For this unit’s assignments, I plan on delving into society’s attitudes towards the Native American people over time, beginning from the Indian Removal Act of 1830 to present day Native American reservations. While I cannot possibly cover the complete history of discrimination against the indigenous peoples by colonizers, I will try my best to cover the ideological destruction of their culture as well as the overall indifference of society’s attitudes towards Native Americans today.
The first turning point that I will cover is the Indian Removal Act of 1830 enacted by President Andrew Jackson as well as the forced relocation of 100,000 Native Americans between 1830 and 1850 known as the Trail of Tears, resulting in the loss of ancestral homelands and 15,000 deaths. This march of death enforced by the federal government manifested the idea of white supremacy amongst the colonists, which would bring more suffering to the indigenous peoples for centuries to come.
The second turning point that I will cover is the creation of boarding schools for the assimilation of Native children into Christian society, which began in 1860 and officially ended in 1978. These schools supported the ideology of “kill the indian, save the man,” which I will elaborate more on in my speech/essay.
My third turning point will cover the American Indian Movement, started in 1968 and its continued fight for rights today in the face of societal indifference.
This topic is important to me, for my family on my mom’s side is descended from Seminole tribe members, and my grandmother on my dad’s side had a great grandmother who was fully Mohawk. While my family became increasingly less connected to their native roots over time, this topic continues to be important to me and my parents, who both worked in a school on a reservation in South Dakota for a little less than a year (before me and my siblings were born).
This is such an important topic. The use of legislation as artifacts could be really affective in your essay, like some of the ones you mentioned before. There is also an environmental aspect you could tie in. How indigenous peoples have been activists for saving the environment which impacts how they have been treated.
This is an interesting topic that I don’t think receives enough awareness. It would be interesting to investigate how the perception of Native Americans throughout history caused many people to have unconscious biases. I think you did a great job of picking specific turning points, and then defending these turning points with pieces of legislation.