An Analysis Of Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee

During the early to mid 1800s, the colonization of “Indians” and subordination of “women’s rights in the American society,” was very essential to those in authority. They were perceived as a mere means to an end by promises of a better life in exchange for “land and work.” Although locals complied, those in offices took advantage by using antagonistic tactics in achieving wealth, power, and ownership. However, these actions lead to “The First Seminole War, The Monroe Doctrine, Andrew Jackson’s leadership, The Indian Removal Act, The California Gold Rush, The Seneca Falls Convention, and the Birth of the Republican Party.” Although some Americans have been perceived as heroes, their actions have said otherwise about their character.

Junípero Serra has been decapitated, defaced, and became a saint all within a month’s time. He is surrounded by controversy. Many celebrated for he was the first Latino to become canonized. Rubén Mendoza of California State University of Monterey Bay explains, “Father Serra was not only a man of his time, he was a man ahead of his time in his advocacy for native people on the frontier.” However, Valentin Lopez who is the chair of the Amah Mutsun Tribal Band explains that “Serra’s and the Church’s failure to learn form the teaching of Christ or from the life of St. Francis resulted in the complete extinction of many, many California tribes and great devastation for many others.”

After the Civil War ended many people were in hope of finding land since population was increasing. Since the West was underdeveloped and uncivilized, many decided to expand the land. First the Louisiana Purchase increased the opportunity of expansion.Then industrialization and the Homestead Act also caused many companies encouraged to move West due to the low cost of land and that the transportation was provided through the railroads. In order to complete such goals, something had to be done with the Natives since it conflicted with their home area. Before the 1860’s the native americans were living in peace until the Colonists attacked. The Western Expansion of 1860-90 greatly affected the lives of Native Americans, due to the powerful role

What would it be like to have everything common and normal in life taken away within a moments notice? The film Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee explores this question through the historical events that took place during the Indian removal era. Furthermore, the film reveals the motives of the U.S. government through the many scenes in which they attempt to negotiate for land with the Sioux Indians. The Sioux refuse to sell their land, so the United States forces the Sioux to pay for the western expansion with life, land, and freedom.

Petalesharo’s writing reflected the treatment of Native Americans during the 1800s. Being a Native American himself, Petalesharo was able to give perspective on a point in history typically viewed from a white man’s opinion. The excerpt “Petalesharo” explains how the Native American was able “to prevent young women captured by other tribes from being sacrificed”, making Petalesharo well liked by the Americans (588). Petalesharo gave the “Speech of the Pawnee Chief” infront of Americans to convey the differences between Native Americans and Americans through emotion, logic, and credibility, which showed how the two groups will never be the same, but still can coexist in the world together.

The Americans of European ancestry often have described Native Americans as primitive, savage, and even and uncivilized. In this this paper I will provide primary evidence that supports what the Americans believed about the Natives, along with their few false accusations. I will also discuss how the Cherokee removal affected the natives during their journey along with afterwards.

Merrell’s article proves the point that the lives of the Native Americans drastically changed just as the Europeans had. In order to survive, the Native Americans and Europeans had to work for the greater good. Throughout the article, these ideas are explained in more detail and uncover that the Indians were put into a new world just as the Europeans were, whether they wanted change or

Throughout history, there have been many literary studies that focused on the culture and traditions of Native Americans. Native writers have worked painstakingly on tribal histories, and their works have made us realize that we have not learned the full story of the Native American tribes. Deborah Miranda has written a collective tribal memoir, “Bad Indians”, drawing on ancestral memory that revealed aspects of an indigenous worldview and contributed to update our understanding of the mission system, settler colonialism and histories of American Indians about how they underwent cruel violence and exploitation. Her memoir successfully addressed past grievances of colonialism and also recognized and honored indigenous knowledge and identity.

Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee is a novel the describes the history of the struggles between the Native Americans and the Europeans in the late 19th century written by Dee Brown. In 2007, a movie was produce based on the novel. The storyline of the movie is centered around four main characters: Charles Eastman, Sitting Bull, Red Cloud and Henry L. Dawes. Through different perspectives, the film wish to accurately depict the struggle of the Native Americans in their resettlements and the history of the massacre of the Natives at a place called the Wounded Knee. Throughout the movie, the main characters experience changes in their mind and beliefs. Charles Eastman, a Sioux doctor, experiences the

Mark Twain once said, “History does not repeat itself but it does rhyme”. When looking at the past one may see exactly what Mark Twain is speaking of. One major “rhyme” in history is the Trail of Tears in 1830-1836 and the Bataan Death March in 1942. These two events have major similarities that occurred between them and yet multiple differences. When comparing the two one has to look at the fact that individuals were upset about what happened to the United States soldiers during the Bataan Death March even though years prior the United States put the Native Americans in an identical situation during the Trail of Tears of 1838. The United State caused the death of Several Native Americans with no sympathy but willingly executed a man for doing the exact thing that their government allowed. When comparing these two major events, the Trail of Tears and the Bataan Death March, one

“Columbus, the Indians, and Human Progress”, chapter one of “A People’s History of the United States”, written by professor and historian Howard Zinn, concentrates on a different perspective of major events in American history. It begins with the native Bahamian tribe of Arawaks welcoming the Spanish to their shores with gifts and kindness, only then for the reader to be disturbed by a log from Columbus himself – “They willingly traded everything they owned… They would make fine servants… With fifty men we could subjugate them all and make them do whatever we want.” (Zinn pg.1) In the work, Zinn continues explaining the unnecessary evils Columbus and his men committed unto the unsuspecting natives. The argument that seems to be made (how Columbus

During one of his powerful speeches, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said “Our nation was born in genocide when it embraced the doctrine that the original American, the Indian, was an inferior race.” Scholars talk of what happened to the Indians as a great tragedy, but never anything further. We deny what happened to the Indians, particularly the Cherokees. During the 1830’s, the United States government set out to remove all Cherokee individuals from their homes and relocate them west. Relocation meant ending up on a land foreign to them, and presented with environmental conditions that posed difficulties for human living. This journey, known as the Trail of Tears, left countless of Indians physically and spiritually dead. The Cherokee did in fact suffer a genocide. With the help of a reputable source explaining the term genocide, along with the explanation of documents written during the time, people discover the undeniable truth that a genocide happened during the Cherokee Removal.

With the arrival of Anglo-Americans, Native Americans lost much more than just their land. Tribes were forced onto reservations, stripped of their culture, wealth and place in society, with no hope of regaining what they owned unless by complete assimilation. For the latter half of the 19th and early 20th centuries, many Anglo-Americans continually pushed for Native Americans to abandon their cultures and “savage” ways. However, despite the many attempts to force Natives into Anglo-American culture, many Native Americans found ways to negotiate with the demands of the Anglo-Americans through mainly social, economic and legal means.

Once European men stepped foot onto what is now known as North America, the lives of the Native Americans were forever changed. The Indians suffered centuries of torment and ridicule from the settlers in America. Despite the reservations made for the Natives, there are still cultural issues occurring within America. In Sherman Alexie’s, The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven, the tragic lives of Native Americans in modern society are depicted in a collection of short stories taking place in the Spokane Reservation in Washington state. Throughout the collection, a prominent and reoccurring melancholic theme of racism against Native Americans and their struggle to cope with such behavior from their counterpart in this modern day and age is shown.

Many Native Americans live on reservations that were established in 1851 under President Andrew Jackson. Life on a reservation is not glamorous. A majority of the stories are filled with alcohol, suffering, death, and sadness. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie details some of the experiences that that Native American culture faces. Arnold reflects on the treatment of Native Americans when he states “We Indians have lost everything… We only know how to lose and be lost”(Alexie 173). Tribes such as the Aztecs and Incas were almost entirely wiped out by the conquistadors who took their land and riches. It was a mistake that could have been avoided, but the fact that it happened cannot be undone. Native American people are not told that they have no place in society. As many other ethnic people have done, they have the opportunity to hold onto their past while becoming a part of something bigger. The United States holds stories of pain, suffering, and hardships, but it takes all of these unique perspectives and it blends them together. America 's culture is woven by the culture of the people it contains. Native Americans are another chapter of the story that can be honored and