In Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee: An Indian History of the American West, author Dee Brown shows the process of American expansion westward and how this resulted in a confrontation with Native Americans. This confrontation, which was developed in the late 19th century, marked the domain of Native Americans from a large area and reduced them, eventually, to reserves. The book takes stock of what happened to the Navajo, Sioux, Cheyenne, Arapaho, Apache, Comanche and the different tribes inhabiting large areas, and look critically expansionist process carried out by the Europeans-Americans. This story has spawned a film, as well as a children 's book, The Saga of the Sioux, written by Dwight Jon Zimmerman, who becomes a witness representing the
In Cheyenne River American Indian Joseph Brings Plenty’s article Save Wounded Knee (2013) asserts that American Indian Reservations all over the country are in danger of becoming nothing but a real-estate transaction, leaving behind all of the rich culture that once thrived over the Oglala land. Plenty supports his claim with the use of pathos. He goes to explain the horrors of bloodshed of the soldiers of the United States Army’s Seventh Cavalry in the winter of 1890, explaining that the soldiers open fired with their machine guns on to the Lakota. He adds that 150-300 Lakota people died as a result of this massacre. Brings Plenty’s purpose is to explain why the Wounded Knee land should be saved from being sold off.
When I read this I wanted to do more research, and I came across an article where spoilers would take over the land where the Native land was and start building, but what I found was they built a school and the army general was the teacher and he said “kill the Indian, and save the Man,” I was really mad because there was nothing these people could do. I found part of the article “http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/4929/." This article is really interesting because it I 've glimpse of history and the destruction and influence man have done to other
The Black Hills War, also known as the Great Sioux War of 1876, was a series of battles fought from 1876 through 1877, between the forces of the United States and their allies (Shoshone, Pawnee, and Crow) and the Sioux (Lakota, Dakota, Cheyenne, and Arapaho). Taking place under two presidencies and resulting in hundreds of casualties on both sides, The Black Hills War made great impacts that would continue to affect Natives for generations. The United State’s extensive relationship with the Native Americans has its intricacies to say the least. With the arrival of English settlers at Jamestown in 1607, there were undoubtedly uncertainties amongst the Native people as to whether or not these settlers would resemble the Spanish settlers who
Days of Theft, Days of Restoration Attempts to assimilate Native Americans and destroy their culture are a recurrence throughout the history of the United States. Chris Hedges' main argument in the first chapter of his book Days of Destruction Days of Revolt is that, for Native Americans, reconnecting with the culture that was forcibly stolen from them, in this case Lakota culture, could be immensely healing and restorative. He proves his argument with the specific examples of Verlyn Long Wolf, Michael Red Cloud, Leonard Crow Dog, and Duane Brewer. Hedges uses the stories of these people to show how restorative it is to reconnect with the culture that was stolen from them.
The novel Reservation Blues, written by Sherman Alexie reveals different struggles encountered by the Native Americans on the Spokane Indian Reservation through the use of history, traditions, and values. Thomas Builds-the-Fire, a pureblood Indian, forms a band with his childhood acquaintances Victor Joseph and Junior Polatkin called Coyote Springs. Alexie uses a variety of scenes and personal encounters between characters and their dialogue to portray the meaning of tribal identity throughout the novel. A cultures goal is to prove their identity and be superior to one another; The American culture has achieved dominance through white hegemony while the Spokane American Indian tribe is in a battle of oppression struggling to preserve their tribal identity. Spokane Native Americans are very passionate about their tribal identities yet are envious of the power that the white hegemony holds against them, leading them to their depression.
The Long, Bitter Trail: Andrew Jackson and the Indians written by Anthony F.C. Wallace is the story of the Native Americans being forced to move west in America in the 19th century. Wallace begins by introducing the desire for Native American land in the U.S. and ends with the aftermath of the Removal Policy and the legacy that still lives today. The book is organized into four chapters; The Changing Worlds of the Native Americans, The Conflict over Federal Indian Policy, The Removal Act, and The Trail of Tears.
The treaty the US government signed with the Indians in 1851 granted the Indians to have an extensive territory, which means the Indians can get more land, but eventually that did not last(doc 3,4). One of the most important and well-known wars was the Sand Creek Massacre. On November 29, 1864, John Chivington led 700 troops in an unprovoked attack on the Arapaho and Cheyenne villagers. There they killed over 200 women, children, and older men. US Indian Commissioner admitted that :We have substantially taken possession of the country and deprived the Indians of their accustomed means of support.”
Ailsa Lewis Gidick APUSH- 8 8 January 2018 The Earth Shall Weep: A History of Native America Book Review Wilson James. The Earth Shall Weep: A History of Native America. New York: Grove Press.
The Transcontinental Railroad played a significant role in the settlement of the American West. As of May 10th, 1869, this railroad became the area’s newest and fastest mode of transportation. Its first obligation was to bring settlers in at very low cost, and, sometimes, even free of charge. The types of people that began to migrate West were those who were searching for a better life. One which contains less poverty and more opportunities.
The Genocide: Trail of Tears/ The Indian removal act During the 1830s the united states congress and president Andrew Jackson created and passed the “Indian removal act”. Which allowed Jackson to forcibly remove the Indians from their native lands in the southeastern states, such as Florida and Mississippi, and send them to specific “Indian reservations” across the Mississippi river, so the whites could take over their land. From 1830-1839 the five civilized tribes (The Cherokee, Choctaw, Seminole, and Chickasaw) were forced, sometimes by gun point, to march about 1,000 miles to what is present day Oklahoma.
Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee- Charles Eastman 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 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.
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.
As the son of a Comanche chief and a white captive by the name of Cynthia Ann Parker, Quanah Parker rose from the status of a Comanche warrior to their tribal leader. Although not much is known about Parker’s personal life and early years, he plays a vital role in William T. Hagan’s book “Quanah Parker, Comanche Chief”. In this book, Hagan identifies the Comanche Chief through his upbringing to his death, describing his transactions with local Indian agents, presidents, high officials in Washington and the cattlemen of the western United States territory. The author presents the Indian chief as a “cultural broker” between the cultures of the white southerners and his tribal members, presenting a blend of beliefs that are heralded as progressive and traditional as he maintained the control and organization of his tribe. During a period of transition for the Comanche people,
In Life Among the Piutes, sarah winnemucca hopkins describes what happens when soldiers came to their reservation based off what white settlers tell the government. The most shocking instance of this happened when Winnemucca encountered a group of soldier who told her the white settlers accused the natives of stealing cattle, “the soldiers rode up to their [meaning the Piute’s] encampment and fired into it, and killed almost all the people that were there… after the soldiers had killed but all bur some little children and babies… the soldiers took them too… and set the camp on fire and threw them into the flames to see them burned alive”(78). This is an abhorrent act that is unthinkable in a functioning society. The natives had done nothing but want to hold some shred of land from the settlers who had taken everything from them and are exterminated like vermin. This was something that stayed hidden from many white settlers because of its barbarism and by exposing it Winnemucca truly educates the reader, past and present, on how natives are