The White Man: The Plight of the Native Americans
August 3, 1492. This is day that is cemented into the memories of millions. To some, it is a day for celebration. Celebrating the day that Christopher Columbus “founded” America, beginning a new age in a freshly what would go down as the beginning of American History for most people. However, Native Americans perceive our “national hero” a bit differently. Not as hero, but as a villain.
For the Native Americans, Columbus didn’t create a golden age, but a holocaust spanning many centuries. Everything from the Napituca Massacre to Wounded Knee, from the Trail of Tears to the South Dakota Pipeline Massacres. The impact of Columbus’ “discovery” was felt for many generations and is still being felt to this very day. Whether it be the starting point of the formation of our country, or the constant pain and belittling the Native Americans suffered at the hands of the generations to come.
Though the trials that the Native American people have been put through have been gruesome and evil in nature, there is one that stands out from the rest. Whether it be the unjust cruelty or simply the nature of the violence within it, none other sticks out as viciously as the Trail of Tears
With the turn of the decade and the election of Andrew Jackson in 1829, the already detrimental past of the Native Americans would only begin to get worse. Though they had already suffered through such blatant attacks on the very being of their existence such as King George II calling for the destruction of all Indian people, the major loss of population due to diseases obtained by immigrants, and many many more; however, the suffering would not end there. Within a year of the election of Andrew Jackson, he implemented the Indian Removal Act of 1830. This act allowed Andrew Jackson to grant land to the Native Americans west of the Mississippi River in exchange for their any land that had inhabited prior. With this in effect, Jackson and his followers were allowed to persuade, bribe, and often times threaten tribes into signing these agreements, evicting them from their land.[1] With this presidential power trip intact, the Trail of Tears was in full effect.
Upon being uprooted from their homes and separated from their friends and fellow tribesman, the various tribes of Native Americans began their journey west. As they made their way along the various paths to present day Oklahoma and western Arkansas, being forced by large amounts of federal officials, the journey simply became unbearable. While the officials led them along the path, being equipped with clothes suited for the harsh conditions that lay ahead, the Native Americans were not so lucky. As they were forced out of their homes on a whim, they had no protection from the harsh weather conditions that lie ahead of them.[2]
From 1830 to 1838, over 100,000 Native Americans from various tribes were uprooted from their homes, sent on an expedition caused solely by the United States greed and prejudice. Of the 100,000 Native Americans that traveled the Trail of Tears, it is estimated that ~20,000 died along the way. Meaningless deaths. Deaths that only exist due to the United States thirst for power, money, and land. The civilization that Native Americans had been creating and shaping for centuries, changed in the blink of an eye by none other than the establishment based on greed and envy that was formed by the white men that inhabited that era and is continuously used to oppress even to this day.
[1] Ostler, Jeffrey. “Genocide and American Indian History.” Oxford Research Encyclopedia of American History, March 2, 2015. https://doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780199329175.013.3.
[2] Sturgis, Amy H. The Trail of Tears and Indian Removal. Greenwood Guides to Historic Events 1500-1900. Westport, Conn: Greenwood Press, 2007.
[3] Weeks, Philip, ed. The American Indian Experience: A Profile, 1524 to the Present. Arlington Heights, Ill: Forum Press, 1988.
