Extinction of the Native American Indians

Extinction of the Native American

The area of the world that is now known as the United States of America used to belong to various tribes of people which are now known as Native Americans as opposed to their old name, Indians, which was a misnomer based on the erroneous idea that explorers from Europe did not know that such a large land mass existed and that by crossing the Atlantic Ocean, they had made it to the country of India. When Europeans first arrived in this country, they were highly outnumbered by populations of Native Americans. The United States of America is a nation that was built on the ideas of life, liberty, pursuit of happiness, and freedom for all persons. Yet, that freedom has been won only through the genocide of hundreds of thousands of people. In the course of a few centuries, the Native American peoples have been decimated, relegated to a fraction of their original population because of the violence, greed, and cruelty of Europeans and then white Americans.

The Jamestown Colony:

Christopher Columbus arrived in the New World in the year 1492. While there, he encouraged the enslavement of the native persons who he encountered. Enslavement was followed by murder of those who would not be oppressed. Following his successful journey home and widespread reports of a new world with naive, easily manipulated persons, it was only logical that other countries and their leader would desire to take advantage of this unprecedented opportunity. By travelling to the New World, the countries could create colonies, could acquire resources which could then be utilized or sold, and could for a very small financial investment become an even wealthier empire. Among the nations who would create colonies in the Americas were Spain, France, and of course Great Britain.

The Jamestown Colony, named after King James I, was the first one established by the British government. Under the flag of the East India Trading Company, it was hoped that sending young men into the New World could yield a plethora of goods which could increase the wealth of Great Britain and substantially increase the nation's power internationally. Although they never found gold, which was what was initially supposed to be found plentifully in the New World, the lumber and rich soil which was found more than made up for this. The success of this colony led to the creation of many others, all of whom were concerned with bringing financial benefit to the home country and caring very little for what befell the native populations who they were disenfranchising.

One of the first persons to write about white treatment of Native Americans was an Englishman named John Smith. Smith, although far from unsympathetic to the plight of the Native Americans, was still not above the idea that the whites were superior and that they had every right to take lands that were originally belonging to the natives he encountered. Quite the opposite, Smith wrote a history in "A Description of New England" wherein he highlighted the financial benefits that this new land would provide for the English and encouraged fellow explorers to colonize. His primary concerns are about the white culture and how people who look like him can benefit. Given that his experiences with the Native Americans where violent, it is unsurprising that Smith takes this idea. In History of Jamestown (2004), historians remark that Smith was in constant fear of his life and was only saved by 11-year-old Pocahontas. It has been written that her father, Powhattan, disliked the white culture not for its occupation but for the lack of common courtesy the white people showed for the Natives (Colonial 2003). Of course, the founding of the Jamestown Colony, which the Native Americans hoped, if not believed, would be a single white settlement, became only the first of what would eventually become a nation controlled by white people.

The California Mission System:

The California mission system had many positives and negatives for the indigenous people of what would become the United States. The initial purpose of the missionaries was to convert the Native Americans to Christianity. The Spanish perceived the Native Americans as something beneath themselves, although they did accept them as human beings. Needing ways to expand their power into the newly-claimed territory, the Spanish government allowed military unites to enter into what would become California. At the same time, missionaries spread out through California creating a series of missions which would serve as the central location for the given community. The missions were part farm, part church, and part homestead (California). At the mission, the clergy members would teach the Bible and grow crops which would feed themselves and their Native American residents. They also made crafts and materials which could be used to purchase other necessary items from traders and merchants. Priests who were responsible for running the missions were determined to instruct the Native Americans in the Spanish language, both in how to speak and how to read. This education allowed the Native Americans who accepted the missionaries' religion to have an altogether new way of life. Although the Spaniards were both colonizing and oppressing the indigenous population, it can be argued that the missionaries did have good intentions in their practices. They truly believed that the Native Americans were heavens and that their religious beliefs were wrong. The missionaries wanted to help the natives so that they would be accepted into the kingdom of the Christian Heaven.

Even though the intent of the missionaries may have been to better the lives of the Natives, the Spanish were still determined to more or less destroy the individual cultures of the indigenous population. The Spaniards wanted the Native Americans to accept the Spanish language, the Christian religion, and the Spanish way of life. Missionaries not only expected the natives to convert to Christianity, but also to embrace Spanish culture and forego their own heritages. In accepting Christ and the benefits of living within the mission, the Native Americans had to abandon most of the things that had been passed down to them through generations. The missionaries also used the natives as a slave labor force. Native Americans were to work on the crops that would be grown at the missions and also to cook and to clean. In return, they would be educated by the benevolent Christians. It is difficult for modern people to look back on these incidents and wonder why the missionaries did not see anything ironic in teaching Christian principles and Christian charity while at the same time eradicating traditions of ancient tribes.

Illnesses and Germ Warfare:

Most people understand that one of the primary reasons behind the eradication of the Native American population was relatively unintentional. When a person has lived in an area for a long time, they naturally build up an immunity to certain chemicals, bacteria, and viruses that may be associated with that location. However, when such materials are introduced to a population who has not had the chance to develop such immunity, then the results are extremely detrimental. This, of course, is what happened with the white Europeans and the Spanish monks in California began interacting with the native peoples. According to The Encyclopedia of American Indian History (2008):

The first "systematic" [population] count was compiled during the early twentieth century by James Mooney, who maintained that 1,153,000 people lived in the land area now occupied by the continental United States at first contact. Mooney calculated the 1907 Native population in the same area at 406,000. Dividing the country into regions, he calculated the percentage loss ranging from 61% (in the North Atlantic states) to 93% in California (113).

Diseases such as influenza took out large numbers of Native Americans. Other conditions including measles, bubonic plague, diphtheria, typhus, cholera, and scarlet fever also ended the lives of many Native Americans.

Syphilis also consumed a large number of the Native American population. European men who came to the New World suffering from this disease believed that if a person had sex with a virgin that they would be cured of their own venereal disease (Lewy 2007). Virginal Native American women were most often raped or in some cases they gave themselves willingly, believing they had married the Europeans, and then became infected. The women, now considered spoiled, would sometimes be cast away from the tribe or, determined by the customs of the individual tribe, would have to be married off. Syphilis would then be passed on to the woman's husband and he in turn would pass it to others. Children would be born with physical deformities because of the disease, creating a generation of weak persons unable to survive for long.

Once it became apparent to the white Europeans how susceptible the native population was to European illnesses, they used this against the natives to remove them from certain locations if the group were unwilling to move on their own accord. It would come to pass that 75 to 90% of all Native Americans who died during the period did so because of an illness caused by direct contact with the white Europeans. There is a famous story of white men selling blankets to a group of Native Americans in exchange for land. The blankets were intentionally infected with the smallpox virus, ensuring that anyone who had used the blankets would likely die from the disease, which would then also pass to the rest of the village. Jeffrey Amherst, 1st Baron Amherst, came up with this plan to eradicate the Native American population during the French and Indian War. He said: "You will do well to try to inoculate the Indians, by means of blankets, as well as to try every other method that can serve to extirpate this execrable race" (Edward 2000). These numbers cannot be perfectly verified because there was little written documentation about population of Native American tribes before the introduction of the white men. However, it can be stated unequivocally that somewhere between 70 and 98% of Native Americans were killed between the founding of the Jamestown colony and the end of Western expansion in the early 20th century.

Colonial America:

Violence between Native Americans and the white colonists increased drastically in the year 1636 when the Native American tribe, the Pequots, refused to accept the demands of those in the Massachusetts Bay Colony (Lewy 2007). During this time members of the colony attacked the Native Americans who then reciprocated by attacking Fort Saybrook on the Connecticut River. The acts of violence between both groups increased beyond the point of savagery. Some men were burned alive, others tortured, and prisoners taken as slaves on both sides of the conflict. Although both sides used such practices, the white men promoted these incidences as proof that the Native Americans were savage and sub-human, increasing the level of fear that new colonists would come to the country with. Before they had even encountered one of the natives, the white people would be indoctrinated in the idea that the Native Americans were evil and beastly; that they would resort to any kind of cruelty and debauchery and to murder them was nothing more wicked than destroying something like a poisonous spider. The Native Americans were less equipped and had far fewer supplies. Ultimately, they were unable to defend themselves and by lost all the lands that had belonged to the tribe for centuries to the white population.

Following King Phillip's War in the mid-1600s, the Native American tribes became allies of the French colonists who treated the native peoples as human beings, far different from how they were treated by the British and the colonists under that flag (Lewy 2007). During the French-Indian War, the official determination was that now the Native Americans were not only sub-human but were traitors who had aligned themselves with the enemy. Between 1694 and a decade after, the colonists in the New World were given large financial rewards for the murder of Native Americans. In order to retrieve the reward, the colonists would present the scalp or some other body part of the dead native. Later on in the war, a scale was derived for murder based upon gender and age, with young children under the age of ten being worth the most amount of money. The white people again reported that their actions were justified by the violence of the "non-human savages."

In the 18th century, prominent writer and inventor Benjamin Franklin published his own ideas on the issue between white colonists and Native Americans. Famously, Benjamin Franklin opened his essay "Remarks Concerning the Savages of North America" by stating, "Savages we call them, because their manners differ from ours, which we think the perfection of civility; they think the same of theirs" (Franklin 1782). From the first line, Franklin makes it clear that his thesis is based on the idea that the Native Americans and the white ones are not different. Each finds the other to be savage because they look and act differently from one another. He goes on to make inferences that the "savage" Natives might in fact be the less barbaric of the two cultures. "There is no force, there are no prisons, no officers to compel obedience, or inflict punishment." Franklin lists the ways that Native Americans behave in more civil manners than their white counterparts, even remarking on the fact that whereas the white culture tries to force Christianity on the Natives, the non-whites never try to do the same to the Colonists. The Natives are generous and willing to consider the opinions of their oppressors and are only nonplussed when their civility is not equally met.

The Indian Removal Act:

In the year 1830, the United States government passed legislation which allowed for the removal of Native Americans from their home lands. On May 28th of that year, President Andrew Jackson signed the bill into law. Jackson had a long history of dislike and prejudice against the native population. In fact, his claim to fame was as a general who murdered many Native Americans. The popularization of this idea was what propelled him into the White House.

The 1831 Choctaw removal became known as "The Trail of Tears" because so many Native Americans died during the journey. The tribe's people were forced to march from their homeland in Mississippi to what is now Oklahoma. More than 17,000 Choctaws made the journey and only a small percentage were still alive at journey's end. It is estimated that between 2,500 and 6,000 Native Americans died on the journey. A witness to the events, writer Alexis de Tocqueville wrote in his book Democracy in America, in 1831:

In the whole scene there was an air of ruin and destruction, something which betrayed a final and irrevocable adieu; one couldn't watch without feeling one's heart wrung. The Indians were tranquil, but somber and taciturn. There was one who could speak English and of whom I asked why the Chactas were leaving their country. "To be free," he answered, could never get any other reason out of him. We…watched the expulsion…of one of the most celebrated and ancient American peoples.

The native tribes were made to flee from their homes, from the lands on which they had populated for generations. Although the tribes were supposed to be able to leave voluntarily, it became quickly evident that this was not the case. They were forced to march through wind and snow and heat. Those who were diseased or injured would be forced to continue marching until they dropped dead from disease or exhaustion.

The Gold Rush and Western Expansion:

As detrimental as the California mission system had been to the population of the Native Americans in the western part of the country, the effects of the California Gold Rush were far worse for the Native Americans. At least the intentions of the missionaries had been benevolent. Before the Gold Rush, it was estimated that there were 150,000 Native Americans in California. A quarter century later and there were only about 30,000 left (Effects). In the endeavor to make claims on land where gold was to be found, white American settlers did whatever was necessary to make the natives vacate territory. This included and was by no means limited to abuse, torture, rape, murder, abduction, and enslavement. Subsequent pioneers reported that many Native American tribes were ruthless towards them, killing women and children indiscriminately. The fact that this was in response to horrendous acts of atrocity committed by the white men was hardly mentioned.

The Native Americans who were able to stay in California had to adapt. Many turned to mining in order to support themselves and their families. Instead of claiming land for their own, the Indians would be forced to mine for another white person. This would often put the individual against the tribe who would feel that the Native who was assisting the white man was something of a traitor. This led to a relationship wherein the natives who did mine became even more attached to the whites and to the settler communities. After the Mexican-American War, the territory of California was awarded to the United States. When this happened, Spanish settlers had to remove themselves from Mexico, which was now an independent nation. The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, which ended the Mexican-American War guaranteed the rights of Mexicans and Spaniards in California. It was promised that they would be treated equally to the American settlers. Still, nothing was determined to guarantee the rights of the natives. Land that had been claimed by displaced Native Americans was now under dispute from the Spanish settlers.

Rebellion of Geronimo and Cochise:

There were many Native Americans who attempted to fight back against their white oppressors. Two such important leaders, Geronimo and Cochise, tried to lead their people in uprisings against the white government, always to the detriment of the Native Americans in the land. Cochise and Geronimo were both determined and charismatic leaders, and the men did everything in their abilities to recover land from the white American government. Both sought to win back some of the lands wrongfully taken from them through American expansion into the west. They differed mainly in their approaches toward their enemies. While both men took up arms against the white men, Cochise was more successful in evading them and was never captured. Rather he was able to make a compromise and form a treaty, ensuing he was never made a prisoner. Geronimo was forced to surrender and become a prisoner of war. The murder of Geronimo's family taught him to hate the white people. The Apaches were hunted down by the Americans, teaching them that the white people were vicious and thus violent actions against them were not wrong. The Apaches had been fighting the white men since before Geronimo was born and he was ingrained with the lesson of hating them, but when they destroyed his own family, Geronimo surpassed expectations in terms of cruelty and bloodthirstiness towards the whites.

Many Apaches chose not to fight the white settlers. Instead they agreed to remain on the designated reservations. The white people were fighting a bloody battle against the Native Americans and the Apachees were outmanned and had less sophisticated weaponry. Those who chose to remain on the reservation were the ones who decided that it was better to live according to the American government's rule than be eradicated out of existence. Some Apaches chose to work for the U.S. government because they received good pay and were not put into positions where they could be killed by soldiers.

Negotiations:

In 1851, the Treaty of Fort Laramie was an agreement between the United States and seven of the Indian nations. This guaranteed the tribes area of land which was reevaluated in 1858 when gold was discovered in the Rocky Mountains. By the Fall of 1860, things between Native Americans and American settlers and military had broken down. In February 1861, six chiefs of various Native American tribes met with the American government and signed the Treaty of Fort Wise. This treaty created a new reserve for the Native Americans that was less that 1/13th the size of the one established by the Fort Laramie treaty. Some of the tribes, particularly many of the Cheyenne and Lakota were enraged by the terms of the document and refused to obey the treaty. They continued to hunt on lands which were now forbidden to them. By April of 1964, the American military began attacking Native Americans without a formal declaration of war. The leaders of Colorado as well as Colonel John Chivington were determined to eradicate the Indian problem with deadly force. On November 9th, 1864, 700 members of the Colorado Territory militia invaded Native American lands. They destroyed a village which was home to peaceful and friendly Indians of the Cheyenne and Arapaho tribes (Sand). It is estimated that the militia murdered between 70 and 160 Native Americans. Two-thirds of those that were slaughtered were women and children who posed no threat at all. It was reported by soldiers after the attack that the military men were merciless in their treatment of the Native Americans. Col. Chivington ordered the men to continue killing even after members of the village hoisted American flags. When this failed, the tribe members raised the traditional white flag of surrender. This too was ignored by Col. Chivington. Those that survived the initial onslaught were later murdered.

Death was hardly the worst thing that happened to the Native Americans that day. According to reports, soldiers completely mutilated many of the corpses, taking body parts to commemorate the event. Among the more distressing of historical artifacts that were taken were human fetuses, female genitalia, and anything else that could prove that the individual soldier had engaged in the horrors.

The Long Walk:

The Long Walk, also called the Long Walk to Bosque Redondo, was the massive deportation of Navajo people from their homeland in 1864. The Navajo were residing in what is now Arizona. They were forcibly marched away from this area and forced into what would become New Mexico. The Navajo were marched for more than two weeks in the harshest January weather imaginable (Long). The trip from Arizona to Fort Sumner in the Pecos River Valley was a difficult journey. The poor Navajo, including women and children, were forced to march the 450 miles totally on foot. It was estimated that more than 200 of the Navajo died during the trek.

When the Navajo finally reached Bosque Redondo, they were faced with even more difficulties. At the Bosque Redondo internment camp where they were held, the American government had already imprisoned about 400 members of the Mescalero Apache tribe. For generations these two groups had warred with one another and now they would be forced to share a small living space. Another problem at the camp was that there simply were not enough supplies to provide for everyone. The government had expected about 5,000 Native Americans to be situated at Bosque Redondo. With the Navajo also placed at the camp, the number of Indians topped 10,000. Water and food supplies were limited and the harshness of the Valley was ill-suited to farming. Among other problems, the Pecos River flooded which killed the crops that were able to grow and also army worms infested the corn crops and made them inedible.