The White men that came to settle America did not think about what might be beyond the Mississippi River before it was too late; for the land and who inhabited it.
When the white men came to America, they claimed to have found a “new world.” The fact is that America has been lived off of for hundreds of years by the Native Americans. These Native Americans lived on this land by hunting and fishing. The Indians main food source was the buffalo. They ate the meat and used the bones and hide for tools, shelter, and clothing. The Natives also cherished the land; believing that everything was a memory of the past. As Big Thunder said, “The Great Spirit is in all things, he is in the air we breathe. The Great Spirit is our Father, but the Earth is our Mother.” The Indians have the upmost respect for the land on which they lived and died.
The white man thought everything in America was his. The white man thought that you may buy and sell the land as you please. They didn’t care what happened on the land before they arrived; they just wanted it as their own. As the settlers moved farther and farther west, there were many conflicts with the Indians. The settlers, or “Go-Getters” as they were called, were usually cattle ranchers, cowboys, miners, farmers, trappers, or families. They were traveling west to find the “riches of the new American Empire.” These people were often very optimistic and competitive. As a spirit booster, they would sometimes shoot the buffalo, the Indians main food source, out off the moving trains for sport. They would not gather the carcasses, leaving thousands of dead useless buffalo lying on the ground, just rotting.
Many treaties were made in English, a language in which the Indians could not read. The translators often tricked the Native Americans into signing treaties for something completely different. This lead, in many cases, to being relocated to a smaller area, with the land they were raised on gone from them forever. Chief Joseph stated in April 1879, “When I think of our condition my heart is heavy. I see men of my race treated as outlaws and driven from country to country, or shot down like animals.” The Cherokee Indians were one tribe faced with the harsh realities of the white man with the “The Trail of Tears.” They were relocated from their homes in Georgia, North and South Carolina, Virginia, Kentucky, and Tennessee, all the way across Oklahoma; some 800 miles away. 17,000 Cherokee Indians set off on this journey with about 4,000 men, women, and children dying. Another example of a bad treaty came to the Dakota Indians with the Treaty of 1837, the Treaty of Traverse des Sioux, and the Treaty of Mendota. The Dakota were promised blankets, clothes, and food; but had to relocate. The white men agreed. The Dakota were not expecting the supplies to be in bad shape, or not have enough for the whole tribe, that is if the supplies named in the treaty even came at all. This is exactly what happened to the Dakota Indians. The Cherokee and the Dakota are prime examples of how the white man manipulated and was dishonest to the Indians to get what they wanted; land.
In reality, the white men were always manipulative of the Indians and the land they would die for. Even though we know the truth of the past now, there is nothing we can do.
No comments:
Post a Comment