Native Americans and African Americans

Native Americans and African Americans

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The similarities portrayed by the Native American and the African American groups can be linked to the long-term interaction the two groups have had for centuries. The two groups have shared histories, families, communities, and various ways of life. There unity between the two groups has been enhanced by similar struggles. One remarkable case of unity is during the struggle of ending slavery, as well as dispossession in the US (Myers, 2007). They also struggled for freedom and self-determination. These struggles contribute to similarities, which have brought the two cultures together in recent years. The attempt to initiate segregation was hardly successful due to the arrival of non-native people in the US.

The aspect of working cooperatively was initiated by the role each racial group played in history, but in the recent years, these similarities less distinguished roles have changed the way the world views the two American groups into two groups joined with similar cultures and social practices (Myers, 2007). This aspect took shape after November 15 2009, when the respective National Museum of each group decided to conjunct to present the “IndiVisible: African-Native American Lives in the Americas.” This exhibit was initiated to focus on two groups and their interactions (DeVenney, 2008).

Despite the portrayed similarities, the major issue is that the US is faced with major cases of discrimination against members of these groups. At times of national issue, of or problems facing all Americans almost equally, the two groups would join hands to fight against the problem. This could happen through protests, but the voice-shared protests are too infrequently initiated. The relationship among members of the two racial groups seems complex with the complexity dating back to the colonial America. During the colonial America period, both African-Americans and Indian-Americans had limited rights and they united to fight for their rights from the Europeans (Smithsonian National Museum of African American History & Culture , 2013).

The US government has imposed many restriction but the two racial groups have managed to maintain close bonds even during the colonial period when the British government hardly advocated for the freeing of slaves. Some Native American families went against the law and freed many slave. Both groups faced the same fate as they struggled for their freedom. They equally faced cruelty, prejudice, death, torture, and neglect among other problems. This gives them the motive to come together as one American group, which sees not physical or origin related differences, but works under one goal, the American dream (Smithsonian Institution, 2013 ).

References

DeVenney, S. (2008). IndiVisible: African-Native American Lives. Retrieved May 21, 2013, from http://nmai.si.edu/exhibitions/indivisible/

Myers, J. P. (2007). Dominant-minority relations in America: Convergence in the New World. Boston: Allyn and Bacon. (Chapter 6 & 7).

Smithsonian Institution. (2013). National Museum of the American Indian. Retrieved May 21, 2013 , from http://nmai.si.edu/home/

Smithsonian National Museum of African American History & Culture. (2013, March 29). Smithsonian National Museum of African American History & Culture. Retrieved May 21, 2013, from http://nmaahc.si.edu/