The Genocide of the Native Americans, Essay Example

It is virtually impossible to touch the topic of genocide without referencing the Holocaust. This Communistic country acted in a cruel and inhumane manner, costing millions their lives. However, these unfathomable practices took place on American soil as well. It was American people who were acting with the same inhumanity that would lead to Native American extinction. An important part of history is to understand how the Native Americans were exploited and essential eliminate as an entire culture. The racism and twisted governmental law played a key role in the discrimination, mistreatment, and genocide of the Native Americans.

The United States has consistently constricted a corrupt form of legalism as a way of establishing empire and control. The law has been used to subvert the Native Americans by tracing the federal Indian law (Churchill 241). The law was used to promote injustice and economic inequality between Native Americans and European Americans. According to Churchill, there is a devastating account of stealing land and the genocide of the Native Americans dating back to the earliest days of the Republic. Racism mixed with greed for the Land owned by the Native Americans caused the separation of thirteen small British colonies from England.

“Legally speaking,” quotes Churchill from one such document, “so long as a tribe exists and remains in possession of its lands, its title and possession are sovereign and exclusive.” (Churchill 250) In 1832 the natives Indians were classified as subordinates to the United States, showing the inequality prior to the genocide even beginning. When they fought to protect their land, the whites claimed it as aggression giving them more grounds to fight the Natives. Taking the rights of the Indian’s left them little grounds to legally fight back to protect themselves and their land. This type of action in U.S. government history shows the devastating actions towards indigenous people.

A contributing factor to the genocide of the Native Americans took place over the struggle for land. The Orlquois fought to reclaim their land in upstate New York and the Lakota refusal to sell the Black Hills. Ward attributes that Hitler modeled the United States treatment of Indians as a model for his genocide methods. As a result in 1946 the Indian Commission Act was passed to provide the Indians rights which allowed them to sue for lost lands due to duress, fraud, and unconscionable consideration which they were entitled to. For the whites, it was not only about the land, but the excessive money available on the land through mining, oil, so on. By eliminating the Native Americans it allows for alternative ownership and a large amount of money to earn.

An important part in understanding the history of Native Americans is understanding the points during and after the European contact. (Rubertone 430) The article addresses essential complexities of identity construction in American, post European contact. European studies have created items viewed as “traditional” in the acculturative changes that happened in native societies resulting from their contact with the Europeans. From this principle, it has been considered the replacement of historic-period Native American artifacts, aiding in the study of the evolutionary change. By adding a number of descriptive artifacts they are able to develop a better measurement for acculturation profiles in the Native American culture. This is more important than simply adding an additional dimension highlighting cultural differences. It can shed a light on the events that took place and the practices of that particular tribe.

Understanding the subsequent developments also aids in determining who was affected by it. The Native Americans were affected by the global development active by European expansion. This study of historical archaeology creates evidence of the silence and exposes the distortion of the experience in North American. These findings represent the native people’s experiences in activism, persistence and complicated social interactions. This plays a crucial role in remember as well as producing knowledge about the past Native American experiences.

The demographic overview of North American Indian history addresses the details of the holocaust, which even today, white Americans tend to dismiss as an unfortunate concomitant of manifest destiny. European Americans of North America led to the sharp decline in the number or better stated the entire tribe. Thorton describes how the holocaust contributed to diseases, genocide and warfare, relocation and removal, and massive destruction to aboriginal ways of life (Thorton 213). The injustice and genocide of the Native Americans was led by greed and inhumanity. The failure to see these tribes as equals aided in the removal and genocide of the Native Americans. Removing these tribes made it easier for the whites to maintain power, ownership, and control.

There are also sociocultural factors that are beneficial in understanding the suicide phenomena and creating preventive strategies. Defining suicide in an integrative approach, which calls for coordinated and concrete, multidisciplinary approaches to prevention of suicide (Leo 24). Culture does have an influence on suicide rates. Suicide seems to escalate during major economic fluctuations, such as the white’s attacks on the Native American population. Instead of fighting back or accepting the torture, individuals choose to end their existence as a way to escape. Economic changes and war has a higher suicide outcome on the males. This is another factor to consider in the overall termination of the Native Americans. The very nature of these events in many countries, if they intentionally inflicted, could act as a suicide strategy.

The whites categorized the Native Americans as non-humans or lesser beings. This is not the only race that they denoted as below them, but unlike the other lesser-beings, the Native Americans fought back. Yee analyses how Americans have perpetuated inaccurate attitudes and images concerning the Chinese that propose the functioning of socio-psychological anomalies and prevent the growth of healthy human relations (Yee 102). Mark Twain recorded the following observation of the Americans views towards the Chinese race. “They are a harmless race when white men either let them alone or treat them no worse than dogs; in fact, they are almost entirely harmless anyhow, for they seldom think of resenting the vilest insults or the cruelest injuries.” (Yee 102) David Yee addressed the narrow stereotype perceptions of Chinese Americans. This aids in the understanding of the underlying prejudices to Native Americans as far as meaningful identity is concerned.

The relationship between the Indians and the whites had never been equal in any manner. In fact, the public policies in place encouraged that gap in racial equality. Legter’s book establishes a distinct connected between American genocide and the events after the wake of the Holocaust. Genocide has a vast amount of aspects and interpretations. Slavery was associated with an aspect of genocide. The American slaves were deprived of human rights and their own ethnic affiliation; however that was not deemed classifiable as genocide. It is when the slaves are numerically impacted and the survival of the race is endangered, that can be determined to be genocide. When the Native Americans were attacked, at time the entire tribe was eliminated.

There is an importance of gapping the whites to other races, including the American Indians, and the practice of genocide. It is a safe assumption that there has never been a calculated plan for the extermination of Native Americans to even compare it with that of Hitler’s plan. However under the provisions of the Genocide Convention, the practices of the United States show participation in Native American genocide. James Axtrell records in Virginia and New England the practice of genocide against the Pequot’s and other Native American groups. In 1711, the Virginia House of Burgesses funded, “the extirpating all Indians without distinction of Friends or Enemies.” These murderous intents typically justified their killing with scripture. These Native Americans were expected to restructure, the purpose being to destroy the Native society in its entirety. This left the white American’s to covet the land and act in a lawless capacity. Inevitably, this greed led to an excessive loss of Indian life. The United State government turned a blind eye and failed to honor their role as sworn in the treaty to protect.

In the 19^th Century, the Native Americans fought back in the Indian war. This massacre aided in the extinctions of the Indian race in its entirety. Aiding in the overall belief that genocidal practices exterminated the Indians was the white’s practice of kidnapping Indian children to strip them of their native roots. They would educate them to be white, and to associate with that population, not the Native American ways. This disassociation ended the potential for repopulation within that tribe. This act was completely seen as legal. The United States government failed to protect, and turned a blind eye to their own involvement in the extinction of Native Americans. There was a wide collection of violence especially genocide and mass killing. The author presents the origin of the concept through introduction of new concepts and comparison with other approaches (Staub 270).

The social problems faced by Native Americans resulted from racial policy discourse. The two societies emerged, and the inequality of these societies was visibly apparent. This article provides valuable information is assessing the injustices resulting from apparent invisibility of American Indians in racial policy issues (Russell 325). The Native Americans failed to get involved with the development of racial policies, which was predominately sponsored by Black Americans. Their rights have been diminished for so long without any sort of government consideration, the Native Americans failed to desire to participate in creating racial policies.

The racism and twisted governmental law played a key role in the discrimination, mistreatment, and genocide of the Native Americans. There are many factors and theories attributed to the overall mistreatment of an entire race. During that time, greed sponsored by governmental support led to an excessive loss of life. White-Americans exploited Indians, took their children and their land for personal gain. Native American genocide can be directly pinpointed to the white Americans and the U.S. government’s failure to see them as equal humans. This horrific practice has been referenced to be what Hitler modeled the Holocaust after. The racial policies and discourse resulted in the genocide of the Native American people.

Works Cited

Churchill, Winston. Perversions of Justice: Indigenous Peoples and Anglo-American Law. New York: City Lights Publishers, 2003.

Leo, De Diego. Struggling Against Suicide. The Journal of Crisis Intervention and Suicide Prevention. 23.1 (2002): 23-31.

Rubertone, Patricia. “The history of archeology of Native Americans.” Annual Review of Anthropology 29.3 (2000): 425-446.

Russell, Stephen. Seeking justice: critical perspective of native people: The invisibility of American Indians in racial policy discourse. The Georgetown Public Policy Review. 4 Geo. Public Pol’y Rev. 129. (1999)

Staub, Ervin. Genocide and Mass Killing: Origins, Prevention, Healing and Reconciliation. Political Psychology, 21 (2000): 367–382.

Thorton, Rosalind. American Indian Holocaust and Survival: A Population History since 1492: Civilization of the American Indian. Oklahoma: University of Oklahoma Press, 1990.