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Indigenous knowledge system essay
Native Americans the story of their culture
Consequences of white colonialism on native americans
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Early Contact
Before European contact with Turtle Island, the Native Peoples fully occupied the lands, maintaining extensive trade networks, roads that tied different nations together, and successfully adapted to the specific natural environments across the continent.15 In her book, An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States, Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz writes of the Natives also adapting the environment to their needs,
The plots, blackberry rambles, pine barrens, and spacious groves of great eastern forest was an ecological kaleidoscope of garden chestnut, hickory, and oak…Early European explorers marveled at the trees that were spaced so that the forest “could be penetrated even by a large army”… English squatters encountered forested
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Whether this tactic to devastate brought unknown disease, such as Smallpox, which depopulated the New World in such a way as giving the settlers who the Native nations was intentional is under debate.18 The culture of conquest was well developed by the Europeans well before they landed on Turtle Island. The idea of colonialism and methods of relocation and exploitation of a population was developed, practiced and perfected well before the fifteenth century.19 Modern Europe was based on the exploitation of human labor and the displacement of populations within Europe. The intent to accumulate wealth by procuring additional lands, resources and labor, used colonial domination and exploitation to do …show more content…
To help the Native population to remain at peace with the incoming settlers, Congress enacted the Ordinance for the Regulation of Indian Affairs. This Ordinance established a division of Native populations by the Ohio River. Superintendents of Indian Affairs were established for each section, which supplied licenses to United States citizens to trade with the Native populations. Preceding the Constitution, in July of 1787, the United States government outlined the Northwest Ordinance. This was the first law of the new republic, showing the motive for those who wanted independence. The blueprint was provided to those settlers to obtain previously outlawed land outside of the Appalachians and Alleghenies by Britain. 15 same In 1801, President Jefferson stated the intentions of massive expansion of land within the United
“Four centuries ago, the English didn’t discover a new world--they created one,” asserts Charles Mann in his article, America, Found and Lost. The article describes the arrival of Jamestown settlers from across the Atlantic Ocean in 1607. They arrived in Virginia to acquire land, gold, and silver. But the Europeans were also fixed on finding a path to Asia. At this time time, Powhatan ruled the empire of Tsenacomoco. He had tripled the size of the city over three decades, and the population was at 14,000 people. The English brought with them a whole host of species that dramatically altered the landscape of the Chesapeake Region. Some were intentional, like tobacco. Others, such as honeybees, worms, and disease had an unintended but profound impact on the environment, changing its indigenous people forever.
On January 29, 2015, I attended Pamela Palmater’s book launch for her book, “Indigenous Nationhood,” which was a two-hour event that started from 6 PM to 8 PM. Palmater is a well-known lawyer, activist and academic from the Eel River Bar First Nation in northern New Brunswick. The event started with an opening performance from the Hidden River Singers. Palmater then addressed the crowd for around 30-40 minutes, in which the audience, including myself, sat in awe at the passion and intensity in her voice in empowering Indigenous people. She emphasized the importance of exercising peoples’ voices, both allies and Indigenous people, in advocating for Indigenous rights and freedom. A question and answer portion then followed and Palmater answered
Modern day Native American are widely known as stewards of the environment who fight for conservation and environmental issues. The position of the many Native American as environmentalists and conservationists is justified based on the perception that before European colonists arrived in the Americas, Native Americans had little to no effect on their environment as they lived in harmony with nature. This idea is challenged by Shepard Krech III in his work, The Ecological Indian. In The Ecological Indian, Krech argues that this image of the noble savage was an invented tradition that began in the early 1970’s, and that attempts to humanize Native Americans by attempting to portray them as they really were. Krech’s arguments are criticized by Darren J Ranco who in his response, claims that Krech fails to analyze the current state of Native American affairs, falls into the ‘trap’ of invented tradition, and accuses Krech of diminishing the power and influence of Native Americans in politics. This essay examines both arguments, but ultimately finds Krech to be more convincing as Krech’s
Some consequences of the exchange are the spread of disease to the Native people and settlers, the destruction of the Native population, and the disappearance of the Natives custom’s, beliefs, and way of life. Columbus’s arrival to the Americas, land that had already been established by the Natives, resulted in a spread of fatal diseases. Disagreement between the Europeans and the Natives and the enslavement of Native people helped to wipe out the population. Document 5 illustrates the fighting that occurred between the Natives and Europeans.
During the late 1780s, many U.S. citizens were interested in purchasing land in the Ohio River Valley area. These citizens eventually got Congress to pass the Northwest Ordinance of 1787. This ordinance gave settlers basic rights and illegalized slavery in the Ohio River Valley. There were three major parts to creating new states within the ordinance. The first section stated that when a new territory began to establish, Congress would appoint a governor, a secretary, and three judges for that territory. The second section of the Northwest Ordinance only applied to territories including a population of 5,000 free adult males. It stated that once the territory met that criteria, it could elect a legislature. The final part of the Northwest Ordinance allowed territories with 60,000 free settlers to request for statehood.
A small archipelago off the northwest coast of Britsh Columbia is known as the “islands of the people.” This island is diverse in both land and sea environment. From the 1700’s when the first ship sailed off its coast and a captain logged about the existence, slow attentiveness was given to the island. Its abundance, in both natural resources physical environment, and its allure in the concealed Haida peoples, beckoned settlers to come to the island. Settlers would spark an era of prosperity and catastrophe for the native and environmental populations.
Native Americans chose to live off the land such as animals and the trees for houses from the time of early civilization in the Americas to when Christopher Columbus sailed across the Atlantic. In Thomas Morton’s writing he said “they gather poles in the woods and put eh great end of them in the ground, placing them in form of a circle.”
Beginning in the fifteenth century with the arrival of Columbus, natives of the Americas were infected with European diseases that proved to be deadly to the Indians. The population in northern Mexico suffered an immense decimation of 2,500,000 peoples to less than 320,000 by the end of the sixteenth century (Vargas, 30). The Spaniards’ cruel treatment of the natives aided this vast reduction in the Aztec and Mexican population, enabling the Spaniards to conquer the lands of the Aztecs and other native tribes. By the end of the sixteenth century, the Spaniards had expanded their conquests into the southwest region of what is now known as the United States of America.
The process of assimilation, as it regards to the Native Americans, into European American society took a dreaded and long nearly 300 years. Initially, when the European’s came to the hopeful and promising land of the “New World”, they had no desire or reason anything but minimal contact with the Indians. However, starting in the 1700s the European colonists population skyrocketed. The need for more resources became evident and the colonists knew they could attain these necessities by creating a relationship of mutual benefit with the Native tribes. The Indians, at first skeptical, however became growingly open to the colonists and the relationship they were looking to attain. Indian furs were traded for colonial goods and military alliances were formed.
Dating back to the first occurrence of European colonization in the New World, Europeans have advanced their agenda of territorial expansion through the conquering of indigenous peoples. Clashes of culture brought forth a series of conflicts between Native Americans and European settlers that centered around differing religious beliefs and land ideologies. A tidal wave of new diseases also severely weakened the Native American population across the continent, leaving them vulnerable to the increased influx of European settlements. Over the span of 500 years, European impact would eradicate an estimated 60 million Native Americans ("Native North Americans”).
The European influences to the Native Americans were Europeans carried the new diseases to the Indians. “Europeans were used to these diseases, but Indian people had no resistance to them. Sometimes the illnesses spread through direct contact with colonists. Other times, they were transmitted as Indians traded with one another. The result of this contact with European germs was horrible. Sometimes whole villages perished in a short time” (Kincheloe). Slave trade was another influence to American Indians. Europeans soon realized that they could provide commercial goods such as tools and weapons to some American Indian tribes that would bring them other Indians captured in tribal wars, and these captured Indians were bought and sold as slaves. Therefore, “slavery led to warfare among tribes and too much hardship. Many tribes had to move to escape the slave trade, which destroyed some tribes completely. In time, the practice of enslaving Native peoples ended. However, it had greatly affected American Indians of the South and the Southwest” (Kinchloe). Lastly, Europeans change Native America and African’ roots. Native Americans
Before European contact with Turtle Island, the Native Peoples fully occupied the lands, maintaining extensive trade networks, roads that tied different nations together and successfully adapted to the particular natural environments across the continent.15 In her book, An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States, Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz writes of the Natives also adapting the environment to their
The Europeans colonized most of America because they saw the land they had available where they could expand their influence on the world. Also, they were able to establish colonies that sent raw materials home which would make them money. Through the analysis of Jared Diamonds video Guns, Germs, and Steel, this essay will show that the Europeans were able to conquer the Native American’s so easily because of their geography, weapons, and diseases.
Microbes from Europe introduced new diseases and produced devastating epidemics that swept through the native populations (Nichols 2008). The result from the diseases brought over, such as smallpox, was a demographic catastrophe that killed millions of people, weakened existing societies, and greatly aided the Spanish and Portuguese in their rapid and devastating conquest of the existing American empires (Brinkley 2014). Interaction took place with the arrival of whites and foreigners. The first and perhaps most profound result of this exchange was the imp...
One of the main focus points in European colonization was to further their economic order by using abundant recourses that were found far from the home land. They looked to gain power and produce wealth. In order to reach these goals, Europeans directed cultural change among the indigenous people and justified their actions by claiming it was “God’s work”. However, with all of these changes came diverse reactions from the native people. In the beginning they were eager to build relationships, however after time passed many considered them as sons from the devil.