My senior thesis paper is a huge accomplishment for me. I explained the history behind my tribe and everything terrible that has happened. Also about how the whole war began with the Whites and Native Americans and how it still goes on today. The pictures displayed above are very moving, the teepee is explained in my essay and it has a lot to do with the culture of the Native Americans. I also put a quote that's inspirational because everything the Indians did was wrong in the eyes of everyone in the world.
Our responsibility to Right the Wrong
Reclaim America's True Native Heritage
Cecilia Carrillo
Senior Thesis
Sonja Linman
1/27/2016
Outline
- Thesis - People who were on this land first and treated it so well deserve to be treated as well as others outside of the reservation. Being Native American is truly a gift. The history behind the people who walked this land first is extraordinary and also so tragic. We can make a change, and re-empower the Native culture; and awareness is the first step to success.
- Native American History
- The history is fascinating and tragic
- Taking back land that was the Indians first
- Passing culture down to the next generations
- What as happened in recent years?
- What we can do to better life for them.
- New laws that have been passed
- Being able to teach Native Culture in schools
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Cecilia Carrillo
Sonja Linman
Senior Thesis Paper
01/27/2016
Throughout time, Native Americans have had their land confiscated, were forced to live on reservations with minimal income and were ostracized from society. The goodness of the Native Americans spirituality is the downfall of everything wrong that happened. Trusting and caring for one another is what gave the Europeans a chance to take everything from them. Although, their culture did thrive within their tribe and hearts. A tribe’s spirituality was what gave everyone hope from the beginning, yet, it seems to have suffered tremendously. In the last 140 years, the children are now dealing with high suicide rates, alcoholism, lowest life expectancy rates, lack of educational support, and low employment. People who were on this land first and treated it so well deserve to be treated as well as others outside of the reservation. Being Native American is truly a gift. The history behind the people who walked this land first is extraordinary and also so tragic. We can make a change, and re-empower the Native culture; and awareness is the first step to success.
History and Background
Many, many years ago the first people who ever walked this land were the Native Americans. The history behind them is fascinating and in so many was, tragic.
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Approximately 10-90 million Native Americans inhabited America at the time of the Europeans Arrivals (www.allabouthistory.org). They had lived on this land many years before the white man had set foot on their soil. These were a people who adapted well to their particular regions and made wise use of all natural resources available. Native Americans became proficient fishermen, hunters, farmers, and built homes
with all available resources their land provided. They took care of themselves and the tribe they built.
The Native Americans of the East Coast met the new 16th and 17th century visitors from Europe with open arms. Although they thought the Europeans were strange they were delighted with all the equipment the Europeans had brought. Without their aid, the first wave of settlers would have not survived in the land they knew very little about.
In time the Europeans started to have less and less respect for the land and the Native Americans themselves. The white men started to become greedy with the land and everything the Natives had shared so welcomely. Many more problems arose.
Along with all their new culture the Europeans also brought deadly diseases to the Native Americans. The colonists and explorers brought measles, smallpox, cholera, yellow fever and many more illnesses. Smallpox was the most notable disease. Lakota Indians called the disease the "Running Face Sickness". Smallpox was lethal to many Native Americans, affecting the same tribes repeatedly. This
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drastically diminished the Native American population and wiped out entire villages (http://www.allabouthistory.org/native-american-history.htm).
Furthermore, the rapidly growing population of whites led the Indian Wars, the Indian Removal Act (1830), and in 1890 one of the worst and tragic massacres ever:
Wounded Knee, South Dakota. Many children, women, and warriors were inhumanly slaughtered by the U.S Cavalry. The Native Americans were not only decreased in numbers but they were taken from their homes, stripped of all their customs, and were banned from speaking their native languages. Children were taken from them and sent to schools to "civilize" them, forced to abandon every aspect of their heritage.
In 1851, the Dakota tribe sold 24 million acres of prime hunting ground for $1,665,000 with the promise of future cash payments, but the U.S Senate deleted the terms promised to the Dakotas. Chief Little Crow led a group of Indians to Washington, D.C to discuss the land deal, slow payment, and the encroachment on what was left on their land. When they left the negotiations, the Dakota lost the northern half of their reservation and their rights to the land. Chief Little Crow was blamed for the loss. The white men offered the Dakota people brick houses under the agreement that would try to ease the tribe out of their hunting lifestyle to become farmers. Instead, the houses were used for storage and the tribes continued to live in
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teepees. The white traders provided supplies to the Dakota on credit, then collected the annuities for the Dakota from the government as payment for these goods. The annuities became smaller and smaller and sometimes never even arrived at the reservations (wildwesthistory.blogspot.com).
When hard winter hit the land in 1862 and what little was left of the goods was delayed in arriving, the Dakota nearly reached a point of starvation. They continued to hunt, but they were filled with anger and resentment. They demanded that all future annuities be delivered to them directly through their Indian Agent, Thomas J. Galbraith. The traders were “offended,” and refused to deliver any goods. It was a deadly impasse.
The next day four young men were returning from an unsuccessful hunting trip. They were disappointed and hungry. While on the journey home one of the four young braves spotted a nest filled with eggs on the land near the home of Robinson Jones, a farmer. As the young man gathered eggs, another man in the hunting party warned him that the eggs did not belong to him and taking the eggs could cause more trouble between the white people and the Dakota. The brave young man replied, “I am not afraid of the whites,” and to prove it he got on his horse, road to the nearby home and murdered the farmer, his wife and daughter, and two neighbors, then stole the horses of the farmer and neighbor and raced back to the reservation. Thus, began the Sioux Uprising also known as the Dakota War (http://news.softpedia.com/news/The-Clash-of-Two-Cultures-Native-Americans-and-
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White-People-72097.shtml http://wildwesthistory.blogspot.com/2012/11/the-minnesota-massacre-or-dakota-war-of.html).
The Dakota War of 1862 was one of the largest Indian massacres in history. This attack is known to be the beginning of the Indian Wars for many reasons. For six weeks in Minnesota the war occurred. Over 300 warriors, children, and women were brutally executed. The war and its aftermath changed the course of the state's history. Some of the family of those touched by the war continue to live with the trauma it caused. Before the war began the Europeans betrayed the Native Americans in so many ways. For example, they broke treaties that were made. The white people changed the way of life, unsuitable for the Indians. Years of hatred between the two peoples continued, in January 1876, the U.S government forced the Indians to live on "reservations" where the majority of Native Americans still live today(www.usdakotawar.org).
While most still live on reservations, they are considered some of the most poverty-ridden areas in the United States. Unemployment is five times higher than the general U.S population. As with many abused, defeated people, they have suffered tremendously from the plagues of alcoholism and suicide. These Native Americans were once vibrant and very resourceful people. Not only have they been
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robbed and humiliated they were removed from all they knew and loved (http://www.usdakotawar.org/history/war)
Native Americans Reclaiming Power in Their Land
To this day Indians of the U.S are still raging about the land that has been taken. They want the land that had been promised to them many years ago. Historically, Native Americans have had a higher appreciation for their land and what it brings; such as having large coal reserves, coal mining, and coal plants. According to the Department of the Interior, 25 Native American reservations have coal reserves. Development of coal resources on Native lands has been guided in part by the treaties between the federal government and Native tribes. In the past, the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) arranged and managed coal development leases. Mining and burning coal have a unique impact on the lands and people due to the specific economic benefit and cultural and social destruction. Poverty often influences the choice to develop coal resources, because the special relationship the tribes have to their land is sacred. Often there is deep resistance to development and the resulting damage and pollution to the land and people. (http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Coal_and_Native_American_tribal_lands).
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One impact of mining on the indians included seriously high levels of radioactivity. In 1959, one report found radiation levels 90 times the acceptable limits. Of the 150 Navajo people who worked in the uranium mine in Shiprock, New Mexico until 1970, 133 died of lung cancer or various forms of fibrosis by 1980. Although
times were hard the Navajo were thankful the mining happened on the reservations because they were given employment. The people who supported the mines did not tell the Navajo how dangerous it was to be associated with uranium mining. The miners and their families were forced to figure all of it out on their own, from the illness it had caused. When the mining ceased in the late 1970s, the mining companies left without sealing the tunnel openings, fillings the gaping pits, sometimes hundreds of feet deep, or removing the piles of radioactive uranium ore and mine waste. Over 1,000 unsealed tunnels, pits, and radioactive waste piles still remain on the Navajo reservation today (www.usdakotawar.org). The Navajo have raise their livestock here, and have used radioactive mining tailings to build homes. Navajo children play inside the mines and uranium tailings have turned up in school playgrounds (http://serc.carleton.edu/research_education/nativelands/navajo/humanhealth.html).
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Native Americans Reclaim Power in Their Culture
Native American culture has many stories that go back millions of years ago. So many aspects of our modern life were adapted from the old Indian customs practiced centuries ago. Many familiar symbols that we take for granted were originated by the Native Americans. Such as the teepees, peace pipes, and moccasins. Each of the symbols were actually integral pieces of a larger picture that
came together in the Native American life. Animals were revered as spirits, even though they were hunted and killed. Their skins and hides were used as clothing and drums, their meat never wasted, and their spirits lived on in the mind of the tribes. Plants were cultivated and harvested, and used for various things such as dyes for blankets. The rain and sun were considered to be Gods, giving a sign to the Indians as the seasons changed.
Totem poles were a very integral part of the Native American culture. Indians believed that each person was assigned the spirit of a particular animal, and their spirit was absorbed into this animal in death. The totem pole was a large, tall wooden carving of various animals, each representing a family member of a loved one who had passed away. Dream catchers are based on a legend by the Lakota tribe. Many people have dream catchers in their houses or cars but many do not know their significance. It symbolizes holding onto good things in life, while the holes in the catcher are there to filter out bad thoughts and feelings. Smoke signals are another interesting aspect of the Native American culture. They were used to communicate to
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others over a long distance and are yet another symbol of the proud heritage of the Native American (http://www.legendsofamerica.com/na-medicine.html).
Even though the Europeans ripped the Native Americans of everything they had, they never let go of what they believed in their hearts. To this day tribes still use the healing traditions that go back for thousands of years. Many indigenous tribes of
North American learned that by mixing herbs, roots, and other natural plants, they could heal various medical problems. Remedies were not the only part of the Native American healing process. While many healing practices were used more than 2,000 tribes had healing practices that went from tribe to tribe(www.indians.org).
Spiritually the Native Americans used their own way to heal rather than conventional medicine. They believe that all things in nature are connected and that spirits can promote health or cause illness. Therefore, it is necessary to heal not only the physical parts of an individual, but also their personal wellness, and their harmony
with their community and the environment around them. Many tools are used in the process of healing. The culture of the Native Americans still lives today; they pass everything down generation to generation and most traditions have not died out to this day.
Despite all the tragic impacts they have had from the white people, to this day they still strive to keep their culture alive. The Native Americans still live in the culture they were taught from generations ago. When they were taken from everything they
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knew it was of course a huge impact not only because they lost their lifestyles, but because they lost much of what made them happy and healthy. Regardless of the cultural losses, Native beliefs and values have endured and are experiencing a reemergence ensuring that culture will passed on to the next generation (http://www.indians.org/articles/native-american-culture.html).
Impact On Children
Current problems on the reservation are horribly disturbing. There are only 52 million acres left from the original American Indian homeland of 6.1 billion acres that formed North America (www.indians.org). Every single person within the Native American tribes are affected: men, women, children and babies. Problems on the reservation grow each year. US citizens with less than a High School diploma was reported to be around 19.6% yet 54% of reservation kids do not graduate from high school. Even off the reservation, the dropout rate is about 10 % higher for American Indians kids.
Reservation schools have the highest rate of teacher turnover and they often lack the means for school supplies and sufficient staff. Fortunately, if you have your Native American Reservation card students can get into colleges where it is accepted. However, the main problem is helping kids and teenagers make it through high school to even be eligible for college. Even those Native Americans students
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who qualify to attend secondary education makes the great distances to the universities very hard to do.
This lack of formal education creates other social problems like unemployment, poverty, teenage pregnancy, crime and drug abuse and it forces the Native Americans to accept low paying jobs. With this of course it becomes hard to buy food, pay rent, and pay taxes. As a result 24% to 25% of all American Indians
live below the poverty line, and on reservations, the figure sometimes exceeds 40% of the residents. Poverty among children is an urgent problem, for example on the Pine Ridge reservation (South Dakota) 46% of the American Indian children are considered poor, which is higher than the poverty rate among adults (www.indians.org).
Of all ethnic groups in the USA the American Indians have: the highest rate of school drop outs (about 54%), highest rate of child mortality, highest rate of suicide, highest rate of teenage suicide (18.5 per 100,000), highest rate of teenage pregnancy, lowest life expectancy (55 years) https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/American_Indians_Today/Current_problems.
Drug abuse and alcoholism have became a massive problems among the American Indians (in some reservations eight families out of ten have problems with alcoholism) and many children do as well. There is a lot of crime on the reservations and outside as well, of which the American Indians are both victims and offenders. Domestic violence, rape, child abuse, and child neglect are reported to take place
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very often in the reservations. In recent years, gang violence has increased because of weak law enforcement, youth unemployment and the lack of activities for young Indians. This also results in vandalism, theft, physical and sexual assaults, and street fights.
The high rates of mental illness, alcoholism and suicide may also give evidence of the American Indians’ mental health conditions. Furthermore, that which
affects many Native Americans, is the dependency on federal welfare and dependency on the U.S government concerning health care and social benefits. The government has hurt the Native Americans in so many ways; by maintaining dependency, the process removes opportunity for cultural growth and independence.
Nobody can turn back the face of time and take back everything that has happened to the Native Americans. We can only help and make life on the reservation easier. The world needs to know what has happened, how it affected life for Native Americans, and what the future holds for people on the reservation.
Throughout time the Indians forgot their worth as human beings. Native Americans on the reservation have honestly forgotten who they are and where they came from, however, with new cultural appreciation, tribes are reclaiming power. Native American people need to realize who they are from the roots they come from. Strong willed warriors, who took care of one another and made life sustainable were the ancestors that carry wisdom and knowledge. They cherished the land before them and cherished the animals that fed them. Not once was anything taken for
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granted until the white men came and they lost their independence. Before the Europeans came and invaded the land, life as a Native was peaceful and worth living. We destroyed everything they loved, cherished, and created. History should never be forgotten, neither should the life they lived before the occupation of America began.
Today, many things are being improved. In July 2011, the Policy Institute held a two-day leadership seminar series on Indian Country issues. The event was
specifically designed for Native American participants and was a first attempt by the institute to focus on Indian issues that have been going on for years now. First on the list, was encouraging Native Americans to run for office and have more of an impact when voting. Encouraging Natives to vote and have more say in the legal fields will get them noticed to help with the causes on the reservations. Montana Superintendent of Public Instruction, Denise Juneau, addressed the dynamics. When asked the question “Why run?” she stated, “You have to believe in a mission; and do it because you want to serve the community” (http://www.charkoosta.com/2011/2011_07_07/Policy_Institute_empowers_MT_Native_Americans.html).
In addition to the politics and leadership that has occurred, the BIA (Bureau of Indian Affairs) and the Obama Administration have completed a land trust that brings back almost 400,000 acres to the Native Tribes since 2009. http://www.bia.gov/cs/groups/public/documents/text/idc1-032962.pdf
Not only is the Government finally giving back the land that once was the Native Americans’ they have been able to reclaim the artifacts that belong to the
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tribes and the families that have passed. Quite a few people dig up graves and take the remains of the Indians that have died. In one case that had happened at the Smithsonian Museum, there was a massive Indian artifact collection and 17,000 skeletal remains.(fcnl.org) These artifacts were returned to their rightful tribal homes. A law has also passed where there is grave protection. It applies to Native remains and objects such as stolen artifacts or remains accidentally unearthed by construction
projects. Now, those remains and objects are rightfully returned to tribal lands. In the past, construction projects have destroyed tribal burial grounds and scattered human remains. In all cases every object found is to be treated with respect and returned to the tribe origin for proper care and reburial
http://fcnl.org/issues/nativeam/reclaiming_identity_the_repatriation_of_native_remains_and_culture/.
In the state of California they are recognizing and preserving a record of indigenous culture that is at the heart of the new law that creates a specialized teaching credential for American Indian culture. Under the new law, a credential holder who is not a fully-licensed teacher, could be authorized to teach American Indian language or culture or both in all California public preschools and K-12 classrooms as well as adult education courses, as long as they are Native and possess proper documentation . The new law now is going to bring awareness to the history that has happened, and how lives are today for Native Americans
https://www.cabinetreport.com/politics-education/saving-the-last-links-to-native-american-culture
With brand new laws being passed, the Indians of the U.S have hope. Each day a step is being made to better the awareness of what happened and how each
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life is being affected on the reservation. When people find remains of tribal people you have no choice but to treat it with respect and make sure it goes back to the tribe it originates from. In California, education about Native American history and culture provides new appreciation. Teachers are teaching cultural respect from preschool to adult classes, and through new awareness, Natives are reclaiming their honor, hope and power. Being Native American is a gift. The history the people who walked this
land first is extraordinary and also so tragic. It is not only the responsibility of Natives to maintain their culture, it is the privilege of the entire country to come together to honor and respect the rich history and legacy of our true founding fathers.
Work Cited
"The Clash of Two Cultures: Native Americans and White People." Softpedia. N.p., n.d. Web. 27 Jan. 2016.
"War." War. N.p., n.d. Web. 27 Jan. 2016.
"Wild West History." : The Minnesota Massacre, or Dakota War of 1862. N.p., n.d. Web. 27 Jan. 2016.
“Native American History.” AllAboutHistory.org. N.p., n.d. Web. 27 Jan. 2016.
“Native American Medicine - History and Information.” Native American Medicine - History and Information. N.p., n.d. Web. 27 Jan. 2016.
“Native American Culture.” Native American Culture. N.p., n.d. Web. 27 Jan. 2016.
“Coal and Native American Tribal Lands.” Coal and Native American Tribal Lands. N.p., n.d. Web.
“Human Health Impacts.” Navajo Nation. N.p., n.d. Web. 27 Jan. 2016.
“American Indians Today/Current Problems.” - Wikibooks, Open Books for an Open World. N.p., n.d. Web. 27 Jan. 2016.