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The true inhabitants of America were the Native Americans. They were the ones who were robbed of their homes and were killed off. From the time the colonists colonized America to the time of the Civil War, Native Americans were the victims of stolen land, mistreatment, and death. They were severely oppressed and would suffer from this oppression for centuries to come.
Even before Columbus arrived, the Indians were already suffering from other groups who were trying to steal their homes. The Spanish, hungry for wealth, explored Mexico in the 1480s and came into contact with the Aztecs, who lost their territory to the Spaniards. Although the Spanish succeeded, it wasn’t because of their army, it was because of their diseases. Many Aztecs
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died from these diseases because their immune system had never come into contact with it. The Spanish took the homes of the Aztecs and killed so many of them because of their differences. Each group thought that they were better than the other which lead to chaos. This colonization of the home of the Aztecs was important because it would be the first of many to come. Essentially, it was the start of the suffering of the Indians. Years later, starting in 1598 and ending in 1696, the Spanish took another territory, New Mexico, from the Pueblo Indians. In the 1760s, the Spanish stole the California and Arizona regions from the Indians. During this period, many Indians were once again killed off due to diseases. All in all, the Spanish drastically decreased the Native American population and stole their territory due to greed. The Spanish not only killed many Indians and stole their homes, they also interrupted their former lifestyle. With the marriage of Ferdinand and Isabella, the Spanish tried to force many Indians into the Catholic religion. The Spanish were trying to civilize the Indians; they were trying to get the Indians to be more like them. As if this wasn’t enough, in many areas, they forced the Indians to work for them. Some Indians worked in the mining industry while others worked in the agricultural industry. It was very similar to slavery with the African Americans. Essentially, the Spanish treated the Indians very similarly to the African Americans, with disrespect. From the very start, the colonists also stole Indian lands as well. With the English population drastically increasing each year, the colonists needed more land for their residents. So naturally, they took the land that was available to them, Indian land. When the colonists tried to take the Indians’ land, of course the Indians tried to fight back, but unfortunately, they didn’t succeed. The English took three territories that belonged to the Indians by 1652. Years later, in 1676, Bacon’s Rebellion occurred, which was a war between the colonists and the Indians over land. This rebellion gave the colony insight into how dedicated the colonists were about keeping their lands away from the rebellion. The English’s greed for land caused them to steal many Indians’ lands in such a short amount of time. Like the Spanish, the English mistreated the Native Americans. One of the first expeditions was held in 1585. During this expedition, the colonists destroyed the Indians’ territory merely because the Indians had stole something from them. This first meeting was crucial to how the rest of the relationship between these two groups would go. By the outcome of this meeting, it would not go well. In the colonization of Jamestown in 1607, the English were even more hostile. Despite the help that they received from the Native Americans, they treated them harshly because, like the Spanish, they didn’t like people who were different from them. During the starving time, which was in 1609, the colonists stole food from the Indians, which led to war. On the Native American side, there was “an alliance of about 30 tribes with as many as 13,000 people.” The English would even go as far as to kidnap Pocahontas, the Powhatan’s daughter, which would lead to the matrimony of Pocahontas and John Rolfe that marked the end of the war. Although the war was technically at a close, one document states that “Opechancanough, chief of the Pamunkey tribe, raided English settlements in 1622, killing nearly 350 colonists and nearly driving the remaining settlers back to England.” It then says, “Opechancanough retaliated again in 1644 in a final spasm of attacks, killing more than 500 colonists.” This violence shown after the war was a reminder that the ultimate war between the Indians and the colonists was not over. Hostility, aggression, and hatred surrounded the English and the Native Americans. The relationship between the Puritans and the Native Americans was, in the beginning, a good one. Later though, it ended up much like the other English relationships with the Indians. They drastically decreased the Native American population due to disease; there were many disputes over land and food shortages. The Puritans felt this way mainly because of their religion. They wanted the Indians to be like them religiously. During the Salem Witch Trials in 1692, Indians were the first ones to be blamed of witchcraft because of their uncivilized nature and many died due to this accusation. Although the Puritans were extremely religious, they just could not accept the Indians for who they were. Like the other English colonists, the Puritans engaged in wars with the Native Americans. The first major war was the Pequot War, which occurred in 1637. The Puritans’ hunger for land and control over trade with people of other nationalities caused this war. In the battle of Fort Mystic, one article states, “...the English attackers set fire to the fortified village and retreated outside the palisades.” So, the war ended with the hundreds of deaths of Indians due to both fire and murder. The next war, King Philip’s War, occurred in 1675. Not only was this war due to claims over land, but it was also over trying to civilize the Native Americans. The war lasted for three long years; it was brutal. Metacomet, the leader of the Indian rebellion, was killed. His head served as a warning to the Indians; they knew to never start a war with the Puritans again. At the end of this war, with the help of converted Indians, the colonists won the Indians’ land. During these wars, the Puritans would not stand for the attacks of the Indians. The French and Indian War in 1754 proved to be disastrous for the Indians as well.
The Indians decided which side, either the British or the French, they were to fight on based on what each side offered. Most of the Indians chose to partake on the French side, which did not help them when the British won. Once the British won the war in 1763, the Indians were severely mistreated and had their lands taken away. This was their punishment for not siding with the British, although in reality this was how they were always treated. Some of the colonists even formed a group called the Paxton Boys whose main purpose was to destroy the Native Americans. The one Indian group who had sided with the British, the Iroquois Confederacy, had very minimal benefits. Even after they had helped the British, they still had to fight for their land. This shows how little the colonists treated the Indians with respect. They treated the Indians as if they did not matter. The Proclamation of 1763, which stopped the whites from colonizing land in the west for a period of time, did not prove to be much help either. All in all, the result of the French and Indian war turned out to be absolutely terrible for the Indians.
After the colonists had won, the Indians were treated harshly and attacked. The colonists expected them to obey their every command and/or become civilized into their society. The colonists would even go as far as to murder ninety-six Native Americans for supposedly murdering
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some of their people. With the colonists victory, the Indians’ could be mistreated as harshly as the colonists wanted to treat them, regardless of what England said. After the American Revolution in 1783, Americans continued to take control of the Indians’ territory at a much faster rate. Although some Indians never consented to the stealing of their lands, Americans did it anyway. Soon, the Indians started to greatly resist the whites. In two battles, Little Turtle and his men succeeded in their attempts to resist the whites. Many Americans were killed during the course of these battles. In the third battle in 1794, which was the Battle of Fallen Timbers, the Americans finally succeeded in getting the ownership of more western lands. They managed to get the Indians to agree to the Treaty of Greenville, which stated that the Indians could keep their land that they currently owned but could not claim new lands. This treaty shows how much the Indians were ignored. By making this treaty, the colonists gave them land that was already theirs. These battles proved the fact that the Indians were not going to let the whites take away their land so easily. The Indians were treated badly after the American Revolution as well. With the formation of the Constitution, the Indians had zero rights. They were hardly included in the Constitution. They were not considered people from another country, nor were they considered part of the American nation either. The Constitution was a terrible reminder of how the Indians were recognized as if they were nothing. Before the War of 1812, the whites were once again trying to steal Indians’ lands.
This disagreement was settled by the Battle of Tippecanoe in which the whites won, although Tecumseh and his followers did put up a good fight. Later, in the actual War of 1812, Tecumseh was murdered. At the end of the war, the Treaty of Ghent was drawn up, but it meant nothing to the Indians because the whites ended up taking their lands anyway. In a way, the events that involved the Indians were some of the causes of the War of 1812. The events leading up to the War of 1812 and the actual War of 1812 were very traumatic for the Indians.
Following the War of 1812, the Indians were once again not treated well. In the Johnson v. McIntosh case in 1823, the ruling claimed that the government could take Indian lands away, not the people. In the Worcester v. Georgia case, the ruling claimed that the government could allow their people access to the Indian lands, not the states. This is like saying that your friends can’t tell you what to do, but your mother can. Although the Indians were given the tiniest amount of respect, they were not given the respect they
deserved.
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
To many of the English colonists, any land that was granted to them in a charter by the English Crown was theirs’, with no consideration for the natives that had already owned the land. This belittlement of Indians caused great problems for the English later on, for the natives did not care about what the Crown granted the colonists for it was not theirs’ to grant in the first place. The theory of European superiority over the Native Americans caused for any differences in the way the cultures interacted, as well as amazing social unrest between the two cultures.
The French and Indian War changed the economic, political, and ideological relations between Great Britain and the American colonies in many ways. Politically the colonist felt like they were deprived of representation, when Great Britain imposed unfair taxation without any say. Economically, many colonist were infuriated with the British because the British were starving them of many resources and making high taxes and tariffs. Ideologically, it brought feelings of discontent towards Britain. Boycotts during the war opened the eyes of the colonist. It showed them they had the ability to make a change and proved that they could unite together. The colonist no longer viewed Great Britain as the great mother country, but as a tyrant who looked to feed on the American colonies new sense of life.
The land of the Native Indians had been encroached upon by American settlers. By the
The case Worcester v. Georgia (1832) was a basis for the discussion of the issue of states' rights versus the federal government as played out in the administration of President Andrew Jackson and its battle with the Supreme Court. In addition to the constitutional issues involved, the momentum of the westward movement and popular support for Indian resettlement pitted white man against Indian. All of these factors came together in the Worcester case, which alarmed the independence of the Cherokee Nation, but which was not enforced. This examines the legal issues and tragic consequences of Indian resettlement.
The American Indians were promised change with the American Indian policy, but as time went on no change was seen. “Indian reform” was easy to promise, but it was not an easy promise to keep as many white people were threatened by Indians being given these rights. The Indian people wanted freedom and it was not being given to them. Arthur C. Parker even went as far as to indict the government for its actions. He brought the charges of: robbing a race of men of their intellectual life, of social organization, of native freedom, of economic independence, of moral standards and racial ideals, of his good name, and of definite civic status (Hoxie 97). These are essentially what the American peoples did to the natives, their whole lives and way of life was taken away,
I wish I could forget it all, but the picture of six-hundred and forty-five wagons lumbering over the frozen ground with their cargo of suffering humanity still lingers in my memory.” He says that he wishes he had not seen what he saw on this trip and he wishes it did not happen. When the Cherokees appealed to the U.S. to protect their land, the Court, led by Chief Justice John Marshall, ruled that the states were not allowed to make laws that govern the Cherokees, only the federal government can. This meant that Georgia laws don’t involve the Cherokees. Many religious groups, like the Quakers, didn’t want to force Native Americans against their will to move from their homelands.
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 clash between the Native Americans and the colonists did not start off tumultuous. In the early days of the exploration and settlement of the New World they lived in peace. The Indians taught them how to farm and live off the land. In a strange land the colonists made an ally. However, the subsequent turn of events was inevitable. Perhaps the chaos that ensued could have been postponed but there was never going to be a peaceful cohabitation between the colonists and the indigenous people. There were so many vast differences between the religious views and ultimate goals of the two groups. The Native Americans had established trade relationships with various tribes, they had their own religions, and their way of life was a stark contrast to that of the colonists. The worldview of the respective peoples was foreign to the other and the idea of a holistic and unbiased approach to the life of others was foreign.
The “Utmost Good Faith” clause from the Northwest Ordinance of 1787 however, stated, “The utmost good faith shall always be observed toward the Indians; their land and property shall not be taken from them without their consent; and in their property, rights, and liberty, they shall never be invaded or disturbed.” (Document 9). However, a letter from three Seneca Indian leaders to George Washington, President of the United States, argued, “When your army entered the country of Six (Iroquois) Nations, we called you the town destroyer; to this day, when your name is heard, our women look behind them and turn pale, and our children cling to the necks of their mothers…” (Document 10). This, in fact, proves the American Revolution was not revolutionary because the Indians were promised the “Utmost Good Faith” and that their land and property would never be invaded or disturbed, but their towns were left completely devastated and halted society from changing into a better
The Cherokee Indians, the most cooperative and accommodating to the political institutions of the united states, suffered the worst fate of all Native Americans when voluntarily or forcibly moved west. In 1827 the Cherokees attempted to claim themselves as an independent nation within the state of Georgia. When the legislature of the state extended jurisdiction over this ‘nation,’ the Cherokees sought legal actions, not subject to Georgia laws and petitioned the United States Supreme Court. The case became known as Cherokee Nation vs. Georgia in 1831. Supreme Court Justice John Marshall denied their claim as a republic within Georgia, he then deemed the Cherokee as a ‘domestic dependent nation’. One year later through the case of Worcester vs. Georgia, the Cherokee’s were granted federal protection from the molestation by the state of Georgia. Through the Indian Removal act in 1830 President Andrew Jackson appropriated planning and funding for the removal of Native Americans, Marshall’s rulings delayed this for the Cherokee Nation, and infuriated President Jackson. Marshall’s decision had little effect on Jackson and ignoring this action the president was anxious to see him enforce it.
Considering historical evidence, the notion: Native –Americans was not the first inhabitant of America is a complete false. For centuries, history kept accurate and vivid accounts of the first set of people who domiciled the western hemisphere. Judging by those records, below are the first set of Native-American people who inhabited America before the arrival of another human race; the Iroquois: The Iroquois of Native Americans was one of the tribes that lived in America before other people came. Based on historical evidence, it is believed that the Native Americans came from Asia way back during the Ice Age through a land bridge of the Bering Strait. When the Europeans first set foot in America, there were about 10 million Native Americans
Both the Mexicans and Indians fought many battles for rights, land and social issues but in the end they lost.
Towards the development of the United States of America there has always been a question of the placement of the Native Americans in society. Throughout time, the Natives have been treated differently like an individual nation granted free by the U.S. as equal U.S. citizens, yet not treated as equal. In 1783 when the U.S. gained their independence from Great Britain not only did they gain land from the Appalachian Mountains but conflict over the Indian policy and what their choice was to do with them and their land was in effect. All the way from the first presidents of the U.S. to later in the late 19th century the treatment of the Natives has always been changing. The Native Americans have always been treated like different beings, or savages, and have always been tricked to signing false treaties accompanying the loss of their homes and even death happened amongst tribes. In the period of the late 19th century, The U.S. government was becoming more and more unbeatable making the Natives move by force and sign false treaties. This did not account for the seizing of land the government imposed at any given time (Boxer 2009).
The French and Indian War or the Seven Years War was one of the major events that led to the American Revolution. The French and Indian War started in 1754 when George Washington and General Edward Braddock tried to defend the British land that they felt the French were taking with their expansion into the Ohio River valley. In 1755 Governor William Shirley of Massachusetts had many French settlers in the Nova Scotia region moved from that region to avoid any confrontation if these settlers sided with their home country. These people were exiled from their home and moved into British colonies in a very cruel and violent fashion. This is one of the first examples of Britain’s oppressive nature towards people they consider a threat to what they feel is the best solution. The British military effort, at this time, was not as impassioned or successful. Both George Washington and General Braddock suffered major defeats at the hands of the French and their allies, General Braddock was even killed in one of the early battles before this war was officially started. It was not until later in the war that the British were able to successfully defeat the French. The war officially began in 1756 and ended in 1763 but this war is far less important than the major event it caused. More than anything this war was the first step to the American Revolution.