In this passage, the author, Mary Crow Dog, wrote about her experiences as a Lakota Indian forced to attend a Catholic school. She was treated poorly there, and began to question the education she was receiving. She got into arguments with her teachers and found out she could learn just as much from resisting them as she could from obeying them. She realized how difficult it is to learn when being abused by teachers and not receiving any respect. Eventually, she decided she could not take it anymore and left the
RELIGION IN AMERICA – MIDTERM REVIEW Cultural misunderstandings in the encounter between Native American religions and Colonial missionaries - Native Americans thought they were themselves guests of the land so how could anyone say you own the land. - When the Europeans came to the New World they wanted to enforce Christianity on the Native Americans. The Church and priests took this as they were converting. But converting means changing your ways and the Native Americans would not change their spiritual lifestyle. The two groups went to war and the Native Americans targeted and killed many priests.
Government soldiers killed 300 Sioux women, children, and men. The Indians who assimilated in order to survive were “whitemanized.” Crow Dog’s mother was sterilized (without her permission). Crow Dog writes of how she wishes she could “purge it out.” She was referring to her own white blood. In addition to her own internal struggles, Crow Dog writes about the oppression of Native Americans. According to Crow Dog (1991), “the fight for our land is at the core of our existence, as it has been for the last two hundred years.
When she was in captivity by the Indians, she could tell they weren’t Christians, which frightened her because she was used to always being around other English Christians. The relationship between the English and French is a different story. For many years in Europe they had fought each other, and that just carried over into the New World with them. The Seven Years War was just between the French and English, and the only reason the Iroquois got involved was because they wanted to save “their” Ohio, and believed the British had the best chance of taking over
Section D Analysis In the beginning, the British first arrived in America in order to conquer more land under the British name. The British realized this was not possible after the Native Americans refused to give up their land. An “Indian removal” policy was put into action and the Natives began to be removed from their lands and relocated onto “camps”. The British used religion as an excuse for their actions as the treatment of the Natives became gradually worse. Documents prove that the British intentionally killed off the buffalo in areas populated by the Native Americans.
After interviewing individuals living in the 1930’s, Mari Sandoz wrote the biography of Crazy Horse, with vivid details regarding cruelty and the governmental overtaking of the Indians’ homeland. Sandoz writes through the eyes of an Indian, using their language style to capture the essence of the times. Although it was sometimes difficult to follow because of my unfamiliarity with the language, there are great lessons to be gained by following the life of Crazy Horse. The United States government, our government, compromised and prepared treaties with the Indians as they tried to capture their homeland. As the Indians were pushed and confined, they were forced to succumb to the all-mighty government who made promises they did not intend to keep and were solely focused on their own interests.
In 1884 the Indian Act was changed to include that all Aboriginal children 16 and under had to attend school. Failure to send children to school resulted in punishment of parents, including imprisonment. Children were forcibly taken from their homes if they refused to go. Children endured horrible conditions in the residential schools. Survivors came forward with disclosures that included: sexual abuse, forced to eat rotten food, and use of students in medical experiments.
He goes into depth about the Delawares, Shawnees, Cherokees, and Creeks in an attempt to explain the idea of “the loss of sacred power”. The Indians believed that the more land taken over by the Americans and the more the Indians used the white mans resources, that they lost their sacred power. Dowd is arguing that the Indians had two viewpoints. He is also arguing that amongst individual tribes there were a variety of people who believed in one or the other. The nativist ideal was spread throughout many tribes because of Indian prophets sharing ways to rid the Anglo-Americans from their land.
For example there were the Delaware Indians that, similar to Tecumseh, had tried for years to hold onto their tribal lands but regardless of their treaties and pleading for government assistance, witnessed the incoming settlers take as they pleased and even sell as their own to others the Delaware lands. (Donald H. Kent) There was the infamous event known as the Trail of Tears, the many instances of countless Indians massacred in their villages by the Army and their continual forced movement by the United States, eventually leading to their resettlement onto reservation land that was far less suitable than the land stolen from them. The United States Government owes the Original Americans very much. So much it could never be
Challenges American Indians Face Then and Now XXXXXXXXXXXX Northwestern State University Abstract Challenges have troubled American Indians throughout history a great deal. The land that they lived and occupied was a way of self-sufficient survival. The Americans and British used their clout by controlling trade, taking control of their lands and destroying their people. Assimilation was forced upon the American Indians to deprive them of their native language and culture. This paper will discuss the challenges that the American Indian Culture may face today: living conditions, families, education and employment, and health care.