A+Guide+To+Native+American+History

Native Americans



First Encounters

//“Why will you take by force what you may have quietly by love? Why will you destroy us who supply you with food? What can you get by war? We can hide our provisions and run into the woods; then you will starve for wronging your friends. Why are you jealous of us? We are unarmed, and willing to give you what you ask, if you come in a friendly manner, and not so simple as not to know that it is much better to eat good meat, sleep comfortably, live quietly with my wives and children, laugh and be merry with the English, and trade for their copper and hatchets, than to run away from them, and to lie cold in the woods, feed on acorns, roots and such trash, and be so hunted that 1 can neither eat nor sleep. //”

//- Powhattan to John Smith (1607)//

1607: Settlers of Jamestown first encountered the Native Americans

At first the settlers had a tentative peace with the Indians although they saw them as their inferiors because they had to learn how to grow crops from them. However once the colonists figured this out for themselves they saw the Indians as a hinderance to their development. There were several centuries of Indian-colonist violence, and though sometimes the Indians were on the offensive it was usually the colonists that were the aggressors.

**1614**: First Anglo-Powhatan War ended with a peace settlement, Pocahontas and John Rolfe married **1622**- Indians attack and kill John Rolfe **1637**- Pequot War (English annihilated Indians in Connecticut) **1644**-1646 Second Anglo-Powhatan War (Banished Chesapeake Indians) **1675**- Metacom (King Phillip) united Indians in attack that failed The slave trade of Native Americans lasted only until around **1730**

The French were comparatively friendly to the Native Americans so during the **Seven Years War (1754 - 1763)** the majority of them sided with the French

Proclamation of 1763: The British prevented the colonists from encroaching on more Native American land to the west of the Appalachians.

When they first met the colonists the Native Americans were exposed to new diseases that they did not have immunity to. They were highly succeptible to them and these - more than outright violence - wiped out the Native Americans in huge numbers. Greatest smallpox epidemics : 1780-1782 and 1837-1838
 * <span class="s2" style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">The Columbian Exchange **

<span style="color: #5a6f2f; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">**Q**: Who did the Native Americans support during the American Revolution? <span style="color: #5a6f2f; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;"> **A**: Most of them sided with the British in hopes of stopping colonial expansion.

<span class="s1" style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">When the colonists won the American Revolution, Britain ceded a lot of Native American land to them in the Treaty of Paris (1783) with no consent of the Natives.

<span class="s1" style="color: #8dce22; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 220%;">Assimilation

//<span style="color: #c0c0c0; font-family: Georgia,serif;">““How different would be the sensation of a philosophic mind to reflect that instead of exterminating a part of the human race by our modes of population that we had persevered through all difficulties and at last had imparted our Knowledge of cultivating and the arts, to the Aboriginals of the Country by which the source of future life and happiness had been preserved and extended. But it has been conceived to be impracticable to civilize the Indians of North America — This opinion is probably more convenient than just.” //”

<span class="s1" style="color: #c0c0c0; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">//- Knox to Washington, 1794)//

<span class="s1" style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">Washington:


 * Believed in “civilizing” the Natives instead of exterminating them
 * Appointed agents to live among Native Americans and to teach them how to live like whites
 * His legacy - 1819: Civilization Fund Act gave money to societies who worked on Native American assimilation

<span class="s1" style="color: #8dce22; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 220%;"> Indian Removal <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 23px;">**1831**: Trail of Tears - Southern Indians removed to Oklahoma <span class="s1" style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;"> Cherokee Nation vs. Georgia (Respect for Native American government) <span class="s1" style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;"> Georgia vs. Worchester (Respect for Native American land) <span class="s1" style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;"> Although in both cases the Supreme court ruled in __favor__ of the Native Americans, Jackson ignored these rulings and forced the Native Americans out of their territory <span class="s1" style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">1833: Treaty of New Echota - Small group of Native Americans agreed to the removal agreement. <span class="s1" style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">The other Cherokees, with John Ross in lead, agreed to protest against the whites. <span class="s1" style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">1834: U.S. government designated the entire Great Plains as one enormous reservation.

<span class="s1" style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">1837: 46,000 Native Americans were removed during Jackson's administration.

<span class="s1" style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">1845: Concept of Manifest Destiny was developed by Polk <span class="s1" style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;"> This meant that Americans felt they had the duty to keep expanding westward - and to forcibly eject any Natives that were in their way.

<span class="s1" style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;"> **1857**: The court ruled that since Native Americans were “free and independent people” the court ruled that they could become U.S. citizens. <span class="s1" style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;"> **1871**: Congress ruled to stop recognizing Native American tribes and prohibited the creation of additional treaties

//<span style="color: #c0c0c0; font-family: Georgia,serif;">“That hereafter no Indian nation or tribe within the territory of the United States shall be acknowledged or recognized as an independent nation, tribe, or power with whom the United States may contract by treaty: Provided, further, that nothing herein contained shall be construed to invalidate or impair the obligation of any treaty heretofore lawfully made and ratified with any such Indian nation or tribe.” //

//<span style="color: #c0c0c0; font-family: Georgia,serif;"> - Congress, 1871 //”

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**<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">George Armstrong Custer: ** <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 23px;">Custer fought in the Indian Wars and concentrated on the Westward expansion. He was killed during the **Battle of the Little Bighorn (1876)** when fighting against the Native American tribes who protested against the whites' Westward expansion. ===== <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 23px;">**1877:** Helen Hunt Jackson's exposé - //A Century of Dishonor// - drew people's attention to the plight of Native Americans. <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 23px;"> Americans thought that assimilation was the only solution to the Native Americans' problem. <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 23px;"> It led to the establishment of the **Dawes Act of 1887** which was designed to break up tribal units by giving individual families land and granting them with U.S. citizenship after 25 years of adapting the assimilation process. <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 23px;">**1865-1890:** Conflicts aroused between the whites and the Sioux. <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: medium; line-height: 23px;"> Remaining Sioux was inspired by the **Ghost Dance** and resisted being removed from their ancestral lands. <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: medium; line-height: 23px;"> Granted U.S. citizenship to Indians; this was passed by Calvin Coolidge in 1924. <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: medium; line-height: 23px;"> Recognizing the importance of Native American culture and the necessity to preserve it.
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: medium; line-height: 23px;">1924: Indian Citizenship of 1924 **
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: medium; line-height: 23px;">1990: Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act of 1990 **

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: medium; line-height: 23px;">Sources: //United States History: Preparing for the Advanced Placement Examination// <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: medium; line-height: 23px;"> John J. Newman & John M. Schmalbac, Amsco publication, 2010 revision http://209.59.172.97/SSAIHMWestwardExpansionAndNativeAmericanDisplacement1012.htm