This paper examines the profound impact of the American holocaust—including disease, forced removal, boarding schools, and sterilization—on Native American literature across centuries. It traces historical atrocities from Columbus's arrival through the 1970s, then analyzes how early Native authors like William Apes and Gertrude Bonnin responded through writing, and how contemporary authors including N. Scott Momaday, Sherman Alexie, and Leslie Silko continue to process and preserve this legacy. The paper argues that historical trauma remains central to Native literary expression as a means of cultural survival and intergenerational remembrance.
Understanding the legacy of the American Holocaust on Native American literature requires first examining the historical events that created it and their devastating impact on indigenous peoples. This tragedy is not merely historical; it continues to affect what Native Americans write about today. The definition of "Holocaust" used here is "any mass slaughter or reckless destruction of life," a definition distinct from the more commonly recognized genocide of World War II.
When people today hear the word "Holocaust," they typically think of the atrocities committed in Nazi Germany. Few recognize that the United States participated in comparable genocide. Notably, Hitler himself drew inspiration from American policy toward indigenous peoples. According to John Toland, Hitler's biographer, the Nazi leader studied United States history and based some of his ideas about dealing with racially inferior peoples on American treatment of Native Americans. Hitler praised America's "efficiency of extermination by starvation, germ warfare, and the uneven battles between American Indians and Europeans."
When Columbus landed in Hispaniola, the indigenous population of the Americas was estimated at approximately 12 million. Within five centuries, this number was reduced by 95 percent. While European diseases, to which American Indians had no resistance, caused significant losses, deliberate bio-warfare accelerated the destruction. Lord Jeffrey Amherst, commander of British forces during the French and Indian War (1756–1763), approved a suggestion from Colonel Henry Bouquet to distribute blankets and handkerchiefs infested with smallpox to Native Americans. According to historian Peter d'Errico, correspondence between Amherst and Bouquet reveals an obsession with exterminating Indians by any available means. This act represents an early, intentional phase of the American Holocaust.
Following the initial catastrophic loss of life, the federal government implemented systematic policies designed to remove, assimilate, and ultimately eliminate Native American peoples and cultures. The Indian Removal Act of 1830, enacted under President Andrew Jackson, forced thousands of Native Americans westward in what became known as the Trail of Tears. This act was motivated by Southern states' land greed and widespread prejudice against Native Americans. The suffering endured during forced removal represents one of the darkest chapters in United States history.
The ideology of "Manifest Destiny" further justified the destruction of Native communities. Originally merely a concept, it evolved into a widespread belief that Native Americans had failed to properly develop North America's land and therefore had no legitimate claim to it. This reasoning led to a nineteenth-century conviction that Native American extinction was inevitable and even natural. Such ideology provided moral cover for systematic dispossession.
In 1879, Captain Richard Henry Pratt founded the Carlisle Indian School, institutionalizing cultural genocide. Pratt's infamous statement, "Kill the Indian and save the man," captured the school's mission: forced assimilation of Native children into Euro-American society. Students were punished severely for speaking their native languages, practicing their customs and traditions, and attempting to contact their families. The boarding school system extended this assault across multiple generations.
The Dawes Act (General Allotment Act of 1887) continued the assault on Native lands and autonomy. Ostensibly designed to protect Indian property rights, it distributed land that often consisted of desert or near-desert terrain unsuitable for agriculture. Most Native Americans lacked capital, tools, animals, and seeds to farm successfully; consequently, vast tracts reverted to government control. Simultaneously, sanctioned trophy hunts decimated the buffalo, eliminating the primary food source for many tribes and forcing dependence on government rations.
The involuntary sterilization of Native American women in the 1970s represents the latest documented phase of genocide. Between 1970 and 1976, between 25 and 50 percent of Native American women were sterilized, often without genuine consent. Indian Health Center physicians coerced compliance by threatening to withdraw healthcare and remove children from families, according to researcher Rutecki. These interlocking policies of removal, forced assimilation, land theft, cultural prohibition, and reproductive control constitute a sustained campaign against Native American survival.
The accumulated trauma of these policies found expression in early Native American literature, often produced despite severe barriers to publication and distribution. William Apes (1798–1839) wrote A Son of the Forest: The Experiences of William Apes, A Native of the Forest partly in direct reaction to the Indian Removal Act, and Eulogy on King Philip in response to seventeenth- and eighteenth-century abuses. John Rollin Ridge (1827–1867) is credited as the first Native American novelist, authoring The Life and Adventures of Joaquin Murieta, which indirectly addressed injustices suffered by Indians.
Another approach to expressing the American Holocaust's legacy involved preserving oral traditions and tribal histories in written form, ensuring cultural continuity across generations. Gertrude Bonnin, known as Zitkala Sa, a Dakota Sioux of the Yankton Band (1876–1938), published American Indian Stories in 1921 and Old Indian Legends in 1927. Christal Quintasket, known as Mourning Dove, an Okanogan author (1888–1936), published Co-ge-wea: the Half Blood in 1927 and Coyote Stories in 1933.
These early writers received little recognition and rarely profited from their work. However, when N. Scott Momaday published House Made of Dawn in 1968 and won the Pulitzer Prize, these earlier works were rediscovered and republished, establishing a literary tradition that had been largely obscured.
"Sherman Alexie, Leslie Silko, N. Scott Momaday continue tradition"
"Trauma shapes Native American literature and cultural survival"
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