After reading about the Native Americans and their lives on the reservations I believe they faced considerable difficulties when it came to a reservation lifestyle. However, I think the most difficult aspect of the reservation system for them was the acceptance of more passive roles. I believe this was a major cause of their culture identity being sacrificed.
After the Native Americans arrived on the reservations they had to give up their hunter-warrior roles and accept more passive ones (Olson & Beal p.194). I believe the differences that came along with living on the reservations caused changes in the traditional ways of thinking about power and authority so then responsibilities changed also. The acceptance of more passive roles sort of left the door open for the white settlers to come in and build the reservations in their image. The constant presence of white idealists trying to convert Natives to Christianity added to cultural identity loss (Olson & Beal p.194). The Iroquois tried resisting this conversion and stated, “We are Indians and don’t wish to be transformed into white men. The English are our Brethren, but we never promised to become what they are” (Everyculture.com/Iroquois Confederacy/Transformation of Culture). I believe this also led to the Native Americans having to speak English, as well as getting a “white” education.
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Political, social, and economical structures were everywhere (Olson & Beal p.194). Being forced from their lands and coerced onto reservations where the Native Americans were under the constant control of whites had to play a huge role in the loss of their cultural identity. They almost had to accept the lesser roles in order to survive. However, in doing so they lost their independence, as well as their sense of personal
“The settler colonial logic of elimination in its crudest form, a violent rejection of all things Indian, was transformed into a paternalistic mode of governmentality which, though still sanctioned by state violence, came to focus on assimilation rather than rejection.” –Patrick Wolfe, After the Frontier: Separation and Absorption in US Indian Policy, 13 Wolfe’s statement illustrates how the US government put more emphasis on legalized absorption of Indians into the White society rather than using forceful and violent methods to acquire the Natives’ land. After the colonization of the westward land and the end of the Frontier era, the US government’s method of assimilation of the Indians started revolving around allotment and blood quanta. With no place to further push the Natives away, the established Bureau of Indian Affairs and the government took action to eliminate the Natives culturally and spiritually instead of physically.
The relationship between the United States and the Native American tribes has never been a supportive one, challenging at best. In the past 200 years the relationship between the two has put pressure on Congress’ claim of a world power over tribes and tribal nation’s natural sovereignty, one that is even older than that of the United States of America. This tension, which comes from a sense of where the status of the Tribe fits into the United States Constitution, is creating a slippery slope for the Native American people. But in the book, the biggest question Pommersheim raises in the introduction is: can the modern Indian people escape their federally forced dependence, to become truly self-defining?
As a matter of fact, from that period, they had to bear with policies that undermined their culture nut, however, failed to equip them with the necessary resources to support their children and businesses. Moreover, the further reduction of the reservations into tinnier subdivisions resulted in a drastic decrease in the area of land owned by the Natives. It had become a routine for the Natives to be enticed out of their allotments and even forcefully made to sell their tracts of land for them to feed their families and even pay bills. Thus the Natives were not Americanized as promised.
Dawes Severalty Act De Juan Evans-Taylor Humboldt State University Abstract The Dawes Act of 1887, some of the time alluded to as the Dawes Severalty Act of 1887 or the General Allotment Act, was marked into law on January 8, 1887, by US President Grover Cleveland. This was approved by the president to appropriate and redistribute tribal grounds in the American West. It expressly tried to crush the social union of Indian tribes and to along these lines dispose of the rest of the remnants of Indian culture and society. Just by repudiating their own customs, it was accepted, could the Indians at any point turn out to be genuinely "American."
Soon to follow the acquisition, Choctaws in the east and Caddo peoples in the west were forcibly removed from their homelands, and instead given unstable reservation land in return. The title given to them would soon be “domestic dependents.” Native American children were taken away from their parents and put into school systems where they were educated on the “white” way of life. The rest of Louisiana’s populace, made up mostly of French speaking people, was far from celebrated. For years they were denied the right to vote, slowly introduced to democracy, and overall shown a lack of respect for the situation they had been dealt unwillingly.
If the government agrees to permit self-rule on reservations, Native Americans and observing American citizens would hold the institution in a higher regard. Native Americans would trust the government more, as well as live a higher quality life on the currently impoverished reservations. Perhaps an admirable compromise and unique leadership would impress other countries, too. The United States Government has the opportunity shine as an example of positive conflict resolution to other nations, and the nation as a whole would benefit from a bit of positive
Native American Indians was discriminated just like other nonwhites, the New Deal relief program by the Government did not benefit them as well. American Indians were the victim of violence their land was stolen from them many was killed the surviving Native Americans were denied equality before the law and often treated as wards of the state, and placed in reservations and force to learn Americans traditions and values. Their tribal land was lost to government sales. It was not until the 1930s laws stop America from forcing American Indians to practice their culture. The law gave tribes increasing tribal economic and political
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.
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
Many tribes had cultural ties to the environment itself. When the Americans established the Indian Removal Act, the Native Americans were forced to leave these cultural grounds. Those who refused to leave their original homeland had to conform to the ways of colonial life instead
Losing one’s cultural knowledge, and therefore the reality of their culture, allows others to have control over their collective and individual consciousness as well as their destiny. In this case, it is clear that the United States government has had the dominant relationship over the Native
The reservation system was created in 1851 to “manage” the Native Americans. Even though the reservation system was created so long ago, it is still being practiced today with less harsh conditions but conditions nonetheless. However, the reservations provide the Natives with their own government and other freedoms alongside the stereotypes and colonialism they face. Life for Native Americans in the 1800s was far from luxurious. The Native American reservation system was established in the late 1800s by the American government to subdue Indigenous people and take claim over their ancestral lands.
By 1900, Native Americans had lost half of the land that had been originally given to them. Meanwhile, the farming and assimilating of Native Americans was not successful. By many accounts, Indians were not adjusting to neither their new family dynamic nor farming. The Cheyennes had to learn how to plough, plant, and harvest their new aired properties. One Sioux recalled the struggle men especially had of being stripped of his previous purpose, hunting buffalo, and his tribe, with whom he hunted with.
Mythical Origins The Iroquois people are one of the earliest cultures in American history, Their culture remains filled with an abundance of myths and legends that explain the nature of life itself. Their creation story, The World On Turtle 's Back, outlines not only the creation of Earth, but also the complex nature of people. The legend states that the Earth resided on the back of a great sea turtle, constituted first by a pregnant woman. The daughter of whom would birth the twins who would become the duality of deceit and order in every living being. This legend has been passed down through the generations, first through oral tradition and later translated to writing.
The Chickasaw Nation’s history involves domination by the white population as the tribe did not have any power of their own: “Chickasaw economic and political life [became] increasingly under the influence of the U.S. economy, cattle ranchers, railroads, and white immigrants” (Pate). Once the United States was colonized, Europeans took control over the country and Native Americans had to submit to their rule. The Chickasaw Nation “faced the loss of national identity and external threats” (Pate) as a result. Natives were driven out of their homes, forced to take on white religious and political ideals, and limited in educational opportunities. The race as a whole was neglected and discouraged to embrace their own culture.