Native American Disadvantages
• At European contact in 1492 indigenous population of North America
estimated at 9.8 million
• Transmission of European diseases: smallpox, measles and typhus created
epidemics that spread across both continents where native populations had
no immunity
• European/American conquests caused widespread warfare and famine
• By 1890 aboriginal population fell below 250,000
• Indians had no written language – other than Mayan
• Indians depended on Europeans for the transmission of their cultural
achievements and history
Native American Opposition
• After the French & Indian War 1754-1763, tribes occupying the Atlantic seaboard
colonies became barriers to westward expansion
• Americans characterized Indians as treacherous, savage and cruel in
books and newspapers to justify their displacement and eradication
• Settlers became conditioned by erroneous accounts of Indian atrocities
• Discovery of colossal man-made structures and elaborate artifacts in the Ohio and
Mississippi valleys were believed to be made by a vanished super-race; the
“Moundbuilders”
• Moundbuilders folklore created a form of racism and prejudice that denied Indians
their ancestral heritage
• Denying Indians’ ties to their ancient history also meant denying them territorial
claims & made it easier to justify their annihilation
U. S. – Indian Policy
• Indian Removal Act of 1830 signed by President Andrew Jackson forced
tribes to relocate on to reservations west of the Mississippi River
• Supreme Court case Cherokee Nation v. Georgia 1831, Native Americans were
considered a “conquered people” and classified as non-citizens “domestic
dependent nations” with no sovereignty over land or individual rights
• In 1838 2,000-6,000 Cherokees died from starvation, exposure and disease
in route to Oklahoma
• U. S. policy aimed at subordinating a self-sufficient, self-governing people
resulting in their economic dependence on government assistance to survive
• Reservations were
located on arid land
unsuited for farming
• By 1870 Indians were
starving to death on
many reservations
Trail of Tears
U.S. Indian Policy Continued
• In 1871 U. S. Senator Henry Dawes estimated it cost nearly $1 million to
“exterminate” one Indian
• Secretary of Interior Carl Shurz reported government could save money
through education; cost $1,200 to school one child for 8 years
• U. S. Government chose to eradicate Indian religion, heritage, and language
• Rationale for this policy reflected white ethnocentrism on the dichotomy:
Euro-Americans were civilized/Indians were savages
• Civilizing Indian children had three components: teach “individuality” and
wean from “tribal communism,” learn English to operate within dominant
culture, teach Christianity to save from paganism
• 1870-1900 BIA established 253 schools: 25 off-reservation
boarding, 81 reservation boarding, and 147 day schools
• In 1928 Brookings Institute released Meriam Report: 64 boarding schools
had ill-nourished students, poor housing/hygiene/overcrowded conditions
• Students contracted contagious diseases causing hundreds of deaths
Discrimination
• Native Americans became U. S. citizens in 1924
• U.S. Constitution protects individuals’ rights in exercising specific freedoms
disallowing individuals or groups from discriminating
• Individual racism is related to prejudice: harmful acts by individuals toward
other individuals or their property based on race, religion, etc.
• Institutional racism is structural; refers to social processes that
intentionally protect the advantages of a dominant group while
maintaining an unequal position over a subordinate group
• Institutional racism views inequality as part of a society’s structure;
individuals and groups discriminate whether they are bigots or not
• Institutional racism allows individuals and groups to operate within a social
structure ensuring racial dominance through laws, customs, religious beliefs,
etc., operating within a society
• Identify and discuss the types of discrimination from the book Ceremony