Native American Assimilation Policy Between 1850 And 1900

With waves of the American population moving westward, government attempted to assimilate, or integrate, Native Americans into American society. Their goal was for Native Americans to live and behave like white Americans, and for them “to cast off their savage habits and become an interesting, civilized, and Christian community” (Doc 9). Children were sent to boarding schools where they were given new clothes and haircuts, and taught English, Christianity, and American ways of life (Doc 13). While many Americans believed this would be good for the Native Americans, it effectively destroyed their culture and identity. By forcing them to learn English, they were unable to communicate the concepts, beliefs, and ideas their languages were based on. Americans did not consider the fact that English could not substitute for Native languages, because they are based on different realities, histories, and cultures (Doc 3). Assimilation turned the lives of Native Americans upside-down, forcing them to give up ideas and beliefs they had been practicing their whole lives, without any say. Slowly, Native American culture and lifestyle faded until it was nearly

On September 8, 2000, the head of the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) made a formal apology for the their participation in ‘Ethnic Cleansing’ of the Indigenous Nations of the Western Territories of the Unites States.2 From forced relocation to obscure lands and forced assimilation into the white man’s view of the world, the BIA previously set out to ‘destroy all things Indian’.3 Through the colonization of Turtle Island (North America), the American Federal policy set out to eliminate in part or as a whole, the Indigenous populations.4 The attitudes of the colonists were intentionally detrimental and the process is naturally exterminatory.5 The process of colonization was often exemplified by violent confrontations, deliberate massacres, and in some cases, total annihilations of a people.6 The culture of conquest was developed and practiced by Europeans well before they landed on Turtle Island as the practice was developed, and perfected well before the fifteenth century.7 Taking land and imposing values and ways of life on the social landscape created a conflictual relationship with the Indigenous peoples and forced a new way of life that ultimately destroyed those that previously existed there.8 Modern Europe

The unjust history of America contains the many Native American genocides executed throughout the 1790s-1920s over

During the end of the nineteenth century, the United States had formed policies which reduced land allotted to Native Americans. By enforcing these laws as well as Anglo-American ideals, the United States compromised indigenous people’s culture and ability to thrive in its society.

Throughout the period of colonization, several aspects of genocide can be identified. From the Genocide Convention of 1948, genocide was lawfully defined as any of the following committed with the intent to destroy in whole or part a national ethnical, racial, or religious group as such: killing members of the group, causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group, deliberately inflicting on the group conditions to bring about its destruction, imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group, and/or forcibly transferring children of the group to another group. In what is modern day North America, European settlers began colonizing the area in hopes of achieving their goals of expanding Christianity, acquiring wealth for their countries, and/or gaining personal wealth and power. The European settlers had little care about the indigenous people of the areas they were colonizing, leading to the American Indian Wars (Lasting from 1622 - 1924) and the genocide of Native Americans. During this time period, the Native American population decreased dramatically as a result of brutal war, disease, and torture. The modern day New Mexico area in particular was home to Indian Pueblos, who showed an extreme act of resistance against their Spanish conquerors. What later became known as the Pueblo Revolt of 1680 showed how resistance to genocide can be achievable and the impacts it may have.

The American government's treatment of Native Americans in the 19th century should be considered genocide. Genocide is the deliberate killing of a large group of people, especially those of a particular ethnic group or nation. And what American governments were doing is literary killing innocent Native Americans which are one hundred percent genocide. They were killing a lot of Indians, but they didn’t want to kill all Indians because they needed some of them to work in the fields. There were a lot of diseases and bacteria speared around which was killing a lot of them. There were estimated about 12 million Indians and about 75-80% were killed by the strategic diseases. In 1890 the last major battle between Native American Indians and U.S. soldiers occurred. It was called the Battle of Wounded Knee and occurred near the Wounded Knee Creek in South Dakota. Approximately three hundred Sioux Indians were slaughtered. Native Americans found themselves overwhelmed by Anglo-Americans' financial and military resources. But their response to events was neither

The Native Americans have faced tremendous discrimination in the early 1900s, and with the enactment of the Indian Termination policies in the 1940s-1950s, the coercion grew stronger (CITE). However, as the beat downs increased, so did the resistance.

Native Americans thrived from nature and their way of life depended on the land of the grassy Great Plains. Their life changed due to horses, and then afterward guns, being introduced to them by the Spanish; which made it easier for them to move and hunt. As settlers moved in, the Native nations were treated poorly and had little to no ability to stand up for what they believed in and how they wanted to live with all the restrictions laid upon them. The federal government created policies, such as The Concentration Policy, “relocation”, and The Dawes Severalty Act, as settlers began moving west which eventually lead to many warfares’s.

Even though the U.S. got more land from the Indian Removal Act and gave the Indians a new home with covered expenses it was a downcast for many Native tribes and a miserable event throughout history. In the writing of John G. Burnett’s Story of the Cherokees, he discusses how terrible and sad the removal of the Indians were and how it negatively affected the Indians. Specifically, “Woman were dragged from their homes”(2),”Children were often separated from parents, with the sky for a blanket and the earth as a pillow.”(2) In general, all of the Indians and even the women and kids were treated horrible as if they were seen as savages, and as if they were animals. Although, when being treated like savages, were the Indians the true savages or

Vance (1995) stated, “For nearly 500 years there has been a very oppressive, dishonest and manipulative message being voiced by the dominant white Angelo culture towards Native Americans, This has caused a great distrust, anger and conflicting attitudes for the Native American community” (p.1).

T.S. Eliot once said, “Most of the evil in this world is done by people with good intentions.” This is most certainly true when looking at early Indian history in the United States. In the 1880s, the young government did not know how to deal with the indigenous people who were already living in the land. The US wanted to continue expanding, culturing, and claiming land but land, in the Indian’s perspective, was not something that you could own but a privilege to be shared. Faced with this dilemma, the government passed an act in 1887 known as the Dawes Severalty Act.

Native Americans were free spirited and tranquil; not many people saw them as a vicious population. These stereotypes helped the Native Americans while under deep scrutiny for being ‘vicious’. Prior to the Act, “U.S. officials urged the Cherokee to

I wish to dedicate this paper to their memory, and to the memory of all Native Americans who lost their lives during this abominable period of American history. The atrocities they endured are undoubtedly classifiable as acts of racism.

For more than 300 years, since the days of Christopher Columbus and the Spanish Government, an attempt of genocide of the Native American Indian has existed. From mass brutal murders and destruction by Spanish and American armies, to self-annihilation through suicide, homicide, and alcohol induced deaths brought about because of failed internal colonialism and white racial framing. Early Explores used Indigenous inhabitants upon first arriving to the America’s to survive the New World and once they adapted, internal colonialism began with attempts to convert the Indians to Christianity, repressing their values and way of life, forcing them into slavery, and nearly exterminating an entire culture from existence.

b. causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;<br>c. deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part;<br>d. imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group;<br>e. forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.<br>(Destexhe).<br><br>In this paper, I will argue that the act of genocide as here defined, has been committed by the United States of America, upon the tribes and cultures of Native Americans, through mass indoctrination of its youths. Primary support will be drawn from Jorge Noriega's work, "American Indian Education in the United States." The paper will then culminate with my personal views on the subject,