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Native Americans

The term Western Civilization in this context means European civilization, especially the countries known for their exploratory expeditions and colonial intentions; Spain, Portugal, France, and England. Indigenous cultures such as the Mayans, West Africans, Indians (in India), Inuit, and so many others were invaded and occupied by these European nations. They were subjugated, killed, made to convert to Christianity, enslaved, and sent away from their homelands. The leaders were replaced by Europeans and the governments, or overhauled. They looked at these conquered lands as satellites of their home country and encouraged the indigenous peoples to act as much like them as they could, or at least blend in and work for them, go to their church, and learn their place as second class citizens. After all, they were looked upon as savages and uncivilized people who needed guidance. Before Columbus landed his ships in the islands in the Caribbean, there were people inhabiting America. They were the descendants of the nomadic peoples who walked over a land bridge from Asia to what we now call Alaska. When the Europeans arrived in the late 15th century A.D., some researchers estimate that more than 50 million people were living in North and South. Of these, about 10 million lived in the area that would eventually become the United States. As time passed, these early Americans moved south and east, changing and adapting to the land and the environment. Academics over the years have kept track of these many different groups by dividing them into

culture areas or groupings of peoples who shared similar habitats and characteristics. North Americaexcluding present-day Mexicowas divided by these scholars into 10 different culture areas: the Arctic, the Subarctic, the Plains, the Southeast, the Northeast, the Great Basin, California, the Southwest, the Northwest Coast and the Plateau. The people inhabiting these areas we now commonly call Native Americans. The Native Americans did not fare well when the early colonies and later the United States came in contact with them and began their push away from the northeast and went west and south. Americans in the 19th century at first wanted to live peacefully with the Native Americans, but the country was making such a rapid growth and expanding all ways, that peace was not to continue. The original colonies and settlers were in the northeastern part of what is now the United States, along the coast. The first real push for increasing the settlement area was to the south, in what is now Georgia, Florida, Alabama and a few other states. But, in order for the settlers to move into that land, they had to consider one important thingsthe Native Americans that lived there. In the lands of the Southeast were the settlements of the Cherokee, Chickasaw, Seminole, Creek, and Choctaw. The Americans wanted new land for farming and the Native Americans stood in their way. They turned to the government asking that the Native Americans be forced from their own land. Everyone knew that the American forces were more than willing to push the Native Americans from the land

because of what happened with Lewis and Clarks attitudes and actions towards them while exploring the west, and Andrew Jacksons removal policy. Lewis and Clark were instructed by President Thomas Jefferson to make trade agreements and alliances if at all possible with the different tribes they might encounter to dominate them without force. This tactic worked very well and the two explorers claimed the land of many tribes. President Andrew Jackson put through the Indian Removal Act of 1830. The original colony area along the East coast had so many people and the need for more room became obvious. This law said that all Native Americans east of the Mississippi River must move to reservations on the Great Plains. The culture area in the Southeast, north of the Gulf of Mexico was a very fertile agricultural area. Many of the Native Americans living there were farmers that grew varied crops such as beans, squash, tobacco and sunflowers. They had small market villages where they sold their produce called hamlets. The people of this area were called the Cherokee, the Chickasaw, the Choctaw, the Creek, and the Seminole. Often they were referred to as the Five Civilized Tribes. Their cultures were similar as was their language. The Cherokees owned a great amount of land in Virginia, Tennessee, Georgia and Alabama. They had a written constitution that said the Cherokee nation had total jurisdiction over its own territory. The Seminole tribe had early disputes with settlers in Florida. The Creeks were attacked by the federal army in Alabama and Georgia, and the Chicasaw and Choctaw tribes also were

involved in disputes with white settlers moving into the Mississippi area where they lived. Many indigenous people had died from disease or been forced off the land by the time of the American Revolution, in the late 18th century. They were only a fraction of the population that was in America before the Europeans. In 1830, the Indian Removal Act forced the Five Civilized Tribes to leave their and, so that white settlers. Federal officials forced almost 100,000 Native Americans off their land in the southeastern United States and into what the law called Indian Territory or what is now Oklahoma. This trek to the Indian Territory west of the Mississippi is often called the Trail of Tears because of the terrible treatment, extreme weather conditions, and the people lost along the way. In October 1838, about 15,000 Cherokees started on the journey to

Oklahoma. Most of them had to make the 800 miles on foot. Because of many mistakes by the federal agents, there was not enough food or protection from the cold weather and more than 4,000 died on the way from the elements and disease. The Five Civilized Tribes were almost eliminated over a relatively short number of decades. They lost their way of making a living and their homes. The land was different so farming was difficult and sometimes impossible. Their social structure was destroyed as well. The tribes were in danger of their entire culture being lost.

The United States government had promised that once the tribes were relocated, no white settlers would be allowed on Indian Territory, but that promise was not kept. The government allowed part of the land opened to settlers in 1893. In 1907 the Indian Territory and the territory of Oklahoma where the whites lived, were merged into the State of Oklahoma. All the Five Tribes still have a major presence there and in the United States.