Running head: INDIAN-AMERICANS: SUMMARY 1

The First Americans: Summary and Analysis

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INDIAN- AMERICANS: SUMMARY 2

With the rapid decline of the American Indian population in the nineteenth century, many

observers predicted that the first Americans were destined for extinction. The first tribe to settle

in the American soil was forced to subordinate themselves to foreign Euro-American culture

through resettlement to reservation centres or urban Indian territories. However, with social

activism and involvement of various movements, American Indians today are more numerous

than they have ever been in several centuries. The current economic and political landscape of

American Indians is the product of the process through which they were incorporated into Euro-

European culture through resettlement, assimilation, the Indian New Deal, and self-

determination.

The nature of Indian-American relationship changed after the 1812 War, a time

characterized by rapid population growth and increased military and political capabilities of the

federal government. Communities living east of Appalachian Mountains, including the American

Indians, were pressured to move west to the land bought during the Louisiana Purchase. With the

enactment of Indian Removal Act in 1830, eastern tribes were forced to newly created

reservations, a process that spanned for almost 50 years. The hardships and Indian Wars

terminated the lives of many native Indian-Americans, with the government responsible for

unquestionably one of the largest forced migrations in the US history.

With the Indian population significantly declining and nearing extinction in the

nineteenth century, reformers implored the federal government to create policies that would

humanely ease Indian-American into extermination. The response of the government was to

build schools and allotment acts to educate and assimilate the Indians into the Euro-American

culture. Indian children were prohibited from speaking their language, eating their traditional

foods or wearing their clothes.

INDIAN- AMERICANS: SUMMARY 3

However, with the Indian New Deal in the 1930s during the Roosevelt government, the

disastrous allotment era was brought to an end. Rather than detribalizing the Indian Americans,

the federal government recognized the significance of tribal culture. Significantly, the enactment

of Indian Reorganization Act (IRA) gave the Indian tribe mandate to reconstitute themselves to

run their own affairs. After the WWII, the government sought to settle matters with the Indian

tribes by resolving the underlying legal issues and terminate the special status of reservations as

well as assisting Indians to relocate into urban areas. The opposition of termination and

relocation policies led the Indian-American leaders to initiate self-determination, where people

were allowed to control their lives, without paternalism of the government. Therefore, despite the

challenges that the Indian-Americans have gone in the past even risking their existence, their

resilience ultimately survived them.

Reading the history of Indian-Americans and issues they have gone through has taught

me how different races that do not conform to the mainstream culture are treated. People are

expected to conform to certain physical looks, cultural practices, and even religion. However,

abandonment of culture or assimilation is not an ultimate solution to peaceful co-existence. The

federal government, law enforcement agencies, and communities should learn to accept and

respect diversity. Tribal minorities, such as the story told by Torres, should not be looked like

lowlifes, chinks, gangsters, and punks, but they should be treated with dignity.