes somewhere else and that they would be fine. The Naive Americans didn’t understand why the Europeans were pushing them off their sacred land and why they couldn’t have just found land somewhere else. Through all three of these groups family was very important. With Native Americans
The conflict was seen as a 'clash of cultures'. The Native Americans felt that white Americans were devils who ruined the earth. Differences of culture caused them to hate and despise each other, and led to war. The white settlers believed that the Native Americans were inferior. Many white Americans believed in manifest destiny.
Before the Europeans colonized the Americas, there were people that lived on the land. The Native Americans that inhabited these lands were not warned of the Europeans’ arrival, nor did they know that there were civilizations past the rocky shores of the Americas. To the colonists, the Americas were undiscovered lands that they intended to call their own. However, the Native Americans proved to be an obstacle in their plan. The Europeans looked down on the Native Americans and referred to them as “savages” because their society did not match their own.
Europeans Vs. Aboriginals : The contact that changes everything Throughout the 1600s to 1900s Native people’s culture has been greatly harmed due to the fact of European contact. Taking over land by killing off food supply thus forcing Aboriginals to sign treaties to destroying their culture by enforcing assimilation. Ever since the Europeans came to Canada they have been nothing good for the First Nations living on the Land. In the 19th Century, government policy changed from government-to-government relations with Aboriginal Nations to attempts to integrate and assimilate. This change was due to a number of factors: the decline of the fur trade; an end to most of the armed conflict between the various new arrivals; and, the desire for more land and resources for the settlers.