Genocide, I never expected there to be so much debate regarding the definition for this word, much less for acts that seem to fit precisely within its definition. In order to better understand if what happened to the Native Americans was genocide or not we need to get a clear definition of this word. According to the United Nations, genocide is, “Any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in 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 of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part; imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group; forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.” Upon looking at this definition, the parameters that it sets are quite broad. I definitely agree with this definition, and there is no doubt in my mind that what happened to the Native Americans falls under this definition. One of they key words within this definition that stands out to me is “intent”. Doing something with intent is doing something on purpose, with a clear vision in mind. When I look at the history of the Native Americans, I can see clear intent in the mass killings by the U.S. Before going further into history, I think we have to take a look back at where it all started. It is interesting to see how David Stannard points out
Army and the forceful action used to confine the natives, the construction on Indian land, and the massive slaughter of the buffalo which the Indians relied on in every aspect of life. The mistreatment of the Native Americans has been going on for hundreds of years, way before the Gold Rush began. The American government has taken land that they are unable to return to this day. They have deprived the plains Indians of their culture and freedom. Immigration from other countries was at its peak, but America still wasn’t able to call people, that had resided in the United States for many years, citizens. Even the Native American’s, that had lived on the continent before it was even discovered, were denied citizenship unless they were Anglo-Saxon Protestant. To this day, many look at the Indians as a joke; The Seminoles as “The Tribe that Purchased A Billion Dollar Business.” Children are being taught about friendship between the American Settlers and the Natives, they are being lied to. The upcoming generations won’t understand the horrors of unnecessary warfare against innocent people, and they will only know to take what they want, even if it isn’t rightfully theirs. America as a nation has to be stopped from draping curtains over the defeat of the plains Indians: their wiping out of an entire people, just as they did to the
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 unjust history of America contains the many Native American genocides executed throughout the 1790s-1920s over
Many would argue that they were, after causing the Native Americans to leave their land, torturing and killing them in the process. Unfortunately, this tragedy did not completely end during the 1800s. Many Indian reservations today are still in very poor conditions, and not many true Native American people are left. There is only an estimated two to four million Native American people left in the U.S. It is important to read about historical tragedies such as the Trail of Tears to get a better understanding of how not to treat others and how to prevent future genocides such as this one from happening
Many people associate the word “genocide” with the Holocaust in Nazi Germany. However, there is a particular genocide much more severe than the Holocaust, the American Indian genocide. It is roughly estimated that ten million Native Americans died due to European contact. Many documents attempt to effectively recount the experiences of the Native Americans and provide accurate information pertaining to their cultures, but the reading that best does this is chapter one of America’s History by James Henretta et al. This reading encompasses a variety of topics; covering Native American society prior to European contact, geography of the Americas, European hierarchy, conflict in the Old World, Native American and European empires, trading networks,
A massacre is “an indiscriminate and brutal slaughter of people.” “The Cayuse are a Native American tribe in the state of Oregon in the United States. The Cayuse tribe shares a reservation and government… with the Umatilla and the Walla Walla tribes as part of the... Reservation… The Cayuse called themselves the Liksiyu in the Cayuse language. Originally located in… northeastern Oregon and southeastern Washington, they lived adjacent to territory occupied by the Nez Perce and had… associations with them… The Cayuse ceded most of their traditional territory to the United States in 1855 by treaty and… formed a confederated tribe.” The massacre was on the date November 29, 1847, the murder of Oregon missionaries Marcus Whitman and his wife Narcissa,
The slow yet brutal destruction of their population took place from 1492-1891. According to the legal definition by the UN, this act is considered genocide which was perpetrated by both European colonizers and the United States government. Tensions escalated and soon they were dehumanized to the point where massacres such as Wounded Knee, hundreds of innocent Native Americans were slaughtered by American soldiers. A significant precedent of the genocide was when White Americans began making Indians the “other”. By viewing them as uncivilized creatures, it is easy to separate oneself from a group so different.
Genocide is defined as a large killing of a specific group of people, usually ethnic. Although known as the “World’s Police Officer”, the United States is responsible for the longest genocide ever recorded and the most lives lost. According to Dr. Stanton there are eight stages of genocide, and the United States fulfilled most, if not all of those stages. Native Americans were classified as “indians” and “redskins”, both inaccurate and derogatory terms that were commonly used, even by government officials. They were also seen as poor, weak, and uneducated brutes in the public eye. The government and media made natives seemed as they were barbarians who attack innocent Americans so that it would seem justified to take their land and torture
In 1492 native Americans discovered illegal immigrants invading their country. It has been a downhill fight for natives ever since. As more settlers arrived on the East Coast, an attitude became prevalent within the European communities that it was their right to expand cities across America in the name of progress and economic development. The manifest destiny was more of a feeling rather than a written statement which lasted from the War of 1812 to the beginning of the American Civil War. The idea of expansion grew, especially by those who wanted to capitalize on agriculture in the United States. Native Americans occupied land in Georgia, Alabama, North Carolina, Florida and Tennessee. These lands became more valuable to the white settlers as the production of cotton became more popular in the South. As the idea of a manifest destiny grew, so did the idea to remove Natives, which led up to the “Trail of Tears” through the Indian Removal Act of 1830, a final solution to the Indian problem. The United States government removed the five civilized Tribes, Cherokee, Muskogee, Seminole, Chickasaw and Choctaw Nations between 1830 and 1838. The Native Americans being relocated suffered from inhuman conditions such as disease and starvation while traveling to their final destination, a designated area west of the Mississippi River. The events leading to this final march into the Indian Territories and the atrocities
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.
Many horrible atrocities occurred to the native people of America at the hands of the settlers. Various crimes such as thievery, murder, and other very disgraceful acts against these people without a second thought. Years since then, it is easy look at what happened and realize what the white people did wrong, but in order to truly understand, it is essential to know exactly the offenses are. Two quotes from two chiefs speak depths without many words on what happened.
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
After the readings and discussions this week on Native Americans, the information conflicts with my previous knowledge.
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,
Have you ever heard of the Cherokee Indians? Sure you have! Just as a reminder, they are the biggest tribe, and most known of out of all the Indian tribes there has ever been in the southeast. They are very important to American History and helped shaped us to be the Americans we are today, which is clearly what I 'll be explaining in this paper. Throughout the paper, I 'll tell you everything you need to know about the Cherokee Indians and continue to relate to the thesis.