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Impact of colonization on Native Americans
Impact of colonization on Native Americans
Impact of colonization on Native Americans
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Creek Nation
The Muscogee nation or otherwise known as the Creek Indians were a large confederacy that was well known within the early history of America. The Creeks got their original name Moscogee from their native language meaning one who lives on land that is wet or prone to flooding. The name Creek came from some of the earliest settlers in Georgia and Alabama when they had noticed that most if not all of their villages were always on the banks of creeks.(Hall) They were a very large nation from the beginning and had grown to about 21,00 people just prior to Indian Removal Act. In 1770 James Adair a well-known tradesmen had described the Creek nation as “the most powerful indian nation known to the English”. After the removal the population
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dropped to 13,500 people and continued to do so until about about the mid 50s when the numbers started to rise again. By 2001 the population had grown to just over 51,000 people.(Hall) Though they are called either a tribe or nation by most people they are really more like a confederacy. They are made up of multiple tribes and were always welcoming to new tribes who were willing to join them by following the basic creek government and social structor. They were also very accepting of tribes who spoke a different language and had different cultural backgrounds, they were even known to accept fugitive slaves into their nation. They were definitely one of the most diverse nations around at that time in history. The reason behind this confederation forming was because of a small pox epidemic that wiped out about 90 percent of the Native Americans. After that tribes from the Ocummulgee river and tribes stretching all the way west to the Coosa and Tallapoosa River decided to form an alliance. This alliance was based of one common dream and that was to continue to have peace with each other.(Saunt) Though the very beginning of these tribes is currently unknown, there is a tribal legend that the Creeks believe and it traces their ancestry back to the sky. The Creeks believed that their earliest ancestors lived in the sky in spirt form until they were later delivered to the the earth as human. Their ancestors were originally from the west where they followed the sunrise east until they decided to settle in Alabama. They eventually parted ways settling in most of Alabama and Georgia and formed their own tribes.(Saunt) So it is believed by the Creeks that the tribes were all one nation in the beginning, then they split up, and then eventually came back together again. Things were going really well for the Creeks for a long time, and then the first settlers came. After the first settlers came more and more continued to join them and as the population grew for them so did their need for more land. At first the relationship between the settlers and in Creeks was very peaceful and friendly. The Creeks would trade goods with the English settlers and were actively involved in the slave and deerskin trade. They would trade for things like cloth, kettles, guns, and rum.(Saunt) This trade caused people to travel to Georgia and settle there. That resulted in the intermarriage between Creek women and english trading partners, which was actually very common and beneficial for both sides. The Creek wives would not only act as interpreters but they would teach their husbands the language and the culture of their people. One other reason these marriages were beneficial was because the children of these marriages often understood both cultures and would grow up to become tribal leaders(Hall). The peace and trading would eventually came to an end after the American Revolution ended. Almost instantly the settlers were trying to move south into Indian territory. Over the next few years tensions were rising and things were about to get bad. Not only were the settlers continuing to move into Creek land but, they were also making it very difficult for the Creeks to get the goods that they had depended on. This was a tactic used to try to get the Creeks to move on their own. The Shawnee leader Tecumseh was outraged by what the settlers were doing to the Creek nation and suggested that all tribes should forget their difference and fight together against their common enemy, “the whites”. Tecumseh then declared that he would stomp his foot and mother earth would shake under him. Well coincidentally the New Madrid earthquake happened just a little while later. This was the sign the Creeks were looking for and fights started to breakout everywhere.(“The Redstick War: The Creek War of 1813”) This all happened right before the war of 1812, and all the fighting the Creeks were doing made the settlers very paranoid.
The settlers worried that the Creeks would join the British and go against the them, so led by General Andrew Jackson they set out to destroy the Creeks. On August 30th, 1813 the Creeks launched a surprised attack against the people of Fort Mims, killing over 200 people. This enraged General Jackson had vowed his revenge against the Creeks and when talking to his soldiers he said “you will teach the cannibals who reveled in the carnage of our unoffending Citizens at Fort Mims that the thunder of our arms is more terrible then the Earthquake of their Prophets, and that Heaven Dooms to inevitable destruction the wretch who Smiles at the torture he inflicts and who neither spares female innocence, declining age nor helpless infancy”.(Takaki, 2008, p. 80) General Jackson and his army of 3,000 soldiers along with all their arms and even a cannon marched to the Battle of Horseshoe Bend in what we now know as Tohopeka Alabama. Jackson arrived with his soldiers on March 27th, 1814 where they out numbered the Creek Indians 3:1. Jackson wanted one thing, revenge, and he would not stop until the Creek Nation was destroyed. He and his soldiers ended up killing almost all of the 800 Creeks that were there, even some women and children we killed. After Jackson’s army killed almost all of the Creeks they did horrible things to the bodies, like making reins from their …show more content…
skin and cutting off their noses to keep count of the bodies.(Takaki, 2008, p. 80) A few months later on August 9th, 1814 at the Treaty of Ft. Jackson the Creeks were forced to cede 23,000,00 acres of land, which was over half of Alabama.(The Editors of Encyclopædia Britannica, 2017) The Creeks that were left ended up moving to Oklahoma where they continue to reside to this day. Right after reading about the Creeks in chapter 5 of the textbook “A different Mirror” I knew this was something I wanted to learn more about.
It just seemed odd to me that the Creeks were known to be a friendly neighbor to the settlers, would all of a sudden go and kill 200 men, women, and children. The book didn’t give a lot of details about the nations history and I had a feeling there were pieces left out of the story. The Creek Indians were so much more then the savages colonists wrongly portrayed them to be. They were a peaceful and civilized nation that was accepting of all people no matter how different. The Creeks were also a very intelligent nation and they were willing to teach the settlers their ways, which would have benefitted the people of America greatly. They only became violent once the settlers started to disrespect them and tried to remove them from land that was rightfully theirs. All they wanted was to live peacefully with everyone, but sadly they got pushed to far and decided to retaliate. Had the colonists continued with the peaceful relationship that they originally had with the Creek Indians then I feel that we would not only be more advanced but, we might also be more accepting of different cultures within our country. Overall this was one of the most interesting research projects I’ve done, and I’m so glad I chose this topic because now I have all my questions answered about the Creek
Nation. Resource page: H. (2013, September 22). Retrieved January 16, 2018, from https://www.youtube.com/watch? v=3RNhnM4Yb2s Hall, L. (n.d.). Creeks. Retrieved January 15, 2018, from http://www.everyculture.com/multi/Bu- Dr/Creeks.html Saunt, C. (n.d.). Creek Indians. Retrieved January 16, 2018, from http:// www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/articles/history-archaeology/creek-indians Takaki, R. T. (2008). A different mirror: a history of multicultural America. New York: Back Bay Books/Little, Brown, and Co. The Editors of Encyclopædia Britannica. (2017, September 04). Creek War. Retrieved January 16, 2018, from https://www.britannica.com/event/Creek-War
It seems that in the 21st century and even during the colonizing of America, the interpretation of Native Americans is and had been that they were savages and live a barbaric lifestyle. That they had no order or way of life. When presented with the topic of Native Americans and Colonists in the New World, it is easy to assume warfare and bloodshed amongst the two parties. That the Colonists were constantly in mini battles with the Native Americans. It is also easy to assume that the land in the New World was unsettling to the eyes. This is due to records from the colonist times, calling the lands “wild” or “wildlands”. In Robbie Ethridge’s book Creek Country, she tries to debunk these interpretations mentioned above. She does so by using an
Lewis and Clark weren’t very kind towards all the Native American’s he met. Lewis and Clark stole, killed, and addressed Indians as “children” to tribes. Lewis and Clark also did some nice things such as take a child in and hand out medicine. The good doesn’t outweigh the bad things they’ve done. Lewis and Clark weren’t very kind or respectful people to the Native
In Jamestown, the settlers had to deal with the Powhatan Indians. The relationships with them were unstable. John Smith, whom was the leader of Jamestown, was captured by these Indians while he was on a little trip with some of his men. As he left two of his men, he came back to find them dead and himself surrounded by two hundred members of the tribe, finding himself being captured. “Six or seven weeks those barbarians kept him prisoner…” 87). After this event, the relationship only grew worse and there was constant fighting between the settlers and Indians. The Indians practiced many methods in capturing settlers such as “scalping” and other dreadful techniques. The settlers did many negative practices also which is the reason they fought so many wars and battles against each other. Later on, the Indians killed the English for their weapons that were rare to them. In contrast to the Plymouth colony, these settlers dealt with the Pequot Indians and the relations were much more peaceful for a certain time frame. At one point, one Indian was brave enough to approach them and spoke to them (in broken English). He taught them the ways of the land, and developed a peace with the man. The settlers from the Plymouth colony learned many ways to grow food from these Indians. “He directed them how to set their corn, where to take fish and to procure other commodities, and was also their
So when, “Francis West and thirty-six man (sailed) up the Chesapeake Bay to try to trade for corn with the Patawomeke Indians..” he was looking for food to trade to last through the winter. Document D also says, “”some harshe and crewell dealinge by cutting of towe (two) of the savages heads and other extremetyes.” Now from where I come from, we don’t chop up our business partners. This shows extreme mistrust and greed, which caused them to act crazy and ruin a good opportunity at partnership. They needed the indians and their knowledge of the land, crops, and enemies. But they put a wall up in between them and sparked anger and possibly war. Document D supports the fact that they died because of mistrust. (Doc
In Thomas King’s novel, The Inconvenient Indian, the story of North America’s history is discussed from his original viewpoint and perspective. In his first chapter, “Forgetting Columbus,” he voices his opinion about how he feel towards the way white people have told America’s history and portraying it as an adventurous tale of triumph, strength and freedom. King hunts down the evidence needed to reveal more facts on the controversial relationship between the whites and natives and how it has affected the culture of Americans. Mainly untangling the confusion between the idea of Native Americans being savages and whites constantly reigning in glory. He exposes the truth about how Native Americans were treated and how their actual stories were
The ways in which the author could strengthen the book, in my opinion, is instead all the descriptive, to me meaningless points as how they were coloring themselves, the author should have put a little bit more facts in there to make it more documentary. Anyhow, overall the book has strength in letting the reader understand the history from both sides, whites and Indians. Many people have different views on the persecution of Native Americans, some think that it was all Indians’ fault and that they caused their own suffering, which I think is absolutely ridiculous, because they were not the ones who invaded. And Native Americans had every right to stand up for the land that was theirs.
The timing of the events, shown through the documents helps uncover some of the where and whys about why the treatment of the Native Americans shaped America’s beginnings. The main timing and reason was colonization. As the European settlers began to colonize the Americas, they saw that they could use the Natives and treat them however they wanted because it was free or low-costly labor. The ill treatment of these people caused many to rebel and revolt against the colonists, or in many circumstances, it caused the Native populations to decline dramatically in numbers. This decimation of the Native American populations left small amounts of people to care for the land, shaping the United States’ environment for future generations. This is part of the reason why many Natives felt resentment to the colonists both in the present time and the future. The order that many of the events happened also affected the issues that first caused the colonization of the Americas.
One of the main forms of violence in the Old West was murder; the rising tension between the American soldiers and the Native Americans was a main contributor to this violence. An example of this strain is the Sand Creek Massacre. American soldiers attacked unaware Native Americans of the Cheyenne and Arapahoe ethnic groups. All men, women, and children were killed and/or tortured. There were no survivors. “Two soldiers drew their pistols and shot her [a little girl]”, portraying that these sort of crimes came about regularly in the West (Document G). Another example of this is the Battle of Beecher Island. The Battle of Beecher Island, also known as the Battle of Arikaree Fork, was the armed disagreement between soldiers of the U.S. Army and a few Native American tribes. According to Document H, there were “at least 50 [men dead]; perhaps as many as 200 [men] were wounded” (Document H). Adding on to the uneasiness between the Native Americans and the white soldiers, many killings were encountered by foolishness, not battle. The Native Americans and the soldiers wanted to prove that their race is more macho and better than the other. Even though Document L states that “113 [people] recorded no trouble with the Indians”, Document M detects many problems with the Native Americans resulting in “919” troops killed (Document L, Document M). The white soldiers in the Old West would have loved to kill the Native American’s buffalo popu...
One of the darkest times in American history was the conflict with the natives. A “war” fought with lies and brute force, the eviction and genocide of Native Americans still remains one of the most controversial topics when the subject of morality comes up. Perhaps one of the most egregious events to come of this atrocity was the Sand Creek Massacre. On the morning of November 29th, 1864, under the command of Colonel John Chivington, 700 members of the Colorado Volunteer Cavalry raped, looted, and killed the members of a Cheyenne tribe (Brown 86-94). Hearing the story of Sand Creek, one of the most horrific acts in American History, begs the question: Who were the savages?
Overall, There were so many differences between Native Americans cultures And the Europeans. Some of the examples are, the ideas of the lands owner, religion, and the gender. Their differences are more than the similarities. The impact of their cultures it still remains in today’s society. The cultural differences and the religions differences led to a bloody was that remains for 500 hundreds
The Creek Indians, one of the Five Civilized Tribes, “was composed of many tribes, each with a different name.” The Creeks formed a loose confederacy with other tribes before European contact, “but it was strengthened significantly in the 1700s and 1800s.” The confederacy “included the Alabama, Shawnee, Natchez, Tuskegee, as well as many others.” There were two sections of Creeks, the Upper and Lower Creeks. The Lower Creeks occupied land in east Georgia, living near rivers and the coast. “The Upper Creeks lived along rivers in Alabama.” Like many other Native Americans, ...
The tragedy of the Cherokee nation has haunted the legacy of Andrew Jackson"'"s Presidency. The events that transpired after the implementation of his Indian policy are indeed heinous and continually pose questions of morality for all generations. Ancient Native American tribes were forced from their ancestral homes in an effort to increase the aggressive expansion of white settlers during the early years of the United States. The most notable removal came after the Indian Removal Act of 1830. The Cherokee, whose journey was known as the '"'Trail of Tears'"', and the four other civilized tribes, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Creek and Seminole, were forced to emigrate to lands west of the Mississippi River, to what is now day Oklahoma, against their will. During the journey westward, over 60,000 Indians were forced from their homelands. Approximately 4000 Cherokee Indians perished during the journey due to famine, disease, and negligence. The Cherokees to traveled a vast distance under force during the arduous winter of 1838-1839.# This is one of the saddest events in American history, yet we must not forget this tragedy.
With buffalo numbers decreasing fast, Native American tribes faced starvation and desperation. There were many different actions the Americans did to destroy the land of the Native Americans. Western expansion caused a shift in the lives of Native Americans because many tribes, including women and kids, were being murdered by the new settlers. S.G. Colley, a U.S. Indian Agent, writes in a Report for the Committee on the Conduct of War, “That notwithstanding his knowledge of the facts as above set forth, he is informed that Colonel Chivington did, on the morning of the 29th of November last, surprise and attack said camp of friendly Indians and massacre a large number of them, (mostly women and children,) and did allow the troops of his command to mangle and mutilate them in the most horrible manner” (Colley, 1865). This quote shows the Americans were exterminating innocent American Indians for no justifiable reason.
...ing revelation of the greed, covetousness, and desire that dwells in humankind. It really makes you think that almost entire races of people were wiped out just for gold and land. This article by Hagen brought back to me the realization of how the American Indians were treated. I am a non-traditional student, so I have studied what happened to the American Indian in other history classes and I am familiar with much of the information in the article, although I did not know that it happened in such a small amount of time
Tension and disputes are sometimes resolved by force but more often by negotiation or treaties. On the other hand, the Natives were described as strong and very innocent creatures awaiting the first opportunity to be christianized. The Indians were called the “Noble Savages” by the settlers because they were cooperative people, but sometimes, after having a few conflicts with them, they seem to behave like animals. We should apprehend that the encounter with the settlers really amazed the natives, they were only used to interacting with people from their own race and surroundings and all of this was like a new discovery for them as well as for the white immigrants. The relations between the English and the Virginian Indians were somewhat strong in a few ways.