Tragic Quarrels: The Struggles Of Native Americans

Since the beginning of time, conquering other societies has been a common occurrence. Almost every battle that has taken place has been documented. When stories of past battles are retold, only one side of the tale gets voiced; the victor’s side. In history, the perspective of those defeated in tragic quarrels never presented their side. Most never even live to tell the stories, but those who do survive are not thought of as important accounts in history. The Native Americans suffered tyranny for a plethora of years, and still do. When learning about the indigenous people of America, it is taught through the “white man’s” view, rather than the eyes of the sufferers. By failing to tell both standpoints of the story, the facts get skewed. Distorted

Many of the Nez Perce refused to be confined to reservations. The Nez Perce wanted to escape to Canada, where the United States could not control them. Once they left the reservation, it was fair game to kill the natives for disobeying the government. Only a few hundred natives decided to battle the government. There were four battles that the Nez Perce fought in before surrendering. The main feud took place in a basin located in present day Montana. The Nez Perce natives were attacked whilst they were sleeping. It is not documented how many died on that night, but overall through the four days of fighting eighty-nine Nez Perce were killed.. After the surrender, the ones who survived the battle continued to try and enter Canada where they could be safe. Several months later the remaining Nez Perce were caught trying to escape. The ones who surrender before being murdered were forced back on to reservations (“Nez Perce Fight the Battle of Big Hole” Web). Yellow Wolf the leader of the Nez Perce only had one this to say about the war “The Whites told only one side. Told it to please themselves. Told much that is not true. Only his own best deeds, only the worst deeds of the Indians, has the white man told.” (Dee pg

It was significant ritual that the Native Americans preformed, named the “Ghost Dance.” The “Ghost Dance” was enacted for spiritual proposes to help cope with their loss of people. With this ritual gaining a massive amount of popularity, the government became suspicious and paranoid about its intent. In attempts to calm the Ghost Dance movement down, the government tried to arrest Sitting Bull whom they thought was the leader of the movement. Instead of arresting Sitting Bull they murder him in an effort to put an end to the Ghost Dance Movement. After Sitting Bull’s murder his people were in uproar getting ready to retaliate on the soldiers. The military told the natives to put their weapons down, but it was inevitable to stop the fight. The servicemen opened fire and killed 150 Native Americans on December 29, 1890 (“Wounded Knee” Web). After this massacre almost all of the tribes’ leaders were dead. In this quote, Black Elk describes his memories of the Wounded Knee Massacre “I did not know then how much was ended. When I look back now from this high hill of my old age, I can still see the butchered women and children lying in heaped and scattered all along the crooked gulch as plain as when I saw them with eyes still young. And I can see that something else died there in the bloody mud, and was buried in the blizzard. A people’s dreams died there. It was a beautiful dream… the nation’s hoop is broken