Summary: Genocide In The Classroom

At the start of the 2015-2016 school year, Chiitaanibah Johnson, a sophomore student at California State University, was sitting in her U.S. History class when the professor allegedly denied that the term genocide should be used to encompass the tragedies that were brought upon the Native Americans. Johnson being of Navajo and Maidu descent especially took offense and decided that in the next class she would bring research to refute his claim. In the next class, the debate between Johnson and her professor became so heated that the professor expelled Johnson from his class. This story made headlines, however, there is still the unanswered question: Should what happened to the Native Americans be considered genocide? Experts have backed both …show more content…
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. They could not identify with the people at home, but they were still treated badly by American people. The first Native American to write and publish in English, Samson Occom, was cheated out of a lot of money by the people who were supposed to be his mentors. Occom stated bitterly, “Now you see the difference made between me and the other missionaries; they gave me 180 Pounds for 12 years of service, which they gave for one years services in another Mission.” Not only were the indigenous people stripped of their culture, but there were also plots to sterilize Native American women so they could not give birth. More than 100 years after the Trail of Tears, the American people were still inflicting harm on the native people. …show more content…
She was strong enough to stand against some who would not face the facts presented. The American people, as shown by the evidence above, intentionally caused physical harm, mental harm, separation of children from their parents, and conscious efforts to sterilize the Native American people. The feelings of the American people of that particular period in history are clearly summarized by this quote by General Philip H. Sheridan, “the only good Indians I ever saw were dead” . Instead of glossing over the history Native American people, scholars should address the evidence at hand because it is plain Native American faced