“Civilization has been thrust upon
me… and
it has not added one whit to my love
for truth,
honesty, and generosity…”
-Chief
Luther Standing Bear
Oglala
Sioux
The original inhabitants of this
country were forced, often through acts of heinous violence, to reside on plots
of land chosen by outsiders referred to as reservations. The passage of the
Indian Appropriations Act of 1851 authorized the establishment of reservations
in the U.S. Indian Reservations were sections of land allotted to Native
Americans to live on, usually land the white settlers did not want. Often the land was not suitable for
agriculture. Native American homelands were selected because they were rich in
natural resources such as sources of water, wild game and land that was
suitable for agriculture. (70% of the food that exists today was introduced by
Native Americans in the past such as squash, corn and other vegetables.) It was
important for Native Americans to provide for their families and communities. Approximately,
three hundred Indian Reser-vations were located in the United States. Not every
state in the U.S. has had an Indian reservation, and not every Indian tribe has
a reservation. The end results of the reservation legislation were catastrophic
(History.com Editors, 2019).
In the Ojibwe language “enjibaayan” means where someone was born
or where a person’s spirit was from. When an Indian person formally introduces
him or herself, they often give the area in which they were born as part of the
introduction. Umbilical cords were often buried in the area in which a child
was born. The land Indian people lived on in the past was considered blessed
and provided to them by the Creator. Their homelands were considered sacred.
While
in the twenty-first century reservation travel was unrestricted, at the time of
establishment Native Americans were not allowed to travel outside the
reservation boundaries. Many tribes were also nomadic and they lost their means
of survival when constricted to a confined unsuitable area. Many tribal people
moved from one location to another to seek the best resources such as wild
game. The Plains’ Indians followed the buffalo herds. Hunting and fishing were
not always adequate options for providing food for the tribal families on
reservations. The game and fish in many of these locations was often scarce.
Indian people who farmed often found themselves on land that was unsuitable for
agriculture. The land was ended up being arid, rocky and/or sandy. As a result,
the people living on the reservations had to rely on the government for food. The
government often provided spoiled food and they faced starvation and sickness
inflicted on them by sadistic governmental officials.
Having an area in which a number of
people are forced to live, mostly due to their lower social economic status and
racial ethnicity, can lead to an underclass mentality. This mentality was drawn
from self-fulfilling prophesies associated with negative stereotypes, such as
“drunken Indians” (New World Encyclopedia, 2018). Reservations had become war
zones filled with domestic violence, substance abuse, child abuse and child
neglect, which had served as constant reminders of the unresolved issues from
the past.
“Since
1492, European military traditions have twisted around and through American
Indian lives like a corkscrew. Tribes not only fought traditional enemies but
also every imperial power that arrived on the North American shores. And every
imperial power eventually sought Native American allies in their struggle to
wrest the land from its indigenous owners. Native confederacies were formed to
fight the European interlopers and their tribal allies. Many of these
confederacies were formed primarily for military purposes. The long conflict
with the Europeans turned several tribes into virtual military states, always
under the threat of attack and annihilation. When many of the tribal nations
came onto the reservations, they lived under what amounted to as martial law”
(Holm, 1996, pg. 22). As a result of
this unyielding rule and constant conflict, the Indian people ended up feeling
exhausted and lived in a continuous state of unrest.
Housing
on the reservations was substandard until the Department of Housing and Urban
Development began providing funding for the building of suitable housing units
on reservations. Associated to the funding were standards to which the homes
were to be built including quality windows, roofing, insulation and other
requirements. These homes were provided to the Indian families on a sliding fee
scale: the lower a family’s income, the lower the cost of rent.
When the Europeans first came to
this country, money was a foreign concept for the Native Americans. Many tribal people still have difficulty
managing their money. Poverty has been commonplace in the past and still continued
to be a problem for many Indian people today. The Pine Ridge reservation, for
example, was noted by President Clinton as resembling a third-world country.
Indian people who received a windfall would often overspend as a result of
going without for so long. A multitude of Native Americans do not possess
budgeting skills and fall behind on their bills.
The job market and educational
opportunities were usually scarce due to the rural locations of many of the
reservations. In order to pursue a degree from a college or university, tribal
members usually have to travel to another community. Transportation is another
issue. Without adequate transportation it is difficult for these individuals to
seek advancement of any kind.
In order for the white settlers to be given the optimal
areas to live on, areas usually suited for agriculture, Native Americans were
forced from their homelands. They were, often with heinous violence, forced to
live on reservations. Some of the Native Americans belonged to hunter and
gatherer societies. They were often nomadic such as when the Plains
Indians followed buffalo herds when they
migrated from one location to the next. Wild game became overhunted by the
Anglo-invaders. The goal of the reservation policies of a multitude of
governmental officials and military officers such as Sheridan and Sherman was
to reduce the Native Americans to subjugated individuals reliant on the
government to provide for their needs. Many of the same individuals wanted the
Native Americans to face starvation that was why the buffalo were slaughtered
on the plains. The aforementioned hardships created a desperate group of
individuals and communities, an underclass mentality was established for many
Native Americans that has been carried out for centuries.
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