Native American Culture Study

The study of the Native American cultures of the United States is one that is often considered a cultural issue rather than a political issue. From a certain point of view, this is indeed true; the European settlers took the natives’ land, often against their consent, and placed them in reserves, stripping them off of their political power and removing their status as the continent’s original settlers. Since then, they’ve only barely recovered their political standing, albeit at an extremely slow rate. Aspects like are the reasons why their culture is often so misunderstood, and why there are significant differences in both their culture and their beliefs portrayed in all sorts of media. Different tribes behave differently, due to religious, …show more content…
When one removes them from their territory, takes their creeds and replaces them with another one, and labels their personal beliefs as obsolete, or even heretical, one of two things can happen: the group subsequently disappears, remembered only by the people that they replaced. This leads to a biased and skewed opinion forged by this condition, especially if the race goes extinct, or has its population significantly cut down. The second thing that could happen is that the ethnic group is vilified because of its resistance to change. Multiple races, creeds, and peoples breeding in the same location in space and time means that there will be a significant increase in a mixed group rather than having a single cultural and ethnic group; resistance to assimilation means that social disorder, likely caused by resistance to change, will lead to conflict, and by extension the further vilification of these groups’ …show more content…
The Blackhawk War of 1832, a brief but destructive war that drove the US to further pressure the Native Americans to sell their land and move west of the Mississippi, usually through use of force. (Whitney,