There’s a saying that questions “do the ends justify the means”? This means does the outcome outweigh everything sacrificed to get there. In the early to mid nineteenth century, America was hurt socially, technologically, economically, and politically due to the Trail of Tears, President Andrew Jackson, and Industrialization. Beginning in the late 1700’s and advancing into the 1800’s, the Native Americans that had lived in America for the past 12,000 years gradually lost the majority of their land.…
Facing East from Indian Country by Daniel Richter is--without question--one of the most effective studies of Native American history. Richter’s previous book, The Ordeal of the Longhouse, which viewed the European invasion of northeastern America from the perspective of the Iroquois peoples of modern New York, reveals the same masterful grasp of early American history. However, the similarities stop there. Facing East turns on its head the instilled perspective of westward expansion from the early sixteenth century well into the nineteenth.…
There is no refuting Mann’s work, for it links pre-Columbian studies with contemporary thinking, but overall depiction, it seems that Mann is spoon-feeding his beliefs that all societies were sophistically unique. Though, Mann does focus on the indigenous people, he spends a great deal of time trying to rewrite history rather than engaging in an in-depth analysis of how the New World Natives were predisposed to collapse. The indigenous of the New World were prone to Old World disease thus a large factor in collapse of the pre-Columbian people. This factor is critical to the study of American exploration in the Age of Conquest; however, Mann simply alludes to this as minor significance – though this may be a flaw of his journalistic…
According to de Las Casas, the key characteristics of the Indians are simplest, obedient, faithful, humble, patient, peaceful and calm. In the article, he writes that, “God has created all these numberless people to be quite the simplest, without malice or duplicity, most obedient, most faithful to their natural Lords, and to the Christians, whom they serve; the most humble, most patient, most peaceful and calm, without strife nor tumults; not wrangling, nor querulous, as free from uproar, hate and desire of revenge as any in the world” (Cobbs. 8-9). He thinks that Indians are nonviolent people and they are faithful to their natural Lords as well as the Christians. For example, de Las Casas uses “gentle sheep” (Cobbs.…
The intended audience of the article “ The Indians' Old World:Native Americans and the Coming of European”, are the general public and historians because the article shows how a lot of people give more importance of American history after Columbus rather than before Columbus and criticize how historians know much less history prior to arrival of columbus in 1492. For instance, the author Neal Salisbury states that “historians now recognize that Europeans arrived, not in a virgin land, but in one that was teeming with several million people (435)”. 2. The author’s main argument is that there was densely populated society before European arrival, how certain patterns and processes originated before and after contact with the Europeans.…
At first, Native Americans seemed to be handling colonization fairly well by resisting and keeping the their lands. This was fairly easy as Europeans in the 16th century were mainly interested in demanding tribute than occupying lands. The Indians held their ground though, as “Well into the 18th century, the vast majority of North American Indians had not become the subordinates of European colonizers. In fact, in most places there were no European settlements yet.” (16).…
On a larger scale, the American victory cleared the way for the U.S. claim to the native interior of North America with more treaty negotiations following, resulting in numerous removals of most of the eastern woodland Indian communities to the west” (PBS 1). That being the case, Native Americans faced discrimination to a degree they had not yet…
1491 Essay- Singles 1491 by Charles Mann tackles controversial theories about the Native American population before the arrival of Columbus and other Europeans. His thesis supports the claims that there were more Indians in America than expected by scholars, that they came over at an earlier time, as well as the belief that they were more complex and that the Natives greatly controlled the land around them.…
Native American land and culture were impacted negatively by the western expansion of the United States due to the fact that many lost their land, were stripped of their rights, and some even died. After learning and analyzing the 1800s, it is clear that Native Americans had to fight for the simply things that most people today take for granted. For instance, during this time period Native Americans were constantly having to battle the United States government for land. The U.S. citizens and government pushed the Native Americans out west onto The Plains. On page 80 in the American History: Reconstruction to the Present textbook, it says, “White settlers believed the Plains region was too dry for farming.…
Discussion 1 The turn of the century in 1900’s, most remaining Native Americans had been forced, to leave their ancestral lands; it was truly a time of cultural assimilation (Assimilation through Education). Some chose to live on the reservations that were created by the U.S. government starting in the 1890s, while others spent their lives hiding from whites whom they feared would kill or capture them. Native Americans world as they new it naturally died out, from progression (Assimilation through Education), they needed to become a part of white society. There Indian language, religion, and art, would become something from the past to be studied or viewed in a museum, but would not be the products of living cultures.…
Annika Swenson Period 6 11/16/17 Research Paper Natives had lived on American soil for hundreds of years before Europeans had inhabited it(Document E); however, their birthright did not protect them from the wishes of their American neighbors. Through the Indian Removal Act, Natives were forced to take part in a deadly journey which came to be known as the Trail of Tears. The results of the Trail were catastrophic to Natives, Cherokees alone lost 4000 people on the Trail(Document D); overall, one in four people who relocated died on the way(Document J). Initially, Americans wished for the Natives to adopt the American culture and quit their “savage” and filthy ways(Document J).…
The Native American plight seems to end with the settling of the reservation territories, but that is far from the truth. Americans now turned their attention to forcibly integrating the Native American people into American society, especially their children. Many children were taken from their parents and put into boarding schools that were supposed to assimilate them into the American society but essentially robbed them of their heritage. They were not just taught basic writing and reading skills, but they were dressed and told to act like Americans as well; they could not “ ‘be Indian’ in any way”. This left many Native American children with a loss of identity.…
What are some of the theories about how native people populated or first came to the North American continent? Explain some of the evidence that has been used to prove some of these theories. There are many theories about who the native people are and where they came from. Some European theories include saying that American Indians were one of the lost tribes of Israel, that they were descendants of a Welsh prince, or that they descended from early villagers of Polynesia, Phoenicia, the Middle East, or Japan. One theory about how native people populated the North American continent is that they came by sea, moving back the time when they may have migrated.…
The effects of the Trail of Tears When we think of the first people in America, whom do we think of? Of course, Christopher Columbus comes to mind. Yet, the first people on land were the native people. Native people were the first people to set foot on this soil, long before any white person. Regrettably, the federal government brutally attacked and removed from the Indians from homelands that they dearly loved.…
When Europeans came to North America for the first time, they called it The New World, because to them it was a land that was mysterious in many ways. The native population that lived in North America was nothing like that of Europe and the environment of North America was even more foreign. There was no way of knowing the effect of European settlement and what the consequences of their actions would be on the native people and the land. Before the invasion of Europeans in North America, the Natives had a system of living. Their way of life and ability to live off the land were soon challenged by European expansion and technology.…