American indians between 1609

The American Indians Between 1609 To 1865

The Native Americans or American Indians, once occupied all of the entire region of the United States. They were composed of many different groups, who speaked hundreds of languages and dialects. The Indians from the Southwest used to live in large built terraced communities and their way of sustain was from the agriculture where they planted squash, pumpkins, beans and corn crops. Trades between neighboring tribes were common, this brought in additional goods and also some raw materials such as gems, cooper. seashells and soapstone.To this day, movies and television continue the stereotype of Indians wearing feathered headdresses killing innocent white settlers. As they encountered the Europeans, automatically their material world was changed. The American Indians were amazed by the physical looks of the white settlers, their way of dressing and also by their language. The first Indian-White encounter was very peaceful and trade was their principal interaction. Tension and disputes were sometimes resolved by force but more often by negotiation or treaties. On the other hand, the Natives were described as strong and very innocent creatures awaiting for the first opportunity to be christianized. The Indians were called the ?Noble Savages? by the settlers because they were cooperative people but sometimes, after having a few conflicts with them, they seem to behaved like animals. We should apprehend that the encounter with the settlers really amazed the natives, they were only used to interact with people from their own race and surroundings and all of this was like a new discovery for them as well as for the white immigrants. The relations between the English and the Virginian Indians was somewhat strong in a few ways. They were having marriages among them. For example, when Pocahontas married John Rolfe, many said it has a political implication to unite more settlers with the Indians to have a better relation between both groups. As for the Indians, their attitude was always friendly and full of curiosity when they saw the strange and light-skinned creatures from beyond the ocean. The colonists only survived with the help of the Indians when they first settler in Jamestown and Plymouth. In this areas, the Indians showed the colonists how to cultivate crops and gather seafood.The Indians changed their attitude from welcome to hostility when the strangers increased and encroached more and more on hunting and planting in the Natives? grounds. For several years the Indians gave the Virginia colonists little trouble because the came to the area of settlement not often. An imaginary line was the result from an agreement that meant that whites were prohibited from setting to the West of the ?Fall Line.? This attempt failed as the white population from Virginia grew. The Indian lands were taken up and in the 1670s the Natives were furious and killed several hundred whites. By 1669, most of the Virginia Indians had been decimated and driven off from their lands. The colonists did not remembered by the first time that the Indians provided food supplies that sustained some of the first settlements through their ?Starving Times.? Even though, the Native Americans were doomed in their struggles against the white settlers. In the end, the superiority of the U.S. government, the large number of settlers, and the destruction of the natural environment upon which the Natives depended for their survival overwhelmed the American Indians.In 1830, the Congress ordered the total removal of all American Indians to West of the Mississippi river. The American government systematically followed a policy that pushed American Indians from their traditional lands and onto government reservations in the West. The government reserved land for a tribe and signed a treaty with them. The tribes were not supposed to go beyond the borders of its lands and whoever did, was captured and brought back. However, on each occasion when new settlers moved into the territory, the government broke its promise and the tribes were moved further Westward again. This process encouraged the ?Trails of Tears? where one-quater of the Cherokees perished on the journey Westward. The Indians were forced to emigrate because the colonists were in need of more land for their farming purposes and for more space for the new settlers. Many Indian tribes, approximately 15,000 people, were forced to walk hundreds of miles, barefoot in the middle of the winter, without proper clothing, and not enough horses and food. They traveled to unrecognized territories in what are now Oklahoma and Kansas. Because of this, many of them suffered physical as well as psychological problems, in result of the struggles faced for years that took the government to carry out the Indian removal policy. Some Indians refused to leave their ancestral lands and fought to prevent their expulsion but were banned any ways. They were furious by the disappointment that the U.S. government gave them the lands that contain poor soil, was isolated and ...

You are currently seeing 50% of this paper.

You're seeing 826 words of 1652.

Read the full essay

The New Deal

During the 1930's American citizens witnessed a breakdown of the Democratic and free enterprise way of life. The government saw that the free enterprise system was failing. increased the government's regulation and intervention and the economic system, thus temporarily abandoning the capitalism system and turning toward socialism to f...

13 reviews

Download

The Indian Wars

By: Agent Indian Removal Once the white men decided that they wanted lands belonging to the Native Americans (Indians), the United States Government did everything in its power to help the white men acquire Indian land. The US Government did everything from turning a blind eye to passing legislature requiring the Indians to give up their la...

144 reviews

Download

Chinese Economic Reform

Two years after the death of Mao Zedong in 1976, it became apparent to many of China's leaders that economic reform was necessary. During his tenure as China's premier, Mao had encouraged social movements such as the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution which had had as their bases ideologies such as serving the people a...

59 reviews

Download

The Chinese Boxer Rebellion

Around 1900, after many years of succumbing to the superior military of the West, the Chinese stood up for their country. China was a weak, backwards, country, exploited by the West. They felt that they could counter the foreign domination, but reforms were useless because they needed the West to help with the reforms. But somethin...

68 reviews

Download

The Presidency of Andrew Jackson

Like any hall of fame, its inductees are the best in whatever they do, from baseball or football to something like being President. If you are a member of any hall of fame (including the one for the Presidents), it means that you have done something special or have a certain quality about yourself that makes you worthy to be in a h...

42 reviews

Download