Module 3 Assessment

Nelson Slade

The views on The Native Americans have been different, and some might say
controversial over the years. They have been undermined, persecuted, and
murdered. Some might say that they had it coming, but Things should be viewed
differently. The Native Americans were treated unfairly during the late 17 th century,
and all the way to a contemporary America. This is evident through, the way they
were slaughtered upon the white mans arrival, the blood battles during several
conflicts and wars, the mistreatment after these wars, and the present day
discrimination.
When most people think of Native Americans they think of only the Powhatan
or the Sioux. However, the term Native American spans across all of the Americas.
From the Yukon region of Canada all the way to the tip of Argentina. In fact, most of
the Indians were wiped out much before Jamestown was established. During the
Spanish golden years many conquistadors such as Pizarro and Cortez killed,
pillaged, and enslaved many Native Americans in South and Central America. Even
from this early in time the Europeans did not think highly of the Indians. A famous
author by the name of Rowlandson recounted the Native Americans as ravenous
uncivilized beasts. This is a very biased point of view. The Native Americans had
the very right to fight back, and should not be viewed as cavemen. Most of the
Europeans that came between the 15th and 18th centuries wiped out all of the
Indians. They did this through diseases, guns, and violence. After trading with the
White man for gun they then in turn decided to take back there land and do just
what the white men did to them. It is however, known that the Indians were much
more of a fundamental group that did not flourish from a technological standpoint,
but this does not mean that they deserved to be manipulated and be declared
beasts.

Throughout the course of Western history in the Americas, they white men
have slaughtered the Indians This occurred in the French and Indian War, the
Revolutionary War, the Civil War, and other small skirmishes. Due to geopolitical
disputed between countries war broke out in the Americas and were torn with the
Indians. The French and Indian war was a direct war between the western tribes: the
Kwakiutl, Sioux, and Pueblo against the French Republic. This ended with heavy
blood loss on both sides. Next, was the Revolutionary War where many Indians took
several different sides in the matter. In between these two major U.S. wars an
iconic event that will forever be marked in not only Indian history, but American
history took place. In 1938 Andrew Jackson and his troops forced the Indians to give
up all of their land east of the Mississippi and walk to present day Oklahoma. This
later became known as the Trail of Tears. Many Indians died on the walk and grew
and even deeper hatred for the White man. They soon retaliated. Finally, there were
the bloody massacre at Wounded Knee in particular. It is unjust to call it a battle due

to the causalities. 25-30 U.S. Soldiers died, while the Indians lost 90 men and 200
Women and children.

The treatment of the Indians did not improve over the later years. The land
that they were given during the trail of tears eventually diminished. This was due to
the United States government policy of Manifest Destiny and how they needed
more space. They lost more land and more rights as people. There population slowly
but surely began to decline where the numbers were in the thousands, as opposed
to the earlier numbers in the 10s of millions across the Americas.

Today there are barley and actual Indians left in the world. Thankfully, we
have recorded and preserved many of the Indians traditions, customs, stories and
other ways of life. The few Indians that have survived either live on the reservations
that were originally set out to be placed there, or just live about society. We
celebrate Indian culture for what it once was. However, we as a society do not seem
to have come to terms with what we have actually done to the Indians. People in
the United States are so quick to bash Germany and their history with the mass
genocide of a race, but The United States have done the same thing. We single
handily killed a whole culture and a way of life. Even if we do celebrate their culture
and customs, all that means nothing if we cannot realize that the reason we are
celebrating it, is because we can no longer actually view it today.

Throughout the course of Americas history we have done a great deal of

beneficial things. We have also destroyed another peoples history in what seems
like one fatal swoop. It must be known that the Indians were not ravenous beats
such as Rowlandson described them as. They were beasts because we did not
understand there ways. They were mistreated ever since we arrived, had to suffer
through many wars that were not caused by them, and did not involve them, had to
be ripped from their land that they had lived on for several thousands of years, and
finally killed to the near point of extinction. They should be celebrated, but not
forgotten.