The Endless War
When people of modern times think of genocide their minds often wander to Hitler’s merciless execution of non-Aryan people, or perhaps the more recent Rwandan genocide between Tutsis and Hutus. What about the genocide on American soil that nearly resulted in the extinction of an entire people? Arguably the largest mass killing of a specific race and lasting over five hundred years it is still up to debate as to whether the killing of the Native Americans was a genocide or not. ”Genocide” as describe by Webster Dictionary is “The deliberate and systematic destruction of a racial, political, or cultural group.” United States Holocaust Memorial Museum considers genocide to be “[A]ny of the following acts committed with intent …show more content…
In 1838 the Native Americans were still at battle with the Europeans. During the time that Andrew Jackson served as president he implemented and Indian Removal Act which stated that all land east of the Mississippi river could no longer be inhabited by Native Americans and they had to leave. The exile resulted in over 125,000 Natives being removed from the homeland where their ancestors had resided for centuries and pushed. The Cherokees, one of the five largest tribes settled in the southeast, named this journey the Trail of Tears. “About 20,000 Cherokees were marched westward at gunpoint on the infamous Trail of Tears. Nearly a quarter perished on the way, with the remainder left to seek survival in a completely foreign land.” (ushistory.org) Approximately 4,000 Cherokee’s died on the journey according to the library of congress website. While on the walk they died of starvation, froze, were shot, whipped, women were raped, and families were torn apart. Some tribes were even chained together when they were walking so they didn’t try to fight back. The Indian Removal act was designed to get Native Americans out of the way so they could claim the land, they didn’t care what happened to the Natives and wished they would cease to …show more content…
Weather it be the biological warfare, forced relocation or sterilization the new Americans tried to destroy the Native Americans forever. Hitler even credited the new Americans tactics for his great success at destroying a large part of the Jewish population. “Hitler’s concept of concentration camps as well as the practicality of genocide owed much, so he claimed, to his studies of English and United States history. He admired the camps for Boer prisoners in South Africa and for the Indians in the wild west; and often praised to his inner circle the efficiency of America’s extermination – by starvation and uneven combat – of the red savages who could not be tamed by
When people of modern times think of genocide their minds often wander to Hitler’s merciless execution of non-Aryan people, or perhaps the more recent Rwandan genocide between Tutsis and Hutus. What about the genocide on American soil that nearly resulted in the extinction of an entire people? Arguably the largest mass killing of a specific race and lasting over five hundred years it is still up to debate as to whether the killing of the Native Americans was a genocide or not. ”Genocide” as describe by Webster Dictionary is “The deliberate and systematic destruction of a racial, political, or cultural group.” United States Holocaust Memorial Museum considers genocide to be “[A]ny of the following acts committed with intent …show more content…
In 1838 the Native Americans were still at battle with the Europeans. During the time that Andrew Jackson served as president he implemented and Indian Removal Act which stated that all land east of the Mississippi river could no longer be inhabited by Native Americans and they had to leave. The exile resulted in over 125,000 Natives being removed from the homeland where their ancestors had resided for centuries and pushed. The Cherokees, one of the five largest tribes settled in the southeast, named this journey the Trail of Tears. “About 20,000 Cherokees were marched westward at gunpoint on the infamous Trail of Tears. Nearly a quarter perished on the way, with the remainder left to seek survival in a completely foreign land.” (ushistory.org) Approximately 4,000 Cherokee’s died on the journey according to the library of congress website. While on the walk they died of starvation, froze, were shot, whipped, women were raped, and families were torn apart. Some tribes were even chained together when they were walking so they didn’t try to fight back. The Indian Removal act was designed to get Native Americans out of the way so they could claim the land, they didn’t care what happened to the Natives and wished they would cease to …show more content…
Weather it be the biological warfare, forced relocation or sterilization the new Americans tried to destroy the Native Americans forever. Hitler even credited the new Americans tactics for his great success at destroying a large part of the Jewish population. “Hitler’s concept of concentration camps as well as the practicality of genocide owed much, so he claimed, to his studies of English and United States history. He admired the camps for Boer prisoners in South Africa and for the Indians in the wild west; and often praised to his inner circle the efficiency of America’s extermination – by starvation and uneven combat – of the red savages who could not be tamed by