Native American History Flashcards
Roughly when did the first inhabitants arrive on the North American continent?
Native Americans: migration across the Bering Strait 15,000 – 40,000 years ago
What are major factors for the decline of Native American populations after the “discovery” of the New World?
Depopulation from disease: Disease began to kill immense numbers of indigenous Americans soon after Europeans and Africans began to arrive in the New World, bringing with them the infectious diseases of the Old World. The most devastating disease was smallpox, but other deadly diseases included typhus, measles, influenza, bubonic plague, mumps, yellow fever, and whooping cough. The Americas also had endemic diseases, perhaps including a type of syphilis, which soon became rampant in the Old World.
Displacement and disruption: Even more consequential than warfare or mistreatment on indigenous populations was the geographic displacement and the disruption of lifeways that resulted from the European colonization of the Americas. As more and more people arrived from the Old World, native peoples were increasingly compelled to relocate and alter their traditional ways of life. These changes often resulted in decreased birth rates, which steadily lowered populations over time.
Why were the British colonies generally perceived as a greater threat from the perspective of the Native American populations than those by e.g. the French and Spanish colonizers?
While Native Americans and English settlers in the New England territories first attempted a mutual relationship based on trade and a shared dedication to spirituality, soon disease and other conflicts led to a deteriorated relationship and, eventually, the First Indian War.
The Spanish attitude toward the Indians was that they saw themselves as guardians of the Indians basic rights. The Spanish goal was for the peaceful submission of the Indians. The laws of Spain controlled the conduct of soldiers during wars, even when the tribes were hostile.
Describe the general pattern of European westward movement on the North American continent in relation to treatments of the native population.
Westward Expansion generally had negative effects on the Native Americans. Native Americans were forced to live on reservations. The buffalo, an important resource, experienced rapid population decline. Military conflict between Whites and Native Americans resulted in many deaths.
Resistance from the French and Native Americans slowed their movement westward, yet by the 1750s northern American colonists had occupied most of New England.
According to Turner, the westward movement Americanized the pioneer, shaped American institutions, and promoted democracy. It was a long time before historians started questioning Turner’s “frontier thesis”, so strong was the appeal to Americans’ imagination generated by this justification of American exceptionalism.
Be able to explain main aspects and meanings of John Gast‘s 1872 painting „American Progress“!
The woman in the center is Columbia, the personification of the United States. She is carrying a schoolbook in one hand and a string of telegraph wire in the other. The image has been interpreted to represent the passage of time from left (past) to right (future). Another interpretation is that the entire image is a depiction of the present, with the left representing the West, and the right representing the East. Columbia is moving West and taking the civilization of the East with her, driving off American Indians and bison in the process.
What were the “Indian Removal” policies of Andrew Jackson? What was the “Trail of Tears”?
The Trail of Tears is a name given to the forced relocation of Native American nations from southeastern parts of the United States following the Indian Removal Act of 1830. The removal included many members of the following tribes, who did not wish to assimilate: Cherokee, Muscogee, Seminole, Chickasaw, and Choctaw nations, among others, from their homelands to Indian Territory west of the Mississippi River.
Many Native Americans suffered or died from exposure, disease and starvation on the route to their destinations.
When did the so-called “Indian Wars” take place and what were reasons for the campaigns of the US troops?
They took place in 1890.
The Sioux Indians had a treaty with the settlers according to which, if they stayed on the reservation (60 million acre) and did not attack the white settlers, they would be provided with food, education and other benefits. Yet the settlers broke the treaty and the native territory shrunk by 80 % because of the inability to hunt and the forced assimilation among other problems the tribe was pushed to the brink of starvation. Then the Ghost Dance religious movement came.
The Ghost Dance was a ritual circle dance and it was believed that, if performed, God would return the earth to its natural state prior to the arrival of European colonists. The federal government saw this as a threat and sent the army to suppress the Ghost Dance religion. (Attempts by American authorities to suppress GD religion).
A tribe Leader, Sitting Bull, was accused of promoting this religion ad was killed in custody.
US soldiers attempted to disarm a group of Dakotas at Wounded Knee Creek: troops ended killing all 300 men, women, and children.
Which strategies of “assimilation” and “Americanization” of the native population can you identify in U.S. Federal Policies?
The policies of Americanization and assimilation were based on the idea that by learning the customs and values of the United States, Native Americans could merge tribal traditions with American culture and peacefully join the majority of society. After the Indian Wars ended in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the federal government outlawed the performance of traditional religious ceremonies. It established Native American boarding schools that children were required to attend. In these schools, they were forced to speak English, learn standard subjects, attend church, and leave tribal traditions behind.
What does Booker T. Washington’s experience teaching Native Americans at Hampton as it is described in Up from Slavery (1901) tell us about nineteenth-century U.S. attempts at “civilizing Indians” and assimilation? What does it tell us about nineteenth-century ideas about “race” and “civilization”?
These following passages demonstrate the complexity of American race relations at the end of the 19th century. Although Native Americans were systematically murdered and forced to migrate to the western territories, most of the white Americans believed that Native Americans were still racially superior to black Americans. Native Americans were viewed as something of an “intermediate race” compared to blacks and whites. They were still often subject to harmful racial stereotypes, but they were seen as a better or more valuable race than blacks.
Washington believed that in order to achieve true racial harmony it was necessary to adopt and implement the ideals of white society — essentially, minorities must change to conform to white society’s views, rather than change to conform to other cultures to accept as they are. This belief appears to be rooted in Washington’s assumption that what white society calls “civilized” and “respectable” is the objective ideal of those qualities, not something related to culture and time.
Not entirely surprising, Native Americans and black Americans shared similar interests. After all, they were oppressed politically, economically and socially by the white majority. Once again, Washington is emphasizing the value of trade education.
Explain the term “pretendian” and (look up and) give an example.
A pretendian is a person who falsely claims to have Indigenous ancestry — that is, people who fake an Indigenous identity or dig up an ancient ancestor from hundreds of years ago to declare themselves Indigenous today.
Example: Johnny Depp – An actor who has claimed both Creek and Cherokee descent on numerous occasions, including when cast as Tonto in the 2013 film The Lone Ranger, but who has no documented Native ancestry nor membership in any tribe.
