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Indian Native Americans and White Americans

Native Americans who are Indians have suffered injustice for a long period of time. As DeLaria states in “cluster died for your sins”, as Africans struggle with the issue of exclusion by the whites, the Indians struggle with the issue of forced inclusion (Deloria, 11). This is exactly what the whites have always done even from the beginning of the United States of America. The whites after finding the native Indians in the American land tried to assimilate them and make them like the whites. They succeeded to a less extent and when it was very difficult for natives to co-exist with the whites president Jackson signed a rule to move Indians to the periphery land whereby, they do not interfere with the normal running of government activities in the name of being protected from harm which the whites could have caused them. This simply explains how it has always been very difficult for the two to exists together and bring out a good fruit of friendship. This paper discusses the concepts about native Americans presented in going native by Huhndorf in comparison with what Deloria discusses in his book Custer died for your sins which is an Indian manifesto.

In going native, Huhndorf presents the story of a movie by dances with wolves which presents Dunbar going to the Indians and trying to experience their life. Dunbar is a soldier and he has had many missions and he feels tired about all the happenings and especially the civil war and the lack of peace which exists among the white Americans. Because of this and the results of civil war he decides to go native and see how life in the periphery where the war did not arrive at was like (Huhndorf, 20). Therefore, he packs and travels among the Indians and for a short period of time after his arrival he lives alone as he can see no one around. He begins to think that he had gone to the wrong place and because of this he just stays there thinking of how he might be among the blood thirsty Indians presented in holy hood movies. He however discovers that there are people around and he begins to interact with them. He learns of their lifestyle and for once in his life he feels at total peace and is happy that he made such kind of a decision instead of continuing with the war which was draining him so much. He later comes to discover that those specific Indians were called Sioux and they were very peaceful.

He explains that tribe of Indians as magnificent and noble peaceful people. He writes in his journal that he had never seen a people “so devoted to family, so dedicated to each other and the only word that came to my mind was harmony”. The people are so peaceful that Dunbar leaves his post and joins the community. He is actively involved in the community’s activities which are donning Sioux clothes and feathers, fighting the savage Pawnees, and hunting buffaloes (Huhndorf, 10). At one time Dunbar sees the decaying carcasses of buffaloes and thinks to himself who could have done such a thing. He later comes to realize that it was the white hunters who never cared about the animals since the Indian community could not actually do such a thing since they were so peaceful. From this experience Dunbar chooses to abandon the white American culture completely and live among the Indians where he found peace and happiness.

Going native therefore has become a common practice among people and this is because most whites want to experience the Indian experience and compare it to the white American culture. However even though Dunbar explains how goo it is to have been among the Indians there is something else which comes up. As he interacts with them there is a realization that he is the only person who is considered with much higher dignity than the rest and this puts him out as an outsider. For example, when he kills buffaloes, he is requested to go and kill more or do more work than the rest of the community was doing. He is also requested to narrate stories of his adventures when he was a soldier and through this the focus completely changes from the culture and the importance of Indian people to Dunbar who is a white and this returns the narrative to the superiority of the whites which is not healthy at all.

Therefore even though Dunbar begins his journey with peace and thinks he is living his dream life of peace, Huhndorf sees it differently and it is indeed true that the focus stops being the Indians and comes back to the white people represented by Dunbar.

On the other hand, Deloria discusses how there has always been injustice to the Indians. In one of the essays, he states that some white Americans claim that they are from an Indian ancestry while in real sense maybe they are from an Indian queen. He uses humor to mock the white Americans who try to show sympathy for Indians while in real sense they are not sympathetic but just want to use the Indians for the sake of show off and the fake sympathy. Deloria focuses on how white Americans have tried their best to end the native (Indian) culture for so long. He he specifically focuses on the termination policy of 1940s and 1950s. the termination policy tried to end all the support the Indians were getting from the federal government and end the assimilation process which began when the nation was founded. He states clearly how the federal government had been in the process of assimilating Indians into their culture all the way from the time the nation was founded.

Therefore, this shows a great similarity between the discussions of Doleria and those of Huhndorf. This is because they both discuss the same concepts of mistreatment of the Indian people for a long period of time. However, Deloria is a historian and uses historical evidence while Huhndorf uses secondary information for his discussions.

One of the most intriguing stories by Doleria is the story about missionaries and anthropologists. He states that they all come towards the Indians and when the Indians are suffering, they move away from them (Deloria, 45). It is like they always want something from the Indians and when the Indians want something from them, they move away from like they should suffer the fate of whatever they find themselves in alone. He gives a very clear example of the termination policy hearings and states that there is not even a single church minister or anthropologist who gave their voice supporting the Indians and at this critical time it was evident that Indians were on their own. On the other hand, Huhndorf discusses of how in the movies Dunbar takes over the narrative of the Indian people by becoming the center stage of the movie and this is a kind of injustice expressed through the movie since the issues of the Indians are not important and they should not be given importance by the movie crew or even the audience.

In conclusion, the two books present a very compelling case of how white Americans treat Indians in a bad way and how this has grown from the foundation of the nation to the present time as well as how it continues to grow affecting Indians. The only difference between the two is the method of delivery, the language and the means, however the most basic concepts presented are the same and the base line is that Indians are treated unequally and they should not be assimilated but should be left on their own to find the right way to live.

Works Cited

Deloria, Vine. Custer died for your sins: An Indian manifesto. University of Oklahoma Press, 1988.

Huhndorf, Shari M. Going native. Cornell University Press, 2015.