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Maura Goetzel

Cooper/Whipple

AP Language 1st/AP US History 3rd

May 22, 2017

Being Native American in a White Mans Land

From its inception, the United States has always had a problem with racial issues, and

one of the most complex relationships that has plagued the nation since its founding, and before,

is how to deal with the natives that occupied the country long before the arrival of Christopher

Columbus in 1492. The treatment of Native Americans from the beginning to modern day

involves a period of subjugation in the early 16th and 17th centuries followed by a period of

hostile native land seizure and outright warfare in the 19th century to the present, which is

marked by a time of willful ignorance of native struggles. To many whites of European descent,

Native Americans have simply been a stain on the American fabric that should be removed. The

way Native Americans are treated has evolved from killing and enslavement to outright

indifference, although that is not a great improvement.

When Columbus first reported back to the King and Queen of Spain of the abundance

of riches in the New World, other monarchs in Europe joined in the mad rush for land, natural

resources and power that the New World offered. To the Native Americans already living here,

the sudden arrival of the white man was initially confusing. Some treated the newcomers with

indifference, some with alarm, and some as gods. As the trickle of Europeans became a flood,

though, the treatment handed out to the Native Americans must have ultimately been horrifying.

The Native Americans had, after all, inhabited this land for centuries prior to the white mans
arrival, and surely had better expectations than subjugation. Most of the conquistadors had been

promised gold and fame, and they certainly were not going to let a few natives stand in the way

of those aims, even when cloaked in the guise of for God and country. Despite the horrific

treatment of the indigenous population, colonial slavery was glorified and promoted back in

Europe. Spanish writers such as Juan Gins de Seplveda portrayed colonial slavery as a way to

Christianize the Natives, which he claimed were barbarians and little men, while he

described the Spanish as the ideal model for humanity (De las Casas versus Sepulveda DBQ).

While many initially regarded the natives as noble savages, the period of enslavement and

degradation continued well into the next centuries, and public opinion came to regard Native

Americans as simply uncivilized heathens. This portrayal is played out in the movie The

Mission, as the Portuguese and Spanish government officials viewed the Guarani Natives as

commodities that could be bought and sold, and who were there for the sole purpose of serving

the Europeans (The Mission). This normalization of the enslavement of the Natives became a

common theme throughout the years of colonization, as many countries, such as Portugal and

Spain, saw enslavement as the only way to civilize the natives.

As more and more Europeans poured into North America, the white man began

creating cities and towns, and pushing at the borders. Soon, the colonies seemed full, and

westward expansion was only a matter of time. This, of course, brought the white settler into full

and direct contact with the Native Americans. With the slave trade running through Africa to the

Caribbean, the enslavement of Native Americans was replaced by the constant push westward, as

the greater issue was now how to take Native American lands. Despite the treaties that were

written, giving Native Americans at least on paper some rights, those agreements were invariably
broken, as having unfettered access to land, at all costs, was much more valued. White

Americans apparently never considered what might happen by uprooting an entire population

and stealing its homeland, or perhaps they never cared. As a result of such cruelty and

indifference, Native Americans from various tribes began to rebel against the American

government. One of the most famous examples of this is the Dakota Uprising in which the U.S.

government engaged in a four month battle with the Dakota tribes, which ultimately resulted in

the U.S. victory and the expulsion of the Dakota tribes from Minnesota onto reservations and the

loss of political and social autonomy (Dakota Uprising Project).

By the 1900s, the remains of the racial supremacy that had been plaguing the nation

since the time of European colonization took the form of racial stereotypes. Movies such as

Peter Pan perpetuated such negative images of the red man or the violent Indian, thus

creating an indirect marginalization of Native Americans by the white, dominant culture through

television and film. This marginalization and stereotyping of Native Americans directly resulted

in Native Americans (especially impressionable children) embracing the stereotypes that were

perpetuated by the white majority. As Sherman Alexie mentions in his essay Superman and

Me, Native American kids were expected to be underperforming and ignorant and those that

were not became pharias (Alexie). My experience at the Tohajiilee school, however directly

contradicts the stereotype of the dumb Indian. The six year old girl that read to me, Lydia, was

in the gifted and talented program at her school and read the passages with ease (only messing up

on words such as Maize and Zapatos). However, for most Americans, it seems easier to continue

to perpetuate the negative stereotypes of Native Americans (such as the Redskins) so that our

conscience is not tainted by the atrocities that have been committed throughout our nations past,
and to not interfere with white Americans joy at professing how exceptional we supposedly

are.

In my experience, when we went to the Tohajiilee school in New Mexico, it seemed

that the children we met were all exceptional. They were nice, engaged, and did not seem to be

biased or resentful, despite their shared history. I was a little surprised, since I imagine that if

white Americans had been here first, and American Indians kicked them out, we would still be

hearing the resentment today.

To say that white Americans treatment of the Native Americans has been shabby

would be a grotesque understatement. Through the centuries, the white population, primarily of

European descent, has killed off the native population directly through warfare, indirectly

through disease, enslaved them, stolen and confiscated the natives land, promised benevolence

while dishing out brutality, uprooted entire families and wiped out tribes, broke treaties and

promises, and ignored the sad remainder of a once-proud culture and civilization; all perhaps

since the embarrassment of the real treatment of Native Americans tends to undercut our lofty

ideals.
Work Cited

Alexie, Sherman. "The Joy of Reading and Writing: Superman and Me." The Most Wonderful

Books: Writers on Discovering the Pleasures of Reading. Minneapolis: Milkweed

Editions, 19. 3-6. Print. Accessed 20 Jan 2017.

The Mission. Directed by Roland Joffe. Performances by Jeremy Irons, Robert DeNiro. Warner

Brothers. 1986.

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