How the Native Americans Mistreated the American Indians

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How the Native Americans Mistreated the American Indians

When Christopher Columbus first went to America, he found that the Indian tribe had already inhabited the lands and were walking around naked. He would later spread the word that he had discovered that would do whatever they were asked to and walked around without any clothes. This kind of attitude didn’t just cease there. Later on, Native Americans would mistreat the Indian Americans through acts of murder, land grabbing and engaging them in wars that they had no interest at all in fighting. The events to be discussed in this paper will revolve around the development of the Native American’s efforts to oppress and mistreat the Indians in their own ancestral land since 1965. This discussion will be significant in that it will help us understand more of our history and also assist us in appreciating the Indian tribes inhabiting America.

1. The Sand Creek Massacre: Hoig, S. (2013). The Sand Creek Massacre. University of Oklahoma Press. The book states that in late September of 1865, there was a war in which the Chevenne chief led his warriors to battle with Roman Nose’s. This was organized to avenge the death of their tribe mates during the Sand Creek massacre. The Chevenne warriors would siege the Cole and Walker columns that had soldiers who were starving and were also exhausted. The Indians were being brutally killed by the Native Americans and their children and women not spared.

Scott, R. (1994). Blood at Sand Creek: The Massacre Revisited. Caxton Press.

According to this book, the end of the Sand Creek Massacre was marked in October 14 1865 when the Southern Chevenne chiefs agreed to sign a treaty that said that they had agreed to hand over the land which according to them was their own land. The land ceded was part of most of Colorado.

2. The battle at Washita River

Ediger, T. A., & Hoffman, V. (1955). Some Reminiscences of the Battle of the Washita. Chronicles of Oklahoma, 33(2). The book basically talks about the battle at the Washita River. George Armstrong Custer led the army of US to destroy a certain village. The occupants of the village were Indians of Cheyenne. The raid’s aim was to contain those Indians who had gone against the decree passed that they should not stay outside their reservations that had been newly assigned. Scores were injured and some also died. However, there is no actual value of the number of Indians who lost their lives as no one bothered to count. This shows the little value the Native Americans attached to the lives of the Indians. They issued decrees and never bothered to find out how these decrees affected the lives of the Indians and any sign of disobedience to such decrees was met by murders orchestrated by the US army.

3. Indians denied equal rights as the Native Americans

McGowan, C. (1986). President’s Veto Power: An Important Instrument of Conflict in Our Constitutional System, The. San Diego L. Rev., 23, 791.

In this book, it is stated that in 1st of April 1886, President Johnson, in a civil rights bill, was allowed to have the army at his disposal when ensuring that the law was enforced and all people who were U.S citizens by birth were given equal rights. All citizens except the Indians. The congress gives importance to this civil rights bill.

4. Indians’ liberty is expunged

LaVelle, J. P. (2001). Rescuing Paha Sapa: achieving environmental justice by restoring the great grasslands and returning the Sacred Black Hills to the Great Sioux Nation. Great Plains Nat. Resources J., 5, 40. This book indicates that an ultimatum was issued by the U.S government in 1st of January 1876 so that all Sioux and Chevenne Indian families were to be assembled at the Great Sioux Reservation before the end of the month of January. This infringes their right to not feel imprisoned and their right to behave in a way that they want and not in a way that is controlled by the government. The information was also not spread well as most of the Sioux were not able to hear of the ultimatum even past the deadline.

Davis, J. S. (1952). TWO Sioux War Orders: A Mystery Unraveled. History, 33, 77-79.

The matter is then handed to the secretary of war, this book indicates. The grace period that was earlier on set had already expired so on 1st of February the issue was regarded as a military matter.

5. Indians engaged to fight an American war

Josephy, A. M., Nagel, J., & Johnson, T. R. (Eds.). (1999). Red power: the American Indians’ fight for freedom. U of Nebraska Press. This book focuses on World War 1. An estimated served 17,000 Indians were seen serving in the armed forces fighting for America during this war in 1917. They were fighting for a country that was slowly being taken away from them. Some of them however refused, arguing that they were not citizens. The war veterans would later on be granted citizenship.

6. Indians engaged to fight an American war, again.

Weigley, R. F. (1977). The American way of war: a history of United States military strategy and policy. Indiana University Press. The book’s focus is World War 2 that begun in 1941. History does repeat itself as we again see the Indians flying the flag of America. This time however, these figures are higher. 25,000 Indians up from the previous 17,000 serve as soldiers in the armed forces. Another 40,000 Indians serve as employees in some of the wartime industries such as making of ammunitions and explosives to be used during the war.

7. Indians inhabit the poorest place.

Macintyre, S. (2007). Deprivation amplification revisited; or, is it always true that poorer places have poorer access to resources for healthy diets and physical activity?. International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity, 4(1), 32. The book indicates that Indians are inhabitants of Shannon County. South Dakota the home of Oglala Lakota and this was in 1999 identified as the poorest place in America. This point towards the fact that there is poor distribution of resources which doesn’t favor this Indian inhabited county.

References:

Hoig, S. (2013). The Sand Creek Massacre. University of Oklahoma Press.

Scott, R. (1994). Blood at Sand Creek: The Massacre Revisited. Caxton Press.

McGowan, C. (1986). President’s Veto Power: An Important Instrument of Conflict in Our Constitutional System, The. San Diego L. Rev., 23, 791.

LaVelle, J. P. (2001). Rescuing Paha Sapa: achieving environmental justice by restoring the great grasslands and returning the Sacred Black Hills to the Great Sioux Nation. Great Plains Nat. Resources J., 5, 40.

Davis, J. S. (1952). TWO Sioux War Orders: A Mystery Unraveled. History, 33, 77-79.

Josephy, A. M., Nagel, J., & Johnson, T. R. (Eds.). (1999). Red power: the American Indians’ fight for freedom. U of Nebraska Press.

Weigley, R. F. (1977). The American way of war: a history of United States military strategy and policy. Indiana University Press

Macintyre, S. (2007). Deprivation amplification revisited; or, is it always true that poorer places have poorer access to resources for healthy diets and physical activity?. International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity, 4(1), 32.