African Americans During Reconstruction Essay

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During the reconstruction era and the settlement of the western United States, Native Americans were treated horribly. They were driven from their lands, forced to assimilate to Euro-American culture, and promised treaties and contracts that would almost certainly be broken by the US government. Indians were seen as a problem to the average white settler. First, the “problem” was perpetuated through lies, and conflicts started by white men that were blamed on the Indians. Then, as light was shed on the true story of the Indians many “solutions” were proposed to fix the problem. However, none of these solutions would prove to solve anything as shown by the state of Native Americans today. In the eyes of the average white American during the late 19th century Indians were dangerous savages. Euro-Americans believed Native Americans could descend upon an unsuspecting group of settlers at any time and senselessly murder them. This was simply untrue. This belief was backed by many false accounts including the Almo Massacre describing the …show more content…

Chief Joseph is a fantastic window into the mind of the Native Americans. His writing outlined the thinking of the tribes of Indians who experienced all the injustice at the hands of white settlers and the US government. The Indians simply wanted to live in peace. The very early settlers who came to America would’ve been easily eradicated by the Native Americans but they were spared because the Indians believed they could live in peace and share the land. Over years of broken treaties and armed conflicts the Indians knew that this could not be. Chief Joseph went through the legal process to fight against the injustice. Perhaps the most intriguing part of his writing is the fact that he doesn’t ask for their land back or reparations or anything like that, he simply asks that Indians be treated as equals and that they be allowed to live as free

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