Native American Rights vs. Settler Rights: A Study in Inequality

Introduction: Rights Promised but Selectively Applied

The United States Constitution, the Declaration of Independence, and the Declaration of Colonial Rights guarantee certain rights to American citizens. Although these rights were promised to all Americans, groups throughout history have been denied them. Among the first to suffer this denial were Native Americans, whose rights were routinely overshadowed by those claimed by American colonists and settlers. While many legal and human rights were denied to this group while being freely exercised by colonists, three stand out as particularly significant: the Declaration of Independence's right to life and liberty, the Constitution's right to freedom of religion, and the Declaration of Colonial Rights' right to property. Through an examination of the contradictory treatment of Native Americans and American settlers regarding these rights, it becomes clear that Native Americans were systematically denied protections of which the American settlers freely took advantage.

The Right to Life and Liberty

When the American settlers declared their independence from England, they affirmed that each person was endowed with "certain unalienable rights," including life (Jefferson, 1776, para. 1). The Declaration of Independence further states that "all men are created equal" (Jefferson, 1776, para. 1). Native Americans, however, were treated unequally, as they were often denied rights to both life and liberty.

Efforts were made to sustain American settlers' rights while Native Americans were frequently killed or left to die as a direct result of settler actions. For instance, the Cherokee Nation attempted to preserve their rights in 1827 by "declaring themselves to be a sovereign nation" through a written constitution, much as the United States had declared its independence from England. Rather than honoring that declaration, however, settlers in the area engaged in violent and terroristic activity toward the Native Americans, including burning their villages ("Indian Removal," n.d., para. 7). Direct violence through wars against Native American nations, along with individual acts of aggression, left many victims of murder and casualties of war.

The Trail of Tears stands as a stark example of the violence and exploitation Native Americans suffered at the hands of American settlers. As the United States expanded into the South in the late 1800s, Native American nations were seen as "standing in the way of progress" ("Indian Removal," n.d., para. 1). For this reason, President Andrew Jackson coerced Native American nations into signing treaties that forced them to relocate. During the relocation of the Cherokee, approximately 4,000 people died from harsh conditions, including "cold, hunger, and disease" ("Indian Removal," n.d., para. 15).

Disease brought to the continent by settlers was another means by which Native Americans were deprived of their right to life. Although Europeans had lived with certain diseases for generations and developed some degree of immunity, Native Americans had no such protection. These diseases led to devastating loss of life across Native American communities. Scholars have disagreed about the scale of this mortality, some classifying the outbreaks as localized events that decimated particular populations, while others argue they constituted pandemics spreading across entire regions (Ramenofsky, Wilbur, and Stone, 2003, pp. 241–242). Regardless of classification, disease represented yet another way in which settlers deprived Native Americans of their lives. The right to life guaranteed in the Declaration of Independence was not applied equally. Native Americans suffered death at the hands of settlers through murder, warfare, and exposure to foreign disease, while settlers were able to protect their own lives through legal institutions and access to medical care.

Freedom of Religion

As important as life itself to many Native Americans was their religion — traditions handed down and practiced across generations of families and tribes. In a nation established with the freedom of religion as a founding principle, American settlers enshrined that freedom in the Constitution. While settlers exercised this right freely, practicing a variety of faiths from Puritanism to Deism and discussing them openly in publications and public forums, Native Americans were denied the same freedom.

American settlers regarded Native American religious practices as uncivilized and encouraged missionaries to convert the tribes. Missionaries can play both beneficial and harmful roles in a culture. Some arrive with genuine offers of help — bringing knowledge, skills, or medical assistance — and present their faith respectfully, allowing individuals to decide for themselves. Most settlers, however, did not approach Native Americans this way. Instead, they forced assimilation into European culture: children were taken from their parents, missionaries were assigned to the reservations where Native Americans had been confined, and those who deviated from Christian teachings were often punished ("History of Missions," n.d.).

Although many Native Americans did eventually convert to Christianity, and some scholars suggest that certain Native spiritual traditions were able to coexist alongside Christian practice, the fact remains that freedom of religion was not genuinely extended to this group. Native Americans were compelled to conform to the settlers' religious expectations, sometimes through physical force. While freedom of religion was guaranteed to and exercised by American settlers, it was denied to Native Americans — at times by coercion of the most direct kind.

Conclusion: A Legacy of Unequal Rights

The United States was founded on the guarantee of rights and equality, but these rights have not always been applied equally. While American settlers took full advantage of their rights to life, freedom of religion, and property, Native Americans were summarily denied all three. The historical record makes clear that the founding ideals of the nation were invoked to protect one group while being withheld from another, leaving a legacy of inequality that contradicts the very principles on which the country was built.