Native American Colonialism

acknowledges that ideas of ‘self’ and ‘nation’ were forged not only in response to the nature of the aspirations of the largely European communities which first colonized and settled in what were often perceived as colonialism, but that they were derived in response to the challenges presented by the reality of encountering indigenous people with highly different political, cultural, and social structures. In other words, the colonizers’ dealings with indigenous people – through resistance, assimilation, and destruction – is the historical factor which has ultimately shaped the cultural character of the new nations, mediating in highly significant ways their