To many, the United States is the land of opportunity, as long the opportunity is toward the success of white people. For people of color, America is a representation of a long history of death, oppression, and destruction. The local community is no exception to this discrimination, specifically with Native Americans. One of the most popular attractions in Flagstaff, Arizona is the Snowbowl located on the western slopes of Humphreys Peak on the San Francisco Peaks. The alpine ski resort provides an enjoyable experience for most people, yet it is rarely considered how the Snowbowl has negatively impacted Indigenous beliefs. However, this sacrilege Native Americans endure from the Snowbowl is nothing new in terms of history. The colonization …show more content…
The American society should strive to obtain higher standards of respect for the majority as well as the minority communities. There are not many people who are aware about the controversy and issues that the use of reclaimed water at the Snowbowl has created. Yet this disrespect to Indigenous belief has a long path in American history and Native American people. Indians were stripped of their land in 1829 because of the Homestead Act, which granted white people the right to claim up to 160 acres of land as their own. Even as the Constitution states that “all men are created equal”, Native Americans have faced discrimination, oppression, and racism due to their culture and skin color. Through a simple evaluation of past behavior, it is apparent that Indigenous people have always been disregarded, and were taught the harsh lesson that equality among men does not exist. However, this behavior is not in the past, as racism continues on everywhere including the San Francisco Peaks of Flagstaff, Arizona. Native Americans and the Snowbowl are just a small portion of nationwide racial issues that are forever occurring in the United States. A solution to these discriminating actions could be possible, at least in the mountains, by having the owners of the Snowbowl cooperate with Native Americans to stop this disrespect and oppression of their religion. This could honor their belief systems and culture in a way that was far too sparse in the genocide of Indians and the colonization of the United States, as well as possibly paving the way to a more accepting
White residents of the United States clashed with the Indigenous people on land, food, and rights, without a permanent compromise. In 1829, President Andrew Jackson proposes to move all Indigenous people within America’s current territory to reservations. After being pursued for nearly thirty years, the Choctaw and the Chickasaw tribes agreed for their removal. This would allow whites to live their civilized lives as the Indigenous people cast off their savage habits in remote reservations. President Jackson’s Case for the Removal Act shows that those of power and majority decide the terms of segregation.
In his essay, “First Wilderness: America’s Wonderland and Indian Removal from Yellowstone National Park,” Mark David Spence argues that the creation of Yellowstone National Park is an early illustration of removing native peoples as a way to “preserve” nature. The idea of Yellowstone being a pristine and untouched wilderness, is challenged by Spence as he brings to light the presence of Indigenous peoples and communities who had occupied the land prior to the national park being established. He advocates for a better understanding of Yellowstone National Park’s history, encompassing the dispossession of the Indigenous peoples within the area. Spence explains how the wilderness preservation of Yellowstone ignores and dismisses any connection
In this excerpt from a work of satire, Dr. Rayna Green proposes the establishment of a “Museum of the Plains White Person” and goes on to explain how, where, and why it should be built and what the museum will include. Dr. Green wrote this speech so that white people could experience the disrespect the Native Americans receive when they are talked about. Dr. Green effectively satirizes the beliefs of white people about Native American through the use of an insensitive and ignorant tone which is emphasized by assumptious diction and syntax. The location of the museum is over an “abandoned ceremonial ball court” which is extremely disrespectful to the ceremonies held on it and to those who performed them. Dr. Green ignores the fact that it is ceremonial ground that holds importance to other people.
Tribes in Glacier were deemed “simply un-American in their lack of appreciation for the national park and almost barbaric in their unwillingness to let go of traditional practices,” (Spence 72) if they traveled elsewhere within the park. In Yosemite National Park, an Indian village was created and “reserved for those with the strongest “moral right” to reside in the valley.” (Spence 126) Through these countless efforts to slowly dispossess Indians from their native land, the government slowly succeeded and began to erase the Indian existence from the parks all
Though westernizing the Indian religion and their traditions stands as its own problem, the author states that another part of the problem is that there is no protection for these traditional religions or their sacred lands within the American constitution. In order to establish a sacred experience, we as Americans must recognize the sacredness of the lands, in the first place. The author argues that the protection of sacred lands and the preservation of traditional American Indian religions should not only be brought about by those participating but should be a movement all individuals should be involved in. To this day, sacred lands are continuing to be put at risk. Developers are constantly at work, trying to modernize and build on the lands that Native Americans hold close to their traditions.
Thirdly, discriminatory behaviour by surrounding communities and the effects it has on First Nation children. There are many voices in this world that appreciate being heard upon their opinions, but some individuals use their voices as weapons to bring down other people. In Richard Wagamese’s Indian Horse, the audience in a hockey game perceive a hockey team full of Indigenous peoples as a source of negative energy for the game in general, and that can be interpreted as racial discrimination. “As we skated onto the ice for our game against the North Bay Nuggets, the crowd booed us. When our line us was introduced, they knew exactly where to direct their energy” (Wagamese
For example, in 1891, Congress “relieved” the Mission Indians, that were at the time residing in California, of their water. What this actually meant was that, under section two of this act, the Mission Indians, only had a specific piece of land they could live on, called a reservation. In addition to the Whites telling them where to live, they gave them a limitation on how many acres they could own; giving them no more than 640 acres, but no less than 160 acres. Only to further the oppression, section three states that construction was allowed for a major “flume, ditch canal, pipe, or other appliances for the conveyance of water over, across, or through such reservations for agricultural, manufacturing, or other purposes…” (Blum, Gjerde, and Hoffman, 47).
This is what you call cultural genocide, the fact that they forced “American” culture on to them and taught them about it is enough to call it a genocide. After that they even made laws that changed their tribe’s legal status. This act also offered 160 acres of land to each Native-American family but the land was non-fertile to grow food. They were also not allowed to sell the land and were not considered citizens of the United States until after 25 years later, “Each Native American family was offered 160 acres of tribal land to own outright. Although the land could not be sold for 25 years, these new landowners could farm it for profit like other farmers in the
I was raised in the Black Hills of South Dakota. I grew up with an awareness that Native Americans, or “Indians,” were a minority in my home town of Rapid City, South Dakota. But in school, my only real contact with the Lakota was in basketball tournaments like the Lakota National Invitational. My parents took me to the largest Pow Wow in Western South Dakota every year where we watched the beautiful grand entry dancers and listened to the awe-inspiring drummers and Lakota singers performing traditional music. Toward the end of my middle school years, my mom, a family physician, started taking me to the Pine Ridge Reservation once a summer to drive around the town, eat at Subway, which is one of the only restaurants in the expansive reservation,
Throughout the history of the United States, there generally have been dozens of particularly social movements, which is fairly significant. From the African American Civil Rights Movement in 1954 to the feminism movement in 1920, protests for all intents and purposes have helped these groups basically earn rights and fight injustice in a really major way. Some injustices that these groups face range from lack of voting rights to police brutality, or so they essentially thought. The indigenous people of North America aren’t actually immune to these injustices, basically contrary to popular belief. Back in the 1968, the American Indian Movement generally was formed to for all intents and purposes give natives security and peace of mind in a
Losing one’s cultural knowledge, and therefore the reality of their culture, allows others to have control over their collective and individual consciousness as well as their destiny. In this case, it is clear that the United States government has had the dominant relationship over the Native
During the “Gilded Age” period of American history, development of the Trans-Mississippi west was crucial to fulfilling the American dream of manifest destiny and creating an identity which was distinctly American. Since the west is often associated with rugged pioneers and frontiersmen, there is an overarching idea of hardy American individualism. However, although these settlers were brave and helped to make America into what it is today, they heavily relied on federal support. It would not have been possible for white Americans to settle the Trans-Mississippi west without the US government removing Native Americans from their lands and placing them on reservations, offering land grants and incentives for people to move out west, and the
The Native Americans and white people never got along ever since the time the first pilgrims arrived. After losing many wars to the white men Native Americans soon became controlled by these white men to the point where their children were forced into boarding schools. The government stated that the schools would civilize the native children and fix what they called the indian problem. They saw Native Americans as if they weren’t also part of the human race, as if they were less. That wasn’t the worse part either in the boarding schools where the native american children attended they were mistreated and malnourished.
Rachael Goodson Professor Kathrine Chiles ENG & AFST 331 15 February 2018 William Apess In the nineteenth century, America was at one of its peaks of racial debate, with people starting to question whether it was right for the African Americans to stay enslaved, or if it was time to start the process of freeing the slaves and allowing them to live a better life. However, most people did not even question how the Native Americans were being treated or forced to change almost every aspect of their lives to “please,” as if they could ever be, the white people. William Apess’ The Experience of Five Christian Indians is an example of some of the harsh ways that Indians were treated before and even after they were “forcibly” converted to Christianity.
Throughout the 19th century Native Americans were treated far less than respectful by the United States’ government. This was the time when the United States wanted to expand and grow rapidly as a land, and to achieve this goal, the Native Americans were “pushed” westward. It was a memorable and tricky time in the Natives’ history, and the US government made many treatments with the Native Americans, making big changes on the Indian nation. Native Americans wanted to live peacefully with the white men, but the result of treatments and agreements was not quite peaceful. This precedent of mistreatment of minorities began with Andrew Jackson’s indian removal policies to the tribes of Oklahoma (specifically the Cherokee indians) in 1829 because of the lack of respect given to the indians during the removal laws.