The Land The Indians example essay topic

The Effects of the United States Government on the Indians "The responsibility of any nation, and the particular responsibility of elected officials of any nation, is not to justify what has passed for legality but to anticipate the conditions and problems of tomorrow and attempt to deal with them. The current confusion and violence in Indian Country are a result of the failure to do so by generations of elected officials in this country. To continue to perpetuate myths about American Indians which have no basis in fact or in law is merely avoiding the larger issues confronting the nations of the world", said author Vine Deloria, Jr. (Deloria, Prologue) The United States government failed miserably in its attempt to deal with the Indians. By pushing them further and further West, they pushed the Indians to hate and distrust the white man to the point of war. These wars resulted in hundreds of white deaths.

However, the wars resulted in the destruction of several entire Indian tribes and the near extinction of Indian spirit throughout America. The tale is a sad one, one that Americans should not be proud of. After every broken treaty, the Americans blamed the Indians for existing, despite the want of the Indians to simply live on their lands peacefully. The "Trail of Tears" was a great tragedy and many thought it would be the last now that all of the Indians were out of the eastern United States. But the U.S. government became land hungry and due to their idealism of "Manifest Destiny", the "Trail of Tears" was only a starting point on the path to the destruction of the Indians of the West. By 1850 gold had been discovered in California, and white settlers were heading West to strike it rich an lay claim to the entire continent.

(Utley and Washburn, page 163) New violence erupted as the white man moved into Indian hunting grounds. Ten percent of the Diggers in California met death violently. In 1846, California was home to 100,000 Indians. By 1851, the population had dropped to 30,000. (Utley and Washburn, 164) "That a war of extermination will continue to be waged until the Indian race becomes extinct, must be expected", said California governor in 1851. (Utley and Washburn, 179) Under the ideals of Tom Fitzpatrick, United States Indian Agent, the U.S. government decided it didn't only want to separate the whites and the Indians, but also intended to restrict them to specified areas known as reservations.

Nineteenth century removal and reservation policies reduced Indian lands to mere islands in the stream of American settlement. Reservations themselves were largely unwanted or remote environments of little value. (Lewis, 1) The policy makers did not only want to control the Indians, but civilize them as well. The chiefs are thought to have agreed to these treaties not because they understood the provisions, but because a U.S. treaty tactic was to bribe them with a stock of presents waiting to be distributed after the signing. (Deloria, 177) War was also threatened if the Indians did not sign. Most of the time, the Indians ignored the treaties, not truly understanding the motives of the whites to tell them what they could and could not do.

Moreover, just as the Indian chiefs could not make their people obey these treaties, the U.S. government could not make their own countrymen respect the treaties. "It must certainly appear evident that something must be done to keep those Indians quiet and nothing short of an efficient military force stationed in their country will do this", warned Fitzpatrick. (Utley and Washburn, 195) The U.S. government began forcing the Indians onto reservations. Sometimes they would simply kill them with no warning such as the killing of 224 Shoshones in the Battle of Bear River in Montana, 1862. (Utley and Washburn, 201) The Apaches and the Navajos experienced a similar fate. With nothing left, and all their warriors dead, the reluctantly gave into the U.S. government.

One by one, the tribes were tricked into trusting the white man. This trust almost always resulted in death for the Indians. However, under the direction of President Grant, Ely Parker or Donehogwa, a Seneca Indian, was appointed the as Commissioner of Indian Affairs. (Brown, 177) Despite his efforts, the crooked U.S. government could not be overcome. He could not make peace between the whites and the Sioux, Cheyenne and other remaining tribes. The Indians believed it was wrong to sell their land.

They believed it was theirs and a price could not be put on the fields where they lived, cultivated crops and hunted buffalo. Donehogwa best summed up Indian dissatisfaction by saying", Although this country was once wholly inhabited by Indians, the tribes, and many of them once powerful, who occupied the countries now constituting the states east of the Mississippi, have, one by one, been exterminated in their abortive attempts to stem the western march of civilization If any tribe remonstrated against the violation of their natural and treaty rights, members of the tribe were inhumanly shot down and the whole treated as mere dogs It is presumed that humanity dictated the original policy of the removal and concentration of the Indians in the West to save them from threatened extinction... But today, by reason of the immense augmentation of the American population, and the extension of their settlements throughout the entire West, covering both slopes of the Rocky Mountains, the Indian races are more seriously threatened with a speedy extermination than ever before in the history of the country". (Brown, page 176) The hate Donehogwa received from men such as William Welsh and others forced him to resign. Shortly after Donehogwa resigned, all treaty making powers of the Indians were revoked.

The government believed the U.S. officials representing the Indians could better adhere to the best interests of the Indians. The Cheyenne were eventually overcome and many were slaughtered. The battle can be best summed up by this account from Little Wolf of the Northern Cheyenne: "We have been south and suffered a great deal down there. Many have died of diseases which we have no name for. Our hearts looked and longed for this country where we were born. There are only a few of us left, and we only wanted a little ground, where we could live.

We left our lodges standing and ran away in the night. The troops followed us. I rode out and told the troops we did not want to fight, we only wanted to go North and if they would let us alone we would kill no one. The only reply we got was a volley. After that we had to fight our way, but we killed none who did not fire at us first. My brother Dull-Knife took one-half of the band and surrendered near Fort Robinson They gave up their guns, and then the whites killed them all".

(Brown, 331) Before the battles, the Cheyenne numbered in the 10,000's. The Great Cheyenne in their effort to evade reservation, numbered in the 100's in total in January, 1879. (Brown, 350) Rumors came to the Sioux that people were being starved on reservations. Those that did not starve inherited diseases due to close and unsanitary quarters; many of the Indians were mocked.

The soldiers were thought of as overseers, not dignified and helpful aides to the Indians. They would be forced to work. The provisions, clothing and other goods, promised by the U.S. Government were nowhere to be found. They were being treated as hostels. The Sioux would not give into reservation life without a fight. And fight they did.

They killed 224 of General Custer's men in The Battle of Little Bighorn, June 25, 1876. But, their victory was short lived. The betrayal that resulted was sickening. Crazy Horse, and O gala Sioux, was assassinated. The Nez Per ces were wiped out and Chief Joseph was said to have died of a broken heart shortly after.

(Brown, 330) The Sioux began performing a sacred Indian ritual called the Ghost Dance. This dance gave the Indians hope that the white man would go away, the near-extinct buffalo would return and Indian life would be peaceful as it once was. This dance was the idea of Wovoka, a Paiute Messiah. (Brown, 416) After many battles between the Sioux and the white men, many Sioux tribes had been forced onto an anvil-shaped block, 35,000 square miles, of Dakota land, which was declared worthless by U.S. surveyors. (Brown, 416) This dance was their only hope. In July 1881, Sitting bull was forced to bring his people to the remaining Sioux on this reservation.

He could run no more; his supplies were gone and his people were dying. Sitting Bull was held prisoner at Fort Randall. (Utley and Washburn, 338) There were six different Sioux tribes on this land. Under Newton Edmunds and Samuel Hinman, another treaty was made with the Indians in which the Indians unknowingly ceded 14,000 square miles of their land back to the U.S. Government in return for cows and bulls. (Brown, 429) After this betrayal, the dancing was vigorous.

By November, 1890, all other activities came to a halt. (Brown, 435) This scared the white people living in the territories. The soldiers tried to force the Indians to stop this dance. The soldiers resolved to arrest Sitting Bull since the dancing was not stopped. In this attempt, Sitting Bull was shot through the head by an Indian policeman and killed on his reservation where the soldiers would "protect him and his people".

(Brown, 438) The Ghost Dance continued. In fact, it was the only way to let out their grief over Sitting Bull's assassination. On December 17, 1890, troops arrived on the reservation to disarm the men and stop the frightening activities taking place there. The Indians, under the direction of Big Foot, were moved to Wounded Knee Creek. There were 120 men and 230 women and children. (Brown, 441) The teepees and clothing of the Indians were searched extensively for weapons.

In the madness, Black Coyote mistakenly shot off his gun. (Brown, 442) Indiscriminate killing from the soldiers followed. One estimate placed the death toll at 300. There were only 350 Indians in total at Wounded Knee Creek.

(Brown, 444) The remaining 4 men and 47 women and children were sent to an Episcopal mission church before there were shipped off to a military prison. Later, some were of the few survivors were released back onto the reservation. The effects of these heartless killing were many on the Indians. Many of the tribes were left without their chiefs and holy men. These were the men they looked to for guidance and hope. A culture of Indians that numbered 1,850,000 at the time of Columbus had dwindled to less that 250,000 at the time of Wounded Knee.

(Zinn, 22) The Indians now had an ultimatum-live out your life on the reservation or die. Reservation life only deteriorated and the land the Indians were to live on got smaller and smaller. In total, tribal leaders were convinced or tricked into signing 371 treaties up through the 1870's, ceding almost all of their land to the government. By Supreme Court ruling, the remaining small tracts constituted "dependent nations". (Thurman, 1) While some Indian resistance was crushed by dramatic massacres, for the most part Indians were subdued by a combination of disease, alcohol, food rationing, the cooperation of Indian collaborators, and the theft of Indian children for boarding schools. (Thurman, 1) The Bureau of Indian Affairs, until its transfer to the Interior Department, was part of the War Department.

(Thurman, 1) White homesteaders were used to police the Indian people, while others came to see them as good trading partners. In 1936, federal authorities established tribal councils on the reservations with some traditional forms of government. Many of the events of the past are still protested and reoccurring today. By the beginning of the 20th century, Indians controlled remnants of their former estates. Drought, the Dust Bowl, the Great Depression and the American market economy led to an abandonment of Indian agriculture after World War II. (Lewis, 1) In the 1930's the government instituted livestock reduction and reseeding procedures to bring value back to reservation fields.

Despite those efforts, most tribes still deal with overgrazing, erosion and improper land use. In recent years, modern Indians begin placing needs over older cultural patterns. These new ideas have put many Indians at odds with environmentalists. In Nevada, the Bureau of Land Management chain-clears extensive forests to improve grazing potential of the land for white permit holders. Of course, the Shoshone Indians of whom this land "belongs" to and whose resources are being destroyed have never given consent to these activities. (Lewis, 2) Some of their reservation lands contained unseen resources of immense worth.

Many heated environmental debates over the exploitation and development of that land are still occurring today. Extensive coal and uranium mining on the Navajo reservation and mismanagement of these resources has destroyed large areas of land. Despite the efforts of the Council of Energy Resource Tribes to balance the use of natural resources, mining, oil and gas exploration scars thousands of acres of Indian lands. (Lewis, 2) Sportsmen and state governments largely debate Indian hunting and fishing rights. Off-reservation hunting and fishing is already limited. These regulations hit Native fishermen in the Northwest particularly hard.

In the 1960's; Indian activists staged fish-ins to publicize the situation. Eventually the case was taken to court. In United States vs. The State of Washington (1974), Judge George Bolt reaffirmed the rights of Northwest tribes to harvest fish under the provisions of the 1854 Treaty of medicine Creek without interference by the State of Washington. The Boldt Decision restored a measure of Indian control over their environment and natural resource use. (Lewis, 3) By 1900, whites actively competed with Indians for the scarce Western resource, water.

In 1908, the Supreme Court ruled in Winters vs. United States that the Indians reserved the priority water right for present and future use. Irrigation became widespread with the promise of Indian self-sufficiency, but many of the projects failed and the land often ended up in the hands of white settlers who bought the best Indian lands. (Lewis, 4) Many organizations have been developed to help get Indians back on their feet such as the North Dakota Committee for Equality, the Cowboy and Indian Alliance, and the like. These organizations support treaty rights, and counters racism through media work and cultural events.

However, the Indian movement is still opposed by organizations like the Interstate Congress for Equal Rights and Responsibilities. This Anti-Indian Movement romanticizes Indians as noble savages resisting big government. (Thurman, 2) Many Indians sold and continue to sell their stories to book-writers and movie makers. Their main goal is to make people aware that they exist and continue to survive, despite the apathy and lack of concern they continue to face from the United State's government. Small victories have been won as a result of the stamina of the Indians. In 1924, the Citizenship Act of 1924 naturalizes Indians born within the territorial limits of the U.S. (Internet Source 1) In 1934, the Indian Reorganization Act recognized tribal governments as sovereign nations.

(Internet Source 1) South Dakota governor George S. Mickelson and representatives of the state's nine tribal governments proclaimed 1990 as a Year of Reconciliation. (Internet Source 1) The greatest effect that the U.S. government had on the Indians is not one that is easy to explain. They took something from these people no money, land, or compensation could ever replace. They broke the spirit of these people. The government forced them to attempt to start over. Many live out their lives clinging to the stories of the past.

Life was so simplistic. In some ways, life was a utopia. The people worked for the food they ate and used all of the parts of the animals they hunted. All men were equal and honorable. God was the prime ruler of the lives of all Indians. Family bonds were strong.

Weapons were used only as mechanisms of defense and for hunting purposes. Of course, there were wars, and there was crime but nothing like the wars and crime of today. The people had a sense of worth and spirit that can't even be imagined in today's technological society. The mountains talked to them and the streams had a voice and personality.

Nature was respected and resources were used carefully. Nevertheless, even against these overwhelming odds, the traditional cultures and religions survived. Technologies and practices adapted to Western society, but the core values of native peoples remained. Today, the will to survive and preserve culture and moral order still lives on in the hearts of Indians. They strongly believed that harmony between man and the universe couldn't be achieved in battle. They still live with a vision of a world without American dominance.

The spirits of those in the past are believed to live on. They watch over the Indians and guide them as time passes and the Indians are further stereotyped as drunks and crooked casino owners. Alas, the ways of the Indians were replaced. Sacred hunting territories gave way to railroads and ranches. Buffalo are an animal of the past and often thought of as an animal of mysticism. Both the buffalo and the Indian culture are romanticized in movies that are neither truthful nor accurate.

Stereotypes and prejudices replaced unity and togetherness. Pollution haunts every city on the planet. Respect of one's fellow man gave way to crimes unthought of by the Indians. They lived their lives honorably. They died honorably.

Even despite hardships and misconceptions, they will continue to live honorably. That is one thing the government can never take away from them. 349.