This week will look at the disastrous consequences of the clashes between American settlers and Indian country in the decades after the Civil War through the massacre at Wounded Knee.
Points of Entry:
Geronimo website:
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/weshallremain/the_films/episode_4_trailer
Wounded Knee:
http://www.woundedkneemuseum.org/index.htm
Questions:
List and analyze 2 quotes from the reading.
What are some of the arguments?
How are they related to the larger themes of the week discussed in class?
Why were almost all encounters after 1865 so violent? Was this the only inevitable outcome?
“It can be argued that the combination of a Confederate policy of divide and conquer, Union government negligence, and intertribal conflict undermine Ross’s vision as it had at New Echota thirty years earlier.” (p. 299). This quote explains why the Cherokees and some other tribes aligned themselves with the south during the Civil War. The federal government consistently undermined the Cherokees and neglected past treaties making it more desirable to side with the south in the hopes of future changes on policy.
ReplyDelete“Service with the army thus enabled many an Indian scout to regain self-esteem.” (p.330) This quote explains why Indians would fight against their own people on the frontier. The young men grew up in a culture of being warriors and living on a reservation did not allow this. Working for the frontier army helped them gain self-esteem by fighting for a cause and showing bravery. The encounter between whites and Indians post 1865 was going to be inevitably violent. The U.S. wanted to control the entire North American continent, and would not let anything stand in the way.
"Ross looked on as government supported Georgia's land grab and ignored past treaties with the Cherokees"(Pg287 Hurtado)
ReplyDeleteIndians have been betrayed time and time again.John Ross's dession of 1861 must have been one of the hardest tom make as the principle chief of the Cherokee nation knowing that treaties were often ignored and desrepected.
"The army's heavy dependance on Indians,...indicates just how indespensable they were to the success of the military agenda."(pg325)
The military used the Indian scouts just as much as the Indians used the military. Scouts found that army service enabled them to help their own people and was a source of employment. The military benefited by having the "enemy" on their side but were also worried about to dependance on Indians.
"the United States, as having violated its treaty obligations, in failing to give the tribe protection, so that it was compelled to enter into relations with the confederacy" (Hurtado 283). The United States government had fallen so far behind th needs of Indians that many turned to or appealed to other powers, such as the Confederacy. This act on part of Indians really prefaces violent nature of the decades to come for Indians. The U.S. government began to care less and less, to the point of killing numerous Indian groups.
ReplyDelete"the early days of World War II when...the government saw to it that eighty tracts of restricted Cherokee property were condemned" (Mankiller 63). This section of the reader was especially shocked because I thought the removal period had ended with Wounded Knee. I figured that the size of reservations had remained static since Wounded Knee because of the reversal of thinking after the massacre.
1. Throughout the chapters of Mankiller and throughout Wilma’s experiences the reader is often brought back to the story of the rabbit and wolves. As always I decide to write about the things that interest me and this story caught my attention especially how it is described in the many different circumstances and experiences of her life for example “… the Indian center became a sanctuary for me. It was my safe place for many years. At last, the mythical Rabbit had finally found a hollow stump the wolves were not able to penetrate.” Pg. 111 Fortunately enough this passage is also relevant to the many things that we have discussed in class, the moving of Native Americans westward and their longing to feel safe or remotely at home in a city full of people (wolves) that metaphorically want to eat them alive. Or the method in which Native Americans passed down oral stories and myths to carry an important life lesson.
ReplyDelete2. A system was devised and prosecuted to force them [Natives] to emigrate, by rendering them unhappy where they were. This was the original design, but it was soon found profit was to be had, by keeping up a division among Cherokees, and protracting their difficulties, and with this view the party of which the delegation have before spoken, soon threw itself under the wing of the governments agents. Pg 287. This passage further and in more detail describes the actions of the early America and their view of any non-white or European people. It exemplifies the manipulation and how far they are willing to go to convenience themselves.
3.
These passages relate to larger themes of not only the week but of the entire course. They highlight the struggles the Native American endured and show more than enough examples of these discriminations and abuse.
Encounter with Indians were more violent for a number of reasons. The bloodiest war of American history had just occurred and there were hundreds of war torn veterans in search for a place in the world. Society has no place for the veterans in northern states so the west was a way to get rid of them. These harden individuals began to focus there skills on a new different enemy, the Indian population. The great majority of white political leaders and citizen from Georgia- the nerve center of the Cherokee Nation- had no respect for native people (Mankiller, 84). Not respecting Indians as human individuals doesn’t place them in the same categories of humans so that gave reasons for the increase of violence in the west.
ReplyDeleteThe Indian nations have been at war with and alongside the Americans since the war of 1812, so violence has been part of Indian culture. Treaties have been formed in order to protect what little rights they have during or after wars. But as Andrew Jackson states” I have long viewed treaties with the Indians an absurdity (Mankiller 86). if the treaties were not being upheld then the only means of claiming there rights is to fight for it through violence.
"When the majority of this nation returned to their allegiance to the government, in 1863, action was taken by their council, under direction of John Ross, confiscating th eproperty of those who still continued in the service of the confederacy, thus cutting off about five thousand five hundred, leaving them homeless and houseless (Hurtado 284)." This quote shows the dismantling of an Indian nation through the separation of political ideals. Also it displays the Judas archetype where someone within the kinship betrays his own and in this case John Ross represents Judas. John Ross could have settled for an accommodation that could have possibly prevented over five thousand Cherokee to become homeless but instead he failed as a leader and misrepresented his people by succumbing to the demands of the Union, as result displacing his own people.
ReplyDelete"The government methods had softened since the century, but the end result was the same for native people. Instead of guns and bayonets, The BIA used promotional brochures, showing staged photographs of smiling Indians in 'happy homes' in the big cities(Mankiller 69). This quote indicates that the US government has been persistent in taking native lands. They have changed techniques to deceived Native people. Rather than breaking off treaties the US government got clever and created an illusion for native people that their lives will be better in the cities. The purpose of deceiving native Americans through this methods was to intentionally seek position of their lands and wishing that that their cultural and ancestral beliefs will diminish by hoping for assimilation into the US industrial economy which would might have natives preoccupied with the stresses of city life rather than traditional Native American way of life
"The Cherokees and other native tribes should have recognized that the assorted Trail of Tears of our ancestors served in large part as models for the removal of Japanese migrants and Japanese-Americans in the 1940s" (Mankiller 65).
ReplyDeleteI thought this connection made between Native Americans and Japanese Americans was amazing. The internment that occurred during World War II is often talked about as this standalone atrocious event in U.S. history. However it is actually the policy that was used towards Native Americans in the past. This does not diminish the severity of these experiences for both communities, but shows this is the way the U.S. has dealt with unwanted populations. This also leads me to believe that the U.S. is capable of doing this again, and targeting another group with forced removal and internment.
"For the Cherokee Nation and the others of the Five Tribes, statehood meant only the heartbreaking conclusion to decades spent fighting attempts to transform Indian Territory into a white commonwealth" (Mankiller 167).
The Cherokees, who were removed from their homeland in the East, were forced into the West during the Trail of Tears. Facing much adversity the Cherokees built a nation where they ran their own government, schools, and land. Even though they had been forced out on this unwanted land, as soon as it became wanted land by homesteaders, they began to lose it. The U.S. government cheated them out of their own land and their own sovereignty. Oklahoma's incorporation as a state only confirmed this. During the process of becoming a state, there was momentum behind having the state be two states, with one being native territory. But this did not happen, and instead Cherokees were made to be apart of the U.S.
"The value of Indian scouts as mediators between hostile Indians and frontier army was powerfully demonstrated in the final stage of the so-called Sioux Uprising of 1890 to 1891." pg 327
ReplyDeleteThe value of Indian scouts in general throughout American history was integral to the ultimate defeat of Native Americans this has been clearly seen in such cases as the defeat of Chief Joseph and the Nez Perce or Geronimo and his Chiricahua Apache brethern.
The frontier army's conquest of the Sioux and Cheyennes on the northern Plains was largely the result of the important contributions of its Indian allies.
This quote reveals to us even with the devastating toll disease had on the Native population there was still a possibility they could of prevailed at least slightly longer but all hopes of this were shot when Natives lost all unity amongst themselves.
I feel like this relates to the larger theme of the week by revealing the amount of persecution Native populations came under from both sides such as from American settlers and even there own people.
Native and white settler encounters became more violent after 1865 for the reason that many Native groups realized that there entire way of life may be wiped out if they did not fight. White and to a certain extent Black Americans were constantly in greater numbers migrating to new lands and settling in areas that normally would of been Native hunting groups. "The value of Indian scouts as mediators between hostile Indians and frontier army was powerfully demonstrated in the final stage of the so-called Sioux Uprising of 1890 to 1891." pg 327
The value of Indian scouts in general throughout American history was integral to the ultimate defeat of Native Americans this has been clearly seen in such cases as the defeat of Chief Joseph and the Nez Perce or Geronimo and his Chiricahua Apache brethern.
The frontier army's conquest of the Sioux and Cheyennes on the northern Plains was largely the result of the important contributions of its Indian allies.
This quote reveals to us even with the devastating toll disease had on the Native population there was still a possibility they could of prevailed at least slightly longer but all hopes of this were shot when Natives lost all unity amongst themselves.
I feel like this relates to the larger theme of the week by revealing the amount of persecution Native populations came under from both sides such as from American settlers and even there own people.
Native and white settler encounters became more violent after 1865 for the reason that many Native groups realized that there entire way of life may be wiped out if they did not fight. White and to a certain extent Black Americans were constantly in greater numbers migrating to new lands and settling in areas that normally would of been Native hunting groups.
"My family's relocation experience in San Francisco was disturbing in many ways. But in Retrospect, our ordeal was not nearly as harsh or painful as the problems encountered by the Cherokee people who had been forced to take the Trail of Tears in the late 1830's" (Mankiller, 98)This quote relates to the passing down of memory and oral history within the Native American communities. In this instance, Wilma Mankiller is recalling the history of the termoil of her people.
ReplyDelete"Throughout history, beginning with the SPanish conquerors and continuing with the white ettlers, the Indians of California endured genocide, disease, starvation, and overt oppression. In many instances widespread violence became wholesale murder." (Mankiller, 99) This quote relates to the last question, about encounters after 1865 being so violent. She shows that the encounters between white and Indian people have always been violent. And they continued to be violent for years before the 1800's. But she does say that "California in the middle to late 1800's was much like a violence-plagued Bosnia, where "ethnic cleansing"...has become the norm." (100)
"The employment of Indians- especially those belonging to the hostiles' own tribe- would destroy the troublemakers' morale (Hurtado 323).
ReplyDeleteThe Native Americans would feel betrayed when they would see their own people fighting against them. They would see it that sooner or later the rest of them would give in.
"he listened to the white strangers, their offers and promises that if they took his son they would care well for him..." (Hurtado 317).
Lakota recalls what the white people would tell his father in order to get him. His father knew that they were most likely lying about what they were saying about how they were going to treat him, but his father knew it was for the best.
"The Civil War presented a difficult challenge to leaders in Indian Territory" (Pg,285)
ReplyDeleteDuring the time of the civil war native american leaders were faced with the tough task of having to deal with the political agendas of the Americans and still had to worry and keep peace in the native politcal and social cirlce as well.
" The exigencies of guerrilla warfare that fotced commanders to manke use of Indians" (p323)
When the neatives started to resit the americans and gain any type of stronghold over the americans they turned to other Native tribes and enlisted them into the army. This was used for a few reason, one being that they needed scouts that new the land and would give larger numbers to the army, and second when the natives fought americasns and began to see Indians helping in warfare it was hoped that the use of Natives would demoralize the Indians and help defeat them.
"The secession of the southern states left the Cherokees with COnfederate neighbors to the east and south, and Union neighbors to the north, all of whom demanded to know which side the nations of Indian Territory would choose as allies in the coming war" (Hurtado,Iverson 285).
ReplyDeleteWith the Civil War rapidly approaching, it was only natural that both North and South would turn to see who their Indian neighbors would side to in the conflict. However, this left the Indians in a extremely vulnerable position. They now had to choose which side to fight with, but the divide between different tribes in which alliance to join would further pull them apart even more.
"Wholesale genocide and rape became standard in California. According to a study conducted by the University of California, at least one thousand Indian women in the 1850's alopne were raped so brutally that most of them died. (Mankiller 100).
The atrocities that occurred in California were just a glimpse of the violence that Indians would be exposed to in the second half of the 1800's. As the United States continued it's push west, so to did it continue to expel Indians by any means necessary to achieve these ambitions. With complete disregard for human life, Indians were subject to an overwhelming amount of violence that seemingly had no resolution in sight.