Free Essays on Indians

Destruction Indian rights have been violated by whites through the Indians’ struggle for economic stability, religious freedom, and their basic human rights as set forth by the Declaration of Independence. The white man invaded the Native American culture when they â€Å"discovered† America and called it their own. Though Indians did not believe in owning land, the whites began buying, selling, and trading the land. After crushing the values and traditions of Indians, the white man felt they were superior. It is revealed in Leslie Marmon Silko’s novel Ceremony that Native American culture suffered greatly during and after WWII, and continually suffers with the destruction of reservations. â€Å"If you multiply every social problem in America by 10high school dropouts, suicide among teenagers, alcohol and drug abuse, death by violence, and diseaseyou have what Indians go through,† said Rep. Ben Nighthorse Campbell, who was the only member of congress in 1992 who identified himself as an Indian (www.2nativeamericans.com). Being stripped of its values and traditions, the Indian culture is slowly disintegrating. Indians strived for economic stability after their land was intruded on and basically taken away from them. Indians make up a tiny minority of the United States population and live mostly in poverty and isolation. For this reason, many Indians moved away from their tribes to get away from poverty. The initial purpose of the reservation system was to set Indians apart from whites; however, reservations soon became encircled by whites during the westward expansion. In addition, with laws such as the Indian Removal Act, Indians were forced off land where they had always lived and forced onto land that did not fit their needs. â€Å"Their land-once fertile and clean-is now defaced by circles of charcoal, tire tracks and, since the men had come back from the war, broken bottle glass all over the reservation.† (Jeffe... Free Essays on Indians Free Essays on Indians In â€Å"Indians† by Jane Tompkins, she discusses the problems that follow the history of the real Indians that once inhabited this land before being ousted by the Europeans. She investigates how other famous authors perceived the life of the Indians and their problems with the Europeans. Her main issue is how the facts, which we think, are â€Å"true† facts should not be considered concrete. History has a way of changing information over time and different people have different perceptions on Indians. Interesting enough, the author uses quotation marks around the word Indians. This is done because we really do not know the truth about these so-called â€Å"Indians†. We attached a history and amore importantly a reputation to these groups of people just because we accept anybody’s facts. Based on what she wrote, she concludes that she cannot accept other people’s facts as her own. She feels that she needs to piece together the life of the European-Indian relationship. She feels someone elses facts is the product of their own perspective and therefore piecing together the facts and seeing if everything goes hand and hand. She supports this by quoting over five different authors who wrote about the European-Indian relationship. Each author has a different version of the relationship between these two groups of people. One author goes on to say that America was uninhabited when the Europeans came over. That statement alone begins to question the integrity of the author’s words and what to really get out it. Reading that statement makes you question what is being said about the Indians and of its true or not. Based on the author’s conclusion, I feel that she is right. I agree with the idea that we need to discover things for ourselves and make ourselves believe based on our own perspective. Interpretation, language and common sense are tools that we would need to create our own thoughts as to what really went on between ... Free Essays on Indians All of the west coast tribes were considered rich by the other Indian nations. Of all the coastal Indians, the Tulalip, Swinomish, Lummi and Skagit tribes were considered the wealthy. These were the Indian tribes who lived in the Puget Sound area of Washington State. There wealth came from the abundance food. There were all kinds of fish and seafood. The woods were full of elk and deer and other animals. There were blackberries and raspberries and salmonberries and nuts. Cedar trees were everywhere. The Indians used cedar to build their homes and to carve everything from canoes to eating utensils. Softened cedar bark was used to make shoes, clothing, blankets, toweling. They created a way to dry food so that it could be stored safely. Once they could store food, they could relax a bit during the winter months. That gave them time to develop a gracious lifestyle. Each morning, started with a bath in the river. After their morning bath, they went to work. Their first meal would not be until several hours later. The women did chores on land, near the longhouse. They wove blankets and baskets and mats. They dug for clams. They collected berries. They pounded cedar bark, to soften it, and to ready it to make clothing. They cleaned the family's quarters in the longhouse. They scrubbed what they could and replaced anything soiled that could not be scrubbed. They put the morning meal on to cook and started to prepare food for the evening meal. The men went fishing and hunting. They used traps and clubs and arrows to catch game and setout baskets to catch crabs and fish. The coastal Indians did not live in tepees, as did the Yakima Indians of Eastern Washington. Instead, they lived in longhouses built of thick cedar planks. These early people chopped down and split massive cedar trees using beaver teeth and stone axes. The longhouses were huge. Some were about 100 feet long and 25 feet wide, with low roofs for easy heating. The only op... Free Essays on Indians Destruction Indian rights have been violated by whites through the Indians’ struggle for economic stability, religious freedom, and their basic human rights as set forth by the Declaration of Independence. The white man invaded the Native American culture when they â€Å"discovered† America and called it their own. Though Indians did not believe in owning land, the whites began buying, selling, and trading the land. After crushing the values and traditions of Indians, the white man felt they were superior. It is revealed in Leslie Marmon Silko’s novel Ceremony that Native American culture suffered greatly during and after WWII, and continually suffers with the destruction of reservations. â€Å"If you multiply every social problem in America by 10high school dropouts, suicide among teenagers, alcohol and drug abuse, death by violence, and diseaseyou have what Indians go through,† said Rep. Ben Nighthorse Campbell, who was the only member of congress in 1992 who identified himself as an Indian (www.2nativeamericans.com). Being stripped of its values and traditions, the Indian culture is slowly disintegrating. Indians strived for economic stability after their land was intruded on and basically taken away from them. Indians make up a tiny minority of the United States population and live mostly in poverty and isolation. For this reason, many Indians moved away from their tribes to get away from poverty. The initial purpose of the reservation system was to set Indians apart from whites; however, reservations soon became encircled by whites during the westward expansion. In addition, with laws such as the Indian Removal Act, Indians were forced off land where they had always lived and forced onto land that did not fit their needs. â€Å"Their land-once fertile and clean-is now defaced by circles of charcoal, tire tracks and, since the men had come back from the war, broken bottle glass all over the reservation.† (Jeffe...