Walker Holmes

Ms. Cooper & Mrs. Whipple

1st APLANG & 3rd APUSH

5/24/17

Over time, how has marginalization of Native Americans affected their culture and way of life?

Since beginning my Junior year in highschool I have spent much of my in class time

discussing the lives of Native Americans. During my summer I was given an assignments for

AP U.S. History which required me to do research on Pre-Columbian era Natives by reading

textbooks, looking at maps, and reading primary source documents which focused on Natives.

This was when I first started learning about Native Americans and it opened my eyes on how

their culture changed (often for the worse) after the arrival of the Europeans. I learned of the

initial effects two different worlds colliding in the New World had on both groups. Through my

APUSH summer assignment I learned how different Native American tribes lived and interacted

before the arrival of Europeans. My knowledge on Natives expanded even further once school

began. During my first week in history class I was put in a group with 3 other kids to do

research on an American Indian cultural group. In my group I investigated the culture, political

structure, language, and living type of the Hopi tribe that lived in the Southwest. I also had the

opportunity to learn about the findings of the other groups so that I learned about tribes in the

Great Basin, Great Plains, Pacific Northwest, Northeast Woodlands, and Southeast. I would not

have been able to see the way Native culture changed for the Natives after being assimilated by

Europeans if I did not know how their culture was to begin with. I have been able to see that
what Natives eat, how they dress, where they live, and what they learn has changed in a broad

way.

In APUSH I also learned a lot about Native Americans through short answer questions.

An SAQ that I had in the start of the year was over the opinion of Juan Sepulveda versus

Bartolome de las Casas on the subject of Native Americans. Sepulveda argued that Native

Americans were savages and deserved to be treated as so and that the Spanish were civilized. On

the other hand, de las Casas argued that the Indians were people who did not deserve to be

attacked and killed by the Spanish and that the Spanish were not noble but the beasts themselves.

This relates to recognizing perspective because I read two different perspectives on Native

Americans that were both supported by evidence. In writing my SAQ I had to know events

during that time period that could support the point of view of both authors so I was also thinking

from both of their point of views. This taught me that Native Americans were treated poorly by

Europeans since they were killed, turned into slaves, and pushed off their land, thus showing an

effect of them being assimilated. The effect was that the Native Americans lost identity when

they were marginalized and they were also forced into practicing a religion they were not

familiar or comfortable with.

In English class I did an Inquiry Based Learning project (IBL) that tasked groups of 4

with the challenge of developing a question focused around Natives, answering the question with

research, and presenting our findings to an audience. The question I chose to research was Over

time, how has marginalization of Native Americans affected their culture and way of life? and it

is also the question I am answering in this essay. I did research for a few weeks on the ways

Native Americans have been assimilated for the past 100 years and the ways that has changed
their culture. My group concluded that throughout history Native Americans have been forced to

discontinue their ways of life and have been faced with discrimination. We learned that the

lives of Natives have changed drastically since the arrival of the Europeans. Native Americans

have lost the buffalo, thus changing their diets, they have lost many of their tribal languages,

they have begun to dress differently, many of them practice a religion that is different from their

ancestors, and most of them do not engage in tribal behaviors. The lives of the Natives have

been forever altered. Their culture has been diluted and blended in with American culture, and

not by choice. My group presented our findings to a fourth grade class at Brikerwoods

Elementary. We were surprised to discover that many of the children had knowledge on the

keystone pipeline and the hardships Natives have faced for centuries. Almost all of the kids

were engaged in our conversation. It was extremely rewarding to see these young kids interested

in what juniors in high school were learning.

In English class we read and annotated the essay "Superman and Me" by Sherman Alexie

which was about the opportunities Alexie was exposed to as a kid because of his father, that he

would not have had if not for him, and how Alexie perceived Native American stereotypes as he

got older. Alexie, being a Native American himself, gave insight on how growing up on a

reservation made him feel as a kid. He also wrote about how many of the kids living on

reservations feel more comfortable following stereotypes, such as being dumb, than they do

breaking away from them. This taught me that many Native Americans on reservations have less

educational opportunities because stereotypes have forced limits on their lives. By reading this

story I also saw how the assimilation of Natives has granted them worse education than what

much of the U.S. has access to. Since the essay written by Alexie is contemporary, I realized
that even today, the lives of Native Americans are altered in a negative manner do to the arrival

of Europeans. I have also learned a lot about the keystone pipeline this year and it has taught me

that even still, the U.S. government continues to push Native Americans off of land that is

rightfully theirs.

During the entirety of my junior year I have learned a significant amount about Native

Americans. I am now aware of the horrors they have been through and the constant struggle

many of them are put through do to the past of their parents and ancestors. I also know that their

lives have changed since interacting with the Europeans and if the Europeans had never set foot

on what is now American soil the Natives would most likely live much more peaceful lives.

They would have the power to learn how they want, live where they want, eat what they want,

and believe in what they want. Their assimilation has put strains on their culture.
 Works Cited

Alexie, Sherman, Superman and Me: The Joy of Reading and

Writing. Los Angeles Times, 19 April 1998. Web. 1 September

2013.