Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
How the US treated Native Americans unfairly
The colonization of the Americas
The colonization of the Americas
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: How the US treated Native Americans unfairly
After watching the documentary We Shall Remain: Wounded Knee, the situation that prompted the occupation at Wounded Knee was a long awaiting protest against the United States government's mistreatment of Native Americans. For instance, mistreatment by creation of Indian schools, relocation, termination, etc. Although, the final setoff was the murder of a Native American by a white man. Basically, the white man only got a slap on the wrist and the Native Americans rioted against this. The court system did not give the murdered Native American any justice. White man who was only charged with second degree manslaughter was not given the correct charges the Native Americans saw but given a privilege because he was a white man. Ultimately, this
was the last straw Natives were going to take from the government. On the other hand, the protesters at Wounded Knee justified using violence by referencing to the past history of Native Americans and white people. That the white people has used violence against Native Americans constantly and now it was their turn to use violence. That not being armed will not help in justifying their actions. Overall, I would have to agree with their motives. Violence would not have the same effect if there was no violence. Which leads me to how this situation illustrated divisions within Native American communities. The situation brought two different sides of Wounded Knee. One side did not agree with the efforts with the American Indian Movement (AIM) while the other found hope in AIM. The opposing side saw it as a wrong way to face the situation while the other side was finally taking a stand. Ultimately, I think that Wounded Knee was a setting stone to the U.S. that Native Americans are still here and that they have not forget the past four hundred years of history.
According to Tyler Troudt once said, “The past cannot be changed forgotten to edit or erased it can only be accepted.” In the book The Lakota Way, it is talking about all the old stories that no one talks about anymore. Some of the stories are about respect, honor, love, sacrifice, truth, bravery. Joseph M. Marshall III wrote this story so that young adults around the world and mainly the Lakota people know their culture, so they knew all the stories about the people long ago. What the author is writing about is all information that today’s generation will never know about the stories because most of the elder that even knew or know the stories have passed away or the young people just are not interested in listening to them anymore.
Black Hawk Down - Summary of the book as written by Mark Bowden. It was mid-afternoon on October 3, 1993. There were approximately 160 men eagerly awaiting the signal to proceed. Matt Eversmann sat waiting in Super Six Seven, a Black Hawk helicopter.
In the Lakota Way, Marshall teaches many different virtues that all are important to being a good person, but respect shines above them all. It is at the cornerstone of every virtue the author puts forth. It is clear in every story told by Marshall and in every lesson taught in The Lakota Way. Without at least a modicum of respect, the virtues taught by the Lakota would be less valuable to us as a society.
“Revolutions do not sustain themselves through ideas alone” (Breen 17). American Insurgents, American Patriots is a scholarly novel that researches and tells about the years leading up to the American Revolutionary War from a different viewpoint then normal works on the revolution. It was written by T.H. Breen and published in 2010 by Hill and Wang, a division of Farrar, Straus and Giroux, who have been awarded twenty-one nobel prizes in literature. Hill and Wang focus on historical nonfiction works for the educated reader (Macmillan). The book may appear to be novel like, however, it is a scholarly work and has been reviewed by multiple professors of history at respected universities. Aside from
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,
Luke 6:31 says, “And as you wish that others would do to you, do so to them.” History proves that our nation didn’t keep with verse in mind when we treated the Native Americans unfairly. Some examples of not treating them fairly was the Trail of Tears, The Massacre of Wounded Knee, and The Battle of Tippecanoe. This essay will explain how in these events Americans treated Native Americans how we shouldn’t of.
The film, Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee, documents the annihilation of the American Indians in the late 1800s. The film starts out in the Black Hills of the Dakotas, a land sacred to the Sioux Native Americans. The Sioux claimed the land and their population flourished due to the good resources in the area. The white people want to gain control of the land and force the natives to relocate to another area. They want the natives to assimilate and believe that this strategy will improve the nation. Senator Henry Dawes comes up with the plan to relocate the natives to several reservations, where they can learn the ways of the white people. Dawes uses an americanized native named Ohiyesa, or Charles, as proof of the success of assimilation. The Sioux are forced to assimilate in order to protect their lives.
The Sioux and other Native Americans have always been treated poorly by some people. They had to deal with the same racism that the African Americans were dealing with in the South. No one was fighting a war for the Sioux though. The truth is white supremacy runs amuck everywhere and wreaks havoc on society. Racism separated the Sioux from the settlers, but the tipping point was something else entirely. The US made a binding contract, a promise, to pay the Sioux a certain amount of Go...
Native Americans were not afforded full citizenship in the United States until 1924, therefore they were not afforded the rights of American citizens i.e. religious freedom until then. It wasn’t until 1945, that the Supreme Court held that “Freedom of speech and of press is accorded aliens residing in this country” (Bridges v. Wixon, 326 U.S. 135, 148). In 1890 the Ghost Dance movement gain momentum within the Lakota. This created concern and fear among many whites in the area. A massacre at Wounded Knee on the Lakota Reservation in South Dakota was a direct result of the Euro- American fears of non-Christian people. Tisa Wegner tells us, “in 1906, Congress supported a view, amending the Dawes Act to postpone citizenship for newly allotted Indians for twenty-five-year period or until they had “adopted the habits of civilized life” (Hoxie 1995:211-238). The Native people then developed secular dance ceremonies which allowed them to continue the practice of dancing and not be perceived as a threat, they did this by having these ceremonies coincide with Euro-American
Most all ethnicities and cultures have been prosecuted at one time or another from an oppressing source. In the case of the Native Americans, it was the English coming in and taking their land right from underneath them. As the new colonies of the cohesive United States of America expanded, they ran into the territories of the then referred to Indians. These people were settled down south on the east coast, for example Georgia, Tennessee, Florida and the Carolinas. America obtained this land through the Louisiana Purchase, where they bought it from France. The Native Americans were already there before anyone, yet the big power countries bargained with their land. The Native Americans did not live the way the American democracy did, and they
Perhaps the worst aspect of Jackson 's administration was his removal and treatment of the natives. Specifically, Andrew Jackson forced the resettlement of several native american tribes against the ruling of the Supreme Court. The Indian Removal Act drove thousands of natives off their tribal lands and forced them west to new reservations. Then again, there are those who defend Jackson 's decision stating that Indian removal was necessary for the advancement of the United States. However, the cost and way of removing the natives was brutal and cruel. The opposition fails to recognize the fact that Jackson’s removal act had promised the natives payment, food, and protection for their cooperation but Jackson fails to deliver any of these promises. Furthermore, in “Indian removal,” an article from the Public-Broadcasting Service, a description of the removal of the Cherokee nation is given. The article analyses the effect of the Indian Removal Act, which was approved by Jackson, on various native tribes. “The Cherokee, on the other hand, were tricked with an illegitimate treaty. In 1833, a small faction agreed to sign a removal agreement: the Treaty of New Echota. The leaders of this group were not the recognized leaders of the Cherokee nation, and over 15,000 Cherokees -- led by Chief John Ross -- signed a petition in protest. The Supreme Court ignored their demands and ratified the treaty in 1836. The Cherokee were given two years to migrate voluntarily, at the end of which time they would be forcibly removed. By 1838 only 2,000 had migrated; 16,000 remained on their land. The U.S. government sent in 7,000 troops, who forced the Cherokees into stockades at bayonet point. They were not allowed time to gather their belongings, and as they left, whites looted their homes. Then began the march known as the Trail of Tears, in which 4,000 Cherokee
Wounded Knee was a terrible event in US history. It showed how the US government didn't understand the Native Americans and treated them badly and unfairly.
The Native Americans were promised a large amount of private land for their families to live on forever in peace. As time went on throughout the years, Native Americans started to see their land shrink by acres. This was unsettling to many of the Natives and would start to raise problems with the white soldiers. By having the Promised Land taken away from them it would only start to add fuel to the fire before the Indians would attack back. Taking of land was of several items that would start to enrage the Indians. The next item that I took away from class was how the U.S. would continuously steal from the Native people and made it evident in the video. The U.S. would continually steal Native American money for their benefit. This would not help the Indians moving forward in trying to provide a life for their family. U.S. agents would withhold Native Americans money that was given to them from their federal government. It was the payment for the land that U.S. bought from them. The United States (US) would continue to make numerous treaty violations by having to make Natives make payments to Indian agents who would use the money for what they want. With all of this occurring, it caused an increased number of families to stricken of hunger and adds to the never-ending hardship among the Dakota tribes in Minnesota. This would all boil over to having the Great Sioux Revolt that would trigger the infamous Dakota
The video “Bury my Heart at Wounded Knee,” tells the story of being pushed onto reservations in the Midwest and Black Hills negotiations. The main characters include Charles Eastman, Red Cloud, and Sitting Bull. These characters each play a significant role in capturing the emotional state of life among the governing agencies and tribal members.
After reading chapter 3, I have found several things I could agree upon with the author Yancey. Yancey writes “Perhaps the intensity of feeling among the three traditional stems from a common heritage: family disputes are always the stubbornest, and civil wars the bloodiest”