The Indians greeted the Mayflower; a ship with pilgrims looking for a new beginning and introduced them to new foods and farming techniques were o assist in their survival. Although not intentional in many ways the pilgrims did undue harm these unsuspecting Native Americans by bring disease, foreign plants, animals, insects, bacteria, sea life, grains and religious views which would forever change the Indians way of life, ancestry, food sources and education. Pilgrims saw the Indians as a savage people who needed religion and education so that they might be better integrated into society.
Their lands were seen as needed for settlement of even more immigrants to promote growth and food sources. Governments began to hunt and destroy tribes which they saw as reportable, the Indians who would stand and defend their land or simply trying to survive by any means necessary. This included raids on white settlements, war, robbery and murder. Indians rights were essentially ignored and their way of life destroyed all in the name of immigrants rights along with the good of the nation.
Native American Indians were persecuted and driven from their way of life by foreign influence and growth in the name of progress. Fortune, J. (2012). Lest We Remember: Civil War Memory and Commemoration among the Five Tribes. American Indian Quarterly. 36(4), 525-544. App. Retrieved room http://des. B. Obscenest. Com. Probability. Seafood. Deed Between 1861 and 1865, many Native American Indians fought in the civil war on the side of the north and the south.
There were also many who fought against the war within their own tribes or in rebel factions joined with other tribes with a common goal. The Indians who were here before the whites and rightfully owned the soils of America were stripped of their lands, dignity, hunted to extinction, driven into servitude or isolation by citizens, military and the government all claiming their actions were justified by growth and taming the savage man the Indians represented in their eyes.
This event tells us the story of the Cherokee and the Creek Indians whose native lands were in what we call Oklahoma. The civil war is thought of as a series of battles fought between northern and southern states; however history records many Native American Indians who fought on three fronts of the war; some fought with the south, some for the north and some against both. Commemorative statues honor civil war heroes as well as epic battles fought, there are few which honor Native Americans involvement in the civil war or the sacrifice and hardships they endured as a result of this war.
The war cut the Cherokee population in half and left many children orphans plus many wives widowed, non combatants were forced to leave their homes and possessions which were destroyed and then they were forced to walk across Oklahoma into Kansas to seek refuge from the war. Principal Chief John Ross and Stand Waite were on opposite sides when it came to the war, Ross tried to remain neutral fighting only to defend the Cherokees borders, but after petitioning Lincoln to reinstate defensive forces to assist with no avail, Waite succeeded in enlisting Cherokee men to fight for the south.
Ross Ross reluctantly purported the Confederacy once it became clear that continuing his pursuit for neutrality would cause civil war between the Cherokees. After the war, he recalled that the Cherokee people “have the proud satisfaction of knowing that we honestly strove to preserve the peace within our borders” and only fought when preserving peace was no longer possible, (Fortune, 201 2, 528). In 1863 Ross and his men defected to the union ultimately causing the divide between the Cherokee people that he sought to avoid in the first place.
This was the case with most other Native American tribes like the Creek, Cherokee, Choctaw and Chickasaws, almost every tribe wanted neutrality and solitude but were ultimately ignored by Lincoln and forced to pick a side which left most homeless, divided, killed and many others decimated with no food, clothing to protect against the harsh winters or general supplies. Treaties forged by the governments were not upheld, tribes were forced to move time and again to new lands put aside by the government for them after forcing them off their native ones.
Many were forced to sell their lands for meager amounts of compensation and incurred penalties and seizures of property, land and goods for their participation in the war. Whereas punishment for the war ended for Southern states in 1876, Natives, regardless of loyalty, for decades more bore the consequences for a war they did not start and could not have avoided. Consequently, reconciliation with the United States on ruthless terms meant that Natives rightly viewed the Civil War as a watershed moment and justification for disparagement of Native sovereignty and intrusion on Native lands”, (Fortune, 2012, 532).
Jones, Z. R. (2013). Search For and Destroy”: US Army Relations with Alaskan Tilling Indians and the Sake War of 1869. Ethnologists. 60(1), 1-26. Doll: 10. 1215/00141801-1816157. This section primarily deals with a particular Indian war in 1869, a lesser known war briefly mention in the history we learn in schools. It tells of the Tilling Indians of Southeast Alaska, the Sake War of 1869. This tribe had no aggressive actions towards the military of that time yet the Army sent a gunship to attack three K©ex’ Swan Tilling civilian villages, the idea was to allow nature and starvation to kill any survivors.
After acquiring Alaska from Russia, the United States government wanted to determine what resources were present and develop hose resources for the benefit of progress for the United States. The Tilling Indians had no understanding of the claim the white man had placed on lands that they knew were rightfully theirs, as a result they were dealt with severely and almost wiped out as a people. The Sake War remains largely unstudied and general surveys on the history of Native American Indian Wars largely omit military campaigns against Alaskan Native people.
History seems to rationalize the military take over and disregard for Native American Indians by soldiers domesticating the frontier thereby freeing it from hostile Indians ND establishing law and civilization. This view fails to take into account the perspective of the Native American Indians who did nothing to promote the war nor could they have done anything to avoid it. The Arms aggressive behavior and persistent want to fight with Native people would be appalling to people today.
Then it was considered acceptable and even honorable to fight and kill any Indian deemed as a savage and unwilling to conform or convert for the good of all white men and the country. Army did then what they always do best, kill, conquer and destroy until the mission is completed or compromised. Much of the history and documentation concerning this story has been omitted or kept under wraps due to the horror it entails by a supposedly just and fair military.
Tilling territory at the time of European contact in 1741 and the arrival of Russian explorers extended north from Yucatan and south from Kitchen equivalent to the coastal length of Washington State to Northern California. “While Russians suffered under the hands of the Tilling in most battles and conflicts (such as when the Tilling employed cannon against the Russians in 1 802), when the United States purchased Alaska conditions changed abruptly. The Tilling now faced a nation that was better equipped with military technology and an ideology of suppressing natives without mercy”, Cones, 2013, pig. ). The killing of two K©ex’ Swan Tilling by the Army during the conflict at Sites in January 1869 triggered the conflict outright, it is argued that one intoxicated Tilling started an altercation with army soldiers and largely led to a wider war with the Tilling. The use of diplomacy, law and gunship by the army against the Tilling people at Sites and Sake areas as punishment was an attempt by the army to end both conflicts. This portrayal actually serves to defend and stigmatize soldier’s actions rather than explain why and how the conflict transpired. Hughes, H.
H. (2001). Indians of North America. Pocket Essentials, 2001. The Pocket Essential American Indian Wars [electronic resource] / Howard Hughes. [Ebook Collection]. Retrieved from http://des. B. Obscenest. Com. Probability. Seafood. Deed During the civil war and the movement of settlers out west was an opportunity for new beginnings for white and black settlers, there were few military troops to protect settlers from Indians, the Indians saw an opportunity to get supplies from settlers who they perceived as trespassers on their lands which made them air game.
The east had no interest in the happenings of the west and therefore offered very little help. Tribes like the Apache, Comanche and the Kiowa all battled soldiers fighting on both sides of the war and seized opportunities to loot and kill any settlements they could in order to survive and protest the taking of their lands. Tribes like the Sioux who were compliant with the government by selling their lands in the pursuit of peace with the whites were treated in many ways worse than the tribes that rebelled.
Battles like Little Crow and The Minnesota Massacre added to the unrest and light of Native American Tribes everywhere to promote war on the white man and his government. After relocating many tribes onto reservations and helping provide food to offset the depletion or non existence of their hunting grounds, many tribes were simply forgotten about or ignored furthering their desperation, anger and adding to an already intolerable situation.
Promises were broken by government and tensions were increased between Native Americans and whites in general. BLACKS, 6. (2014). THE SAVAGE CONSTITUTION. United states; NATIONALISTS; CREEK Indians. Duke Law Journal. 63(5), 999-1089. 91 p. Retrieved Since conventional history largely omits Native Americans roles in government affairs and the development of the country along with their parts in our nation’s wars, the atrocities and suffering they have endured is hard for historians to pin down.
The creation of the constitution can be debated on how large a part Indian affairs had to do with its creation and ratification. The Articles of Confederation largely excluded Indian Affairs and created a basis for more governmental control when dealing with land issues between Indian tribes and the government. Treaties were drafted and honored by various Indian tribes to acquire their lands and keep them from raiding settlers; many attacks from Indian tribes were due to our governments’ role in breaking those treaties.
The constitution created and followed today served in many ways to attempt to bargain with Native Americans for fair treatment and acquisition for their lands and cooperation yet primarily served to give government and states more control over justifying their forced removal and isolation from white settlers to acquire their native lands for growth. The constitution embodies democracy and freedom for all Americans during its creation but served as a symbol for oppression and warranty for Native Indian tribes. Greene, C. S. (201 3). Being Indian at Fort Marion: Revisiting Three Drawings.
American Indian Quarterly. 37(4), 289-316. 6 Black and White Photographs, 4 Illustrations. Retrieved from Drawings in the nineteenth century from plains Indians are records of actual events which offer Native American representations of the past. Historians have attempted to derive meanings from these drawings based on written accounts throughout history, the accounts are from white men and opinions are largely to blame for inaccuracies in the views and actual events leading to the persecution ND destruction of Indian tribe’s beliefs and actions throughout history.
These drawings are from the Kiowa men while imprisoned at Fort Marion in Florida 1875 to 1878, they were part of seventy one men and one woman held prisoner from five different tribes. They were primarily held captive to insure compliance with governmental authority by the remainder of free plains Indians. Among the art depicted were calendars, spiritual entities and most common were accounts of achievements in war depicted in great and specific detail for easy recognition.
Drawings originally were on animal hides and inside tips forever most after incarceration were done on blank pages of journals or other paper format. Hunting, courting and social events were also among the drawings by young and old Indians, many were hidden so not to draw undue attention to their deeds in battle. Pratt the commander of the prison recognized a demand for these drawings and sought an educational solution to the Indian problem allowed the sell and trade of these historical drawings and that of other more common depictions like trains or animals.
This led to the making of authentic Indian crafts like jewelry, bows, arrows and even full books with various drawings s a way for Indians to earn money and aid in contributing to American economy. Edmunds, R. D. American Historical Review, viva no IPPP-40 June 1995. (EJ514118), Retrieved from http://des. B. Obscenest. Com. Probability. Seafood. Deed Around 1895 most Americans saw the Native Americans and their history as the past and were viewed as facilitators and opponents towards the progression and expansion of the west.
In the sass, the Ghost Dance had expanded out of Nevada territory and found favor with the Alaska forced onto reservations and ultimately led to the battle at Wounded Knee. The Dates Act essentially divided p small farms on reservations to help transition Indians into mainstream American life, this act was designed to sell the concept of the decline of the red man’s savage ways to the American people and assure them of the Indians compliance and assimilation into the white man’s culture. Perhaps the classic manifestation of both the publics and the intellectuals’ subscription to the “vanishing red man “concept can be found in James Earl Framer’s popular sculpture, “The End of the Trail. ” Fraser portrayed a defeated Plains Indian warrior mounted on a bedraggled pony; the man slumps forward, is head hanging down on his chest. Emphasizing Native Americans as part of a previous age, Fraser dressed his subject entirely in skin clothing and provided him with a stone-tipped lance. The trail slopes downward”, (Edwards, 1995, 718).
By the twentieth century many historians still considered Native American history to be cowboy and Indian popular history but nothing to be considered serious or worthy enough of serious research. Bowels, M. (2011). American history 1865-present: End of isolation. San Diego, CA: Bridgeport Education, Inc. With the arrival of the first European settlers to North America, the Native American Indians were a thriving culture of indigenous peoples. There have been friendships, fights, wars, death, betrayal, promises made, promises broken, and a slow pushing of the Native Americans further and further west.
In a period when Indians roamed the entire continent, the United States government succeeded in isolating these people by the end of the nineteenth century by pushing them off their native lands and onto reservations controlled by the government to make room for white settlers and the expansion of the west. Whites hunted the Indians food sources to near extinction and displaced them from their native lands, such s the case of the plains Indians; Blackfoot, Crow, Apache, and NZ Pearce, who lost their entire way of life and were forces to assimilate into the white’s way of life.
One way this was facilitated was by adopting a philosophy known as “Manifest Destiny”, the belief in the inalienable right of the United States to expand its western frontier from the Atlantic to Pacific oceans, “from sea to shining sea,” and claim the entire North American continent for itself, (Bowels, 2011, 3. 1). The One Big Reservation policy relocated many upper northern plains tribes onto one serration decided upon with a treaty between the tribes and the United States government.
With the development of railroads, technology and numerous white settlers migrating further west, this reservation like many others were in the way and therefore the terms of the treaty were violated and ignored on behalf of progress. This pushed tribes further north to less fertile land and less conducive to their tribal customs. Indian agents offset the constant incursion of their lands by government and settlers by giving the tribes gifts and caring for their needs, some successful and some not so successful.
There were about en years of peace, all the while their lands were made smaller and smaller, As Chief Iron Shell said to the U. S. Indian Peace Commission members in 1868, “l will always sign any treaty you ask me to do, but you have always made away with them, broke them. The whites always break them, and that is the way that war has come up” (SST. German, 2009). From the sass to the sass, there was constant fighting between Indians, army and settlers, although allocations were made on both sides to try and end hostilities, it was to no avail.
The expansion west, fur sources and gold to name a few lured people and the government to encroach on Indian lands bound by treaties and promises neither that whites nor the army would enter. The defeat of Greenroom and his Apache warriors marked the end of Indian wars and began a more spiritual war involving Ghost dances. In the sass starvation and despair was the general mood on most reservations, ghost dances were ceremonies lasting five days, a dance of meditation and slow movements symbolizing the return of the buffalo and the retreat of the white settlers.
The ceremony was so effective among all Indian tribes, the military feared an uprising and sought to end it, the result was the battle at Wounded Knee where the military used machine guns to kill the followers of Wove and ending decisively all future Indian wars spiritual or physical alike. The Dates Act of 1887 began the period of assimilation for the Native American into white culture; the act essentially took away the communal ownership of tribes and divided the land into individually owned parcels which further proved to the Indians the lengths government was willing to go to invade their culture and beliefs.
Few Indians accepted individual ownership and became farmers like the government envisioned, but instead became reliant on the government for actions and survival. From then till now little has changed for Native Americans, they still live on reservations or have the option to live like any other settler by purchasing lands that might have once been theirs by default. Many receive financial support from the government for businesses or are free from duties and taxes by governmental order.
There is no large difference between the way the Indians are treated and refugees from third world countries who also receive many of these same benefits from the government. The Native American culture does survive to a degree today with the freedom to practice their culture and life but it severely limited due to the loss of their native lands and food sources along with the loss of native materials like plants for medicine and wood for weapons.
