Marsales 1

Nathan Marsales

Ms. Whipple and Ms.Cooper

APUSH and AP English Language and Composition

May 24th, 2017

The Effects of Non-Native Interactions; Affecting Natives Today

Junior year was my third year in high school and my second year in AGS. Sophomore

year of AGS had the theme of keeping the earth green; as we did projects involving upcycling,

and we visited a college called Earth University in Costa Rica to learn how they try to keep the

earth green. Junior year has been different as it has been exceedingly more difficult than my

other schooling years, but it has still been an enjoyable period of my life that has and I believe

will continue to be beneficial to me later in my life. The theme of junior year focused on Native

Americans and about their life from before encountering the Europeans to the time of today. This

was a theme mainly found in the core classes of APUSH and AP English, but through AGS

connected curriculum it can be found in other classes as well. We were tasked to develop a

question during the fall semester that would be answered through various assignments, projects,

discussions, and experiences throughout the year. I originally found this to be too difficult as I

thought it was too broad; causing me to wonder how I was supposed to answer this question

through only work done in my classes. However, as the year progressed I saw how many

assignments incorporated Native Americans into the curriculum. With most of my AGS junior

year over with, I was able to successfully answer my question that had been in the back of my

mind on nearly every assignment. My final question ended up as: How has the change in Native

Americans living conditions, due to American and Old World settlement and interaction,
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impacted Native American opportunities in today's society? These interactions have caused the

negative effects of loss of land and some aspects of culture, but also the positive effects such as

modern technology; changing the lives of Native Americans.

Since the first European communities started developing in the Americas the issue of land

was already becoming a controversial matter for the colonists and the Native Americans. The

Native Americans as we learned from our APUSH summer assignment, were nicer on the

environment as they would use the resources that the environment would provide them readily,

and then move on to a different part of the region. This led to conflict, as the Europeans came

and built their communities they would often be built on or very near to the land in which the

Native Americans would occasionally inhabit. The Natives saw that they had claim to the land as

they had been on it for centuries and that is where their ancestors lived as well. However, the

nomadic lifestyle that the Native Americans had didnt coincide with the way the Europeans saw

the way to claim land as they saw no claim to the lands as nothing had been built on the lands.

Since the first settlements and continuing into the mid-1900s to early-2000s the Native

Americans land has diminished drastically. Seen in the book Like a Hurricane is the issues

that the Native Americans had in working with the United States government. One of the big

issues with the U.S. government that the Native Americans faced was the honoring of the treaties

and agreements made during certain points of history. Problems like that caused conflict both

politically and even violently between the two sides; the Dakota/Sioux War is a great example

due to the causes of the war. The causes developed from both sides, but the Indians saw that the

U.S. government was not honoring their agreement to not encroach upon the Native American

land and also wasnt supplying the Natives with the promised money and supplies that we agreed

to in the treaties. This caused fighting between the two groups and the U.S. won this battle and
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sentenced some Native Americans to death as the U.S., again, got its way rather than what the

Native Americans wanted. The Native Americans simply didnt seem to be accepted as they were

often forcefully moved off their land so that white settlers could build a community there, the

U.S. government even tried to make a policy to assimilate all Native Americans into American

society but Like a Hurricane shows that that was very unsuccessful. Native American

interactions with the non-Natives greatly reduced the land area that the Native Americans were

able to enjoy through force, trickery, and dishonesty by the Americans and Europeans.

This loss of land caused the Native Americans to also have a loss of influence. This led to

negative effects on Native American society as it was weakened through assimilation, ignorance,

and destruction by the Europeans and the American government. This is shown in both the

movies Pocahontas and Smoke Signals and also the book Like a Hurricane. The movies

Pocahontas and Smoke Signals either represent or show the negative image that Americans have

of Native Americans and how it negatively affects their society. Pocahontas represents as the

movie produces an image of Native Americans that stereotypes the Native American people and

their ways of life. This is a negative image of Native Americans presented through media that is

representative of what many Americans think of when they hear the words Native Americans

or Indians. Smoke signals is a movie the image that Americans have of Native Americans

through various scenes, either showing the poor Native American society, a dumb Native

American, and other stereotypes that are generally associated with Native Americans. This

doesnt negatively affect the Native Americans it simply shows how negative image and

influence can impact the progression and influence of a society and culture. That idea can be

reinforced with the ideas shown in the movie Wadjda on how the gender roles and classifications

and limitations placed on certain genders cause a slower progression to even negative
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progression of a society. As the women in Saudi Arabia are supposed to follow a specific image

and role in society it becomes exceedingly difficult for them to progress in society. Connecting

that to the image place on Native Americans by Americans and other non-Natives it can be

understood as to how it could hinder the ability for the Natives to grow as a society and as a

culture. The book Like a Hurricane shows the damaging of the Native American societies

through events like Wounded Knee, where 300 Native Americans were slaughtered by the U.S.

government for practicing a cultural movement and for resisting the wants of the U.S.

government. Interactions where the Native Americans and the American government, and even

sometimes at the time of the colonies, did not end up well for the Native Americans usually

leading to some loss of territory, damage to their society or both.

The interactions between the Native Americans and the non-Natives wasnt all bad even

though it may seem that way. One of the most beneficial things to come out of the interactions

was trade. The Native Americans traded crops and other items for modern technology, which did

cause much change in the structure of some of the societies but it wasnt necessarily a negative

change. Two main things came out of all this trading that revolutionized the ways of Native

Americans; the horse and the Musket. The horse provided the Native Americans with nearly a

new lifestyle as they could now travel much faster and it enabled them to hunt more efficiently

and more than ever before. The horse essentially reshaped the great plains Indians as they took

towards the horse and became extraordinary equestrians as it became the way their societies

thrived. The musket or simply gun change both hunting and war aspects of Native Americans. It

enabled the Native Americans to be much more efficient hunters as they could now kill more

animals with the musket and it required less skill than the bow and arrow. It did, however, lead to

more bloody and deadly battles between the Native Americans, but also gave the Native
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Americans a fighting chance at defending their land from the Europeans and Americans. There

are more recent examples of Native Americans adopting modern technology as seen on the

Southwest trip with casinos and even the ToHajilee school as the school classrooms used

laptops and other common items found in American classrooms to educate the students. These

modern technologies, developed by non-Natives, shaped and are still shaping the future of these

Native American communities, hopefully for the better.

The Native Americans lost much of their land, had parts of their society damaged, but

have also received modern technology through interactions with non-Natives. In general, due to

where the Native American societies were at prior to encountering the Europeans it can be seen

that the interactions were negative on the Native American society. This causes difficulties for

the Native Americans to continue with their society, but change is happening. It has been seen

that the Native populations deserve to keep their society alive and so the image of Native

American communities and the culture is trying to change to be more true to the actual Native

Americans allowing them to be represented for who they are.There is more push than possibly

ever before to keep the culture of the Native Americans passed on and to keep the traditions and

language of the community taught to the children through school. It is difficult to see where

Native Americans could have been without non-Native interactions, so it can only be perceived

that the way that those interactions may have negatively affected the Native Americans. The

future of the Native American communities and societies can have a brighter future than todays

societies as Native American image has changed to be more representative of the true greatness

of the Native American cultures. While the Native Americans will never get back their vast areas

of land, Native American societies can be looking up as past event dont have to affect the future.
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Work Cited

Smith, Paul Chaat, and Robert Allen Warrior. Like A Hurricane: The Indian Movement

from Alcatraz to Wounded Knee. New Press. 1996.

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Wadjda. Dir. Haifaa Al-Mansour. Perf. Waad Mohammed, Reem Abdullah, Abdullrahman

Al Gohani. Razor Film Produktion GmbH, Highlook Communications Group,

Rotana Film Production Razor Film Produktion GmbH, Highlook Communications

Group, Rotana Film Production, 2013. DVD. Web. 16 Apr. 2017.