“Race itself is fiction” (603) is said by Linda Holtzman and Leon Sharpe, authors of “Theories and Constructs of Race” in this they describe the terms that they believe to have heavy influences on all cultures across the globe. All of these terms these authors define can be well applied to the writings of David Treuer in his piece “Rez Life”. Treuer writes about the hard times that the Native Americans had struggled through during America's growth periods. The Indigenous people described in Treuer’s “Rez Life” can relate to Holtzman & Sharpe’s concepts of race through being racially discriminated against by being forced to assimilate to American customs and were subjected to feel as the inferior culture; despite these negativities, some Native
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“Assimilation is the process through which newcomers adjust to a situation by deciding how much of their old culture and habits they want to give up”(600) defined by Holtzman and Sharpe. The government believed in the process of “Americanization”. This scenario would entail that the Native Americans would transfer beliefs, lifestyles, languages and all other cultural aspects to those of non-indigenous heritage. The main source of Americanization and forced assimilation came from the boarding schools. Many Native American children were forced to attend these boarding schools, where they were forced to cut their hair, change their names, permitted from speaking their native languages and stopped from practicing American Indian customs(658). The Native American cultures were prominent in mosts lives, but these schools began to rip away at the foundation of the youth as they were forced to adopt these new American lifestyles. Many Native Americans were afraid to face the truth that many of their cultures were disappearing. Within their cultures, their languages held a large deal of significance. When the Native Americans began being Americanized, they were forced through discrimination to learn the linguistics of the English language. Treuer states “the U.S. government did indeed spend millions of dollars and many years trying to stamp out indigenous languages mostly through …show more content…
Holtzman and Sharpe define white supremacy as, “the categorial belief and the actions based on the belief that, in every way, whites are superior to people of color” (602). When the Europeans came to America they had a very eurocentric viewpoint on their new territory. The American immigrants that followed, with no consideration to Native Americans cultures, continued viewing the Indigenous customs as inferior to their own. For example, the Puritans who came to Plymouth took advantage of trade with the American Indians and eventually created their own laws overpowering and consuming Native’s land. They assumed dominance over this race because they were accustomed to people of non color taking the position of subordinates. Treuer states that “when the Europeans first came to North America, more than 300 Native American languages were spoken. Today, there are only about 150” (652). With the process of Americanizing and all the sudden cultural changes, the Indigenous people, being the second-class race were dictated to adjust to the new prefered lifestyle. That being said, Holtzman and Sharpe explained that it is not correct to assume that the Europeans were superior due to the technology that plagued the North American
“Assimilation is the process through which newcomers adjust to a situation by deciding how much of their old culture and habits they want to give up”(600) defined by Holtzman and Sharpe. The government believed in the process of “Americanization”. This scenario would entail that the Native Americans would transfer beliefs, lifestyles, languages and all other cultural aspects to those of non-indigenous heritage. The main source of Americanization and forced assimilation came from the boarding schools. Many Native American children were forced to attend these boarding schools, where they were forced to cut their hair, change their names, permitted from speaking their native languages and stopped from practicing American Indian customs(658). The Native American cultures were prominent in mosts lives, but these schools began to rip away at the foundation of the youth as they were forced to adopt these new American lifestyles. Many Native Americans were afraid to face the truth that many of their cultures were disappearing. Within their cultures, their languages held a large deal of significance. When the Native Americans began being Americanized, they were forced through discrimination to learn the linguistics of the English language. Treuer states “the U.S. government did indeed spend millions of dollars and many years trying to stamp out indigenous languages mostly through …show more content…
Holtzman and Sharpe define white supremacy as, “the categorial belief and the actions based on the belief that, in every way, whites are superior to people of color” (602). When the Europeans came to America they had a very eurocentric viewpoint on their new territory. The American immigrants that followed, with no consideration to Native Americans cultures, continued viewing the Indigenous customs as inferior to their own. For example, the Puritans who came to Plymouth took advantage of trade with the American Indians and eventually created their own laws overpowering and consuming Native’s land. They assumed dominance over this race because they were accustomed to people of non color taking the position of subordinates. Treuer states that “when the Europeans first came to North America, more than 300 Native American languages were spoken. Today, there are only about 150” (652). With the process of Americanizing and all the sudden cultural changes, the Indigenous people, being the second-class race were dictated to adjust to the new prefered lifestyle. That being said, Holtzman and Sharpe explained that it is not correct to assume that the Europeans were superior due to the technology that plagued the North American