Native American
By Joy J. Fine
Being a Native American in the 1800s would have been a very difficult position to be in. Then President Jackson wanted to move them to reservations to claim the land for the settlers. To allow this to take place the Indian Removal Act of 1830 was created which allowed treaties with the individual tribes that would trade land with them and push them west. These treaties caused many hardships for the indigenous peoples and resulted in moving over one hundred thousand of them. Moving them was only a part of what was done to them to allow the white settlers access to more land.
It was supposed to be a process whereby the people would be moved only if they agreed to the terms given but in reality they had little choice. President Jackson wanted them moved and the issue was only how to make it happen. That meant that if the people did not cooperate then other ways would be found to move them. Brutality was an acceptable option in his efforts. An example of this was with the Cherokees. They did not agree to relocate so Jackson made a treaty with a small group of them who were in favor of the move. This resulted in the deaths of over four thousand of these proud people on what is known as the Trail of Tears. In total it is believed that tens of thousands of natives died in this relocation program.
Relocating them was not all that was done to them. Their food source was purposely endangered when Jackson’s orders to eliminate the bison were issued. Other leaders followed his direction and tried to assimilate the Native American into traditional white societies with no regard to what the people themselves wanted. It was thought they were savages who needed to be civilized. Putting them on reservations was not enough. In the later 1800s the children were removed and taken to special schools which were run by Christian missionaries who tried not only to force the Christian religion down their throats but made them dress differently and forbade them to speak their native tongues. These schools were pits of poor treatment with many children being abused at the hands of these missionaries. In 1924 things changed again when the Indian Citizenship Act gave the natives US citizenship. The feeling was that his was done after the so many of Native American heritage served heroically in the First World War.
Currently there are five hundred and sixty one tribes that are recognized by the United States government. They have many rights granted to them but only if they are recognized tribes. These include the right to self-government, to have their own civil and criminal laws, to tax their people and to decide who can be part of the tribes and who can live on tribal lands. They are not permitted to declare war or to make their own currency. There are currently about two million eight hundred thousand Native Americans living primarily in three western states. As recently as the year 2000 records show that eight out of ten of these indigenous people are of mixed blood. This is an issue for tribal governments that has created much controversy.
Aside from the ongoing claims to lands and resources the Native American people are still trying to sort out who is allowed to be part of a tribe and who is excluded. This is an important issue as those belonging to recognized tribes have many benefits. The determining factor comes down to the blood quanta, also known as percentage of native blood, a person has. These issues are being dealt with constantly both in the courts of the tribes themselves and the American courts.
Is it the right to claim their heritage that those who challenge are after? Is it the need to get back to their roots? Or is it possibly that now when it is more in fashion to find ones antecedents it is also more politically correct to admit to having native heritage?
