From these two videos, I have a better understand of American Indian history overview. Especially from video Pride 101, Dr. Duane Champagne mentions the removal policy of Native Indians, and because of the policy, the tribes have to move from Southeast to Oklahoma. These two videos show audiences a long history and policy about American Indians and how struggled they had been through in a native land. After I finished from these two videos, I can see many parallels between the struggles the Native American Tribes and my people encounter dealing with the U.S. Government “You can never be part of Indian. You are or you are not.
Finally the re-scripting of events through diaries and other literature that describe Indian “occupation” rather than possession or nativity, or the “first” wedding in a New English colony to manufacture a status quo where the New English become native New Englanders, and where Indians become intruders in settlements rather than the land’s native inhabitants. In other words, narrative frameworks are a tool of erasure of Indian culture and society in the early history of New England. New English settlers used racial and cultural differences to drive a wedge between themselves and the “other” inhabitants of the
A meeting with the Indian tribes agreed that no territory could be settled on without the consent of all the tribes. “For two more decades, violent Indian wars in Ohio and Indiana would continue to impede white settlement” (The American Promise, 241). The Northwest Ordinance was a development of a legislature within the more populated territories. “When the free male population of voting age and landowning status (fifty acres) reached 5,000, the territory could elect its own legislature and send a nonvoting delegate to the congress” (The American Promise, 241). Divided the power within the states and territories helped prevent one group of people or the government from gaining too much power.
“The Problem with Finding Identity in American Popular Culture” Who defines the identity of a group of people? Thomas King in The Truth About Stories describes how government policies have influenced popular culture’s perception of who is Native American as well as the role of “the literary Indian” in the Native American community (King, 34). These definitions have penetrated society’s view and behavior towards Native Americans as well as influenced how this group of people view one another. The problem with popular culture’s perception of Native Americans is that the images of the “Indian” are completely fixed, therefore preventing their identity from changing with the rest of society as time goes on. For centuries, governments have had the power to identify what is a Native American.
The first non-reservation Native American boarding school was opened on November 1, 1878 by Richard Pratt in Carlisle, Pennsylvania (Fuchs & Havighurst, 1972). Pratt retired from the United States Army in 1903 as a colonel, having participated in many of the conflicts compromising the American Indian Wars. Prior to opening the Carlisle Indian Industrial School, Pratt experimented with Native American prisoners from the Red River War (Pratt, 2001). His belief that Native Americans needed to be taught to reject their cultural values and way of life to adapt to a ‘white American’ or western lifestyle is best outlined by his statement, “A great general has said that the only good Indian is a dead one. In a sense, I agree with the sentiment, but only in this: that all the Indian there is in the race should be dead.
Countless Indian tribes endured terrible conditions within the reservations and received scare funds from the government to improve their living conditions, which contributed to the tremendous disadvantages they faced in a predominately white society. Treaties made in regards to their land, were often disregarded or twisted to fit the needs of the government, yet they were the dim hope Native Americans had in regaining some sort of identity one day. Decades later, the hope of becoming a truly sovereign nation came in the form of gaming establishments, which generated revenue for the tribes. The degree to which gaming has benefited the tribes is debatable, as it has produced a means of generating economic activity, all the while forcing them to continue assimilating into a culture they never chose to be a part of. Great gains have come from the opening of casinos on tribal land, ranging from economic benefits to social recognition, yet harmful results have developed as well that continue to act as a barriers to the success of gaming on Indian territory.
The Removal Act stated that the United States Government had the right to forcefully move the Native Americans to different lands as long as they compensated them for the land that they had to give up in the east. The US Government did not give the Native Americans any say regarding their move. Once the Removal Act signed into place they had to follow it. The move negatively impacted on the tribes’ health, their population and their way of living. Out of about 15,000 Cherokee that were forcefully moved to the West, about 4,000 died on the road there.
Americans relocated thousands upon thousands of Indians from their tribes and dwellings. When these types of things happened, it was necessary for the Indians to change their lifestyle along with their familiarized cultures and traditions. “Change moves relentless, the pattern unfolding despite their planning” (Line 34 Tremblay). This quote helps readers understand the carelessness that the settlers had on the Indians, as the Indians are saying “Change moved relentless” (Line 34, Tremblay) they had no other alternative but to move with the rapidly changing culture. A synonym for the word relentless is harsh or ruthless; nor of these words means anything good.
Western settlers destroyed traditional Native American ways of life by moving into their traditional homeland. As western settlers moved on to the land that was first owned by native Americans, the Natives were forced to move into reservations. Reservations were fenced in and one could not walk freely outside the borders. The Homestead Act of 1862 stated that160 acres of land was given to any settler who was an American citizen or who had applied for citizenship, who was committed to farming the land for six months of the year, and had to build a dwelling and raise crops. This land that the government was giving away was traditional homeland to the Native Americans.
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.