19th Century (How Native Americans were Oppressed during the Civil War)
Your findings should include examples from the end of the 19th Century, the 20th Century, and today.
- In the 1830's, Native Americans still lived in their native lands for the most part. However, white men considered them a threat to peace. So, in 1838, the Federal government had what they called the "Five Civilized Tribes" removed. These tribes were the Cherokee, Choctaw, Chickasaw, Creek, and Seminole. The whites sent Natives in large massacres to their death into unfamiliar land just to secure land for their own beneficial development.
- American Indian Wars is the general term used in the United States to describe the multiple conflicts between American settlers or the federal government and the native peoples of North America from the time of earliest colonial settlement until approximately 1890.
- The wars resulted as the arrival of European colonists continuously led to population pressure as settlers expanded their territory, generally pushing indigenous people northward and westward.
- This series of horrendous battles followed shortly after the Civil War, due to the demand of Indian territory by the white Americans and ended with the massacre at Wounded Knee in 1890. Thousands of Native Americans were slaughtered by the cruel Union Army. The Native Americans continued to fight outnumbered for many years before being defeated one by one at the hands of the Federal Government. They won many battles, such as the Kidder massacre, in which they killed an entire regiment, with only 2 casualties themselves.
- The Union army attacked many harmless villages, stole an abundance of materials and resources, and killed many Native Americans in massacres like Powder River, Sand Creek, Little Wolf, and Wounded Knee. Because the Natives were greatly outnumbered, they were forced to surrender at the end of the war.
20th Century
Describe the history of oppression faced by researched group from 19th, 20th, and modern perspective.
- The estimations of historians ranged from 2 million native deaths to 100 million native deaths. Up to 90% of the native population was killed by diseases they had no resistance to, for this reason the diseases such as smallpox ran rampant through the land, brought to the continent by European carriers and their livestock. Even more of the natives were then killed in wars with the settlers.
- The Federal government, who supposedly maintained ideas of equality and freedom, were showing that these ideas obviously did not pertain to everyone. In 1902, several hundred thousand acres were cleared out for white settlements. In 1907, the Indian Nations ceased to exist, and when Oklahoma became a state, all Native American territory was assimilated into the Union.
Today
- U.S. colonial culture strategically uses sexual violence against Native women as a weapon to ensure the oppression and marginalization of Native people. Despite the great influence Native culture has on White feminism, White Feminists’ perceptions of Native women is often skewed and biased, as a result of the systematic oppression that is utilized by U.S. colonizers on Native Americans.
- Today, many Natives are given benefits - and are thankfully not oppressed because of their race, as many Natives were back in the 19th and 20th centuries, and as Jim and the "niggers" were in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.