Native American Genocide

What is Genocide?

• Genocide has multiple definitions, but most of the defintions agree on the fact that genocide is the systematic killing of a specific group of people.

History of the Native American Genocide

• There were a few things that happend with the Native American genocide. A few were the Indian Removal Act of 1830 (or The Trail of Tears) and another being the bording schools that Native American children were sent to to act white. The older generations were forced onto reservations and were constantly being moved to new reservations. They also wiped out there food supplies by killing all the wild game such as the buffalo. They also sent the Native Americans sickness from over seas, known as Old World diseases, such as small pox. They would go into the indians camps and kill all who were there. The white people did not think that the native americans were as good as they were and treated them like animals.

 The Beginning..

• Christopher Columbus landed in the Americas on October 12, 1942. He brought with him the excitement of a new world. Little did the voyagers know, there was already a "world" which existed on the land. The sense of hope and discovery in one part of the world eventually led to the death and destruction of another.
• Many Native Americans believe that when Columbus landed in America, it was the beginning of what is now referred to as the American Holocaust. Columbus brought with him greedy men that eventually led to discrimination, diseases, and death of thousands of Native American people.
• Columbus brought with him men looking for gold. They took the inhabitants and made them into slaves. In some accounts, the natives were murdered, tortured, and deprived of necessities. They would hang Indians and chop there children and feed them to dogs. More of these attacks happened later on after columbus left. The farther the spain expanded the more mass killings happened

 Indian Removal Act (Trail of Tears)

• Throughout the decades of English immigrants and the formation of the United States, Native Americans were continually mistreated. They English had no tolerance for them and many wanted them dead. This was mostly because of religious beliefs and way of living. Natives were killed by attack after attack. Their crops were destroyed be settlers leaving them dying of starvation. 
• On May 28, 1830 Andrew Jackson enacted the Indian Removal Act. This meant that the Native Americans had to move over to the other side of the country to "trade" land. This treaty had many important terms of condition. It promised outside forces to protect them and it promised aid for those in need. None of these were true though.
• The goal was to get all the Indians to Oklahoma, five tribes went first, a total of 70,000 Native Americans which took about 10 years. The move from east to west proved to be more destructive the helpful for the native americans. Many native americans died from exhaustion and starvation.

 Aftermath of the Genocide

• There are few full blooded indians left in the americas and there culture is all but lost. They could have been a help to the white people in the long run. lmost every time that they did help out the white people it came to help the in the long run like how to live in a hostile enviorment and how to grow things when the soil was not the best.

 Lesson Learned by the World

• The U.S. almost definately did not learn a lesson. We have made some what of an effort to help the Native Americans, but have you been to a reservation lately? Did you feel safe?
• Another reason I feel the U.S. did not learn a lesson is because we persecuted the African Americans until the late 60's. Meaning, the government did, there definately still is a lot of rascism around.
• As for the world, how was any lesson learned at all? The Holocaust still happened; Rwanda still happened; Bosnia happened; and Darfur IS HAPPENING . If any lesson was learned wouldn't one think these atrocities would have never happened?

 Areas of Controversy

• Their have been few opinions stating that the Native American genocide was not a genocide at all. It is said that none of the warfare on either sides amounted to genocide. The real decimation of of Indian populations had nothing to do with massacres or military actions, but rather stemmed from infectious diseases that white settlers brought with them at the time they first arrived in the New World.
• Because both sides were actively fighting, some say it does not constitute a genocide. Regardless of the fact that the Native Americans were so overpowered and had no chance of fighting back. Another argument is that the diseases that were given to them were not intentional.
• Oh really? For a long time there has been accusations that the small pox was weaponized in the form of blankets and then given to Native Americans by soldiers.

 International/Regional Response at the Time of the Incident

• The response of the region was not that great at the time they did nothing to help them they thought that the best way to help them was putting them on reservations of there own tribe. They also took there children and sent them to boarding schools that was not good because the children had to learn a hole new way to live when there live traditions were just fine. They also tried to give them resources and that did not turn out any better. But today the U.S is slowly helping out by giving them money at a certin age and letting them get tried by there own people on a reservation so nothing unjust happens to them.

Sources

Native American Genocide at the Lewis-Clark State College

Native American RIgts (book)

Red Man's Land~White Man's Law by Wilcomb E. WAshburn (book)

Native American Genocide Still Haunts United States at iearn.org

The "genocide" myth- Custer and the Little Bighorn by Michael Medved

Amherst and Smallpox