Who Lied?
The Native American Genocide
L. Frank Baum, the newspaper editor of South Dakota's Aberdeen Saturday Pioneer , stated his approval after a massacre of a Native American Sioux tribe in 1890: "we had better, in order to protect our civilization, follow it up and wipe these untamed and untamable creatures from the face of the earth.” Today we are not used to such barbaric statements and actions toward others. However from the beginning of the United States it was this sentiment that led to the extermination of the Native Americans. Though we often don't realize it, genocide has indeed happened in the United States. S tories of an American genocide aren't in our history books; children grow up reading stories like Pocahontas. These Hollywood stories often depict harmonious relationships between settlers and Native Americans. But there is another truth to be told. By uncovering and understanding the magnitude of the atrocities the American government committed against the Native Americans we can begin to amend the wrongs of genocide and prevent future genocides from happening.
The conflict started upon the arrival of Christopher Columbus in 1492. The lives of Native Americans changed forever, for they had a long road of persecution and genocide ahead of them. Other Colonists that came later followed Columbus's example of implementing slavery and mass killings of Native American tribes. Examples of the extent to which colonists carried out brutalities against Native Americans include the hanging of hundreds of tribal people and cutting victims up into many pieces.
Upon the making of the United States government, the atrocities against the Native Americans continued. The discovery of gold led to the expansion of colonies. The expansions led to more interactions between the colonists and the Native Americans, and many more deaths. The government implemented laws and rules that discriminated against Native Americans. In 1830, President Andrew Jackson and the US government began the process of the “Indian Removal” policy, which cleared the land for white settlers. This policy led to the terrible “Trail of Tears.” Jackson wanted the land east of the Mississippi clear of Indians, for white settlers to mine gold. Jackson promised the different tribes their own land that would be theirs forever, and aid to anyone who needed it along the trek. But t he move from east to west was much more destructive to the tribes than helpful. What seemed to be a fair trade soon turned into a terrible ordeal as many Native Americans died from exhaustion and starvation along the journey. Over 3,000 Natives of the Cherokee tribe alone died on the Trail of Tears. This number does not include all of those who died once they arrived in Oklahoma. 70,000 Native Americans moved to the Oklahoma region, or “Indian Territory” within the span of ten years.
As colonies became states, the United States continued to expand westward. More and more Native Americans were pushed off their lands on to unwanted and unusable land - barren reservations - out of site and out of mind. Countless massacres happened to different tribes. These brutalities include the massacre at Wounded Knee, where over 300 Sioux Indians were killed, the Sand Creek Massacre in Colorado, where 200 Cheyenne's were not only killed but their bodies mutilated, and the brutal and complete removal of Native Americans from the state of Texas.
The editor Baum also stated that, “…The whites by law of conquest, by justice of civilization, are masters of the American continent, and the best safety of the frontier settlements will be secured by the total annihilation of the few remaining Indians. Their glory has fled, their spirit broken, their manhood effaced, better they should die than live the miserable wretches that they are.” Baum, like many others, tried to justify the outright genocide that was occurring by spreading the idea that Native Americans were inhumane. In 1491, b efore European contact, in the land that is now the United States had approximately 12 million occupants. Four centuries later, the total population of Native Americans was reduced to 237,000, a 95% decrease.
The American people and government broke every last one of over 350 treaties signed with the American Indians. People try to make excuses for the brutality that was imposed on the Native Americans, by mentioning the atrocities the Native Americans imposed on the citizens of the United States. But the land belonged to the Native Americans in the first place, and they reacted just as any citizen would in defense of their land and family.
In conclusion, the United States stripped the Indians of their land, their rights, and most importantly, their pride as a people. The genocide that the American people imposed upon the Native Americans cannot be justified. Just because the United States government committed these crimes hundreds of years ago, we cannot simply forget about the past. Today in the United States, we have made a lot of progress in stopping the sentiments and beginnings of genocide, but it is still happening worldwide right now. To understand the ways in which the Native Americans lived we must immerse ourselves and learn about Native American culture and respect it. The Native American genocide is just one example of the ruthless destruction that has and is taking place in the world. To have peace on Earth and prevent future atrocities, we need to recognize past mistakes that have led to disgraceful stories of killings and hatred that we call genocide.
Works Cited
Katz, William Loren. “Columbus and the American Holocaust.” New York Amsterdam
News. Vol 94 Issue 41. 10/9/2003.
Trennert Jr, Robert A. “Alternative to Extinction.” Temple University Press.
Philadelphia: 1975.
Trabich, Lea. “Native American Genocide Still Haunts United States.” An End To
Intolerance. June 1997. Holocaust/Genocide Projects.
http://www.iearn.org/hgp/aeti/aeti-1997/native-americans.html
Delema, Raina. “Native American Genocide.” History Behind the News . Spring 2005.
http://www.lcsc.edu/elmartin/historybehindthenews/Spring%202005/Delema.htm
By Soren Frykholm