Historical Report on Race

Historical Report on Race

Greta Hill

ETH/125 Cultural Diversity

June 21, 2015

Nancy Cardenuto

Dear Friend,

I am a member of the racial group known as the Native American and would love to share and express some experiences that the Native Americans had to deal with throughout the United States history.  I would like to share with you the political, social, and cultural issues and concerns of the Native Americans throughout U.S. history.  I would like to share with you the legislation meant to constrain the Native Americans from prejudicial boundaries and how it was enacted.  I would also like to share with you the legislation meant to alleviate the Native Americans from prejudicial boundaries and how it was enacted.  Throughout U.S. history the experiences that the Native Americans had were horrible ones.  Native Americans was the first racial or ethnical group that lived in the United States until the Europeans or whites came over and started to co-exist with the Indians.  The Native Americans shared their knowledge of the land, their hunting skills, and food resources with the Europeans or whites.  This co-existing of the two ethnical groups did not last very long though.  Soon the Indians were considered to be strange and different and often misunderstood by the Europeans so the Europeans starting killing the Indians off.  First with diseases that they brought over with them and then in the battles and wars with guns and ammunition that they possessed and the Indians did not.  They wanted to strip the Indians of their land in order to gain it for themselves.  The Indian Removal Act of 1830 helped the United States government in doing so.  The legislation that meant to constrain the Native Americans from prejudicial boundaries was the Indian Removal Act of 1830, which forced the Native Americans to move westward from their homes and land over the Mississippi River.  During the nineteenth century the United States declared Native Americans wards of the federal government and stole their land then forced them onto reservations.  The political, social, and cultural issues and concerns of the Native Americans was that they suffered greatly as they were forced to give up their religion, culture, language, and freedom in order for there to be peace amongst others who viewed them as different.  “The examples of racism are horrifying, including the early-twentieth-century Supreme Court ruling that Christian people had to govern "an ignorant and dependent race." Also horrifying are the accounts of forced assimilation, including the cruel boarding schools for American Indian children.”(H. Rochman, 2010).  If the Native American were to fit in with the other men and women they would have to cut their hair and change their wardrobe or the way they dressed.  They would have to give up their religion and become Christians in order to fit in and be considered normally by the white men and women.  They would also have to speak English like the other white men and women and give up their own language in order to fit in and be considered normal.  The white men and women called themselves just trying to civilizing the Native Americans by forcing and demanding that they change their ways of life.  The United States government allowed the Native American children to be taken from their parents and homes and forced to attend schools and follow customs that were not their own.  When the Native Americans refused to give up their culture, religion, land, language, and freedom they were massacred by the white men in the U.S. government.  Can you imagine being forced to completely forget who and what you are in order to survive in the world?  In 1890 the war of the Wounded Knee the United States government slaughtered the Native American men, women, and children.  The Native American population decreased drastically with the diseases and warfare.  The Native Americans were offered treaties by the United States government and those who were not willing to abide by them were dealt with.  The Indian Citizen Act of 1924 offered by the United States government official citizenship to the Native Americans.  Isn’t this ironic that the government offered citizenship to the Native Americans, the individuals who were the very first settlers in the United States, decades after they settled into America?  The legislation meant to alleviate prejudicial boundaries was the Reorganization Act of 1934.  The Reorganization Act of 1934 the United States government restored all rights to the Native Americans.  With the Reorganization Act of 1934 the Native Americans were no longer forced to become “civilized” by the United States government and recognized the importance of their tribal identity.  I hope that I was able to provide some knowledge to you on the Native American history in the United States.