Culture Conflicts: Native Americans versus the White Man

889 Words2 Pages

People had already been living in the America long before the white man ever “discovered” it. These people were known as the Native Americans. They had lived peacefully on the land, for hundred of years till the early 1800s when white settlers began their move towards the West. As these white settler came upon the Native Americans they brought with them unwavering beliefs that would end up causing great conflicts with the Native people, who had their own way set of values. It was clear that the white man and the Native Americans could not live among each other peacefully for their values and culture were much too different. The Native Americans who occupied America before any white settlers ever reached the shores “covered the land as the waves of a wind-ruffled sea cover its shell paved floor” (1). These Native people were one with nature and the Great Spirit was all around them. They were accustom to their way of life and lived peacefully. All they wish was to live on their land and continue the traditions of their people. When the white settler came upon their land the values of the Native people were challenged, for the white settlers had nothing in common and believe that it was their duty to assimilate the Native Americans to the white way of life. However the Native Americans strongly regarded their way of live. In their culture the order of nature, was vastly important. It was understood that there was an order to which nature worked and because of this they were tied to the land. They could not comprehend how the whites could “wander far from the graves of [their] ancestors and seemingly without regret” (Chief Joseph 2). The white settlers came to America and immediately started to conquer the land, without feeling any shame. To the Native Americans that was shocking, for they believed that “even the rocks, which seem to be dumb and dead...[had] memories of stirring events connected with the lives of [their] people” (Chief Joseph 3). They did not understand how someone could forget their ancestors, and fight nature in such a way that there is room for nobody but themselves. All the same though the white settlers could not see that what they were doing as wrong. They had come to the West to begin a new chapter in life, and if the Native Americans could not accept this, then they had to be dealt with.

Show More
Related

  • Indian From The Inside Native American Culture Summary

    529 Words  | 2 Pages

    Through Laws, treaties and proclamations it becomes clear of the transfer of power between Native Americas and colonizing powers within the US and Canada. One significant treaty was Treaty NO. 9 in which Native Americans gave up their aboriginal title and land for money, hunting right, entrance into the christian school system and a Canadian flag presented to the Chief. The treaties described define the cascading effect of how western powers came into control of land at which Native Americans resided in. Specifically converging on the using Native Americans “elites” to influence other Native Americans into adopting western cultural beliefs, overshadowing the diverse Native American cultural practices. The overshadowing and belittling of Native American culture is not only expressed through the several treaties presented to Native Americans across history but also through real life accounts of Native American children adopted into the western school system. This sections places into the prospective the monopolization of Native American land and

    Read More

  • Changes in the Land by William Cronon

    859 Words  | 2 Pages

    Cronon raises the question of the belief or disbelief of the Indian’s rights to the land. The Europeans believed the way Indians used the land was unacceptable seeing as how the Indians wasted the natural resources the land had. However, Indians didn’t waste the natural resources and wealth of the land but instead used it differently, which the Europeans failed to see. The political and economical life of the Indians needed to be known to grasp the use of the land, “Personal good could be replaced, and their accumulation made little sense for ecological reasons of mobility,” (Cronon, 62).

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Peace Came In The Form Of A Women

    1385 Words  | 3 Pages

    Native American’s place in United States history is not as simple as the story of innocent peace loving people forced off their lands by racist white Americans in a never-ending quest to quench their thirst for more land. Accordingly, attempts to simplify the indigenous experience to nothing more than victims of white aggression during the colonial period, and beyond, does an injustice to Native American history. As a result, historians hoping to shed light on the true history of native people during this period have brought new perceptive to the role Indians played in their own history. Consequently, the theme of power and whom controlled it over the course of Native American/European contact is being presented in new ways. Examining the evolving

    Read More

  • Talking Back to Civilization

    1481 Words  | 3 Pages

    American Indians shaped their critique of modern America through their exposure to and experience with “civilized,” non-Indian American people. Because these Euro-Americans considered traditional Indian lifestyle savage, they sought to assimilate the Indians into their civilized culture. With the increase in industrialization, transportation systems, and the desire for valuable resources (such as coal, gold, etc.) on Indian-occupied land, modern Americans had an excuse for “the advancement of the human race” (9). Euro-Americans moved Indians onto reservations, controlled their education and practice of religion, depleted their land, and erased many of their freedoms. The national result of this “conquest of Indian communities” was a steady decrease of Indian populations and drastic increase in non-Indian populations during the nineteenth century (9). It is natural that many American Indians felt fearful that their culture and people were slowly vanishing. Modern America to American Indians meant the destruction of their cultural pride and demise of their way of life.

    Read More

  • The Impact Of The Colonization Of Turtle Island

    999 Words  | 2 Pages

    The American version of history blames the Native people for their ‘savage ' nature, for their failure to adhere to the ‘civilized norms ' of property ownership and individual rights that Christian people hold, and for their ‘brutality ' in defending themselves against the onslaught of non-Indian settlers. The message to Native people is simple: "If only you had been more like us, things might have been different for you.”

    Read More

  • Interaction between White Americans and Native Americans throughout the 19th Century

    1897 Words  | 4 Pages

    Native Americans did not engage with Americans successfully, because they viewed things from a different perspective. In “Shawnee Chief Tecumseh Recounts the Misdeeds of Whites and Calls for Indian Unity, 1810”, 1Native Americans were shown to have trusted the American people at first, but they then began to think the Americans were hypocritical. This was because they promised to be friendly and told them that if white people try to attack them, as long as Native Americans held up the flags which would be given to them by the White people, they would be safe from all danger. However, an Indian chief named Moluntha stood with the American flag in front of him, and an American officer cut off his head; this American officer was never punished. 1Tecumseh’s account shows that the Americans’ tactic in order to deal with the Americans was saying that everyone should have equal rights in the land and it could be used by anyone. For example, if Tecumseh had the chance to meet the governor, the governor would say that the land is meant for everyone. He would only say: ….“sir, you may return to your own country”1….” According to the Native Americans, no chief is allowed to sell his land, because everyone has the right to use the land. In contrast, American people never respected the Native Americans, and they wa...

    Read More

  • Land, Growth and Justice Essay

    809 Words  | 2 Pages

    Since the beginning of European colonization whites have taken Native American’s lands in order to expand their own settlements. Throughout the years there have been many disputes and up rises because Indians have refused to give up or sell their lands. With an escalating white population, Native American communities have been disintegrated, killed in conflicts, or forced to move into Indian Territories. The year of 1828 would again demonstrate how white settlers would obtain Native American’s lands with the Cherokee Indian Removal. Known as the Trail of Tears, the Cherokees would start their tragic journey to Indian Territory in which thousands of Indians would die along the way and soon after their arrival due to illnesses or violent encounters. The Cherokee Indian Removal was not only cruel but injustice, the Cherokees shouldn’t have ceded their lands because before the removal they attempted to be “civilized” by the Americans giving up their cultural and religious beliefs and the federal government by treaty had to protect Indians from any state oppressions.

    Read More

  • The Influence Of The Treaty Of Fort Laramie In 1851

    227 Words  | 1 Pages

    It was common for the Americans to practice conquests. While the Native Americans were trying to coexist with their American counterparts and they were being forced into reservations during the following decades after the Civil War.During the altercation between the US government and the Native Americans, the government created the Treaty of Fort Laramie in 1851. Even though the Native Americans Even though the Native Americans agreed to this treaty in the hopes of preserving their land, they were greeted with the depletion of their people and resources. As the book stated,” To Americans raised on theories of racial superiority, the Indians constituted, in the words of one Colorado militia major, ‘an obstacle to civilization’...” (Roark, p

    Read More

  • Were White Settlers Justified In Taking Native American Land

    233 Words  | 1 Pages

    The white settlers were not justified in taking native American land. Before the white settlers came along native American tribes were scattered across what we call the united states today. The white settlers had no right to claim the land as their own and violently force their ways onto the native Americans. The lecture states “Indians were forced to walk hundreds of miles to lands across the Mississippi river. On the journey many died of hunger, exhaustion, and disease” to show an example of what the white settlers brought upon the native Americans. The lecture also states “treaties with the Indians were continuously broken because of land fever assisted by the homestead act the gold rush in California and the Mexican American war” and it

    Read More

  • Thomas Morton On Native American Freedom

    1909 Words  | 4 Pages

    When Europeans first arrived in America the Native American Indians where already living in a free society. “In 1637 Thomas Morton’s presented an account of the Native American homes, trade, society, and religion and freely offered his own judgments about them. He condemned some of the Natives way

    Read More

  • Conflict Between Native Americans And The White Settlers

    852 Words  | 2 Pages

    Thousands were killed, and even more injured, all because of some disagreements that these 2 population’s had. There were many cultural differences that contributed to the conflict between the Native Americans and the White Settlers. Some of these discrepancies include government and economic/food differences, and diversity in religion/education. All of these different ideas between 2 groups led to this great conflict between them.

    Read More

  • Cultural Differences: Subjugation Of Native American Societies

    1229 Words  | 3 Pages

    Each and every group of Native American has its own diverse society. It was very different to Europeans because they all collectively follow one leader. Every nation though separate had it on distinct leader. They may have had different religions but at the end of the day they all heed to the king. It wasn’t like that for the Indians. They were separate in the same areas usually, had their own leaders different religious beliefs and hundreds of languages. “Indians

    Read More

  • Differences Between Europeans And Native Americans

    288 Words  | 1 Pages

    When Europeans began to arrive in the Americas, it was clear that their way of life was significantly different from the native Indians. To begin with, there was a religious boundary between the two. The Indians had their own unique beliefs, while the Europeans were mostly Catholic. This caused a riff between the two cultures, as Europeans were striving to convert the Indians to Catholicism. European explorers also arrived in the Americas with the intention of conquering the land for themselves. They went to great lengths to spread their empires across the Americas. Indians did not believe in conquering, or even owning, land. They saw land as something for everyone to use. They did not buy or sell land and did not fence off the land they used.

    Read More

  • Argumentative Essay: Conflicts Between Whites And Native Americans

    548 Words  | 2 Pages

    There have been long conflicts between the whites and the Native Americans. The source of these conflicts is that the whites want to use the Indian’s land as a source of profit. My claim is that the business of the people and the Native Americans is still what happens here in the present.

    Read More

  • American Indians

    1645 Words  | 4 Pages

    The Native Americans or American Indians, once occupied all of the entire region of the United States. They were composed of many different groups, who speaked hundreds of languages and dialects. The Indians from the Southwest used to live in large built terraced communities and their way of sustain was from the agriculture where they planted squash, pumpkins, beans and corn crops. Trades between neighboring tribes were common, this brought in additional goods and also some raw materials such as gems, cooper. seashells and soapstone.To this day, movies and television continue the stereotype of Indians wearing feathered headdresses killing innocent white settlers. As they encountered the Europeans, automatically their material world was changed. The American Indians were amazed by the physical looks of the white settlers, their way of dressing and also by their language. The first Indian-White encounter was very peaceful and trade was their principal interaction. Tension and disputes were 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 for 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 behaved like animals. We should apprehend that the encounter with the settlers really amazed the natives, they were only used to interact 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 was somewhat strong in a few ways. They were having marriages among them. For example, when Pocahontas married John Rolfe, many said it has a political implication to unite more settlers with the Indians to have a better relation between both groups. As for the Indians, their attitude was always friendly and full of curiosity when they saw the strange and light-skinned creatures from beyond the ocean. The colonists only survived with the help of the Indians when they first settler in Jamestown and Plymouth. In this areas, the Indians showed the colonists how to cultivate crops and gather seafood.The Indians changed their attitude from welcome to hostility when the strangers increased and encroached more and more on hunting and planting in the Natives’ grounds.

    Read More

More about Culture Conflicts: Native Americans versus the White Man

Open Document