Treatment of Indians by the Native Americans

Treatment of Indians by the Native Americans

Institution:

Student’s Name:

Course Name:

Course Number:

Instructor’s Name:

Date Submitted:

Treatment of Indians by the Native Americans

Christopher Columbus was the pioneer of European discovery of America. He opened the gates to the suffering inflicted upon the American Indians by the Native Americans when he set ashore the shores of America on the morning of 12th October 1492 making him the first man to see America. When he first saw the Arawak men and women, an Indian tribe, this is what he had to say about them; ‘‘they … brought us parrots and balls of cotton and spears and many other things, which they exchanged for the glass beads and hawks’ bells. They willingly traded everything they owned…They were well-built, with good bodies and handsome features…. They do not bear arms, and do not know them, for I showed them a sword, they took it by the edge and cut themselves out of ignorance. They have no iron. Their spears are made of cane… . They would make fine servants…. With fifty men we could subjugate them all and make them do whatever we want.’’ (History is a Weapon, 2013). This, in essence, marks the beginning of the suffering the American Indians went through under the hands of the Native Americans. The Native Americans mistreated the American Indians by murdering them during massacres, grabbing their lands and engaging them in wars that they had no interest 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 1865. This discussion will be significant in that it will help understand more of our history and also assist us in appreciating the Indian tribes inhabiting America.

The Indians were being brutally killed by the Native Americans and their children and women not spared either during the Sand Creek massacre that developed into the Colorado War of 1865. “The affair at Fort Lyon, Colorado, in which Colonel Chivington destroyed a large Indian village, and all its inhabitants, is to be made the subject of congressional investigation. Letters received from high officials in Colorado say that the Indians were killed after surrendering, and that a large proportion of them were women and children.” (History is a Weapon, 2013) The Cheyenne and Arapaho Indians inhabited Colorado. There was however a gold and silver rush when the whites discovered these two minerals in the Rocky Mountains. Thousands of white settlers relocated to the surrounding foothills in order to mine the discovered minerals. This angered the Cheyenne and Arapaho who originally inhabited the land as they were displaced by the new settlers. The angered Indians soon begun to attack the stagecoach lines, wagon trains and the mining camps to convince the white settlers to leave their lands. This would then result into the Colorado war. The violence between these two parties increased forcing governor John Evans to send a voluntary militia commander called Colonel John Chivington to quite the Indians. The Colonel was once a member of the clergy but this did not make him extend his compassion to the Indians and he made it well known that he desired to finish the Indians.

Chivington would then launch a campaign of violence directed to the Cheyenne tribe and all its allies. He then reinforced his militia raising the Third Colorado Calvary. The reinforced militia ruthlessly murdered the Indians amidst their surrender. This was as a result of the directive by General Samuel Curtis that said “I want no peace till the Indians suffer more…No peace must be made without my directions.” More Indian life was lost in the Colorado war during the bloodshed between the whites and the Indians. 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. Colonel Chivington would then plan a reunion at the site in 1887 to celebrate with the other white veterans who had survived. This shows how little the loss of Indian lives meant to them as they didn’t treat it like the loss of human lives.

George Armstrong Custer led the army of US on November 27th 1868 to destroy the Black Kettle, a Southern Cheyenne camp that was on the Washita River and this came to be known as the battle at Washita River. The Cheyenne and Arapaho signed a Medicine lodge. Consequently, they were required to move south from what is now known as Kansas and Colorado to the Indian Territory that then acted as their new reservation site. This was their traditional territory. Moving south would mean that they’d end up in an arable land and they’d also be far from the buffalos. The buffalos were their main source of meat and also the center of their culture. The summer of 1868 saw the war parties of the Southern Cheyenne tribe together with their allies combining forces and attacking the white settlements that were in western Kansas, northwest Texas and southeast Colorado. Some of these raids begun in 10th August 1868 and were along the Saline and Solomon rivers in Kansas. The Indian warriors raped some white women, killed 15 of them, injured some and took others captive so that they would adopt them onto their cultures.

Philip Sheridan, who was a general at the time of these attacks by the Indians, was frustrated by the fact that his soldiers were unable to locate the enemy and fight them. He reinstated Custer who at the time had been convicted of mistreatment of soldiers and desertion. Desertion is the act of living the armed forces without official permission. Despite this convictions Custer was a good fighter. General Sheridan thought it wise to fight the Indians during the winter as at this time they would be caught off guard as they would be settled in their permanent camps. Custer located a village of the Cheyenne tribe along the Washita river on 26th November. Custer, being the reckless fella that he was, did not bother to conduct a reconnaissance study of this tribe of Indians that he had spotted. The village contained a group of a peaceful Cheyenne tribe who had been placed on reservation soil in which commander Fort cob had guaranteed them safety. In fact there was a white flag that was flown on one of the main dwellings indicating that this village was actively avoiding conflict. At the dawn of the next morning, four columns of soldiers were signaled to charge in and attack the sleeping occupants of this village. Scores of the peaceful Black kettle including their women and children lost their lives on this fateful day. This battle was ironically hailed and celebrated and resulted in the restoration of Custer’s reputation.

On 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 were to be given equal rights except the American Indians. The European came to America and found the Indians already inhabiting the land. This means that the land belonged to the Indians as they were the original owners of it. But that the Indians would be ignored as part of the American citizens to be accorded with equal rights like the rest of the other citizens goes against sanity. The congress gives importance to this civil rights bill.

Another important detail is that the president was allowed to use the army in ensuring that this new law was enforced. This meant that if any of the Indians violated this law then they would have to force the law, in extreme cases, eve face the military. The Indians had already lost a lot of lives due to the attacks by the militia and the US army soldiers and allowing the military to be used to face the law in case the Indians erred meant that more lives would be lost as it is common knowledge that no military action would be compassionate.

The liberty of the American Indians was expunged when an ultimatum was issued by the U.S government on 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. As soon as the territories of the Indians had been incorporated into the United States most of the surviving American Indians were incorporated into reservations. These territories occupied only 4% of the whole American territory. They were to sign various treaties before they gave up their lands. Acts of war, massacres and intimidation were used to convince them to sign these treaties. These long series of wars and massacres led to the displacement of the native Indians from their lands. The Indians were illiterate and therefore did not know what the treaties they were signing were meant for or rather what the treaties said. Moreover, the treaties that were signed mostly by the Indian chiefs were violated by the white settlers as they failed to end their end of the bargain by breaking their promises.

The ultimatum was also not spread well. The government did not ensure that the Indians received the information that they were required to relocate to the reserves before the deadline expired. This meant that most of the Sioux did not get informed and thus most of them did not obey the decree. Most of them who failed to relocate did so because they were ignorant of the decree and not because they had intentionally decided to overlook the ultimatum. The matter would then be handed to the secretary of war on the 1st of February of the same year to act upon. This thus makes it a military matter. Those who failed to go to the reserves would have to face the wrath of the military. I earlier on stated that the military did not live up to the principle of compassion.

These actions by the government infringe the liberty of the Indians. ‘’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.’’ (liberty, 2005) As American natives, the Indians should be allowed to move about freely within America. They should not be restricted from travelling or conducting various ctivities as this goes against the human rights. In fact, it is the white settlers who were supposed to be restricted into reserves as they were not the original inhabitants of America.

The americans engaged the Indians in the battle fields during the World War One and World War Two. An estimated served 17,000 Indians were seen serving in the armed forces fighting for America during the First World War. They had no conflict with the other countries that were fighting against. In fact, the only conflict they had was worth the government that they were fighting for. They were fighting for a country that was slowly being taken away from them. They were fighting in order to earn the rights to be called citizens in their own native lands. Quite an irony there. They lost their lives and shed blood fighting for the same government that spent years and resources killing them one by one, not sparing their women and children. Some of them however refused, arguing that they were not citizens. They were rational enough to see that it was senseless to wage war that brought forth null benefits. Those who were loyal enough to fight in the First World War and then came back ‘home’ as war veterans would later on be granted citizenship. It is only as citizens that they now had the right to equal treatment in their home country. This shows the extent to which the American Indians were being mistreated by the Native Americans.

In 1941, during the Second World War, history does repeat itself as we again see the Indians fighting in the interest of the U.S government. 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. The U.S was fighting to end the reign of the Nazi’s. How does Nazis in Germany affect the life of a peasant Indian farmer in Oklahoma? The U.S government had no right to demand that the Indians fight for them to help them win this war. They did win this war eventually and yet the Indian soldiers were not awarded the right kind of respect and rewards that they deserved. The risk in fighting the war was huge and the kind of psychological breakdown that comes with surviving such bloodshed is way out of this planet. Going through all that and not getting the right reward shows just how much the government belittled the efforts of the Indians and the little value that they associated this American tribe with.

As at 1999, Indians were identified among the poorest tribes in America. 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. They are the most economically disadvantaged tribes in America and have higher alcoholism rates and suicides. They are up to this day the most harshly affected by institutionalized racism. Their w3omen are at a very high risk of sexual and physical abuse as it is recorded to be three and a half times higher than the national average. Even though formal equality has been officially established, they are yet to feel the effects and get to experience what it really means to be given equal treatment. All these facts and statistics make us realize that the American Indians are presently still being mistreated.

In conclusion, the American Indians have other the years been mistreated under the hands of the Native Americans and the present day Americans. This is observed through the Colorado War, an Indian initiative to avenge the Sand Creek Massacre, the battle at the Washita River, the Indians are denied equal rights as the American citizens; the liberty of Indians is expunged, they’re engaged to fight in WW1 and WW2 wars they had no interests in and they currently occupy the poorest places in America. These highlights prove the thesis that the Native Americans mistreated the American Indians.

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.