The topic for this week is a pivotal part of American history that is often over-looked when we learn this in school. Following the civil war era, many Americans began to move westward in search of gold. When we talk about westward expansion, we typically think of the American manifest destiny and not the removal of Native Americans. Westward expansion was facilitated by the government and came with a history of colonization. For those who don't know what colonization is, it's the process where another group takes charge of land initially occupied by another group by force. Yes, conquest was already present before this when the pilgrims came and took over the eastern United States, but now it's happening on a national scale. The government viewed "Indians" as a threat to white settlement, so they created designated space for them called reservations. When the Homestead Act passed in 1862, Native Americans got their land stolen from them and forced to live on the land where it was hard to cultivate crops. The Indian wars began soon after, and some native armies led successful assaults against the U.S. military. For example, in the Battle of Little Big Horn in 1876, the Native Americans managed to take down 263 men, and this caused the nation to go into a state of shock.
On the other hand, there were several Indians massacred during the Indian wars. Hundreds of Natives were gunned down during Sitting Bull and the Battle of Wounded Knee while peacefully fleeing to their new home. It just makes me sad that they got their land stolen from them TWICE, were forced to move for white settlement, and slaughtered while trying to protest. The way they were treated is sickening, and it just makes me wonder why the White Americans wanted to oppress every race of people that isn't white like them. Just because they are different than them doesn't justify how they treated them as savage animals instead of human beings.
In response to the exam essay question, as I said in previous posts, success in America does not come from solely hard-work, especially during this time where non-whites weren't seen as equals. In this circumstance, if you are not white, the odds are not in your favor, and success will likely not come from your hard work.
Good information about the Native Americans in the west. They are some ambitious people to keep their life moving forward because I don't think many people would do what they've tried to do.
A lot of things are overlooked in American education. The history books are written and controlled by the white men and they will always skew the words so they look like they were in the right and did nothing wrong. This part of history that was overlooked is a huge misstep because of the damage and destruction it caused to the Native people.
The Vietnam war was the longest war of the United States was involved in and lasted longer than any other conflict. The Vietnam war had over 60,000 American casualties and 2 million Vietnamese casualties. Although I did not learn much about the Vietnam war in school, I know just from its portrayal in the media how brutal it indeed was. So basically, Vietnam was under French colonial control since the 19th century, and the Vietnamese wanted independence from France. A man named Ho Chi Minh advocated for Vietnamese independence and was initially a socialist/nationalist. Ho Chi Minh eventually turned to communism out of necessity, and the United States opposed this. Ho Chi Minh even modeled the Vietnamese declaration of independence after the American constitution, but Americans did not care because he was a communist. The U.S. went on to support France and began funding the French-Indochina war between 1945-1954 to keep communism out with "domino theory." The united states then
Good information about the Native Americans in the west. They are some ambitious people to keep their life moving forward because I don't think many people would do what they've tried to do.
ReplyDeleteA lot of things are overlooked in American education. The history books are written and controlled by the white men and they will always skew the words so they look like they were in the right and did nothing wrong. This part of history that was overlooked is a huge misstep because of the damage and destruction it caused to the Native people.
ReplyDeleteThis is a great post, Aleena. It is well-written, organized, and uses evidence thoughtfully!
ReplyDelete