prejudice against native americans essay
Misjudgment Against Native Americans
Adam T. E. Koeneman
English 190-28
Professor Engles
These people commenced migrating twenty five thousand years before Captain christopher
Colombus uncovered the Americas. Native Americans migrated from Asia
crossing a land bridge where the Bering Strait off the coast of Alaska can be today.
Over the centuries they spread through the continents of North and
South America. Because the arrival in the Europeans in 1492 the American American indian
has been dehumanized, decivilized and redefined in to terms that represent a
dominate European view. The Spanish explorers under Colombus were the first to
use the terms Indian to mean a Native American. These people were beneath the
false impression the had come to the Western world Indies. This term remains used
today.
From the first interaction together with the native lenders the Europeans inatiated
dominance and superiority. There are 3 distinctive reasons that the
Europeans were able to control and later suppress the Local American traditions
such as, the Native American relgious beleifs and methods, the lack of
discussion between Natives ans Europeans and the insufficient orginization
from the Indian tribes. All of these factors had a good influence the Europeans
to become dominate statistics on the Local American area. These factors can still
end up being attributed intended for the way that Native Americans happen to be viewed in society today.
After the Revolutionary War the modern United States federal government sought to find
land through treaties. The payment offered for the land was far from good
however , and when Native Americans opposed the surrender of their homeland the
ALL OF US government basically used outstanding military power to evict these people. The Europenas
knew practically nothing of the new civilizations they encountered. The majority of Native American
tribes viewed the lands they filled to be no one mans house. They
believied that they had been alowed to occupy that by the elegance of the Superb Spirit
in exchange the people took care of the land the used. Usually Native Americans
harbored a great respect for the land they were allowed to employ. When the
Western leaders attemptedto purchase this property from the people the Local
American leaders often thought they did not have the authority to sell the land.
Inside their view the area wasnt their own to sell. In many cases, payment provided was
rejected because of this view The Europeans, however, did not
figure out or proper care to understandthe Native American way of life, tradition or
philosophy. Instead, that they saw the land being a great buisness oppurtunity being
bought and sold. At times payment was accepted because the American Indians
did not understand fully the outcome or implications of the sale. It was
challenging for the Indians to understand the control of area because within their
view the land would continually be avaliable for everyone to use.
Europeans feared these kinds of new people having a seemingly savage way of life. The
dances and othe social traditions that Native Americans practiced were
really abstract and foreign to the European settlers. These displays of
savagery by the Natives sparkedf dread within various settlers largely out
of ignoranceto their particular practices and cultural traditions. The Local American
lifestyle was, the truth is very arranged and very useful.
Most American Indians have little or no interaction with the everday
lifestyles with the average American citizen. They have been residents of
reservations for nearly two cennturies. Two hundred numerous years of social oppression
has to be defeat inorder pertaining to the American Indian socities to become more
accepted in to our contemporary culture. The prejudice that American Indians endure
rivals that of the African-Americans. To ensure the Native American tribe
nations to become equal in social chic ther should be reform and awarness
from the prejudice.
Lack of orginization is a strong surrounding factor to why Local
Americans happen to be dicriminated against. During the 60s the African-American
population usa and fought against for reform and equality. This has not yet fully
occured in the Native American sociable setting. Most of the tribes even now fued
with each othe instead of looking to create cultural reform. This is particularly
apparent during the 1800s when ever Indian-White relationships were specifically full of
stress. Crazy equine, the great Oglala Sioux head, expressed his concern for
better associations between the American Indian tribes on his loss of life bed (Nabokov
178). The European settlerhad a problem comprehending the differances among
the tribes. Many times that they could not have an understanding of that one group of Native
Americans was seperate and sometimes enemies with another tribe.
Another main factor that helped develop the dicriminatory views against
Native Americans was the American Indian religious methods.