Oppression Native Americans Essay

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Oppression of Native Americans Oppression of Native American tribes dates back to their first contact with Christopher Columbus in 1492 and continues to this very day. If the Europeans did not expose weapons, disease, and starvation I believe that the Native American race would be flourishing alongside Americans today. Today Native American unemployment rates are between 50 and 70%. Lack of formal education fuels other social problems like unemployment, poverty, teenage pregnancy, criminality and drug abuse and it forces the Native Americans to accept badly paid jobs causing 25% of Native Americans to live in poverty (Sarche). When arriving in North America, Europeans brought more than warfare between the Native American tribes ultimately …show more content…

By living off the land the natives were able to produce enough crops and nutrition to keep all tribe members healthy and alive. When colonizing in the New World Europeans introduced the presence of domesticated animals. The domesticated animals lived in close proximity with humans causing infectious diseases to be spread throughout the colony. These infectious diseases were new to the Indians, causing them to be at a higher risk of contracting the disease. Smallpox was the disease that affected the Natives most negatively not only because 90% of the Native population in Mexico died but because the Indians faith was being destroyed. As the Natives failed to heal each other from the diseases using traditional religious ceremonies their faith became damaged. Many Europeans were not affected by the diseases due to their immunity of the disease because they were previously exposed for years in Europe. Spanish missionaries saw this as an opportunity to spread Christianity throughout the native tribes. The Indians saw how the European priests were immune to the disease and began to believe that their religion was useless and Christianity could save them. A race that was once so rich in tradition and religion is now struggling to keep those same traditions alive. Since adopting other religious practices, many Native American traditions have been lost in history and …show more content…

Alcohol was a major portion of the Europeans lifestyle, therefor they believed that the alcohol trade would be a success in the New World. European traders knew that once the Natives consumed all the alcohol that they would return to trade for more, unlike other materials such as knifes for example. Alcohol became popular within the Native American society due to the spiritual effects it supposedly provided for the tribes. ’Natives began to incorporate the alcohol when going on vision quests due to the effects of intoxication. Since the recent introduction of alcohol, Natives were not aware of the effects of alcohol therefor they were more prone to addiction. Chief Red Jacket, a Seneca Chief uses antithesis in the quote "We gave them corn and meat; they gave us poison in return." Red Jacket uses the quote to describe how the Native Americans fed the white settlers while in return the Europeans gave them alcohol and violence causing blood shed across the New World. The poison being discussed is the alcohol the Europeans use for trade with the Indians, ultimately killing thousands of Native Americans due to the potency and side effects gained from consuming the alcohol. Since alcoholism is a disease that has a high risk of being passed down through future generations the Native American race would be affected for hundreds of years to come.

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