While this right applied to American settlers, who engaged in a variety of religions, from Puritanism to Deism, and spoke freely about them in publications and public forums. Native Americans, on the other hand, were denied their freedom of religion. American settlers saw Native American religions as uncivilized, so they encouraged missionaries to convert the tribes. Missionaries can be both beneficial and harmful to a culture. Some come excited to help the people through manpower and certain forms of scientific, academic, or medical knowledge, presenting their religion with love, and allowing the people to choose whether or not that religion is acceptable. Most of the American settlers, however, did not treat the Native Americans this way. Instead, they forced them to assimilate into European culture, even taking children away from parents, assigning missionaries to the reservations where the Native Americans had been forced, and often punished those who wavered from the teachings of Christianity ("History of Missions" n.d.). Although many Native Americans did eventually convert to Christianity, and some say that their religions were able to coincide with Christianity, the fact remains that freedom of religion was not extended to this group. Instead, they were forced to assimilate to the American settlers' ideas of religion. While freedom of religion was given to American settlers, then, it was denied to Native Americans, sometimes to the point of physically forcing this group to testify a change in beliefs. Finally, the American settlers proceeded to deny Native Americans not only their rights to life and religion, but also to property. The right to property was grunted to the "inhabitants of the English Colonies in North America" in the Declaration of Colonial Rights (1774). The declaration came complete with a statement that the right could not be revoked by a "sovereign power" (Declaration of Colonial Rights 1774). But this is exactly what the American settlers did to the Native Americans. Claming themselves sovereign, the American settlers claimed their right to property in spite of the Native Americans, who...
President Andrew Jackson was behind most of this, encouraging congress to pass removal acts, which forced the migration of Native American tribes from their land to places that the government determined. Tribes were forced to sign treaties that gave up the rights to their land. The Cherokee resisted and took the case to the Supreme Court, and although the Court sided with the Native American nation, Jackson ignored the ruling, forcing the tribe to give up its land ("Indian Removal," n.d., para. 8). In 1838, Jackson, volunteers, and federal soldiers committed the crowning violation of Native American rights when they forcibly removed the Cherokee, taking them to a reservation on the Trail of Tears ("Immigration: Native American," 2003, para. 3).
Native Americans Transition From Freedom to Isolation America's history since 1865 to date is a remarkable record of various accounts of despair, hope, triumph, and tragedy. The country's history consists of some compelling transformations with one of these significant accounts being the battle between Americans and Americans in the final period of the Civil War. In its initial years, the United States was politically isolated from the rest of the world
Native Americans Dakota and Lakota people The word 'Dakota' is derived from the seven council fires (Oceti Sakowin) - or in other words, the main political units for the people of Dakota. The word means "ally" also referred to as "Sioux" at times. Historically, the Sisseton, Wahpekute, Wahpeton, and Mdewakanton constituted of western Yankton and Yanktonai who were together referred to as Nakota and the Teton and Eastern Dakota. The Santee Dakota
Native Americans: Separate and Unequal Native American Isolation Native Americans have continued to represent a marginalized ethnic minority in the United States, despite repeated efforts at assimilation. No one argues publicly anymore that Native Americans are inferior to Whites, but the taint of racism seems to remain embedded in public policy decisions concerning this demographic. Accordingly, Native Americans have attempted to insulate themselves from the influence of what can only be described
Native Americans Describe what is known of the tribe's pre-Columbian history, including settlement dates and any known cultural details. Before Columbus came to the "New World," the pre-Columbian era, the Cherokee occupied an area that today is western North Carolina, eastern Tennessee and northern Georgia (Waddington 2006). The Cherokee traveled even further past these areas, however, to hunt and to trade their wares. The Cherokee had occupied this area for a good
" Thus, as the British gained ground in America, their need for support from the native peoples grew less important, and the parties' relationship began to erode. The natives had land the British wanted, and began to seriously fight back when their territory was threatened, due in part to the firearms they gained from trading with the British. The relationship continued to erode past the 1700s, and became more contentious as
The town of Wounded Knee is located on the present day Pine Ridge Reservation. The leaders of the resistance purposefully chose Wounded Knee as the site for their protest, as it is loaded with spiritual and political significance for Native Americans. The United States government and military responded immediately to the Indians' occupation. The United States military's force by far exceeded that of the Indians. The government attempted to block
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