jh Native Americans were the original immigrants of North America. According to the Library of Congress, when English settlers arrived in the late 1400’s, there were as many as 900,000 Indians with over 300 different languages that lived on the continent (www.loc.gov). In the beginning, there was cooperation, trade, avoidance, and an occasional conflict between the Native Americans and colonists; however, friction rose as more settlers moved to North America and the desire for Indian territories increased.
The removal of Indians from their land in North America began long before the election of Andrew Jackson in 1828; however, he sealed their fate. Since the arrival of the first colonists in the 1600’s there were two opinions towards Native Americans. Some prefered oppressing and removal while others wanted Indians to conform to white culture including: religion, language, attire, and farming. Many Indians were persuaded or tricked into moving and signing treaties giving up their land. Others chose to adopt white man’s ways, but they later discovered despite their actions all whites wanted was their land.
In the late 1700’s, the American colonies fought hard to claim their independence from Great Britain. The ideas of freedom and “all men are created equal” became important American values;
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They began to assimilate into the white man society, learning to farm, read and write. Jackson agreed that the Five Civilized Tribes (Cherokees, Creeks, Choctaws, Chickasaws, and Seminoles) had made progress on leading a civilized life, but that the Indians owned land that the whites could use more efficiently (Huntzicker). White pioneers wanted more land to farm and felt the Indians were in the way of progress. Andrew Jackson believed the land west of the Mississippi would be better suited for the Indians and would decrease their interactions with the white
Wolfe discusses the evolution of the methods used by European colonists to eliminate the Native Americans and take control and settle in their lands. He plots the shifting course of the strategies used to incorporate Indians into US society, going in chronological order. He starts by discussing Indian Removal becoming obsolete. He then describes the system of allotment, where Indians were given individuals plots of land to farm and manage. Finally, Wolfe discusses Blood Quantum, the method of evaluating one’s “Indian-ness.”
Because they were pressured to adhere to white customs, many Native Americans no longer felt attached to the history of their people and felt emotional trauma from their experiences. As a result of their assimilation, some Native Americans felt that they no longer fit in with the whites nor their own peoples. They were in a grey-zone where they didn’t belong anywhere. However, there were some assimilated Native Americans that actually benefited from their changes. For example, Patrick Miguel returned to his people and “helped his people win limited self-rule” (Edwards 108).
When the U.S started to rapidly expand westward, there were major conflicts between white settlers and the Native Americans who occupied those regions. The need to push Native Americans out of their ancestral lands led to President Andrew Jackson’s speech concerning the Indian Removal Act on December 6, 1830. The Indian Removal Act was put in place by the United States government to move the Native Americans west of the Mississippi River into what was described to be “Indian Territory” (Bentley, 2011, p. 679). In his speech, President Andrew Jackson stated that the Indian Removal Act would “ Place a dense and civilized population in large tracts of country now occupied by a few savage hunters.” It was very evident that the Native Americans were in fact portrayed as savages and unequal to the American people.
1. James H. Merrell argues that the circumstances that the European settlers created for the Native American people led to the Native Americans living in a completely alien environment, thus forming their “New World”. He stipulates that Native Americans underwent significantly greater changes to their society than the Europeans did after traveling across an ocean. 2. The author presented various drastic changes in the lives of the Native people that occurred after white settlers arrived on their land.
The Native American's, during the Jacksonian Era, were the people who suffered the worst treatment during Andrew Jackson's vison. Andrew Jackson's Indian Removal Policy show's the brutal mistreatment of the Native American's who were forced to leave their homelands. Jackson's plan/vision was to remove all the Indian's whom resided on lands east of the Mississippi River in order for American Settlers to live, and for speculators to sell and make profit from these lands as well (ushistory.org, 2014). Many American settlers viewed the Indians as savages, and less than whites. They wanted the lands that the tribes lived on to have more space to produce cotton.
As the white Europeans began to discover America the continent, the Native Americans perceived America as the only home they had ever known. As the white Europeans began to migrate in bigger quantities they began to harass the Native tribes. Throughout the course of the relationship a new nation as built using enslaved labor and the white Europeans, now referring to themselves as “Americans”, began pushing the Natives farther west to allow the United States to expand. Using many methods the Native Americans responded to the threat of removal made by the United States by adapting to the religious, educational, political, and cultural practices of the peoples of the United States. Even though there are a multitude of tribes that made movements
During the period of 1763 to 1783, the ideas of America’s independence were becoming more common. While most of the population were loyal to England, a few number of them wanted to get independence from their mother country. When citizens of England decided to set sail on the Mayflower and settle in the thirteen colonies, they thought of themselves as Englishmen. England saw these colonies as a mere addition to their country, however were negligent of them.
The United States wanted the Indians to conform and assimilate, “Because of these purchases of Indian land, it is our duty to make new efforts for the preservation, improvement & civilization of the native inhabitants… For the earth was given to mankind to support the greatest number of which it is capable,... ”(President Monroe, First Annual Message to Congress, 1817). The United States had been trying to civilise and assimilate Indians since the first prayer towns in the English colonies. We see this view changing in 1802 when Jackson addresses the attempts to civilize the Indians “It has long been the policy of the government to introduce among them the arts of civilization, in the hopes of gradually reclaiming them from a wandering life.
Early American history is defined by periods of extreme violence against minority groups. Once Anglo-Saxons immigrated into the British Colonies, many colonists hoped to gain wealth and send raw materials back to England through mercantilism, but most “gentlemen” refused to do work for themselves. The puritans, for example, considered themselves to be god’s chosen ones, so they exploited natives and soon slaves from the Atlantic slave trade. The goal of my paper is to address the question of how Americans subjugated and harassed Native Americans leading to their removal and exclusion from American society. I will answer the question by analyzing five periods time periods, where their mistreatment worsens over time.
Native Americans flourished in North America, but over time white settlers came and started invading their territory. Native Americans were constantly being thrown and pushed off their land. Sorrowfully this continued as the Americans looked for new opportunities and land in the West. When the whites came to the west, it changed the Native American’s lives forever. The Native Americans had to adapt to the whites, which was difficult for them.
The main difference that we see between both racial ethnic groups is that white Americans believed that they could strip Native Americans from their culture and civilize them while “nurture could not improve the nature of blacks” (67). Although some Native Americans did try to live under the laws of white Americans, they were eventually betrayed and forced to leave the
Throughout the 19th century Native Americans were treated far less than respectful by the United States’ government. This was the time when the United States wanted to expand and grow rapidly as a land, and to achieve this goal, the Native Americans were “pushed” westward. It was a memorable and tricky time in the Natives’ history, and the US government made many treatments with the Native Americans, making big changes on the Indian nation. Native Americans wanted to live peacefully with the white men, but the result of treatments and agreements was not quite peaceful. This precedent of mistreatment of minorities began with Andrew Jackson’s indian removal policies to the tribes of Oklahoma (specifically the Cherokee indians) in 1829 because of the lack of respect given to the indians during the removal laws.
Before America was more civilized and polite, people of different races were treated more harshly as if they were animals instead of humans. Many Westerners did not enjoy and instead resented the Native Americans. To the settlers, the Natives were “unfamiliar, alien people who occupied land that white settlers wanted and believed they deserved” (History Channel Staff). The disapproval from white settlers was present until Natives got more acquainted white culture. The Natives gained many rights including individual ownership of land or property, and sometimes even slaves.
The Colonial period is one of the most important, defining times in American history, but not only because it paves the way for the United States’ admittance as a standalone country. The period starts with a grand expedition, the first colonists venturing out to settle in a world unknown. With a “New World” came the need for order, this idea alone sparking unrest within colonies who had different ideas on the guidelines of living in early
Native Americans; Then and Now In the Sherman Alexie’s novel The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, a young boy named Junior faces many struggles in life as a result of his Native American background. Before America was actually known as America, it was inhabited by the Native Americans. However, the Spaniards came to America and took control of their land. By understanding the information given in this novel, we can link it to the history of Native Americans and how modern day Native Americans’ lives are an outcome of previous colonization.