Blog #94 – “Prisoner of war camps” = Indian reservations?
As we study Andrew Jackson’s legacy with regards to the Native Americans, one thing to keep in mind is the long-term legacy that white Americans have to own with regards to Native Americans. Jackson and Van Buren expelled the Indians, the Five “Civilized Tribes” of the Cherokee, Chickasaw, Seminole, Choctaw, and Creek tribes – under the Indian Removal Act. They were relocated to lands west of the Mississippi River where they would be allowed to roam free, the thinking went. In the video we saw this week, Andrew Jackson: The Good, Evil, and the Presidency, Natives suffered tremendously. But that was only one act in this long drama between white Americans (and previously before them, white Europeans) and Native Americans.
The Indian Removal Act was passed by Congress in 1830, in order to remove the five tribes from areas of Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi. Historian and noted Jackson scholar Robert Remini said that the Indians were removed from the eastern United States because they presented a direct threat to the country, having been used as sabotuers by foreign invaders in the past three wars that America had fought (French and Indian War, the Revolution, and the War of 1812). Remini saw this act as improving the homeland security of the nation. Other historians see the act within the context of the grab for new farm land in the cotton-growing frenzy that gripped the nation – the Indians were moved because the land they lived on was coveted by white farmers so that they could add to the cotton kingdom. This act was unconstitutional because the Indians were seen as sovereign nations living within the U.S. in Article IV, Section 3, and even the Supreme Court affirmed that the Cherokee couldn’t be moved in Worcester v. Georgia. Historian H.W. Brands states that President Jackson felt that this removal policy was “humane” and saved the Indians from annihiation from the crushing forces of white encroachment.
From there, however, Manifest Destiny charged ahead, damn the torpedoes, so to speak, and the Indians were in the way again. Whether it be farm land, gold and silver mines, railroads, or the destruction of the buffalo, Native Americans became an easy target for white Americans moving westward. The tribes were pushed aside and put onto reservations, or as the speaker in the TED talk below, Aaron Huey, calls them, “prisoner of war camps”. Some Indians like Red Cloud, Sitting Bull, and Crazy Horse, just to name a few, fought back and succeeded at slowing down the demographic tide. 
For most American history books, we see that they talk about the Indians almost always when they are being pushed off of their land by Europeans (King Philip’s War, Powhatan War, Seminole War, Indian Removal Act) or when they fight back (Battle of Little Bighorn, Red Cloud’s War) or after being indiscriminately massacred (Sand Creek and Wounded Knee Massacres). Few cover the decimation of disaeases that faced the Native Americans when the Europeans first arrived. Even fewer touch on 20th Century issues and laws regarding education, reservation (and sale of Indian land), tribal recognition, citizenship, Termination policy in the 1950s or other Indian policies like the Indian Reorganization Act of 1934. Our textbooks might talk about AIM or the standoff at Wounded Knee in 1973, but just as an inclusion of many minority groups in the chapter on the late 1960s / early 1970s. There might even be something about the seizure of Alcatraz Island by Native Americans. But rarely anything is heard after that.
In the following disturbing and moving video, photographer Aaron Huey lists the many things done (in the name of America) to the Lakota Sioux tribe. He juxtaposes the litany of broken treaties and promises and horrific things with his own photos of the Lakota tribe at Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota.
Aaron Huey’s wish is that the American government honor the treaties and give back the Black Hills. To atone for America’s sins, to use such a phrase, can anything truly be done? Where, if anywhere, should Americans start to make up for what has been done to the Native Americans? Is it right that we should speak in such manner as atoning for sins or asking for forgiveness? Or do you feel that you have nothing to ask forgiveness for since these things had been done before you were born? What responsibility do we have to Native Americans?
One major thing to consider is that though we may not have been personally responsible for oppressing the Native Americans, we benefit from the results of past policies of our government towards Native Americans (and even from past colonial practices).
Should we replace Columbus Day with Indigineous Peoples’ Day?
Should we push Congress to rescind the Medals of Honor distributed to the 7th Cavalry handed out after the Wounded Knee Massacre in 1890?
Should reservations be abolished? Or should those that exist still remain yet receive generous help?
Should the Washington football team, the Cleveland Indians, or Atlanta Braves be forced to take new mascot names?
What can we learn from Canada and the way they have treated and honored their Native Americans?
Should we continue to oppose the Dakota Access Pipeline (since President Trump has rescinded President Obama’s cancellation of it)?
Should Native Americans be given back their religious ceremonial artifacts, tens of thousands of which sit in museums, some on display, others locked in vaults? (for an upclose perspective, see the recent PBS film, What Was Ours here).
In finishing up the research for this blog (including reading chapters of the book, “All the Real Indians Died Off”: And 20 Other Myths About Native Americans by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz) I found that Congress passed, as part of an appropriations bill, a resolution called the Native American Apology Resolution in 2009. Introduced by Republican senator from Kansas, Sam Brownback, he said the reason he did this was “to officially apologize for the past ill-conceived policies by the US Government toward the Native Peoples of this land and re-affirm our commitment toward healing our nation’s wounds and working toward establishing better relationships rooted in reconciliation.”
Furthermore:
The Apology Resolution states that the United States, “apologizes on behalf of the people of the United States to all Native Peoples for the many instances of violence, maltreatment, and neglect inflicted on Native Peoples by citizens of the United States.”
The Apology Resolution also “urges the President to acknowledge the wrongs of the United States against Indian tribes in the history of the United States in order to bring healing to this land.”
The Apology Resolution comes with a disclaimer that nothing in the Resolution authorizes or supports any legal claims against the United States and that the Resolution does not settle any claims against the United States.
The Apology Resolution does not include the lengthy Preamble that was part of S.J Res. 14 introduced earlier this year by Senator Brownback. The Preamble recites the history of U.S. – tribal relations including the assistance provided to the settlers by Native Americans, the killing of Indian women and children, the Trail of Tears, the Long Walk, the Sand Creek Massacre, and Wounded Knee, the theft of tribal lands and resources, the breaking of treaties, and the removal of Indian children to boarding schools.
- Tell us your reactions to the Ted Talk;
- Discuss your thoughts / concerns about how to acknowledge the debt America owes Native Americans and why.
400 words minimum for both answers. Due Wednesday, February 1.
Extended quotes come from the blog: https://nativevotewa.wordpress.com/2009/12/31/president-obama-signs-native-american-apology-resolution/
Jason Schumacher
1-30-17
Wickersham 5th hr
Blog#94
Before leaving without a seeing a word of mine it would be unjust for you to leave the comment, and giving me an E on the topic/ blog. Without having to sift through several thousand false comments or documents on how some people are oppressed today (not saying all of it is not true i.e. the oppression of the Irish today 😉 I am very willing to say that the speaker of the ted talk should not be CRYING over this (he can still feel bad about the “native Americans” or the Russians that settled in the early land of America, that have bad living conditions today). My reasoning is that America took the land over war, and had every right to keep the land (not saying that this is terrible) as with what Nazi Germany did during ww1, and America did not have to give back any of the taken land, but still had to pay for the damage done to the people. But with the oppression of people there is a restraint of how many century’s the oppressor must pay for the oppression. Well I am sure you know this, but we are WAY past that time where we would still be paying. So, I don’t know if you want us to give back the land, or just leave it alone, but I have no need to pay for the damage that not even my ancestors did, but someone else’s ancestors.
It’s like saying someone of no color (in present day, but not in real life) killed, and yes, I said KILLED two hundred men of color, and someone who is of color saying I did it, and not the man who did the crime (false conviction). Now around 5 centuries later my descendant (who has no relation to the man who committed the grave, and terrible massacre) is being falsely convicted of being the massacre himself (now isn’t that silly, am I correct?). well now my descendant must pay a fine to the relative’s descendants. Let’s say if you were the descendant of mine who was falsely convicted of the crime I was falsely convicted of wouldn’t that make you feel angry? Now by posting this blog (not the questions), but the video with the man saying my ancestors committed a crime (that they didn’t do), and saying the government that I live under should pay for this (which in the long run would affect me greatly, and even could make me homeless) makes me feel not angry, but concerned, because the people could have made their life better by industrializing their reservations, and not feeling sorry for themselves, now that I could be possibly punished for this in a large domino effect I think I should be saving my life up, in case that something bad happens like small businesses shutting down that could be supporting my life. (not saying I would prepare myself for this).
1.In the Ted Talk, Aaron Huey goes through a timeline of all the mean and unfair things that the United States has done to the Native Americans. While nothing he says is false, I don’t think it’s fair that he doesn’t mention one good thing that we’ve done for them. Sure, there might not be much of it, but if you are writing a paper or making a speech, you always have to include a counter argument, which he definitely did not. One thing that Huey talked about the really surprised me was all of the anti – Native American things Abraham Lincoln did. Everyone remembers him for abolishing slavery, yet no one has any idea of the bad things he did to Native Americans. In 1862, he passed the Homestead Act, allowing white settlers to move into Native American land. One year later, only two days after the Emancipation Proclamation, Lincoln ordered for 38 Native Americans to be hanged, the largest mass execution in the United States’ history. Another thing that caught my eye was how the US would have looked had the boundaries of The Treaty of Fort Laramie held. If the United States had honored this treaty, and by law they should have, the Lakota Nation would have had a huge piece of land, about the size of California, that spanned into North and South Dakota, Montana, Wyoming, and Nebraska.
2.If you were to take all of the things that the United States has done to the Native Americans all the way back to the 15th century, the amount of debt we owe them is unbearable. We have taken advantage of them, completely stabbed them in the back, blatantly broke many treaties, and have straight up disrespected them. It is a little known fact, but the Native Americans have actually beaten the US in battle before. However, with the US being the US, we rarely give them what they want. Regarding some of the other questions; Replacing Columbus Day with Indigenous Peoples’ Day is not something we should do. I think we could add an Indigenous Peoples’ Day, but not replace Columbus Day with it. Both topics are equally important and both deserve their remembrance. Reservations should absolutely not be abolished. If Native Americans are discriminated against in reservations already, how are they expected to make a living outside of them. They live in the reservations for protection from anti – Native American people and forcing them to move out would be very threatening to a race that is already endangered. Also, I don’t think the Washington Redskins, the Cleveland Indians, or the Atlanta Braves should have to change their names. In my opinion, Native Americans should take pride in these names. They are not meant as an insult, but as something that is fierce. The way I see it, the Native Americans have stood up to us for so long, and whoever came up with the names for each of those teams wanted their team to have as much resilience towards other teams as the Native Americans had towards us.
1. The Ted Talk by Aaron Huey displayed a timeline of attacks on Native Americans by the US. Before watching the video I knew that the US had treated the Indians unfairly during Andrew Jackson’s presidency and with reservations, but I learned about many more tragic events. I was surprised that Lincoln released unfair treaties after the emancipation of slaves, and about the Wounded Knee Massacre. It’s shocking that the cavalry in Wounded Knee was awarded the most medals of honor in any battle of all US history. I believe these medals should be revoked because the US murdered people that were indigenous to our country. I also think that Columbus Day should be changed to Indigenous People’s day because the natives should be recognized, rather than the person who spread disease and enslaved them. The reservations should receive help because the natives deserve to live in a society equal to US citizens. Opposing the Dakota Pipeline will be the first step in creating better qualities for Indian reservations. The pipeline destroys the environment of the reservations, and should be removed to establish a clean reservation. The Indians, Braves, and Redskins should be forced to change their mascots because the current mascots are racist toward Indians. I think that some of artifacts and artwork in museums should be returned to the Indians. They should receive pieces of their own culture, but Americans will also have the opportunity to learn about natives if some of their art is kept in museums. Lastly, America should learn from Canada’s native policies. Canada established a Providence, Nunavut, that consists of their native people, and their culture and artwork. America should consider creating land that preserves our native’s culture and artwork.
2. I think that America should acknowledge the debt between us and the Native Americans by repaying them for everything we’ve done to them in the past. Throughout US history, Americans have neglected the Indians over and over, and forced them to live in devastating communities. The US has formed some treaties with the natives, but then proceeded to break the treaties and hurt them. Andrew Jackson even removed Indians that had been immersed into American culture because he wanted to expand American farms to achieve more land for cotton. The Americans believe in Manifest Destiny, and will do everything it takes to build our country, even it means destroying another group’s culture. Today, most Native Americans live in poor reservations, and their lives are being threatened by American progress. I think that America should help the natives by giving them money and land to improve their living conditions, health, and lives. Most natives are under the poverty line, and opening up jobs could help them grow a better society. Lastly, I think America should supply the natives with healthy foods because many have diabetes, and the life spans of most are very short compared to Americans.
I would like to start by saying that we don’t owe the Native Americans anything. I agree that we did do some bad things to the Indians and that we probably could have done things differently, but we can’t go back and change history. What is done is done and we have acknowledged that we treated them poorly, but this happened such a long time ago, and people of our time had nothing to do with it, so there is nothing that we have to apologize for. This is a similar case to Japan during World War 2, we acknowledged that we did something that may have been bad, but we shouldn’t apologize because that happened in a different time period.. I also agree that it is sad that the vast majority of reservation Indians are living in poverty and in third world conditions, but there current state doesn’t have anything to do with what happened in the past. Natives have all the rights that American citizens have and there is far less racism and discrimination towards them as there was before. The reason that they are still in poverty is because they haven’t decided to do anything about it. Instead of going and getting a job and lifting themselves out of poverty, they spend most of their money on alcohol and other drugs. Instead of getting an education, they drop out of school, or get pregnant while in high school and no longer have the ability to get educated. If they want to get out of poverty, they are the ones that are going to have to do something about it, not the federal government, as there is nothing left that the government can do for them because they are clearly terrible at handling their money. I also believe that the idea that the man in the Ted Talk proposes that we should give back the Black Hills region that we took from the Lakota’s is absolutely ridiculous. His idea doesn’t even make sense. First off, why would the Indians be in better shape if they had their land back. They would be in far worse shape if they were their own nation because they wouldn’t even get federal assistance. This Indian nation would be a third world country, not just a third world region inside of a first world country. Secondly, what would happen to the Americans living in that region do. I’m sure that they would all rather live in some third world Native American nation instead of the greatest nation this world has ever seen. These people would then move back to the United States, but this whole situation would cause a lot of confusion. Lastly, why should we give them back the land? Didn’t we beat the Indians. The winner of a battle doesn’t simply give back the land they took from their enemies. The Indians fought us with help from Europe several times, and when we beat them, we could do whatever we wanted to do with the land. We probably shouldn’t have treated them as poorly as we did, but it was war and you take land in war. On the issue of Native American reservations, they should probably be abolished. They are from a bad time in American history when we didn’t want Native Americans around. We don’t need the reservations around anymore. All the reservations do is isolate the Indians, instead of isolating them, they should come and join the rest of the country. The reservation system doesn’t even make sense either because the way that they are set-up makes it seem as though they are little sovereign countries inside of the United States because they are not under the jurisdiction of the states that they are located, but are instead run by their tribal councils. Shouldn’t everyone in the U.S. live under the same system of federal government, state government and then local government? On the issue of pro-sports teams having potentially racist names, such as the Washington Redskins, the Cleveland Indians, the Atlanta Braves and the Chicago Blackhawks, they have the right to have such names. It is ridiculous that there is conversation about making these teams change names. My first reason is that we live in a free country, we have the first amendment right to say what we want. My second reason is that these teams have history. Why would you want to change team’s names such as the Indians, whose name has been in place since 1914, or the Blackhawks, whose name and logo have been in place since 1926. These teams especially have had a lot of history with those name and it would be a shame that they would be remembered differently. Another reason is that these names can’t be that offensive. Why would someone name a team’s after something that they despised. In the case of the Blackhawks, their name comes from a military unit who got its name from a prominent Indian in Illinois. The Braves and the Indians probably got their names because they admired the Indian warriors of the past and liked their strength. In the case of the Redskins, I ask if the term redskins is offensive. I’m not offended for being called a white person, isn’t the term redskins meaning the same thing. I think that having a team nicknamed after you should be seen as an honor, not an evil, because of these reasons above. Lastly, to those who still are deeply offended, grow a spine. If you roll into the fetal position in one of your precious safe spaces whenever someone offends you, you are mentally weak. Words cannot hurt you, just deal with it. This can apply to any issue, not just teams that have “offensive” names, this includes those of you who cried when Trump was elected.
1. The Ted talk really puts all the books and thoughts of many people together. America has, again and again, given the Natives something and taken it away all together. They give them some land but then say something, like an abundance of gold, that causes white settlers to flock there and then do nothing about it. It’s a shame really that america has this long lasting feud with the Indians. Without them a lot of people would have starved when they first arrived. They were polite to us in teaching us how to grow different crops and catch food so that we wouldn’t starve and survive longer. The Indians are not normally the initiators of the violent acts that has to do with them. People (like president Lincoln) worked hard to get rights and freedom for the African Americans, but when it comes to the Native people of America, we do nothing for them but beat them down. Over and over america made treaties that hurt the Natives like not allowing them to hunt their food, buffalo, that got them meat and clothes. The treaties pushed them back and made their land smaller and smaller. People have to live in broken down houses with many people. This causes more sicknesses because they are all in a closed in space. This is sad because so many children die from diseases and things that could be easily avoided if more land was given and more houses. Parents of small children are drug addicts and alcoholics. This causes them to be neglectful to their kids. The kids have to be raised by their grandparents. This isn’t bad per say but it isn’t the ideal situation for these kids. I was surprised about some of the things that he said. I didn’t know about some of the battles and massacres that happen to the Native Americans. I think that is even more disappointing that we are killing and fight these people that mean no harm and are only so angry towards us because we kick them off their land and make the land that they do have even smaller.
2. I believe we owe a large debt to the Indigenous people of America. We removed them from their land and put them in smaller areas. We caused them to have to live in close corridors because we refuse to build them more house so they are getting sick and dying younger and younger. Because of this, i believe the American government should give the Natives more. We should give them more land and help them with some of their issues that they are overcome with. A lot of the adults in the reservations are drug addicts and alcoholics. This is something that we could go and send help for. More land could be given and more houses could be built to help reduce the sicknesses and early deaths that plague the area. I think that the Natives will be apprehensive to our help because of all the troubles that we put them through before. I do think that we owe them to try to help them. I think that if we try to show them that we mean well it would be a good thing. Helping them now and helping them get to a better life could help repay for some of the damage that we caused. In whole I don’t think that anything the American government could anything to fully repay for the damage. The government did kill many Indians. But we could help them fix the problems like get some of them jobs to help with the economy in the reservations. There will always be problems in helping the Natives with their lives because of the problems in the past that occurred.
1. I am quite appalled by what Mr. Huey is saying here. He uses the most basic and oldest way to guilt trip people-by using a sad, quavering voice and occasionally shedding a tear. Does he even pay attention to the language he is using? Prisoner of war camps in the modern day? As a Russian, I am well aware of what war is. I have been to parades, and I have spoken to dozens of men who have spent years and lost limbs in German prisoner of war camps. Trying to equate the modern condition of the Indians (which is the exact same across the third world, mind you) to the actual horrors of true and pure war is disgusting. Today, anyone is free to leave a reservation. In a real prisoner of war camp, there are armed guards who shoot you if you try to leave-in Germany, many aimed for the legs and non vital organs, so they could see you wriggle on the ground and scream. In these Indian “prisoner of war” camps, you get government money and there are beer shops. In a real camp, your possessions are seized the moment you enter and the only experience you get with alcohol is the drunken sentry who holds your eye open as he smothers his cigarette in it, laughing all the way. Mr. Huey likes to talk about broken promises. In a real camp, there are no promises-you are a piece of meat that is eligible to be beaten, raped, tortured, or shot at any given moment. Mr. Huey gives us the same old guilt trip and relies on tugging at emotional heartstrings to get people to agree with him by throwing buzzwords left, right, and center.
The pictures he shows are ridiculous and have little meaning. When you talk about what happened in the past and you want to provide a visual to assist your students. You are obligated to provide a visual that is either about or even better, from the mentioned time period. If you are reading this, Mr. Wickersham, try to show the class a PowerPoint where all the pictures of the Transcontinental Railroad are replaced with an interstate highway. Or how about a painting of the Siege of Yorktown, except all of the British soldiers are actually Royal Marines being lifted out by a helicopter and are all carrying carbines and hand grenades, whereas the Continentals are driving around in M1 Abrams main battle tanks and Humvees. The class would be confusing and of no purpose-same with Mr. Huey’s presentation.
History is exactly that-history. It has happened, and we are left to reflect upon it. We have absolutely no say in what happens. Therefore, we should feel no obligation to change or feel bad about it. We should not regret anything our ancestors have done-they did it without our input. I was not there to tell President Jackson to drive out the natives. He made that decision out of his own free will.
Intent is the most important factor in history-what makes someone do something is paramount. Mr. Huey likes to stretch the word “genocide” to fit his own agenda. Genocide is the intentional killing of a certain race for eugenic purposes. This was the ultimate goal of the Nazis in Poland or the Japanese in China-thus, these events are accurately labelled as genocides. The massive death camps erected then that still stand to this day testify to this. The goal of manifest destiny was not to “cleanse” the world of the “impure” and replace it with the “genetically superior” Americans-the goal was to get more land for more farms, and maybe get some ports in the West if all turns out well. Which, may I remind you, good reader, is the cause of the overwhelming majority of all wars in human history. Supporting your own country in a war for profit and greatness is correct. If someone gets in your way, then they die. It sounds harsh, but that is how human history works. There are no bitter feelings over the Franco-Prussian War, no bitter feelings over the War of Austrian Succession, no bitter feelings over the Napoleonic Wars, and thus there should be no bitter feelings over the Lakota War.
2. Since I am a boring character who lacks creativity, I shall settle for answering the given questions.
Columbus Day should never be replaced with Indigenous People’s Day. Columbus’s great discovery opened up an entire new frontier for exploration and brought dozens of new plants and animal to Europe. The exploration and mapping of the New World remains the stuff of romanticized legend, and is the basis for many a good book. It is also the reason as to why I exist to currently type this, and for that, I am thankful. I believe I do not have to explain this in great detail, as we have already written about this in a previous blog, so I shall continue.
Congress should not rescind the medals given to the 7th Cavalry. If you were to read into the incident instead of assuming that the entire tribe sang happy songs and held hands while angry white men with red eyes beheaded their children and massacred the women with heavy equipment, you would learn that the incident as a whole was a misunderstanding combined with a stupid act of defiance. Long story short, firing upon US soldiers who are busy seizing illegal weapons is the easiest way to get yourself killed aside from leaping off of a tall building in Manhattan.
Reservations should be abolished and their members assimilated. It is clear that, from a purely economic standpoint, the members of current reservations are not profitable to the nation and the people. Millions are poured into the reservations by the Bureau of Indian Affairs, and all that is returned is alcoholism, crime, and sad photography. Age old and outdated traditions mean nothing in the face of a civilized society when you cannot feed your family and cannot teach your kids. It is in the interest of the future generations of Indians that they learn to adapt to modern American life.
No football team should be forcefully renamed. Any institution has the right to name itself whatever it wants to. Forcing sports teams to change their name based upon the grievances of a few is a blatant violation of the First Amendment right to free speech. People need to learn to not be offended by a name-no one forces you to watch football or play on a team. Majority mob rule is terrible, but minority mob rule is abhorrent to the highest degree. This entire debate is nothing but political correctness at its finest (or worst, depending upon how you look at it.)
Not much is to be learned from our northern neighbors. Empires rise and empires fall. We do not remember the great nations of Rome and Egypt because their descendants consistently pester us to mention them-we remember them because of the great wars they have fought, the art they have created, and the political systems which we even today analyse and admire. The Canadians pay special attention to their natives because they feel guilt-there really is no great contribution that they have given that has benefited the North American continent. There is nothing to learn from the Canadians.
We should not oppose the construction of the Dakota Pipeline. In this modern world, oil is a greater boon to a modern economy than a reservation. The amount of jobs this will create, both in constructing and maintaining the pipeline, as well as the actual crude oil that flows into the US will provide a sensational boost to the US economy and reduce our dependence on volatile oil prices from the unstable Middle East. If the opinion of the Canadians is so important to you, then ask Trudeau about it-he’s all for it, and America should be too. I guess we should learn something from the Canadians after all. Bully on you this once, Trudeau!
One of the things that distinguish the first world from the third world are the ample amounts of recreation centers available to the people who live in it and enjoy its fruits. Parks, stadiums, and museums are all readily available for our enjoyment. It’s not like American whites are the only one who keep foreign artifacts for their own viewing pleasure. Russian museums are chock full of German firearms, flags, uniforms, and machinery ranging from the 17th to 20th century. Do you see the Germans complaining about how they want their MP40s and tricornes back? No. The French don’t want their caps and rifles back from the Poles, the Italians aren’t busy whining about how Morocco and Algeria should return their gladii or javelins. No one is entitled to anything that has been taken by force-they must either fight for it, negotiate and make concessions, or give it up and move on.
1. I was surprised to learn of the many different atrocities committed by the US against the Native Americans, especially in the 19th century. As for the conditions that Native Americans live in on the different reservations, I was expecting to see the many things that characterize daily life for those people, such as moldy and cramped housing, poor schools, the high poverty rate, the high obesity rate, widespread disease, and other aspects, as I have witnessed these conditions before in my English class last trimester where my class spent several weeks reading a book called “Part-Time Indian” about a young Indian boy who chronicles his day-to-day life and all the things he has to put up with, like hunger and tight living quarters (it is a good book, and an easy read). After watching this video, I wondered why there weren’t any people who stood up for the rights of the Natives Americans who were being trampled by the US, and I think I have an answer. If incidents like the Battle of Little Bighorn, which saw the annihilation of the 7the Cavalry Regiment under General George Custer, or the Wounded Knee Massacre, where American forces killed dozens of Native American men, women, and children, went public, people would criticize the government for violating the rights of the Native Americans and be inclined to support the Indians, giving the government a bad name for the atrocities it committed. Instead, the US exaggerated its own role in fighting the Indians, depicting American soldiers who saw combat against the Indians in the 1800s as brave soldiers who fought the savage, blood-thirsty Indians who would kill all Americans. By making the Indians look bad, the people would be inclined to rally support for the government in the fight against the “savage” Indians, and people would not question the government, who went as far as to hand out falsely deserved Medals of Honor to legitimize its own story. I was surprised to see how many treaties the US government made with the Native Americans in the 1800s, and just how often those treaties were broken in the course of a few years. I was also surprised to see how men seen in the public eye as honorable, honest, and great, were a part of the many wrongdoings committed against Native Americans, such as Abraham Lincoln, who on two separate occasions expelled Native American tribes from their territory.
2. Like Aaron Huey from TED Talk, I do not believe there is any simple solution to paying back the Native Americans because we are talking about paying back hundreds of thousands of people who have spent all their lives in conditions we associate with Third World poverty-ridden countries and the millions who preceded them all because of decisions the US has made to increase its prosperity at the cost of these people’s well-being. Literally paying them back in monetary form will be ineffective because the money will eventually be exhausted and have short term effects at best. At the very least, the US can rightfully give the Sioux ownership of the Black Hills region, since it is a source of the Sioux’s unique culture and one of the final pieces of land taken by the US during its conquest of North America in the 1800s. In my English class last trimester, my class watched a video on the aspects of day-to-day life for a Native American town, and one part focused on how a particular fast-food restaurant that was the first national chain to arrive in the town had a positive effect on many of the town’s citizens. I believe that this effect can be replicated if we promote big business in parts of the different reservations because the businesses would offer jobs to many who are in dire need of income, and promote a consumer economy by offering goods to the local populace. I am unsure of how this concept would actually affect every Native American, but I believe it would be a step in the right direction towards paying back the Native Americans by giving them a chance to obtain a stable, modern, and healthy lifestyle. In the present day, the issue of the Dakota Pipeline has come to national attention as many Native Americans protest its necessity and, more importantly, its violation of a treaty signed in the 1800s. Like the issue over the Black Hills region, the Dakota Pipeline can be used as a way of apologizing to the Native Americans for everything the US has done to them because it is a way of showing the US respects the promises it has made to the many different Native American tribes by respecting the boundary between the US and the Native American reservation system.
Aaron is a great man. You could see and hear the passion and pain in his voice when talking to the audience about the Indians suffering. We have taken everything from them. These children and adults are starving and waking up everyday to the same reality. They wake up hungry and go to bed hungry, the only thing to numb the pain is alcohol. Children are dying so young or being raised by unfit parents. Im disgusted with myself and the American people. We go on every day with our life, we wake up in a warm house with a hot breakfast just to go to school and receive an education. The 70% of the Lakota children drop out of school. 90% of the people on the reservation are unemployed. These people are living in hell, and we are just watching it happen on our own land and in our own country.
I do think Columbus Day should be changed to indigenous peoples day. Instead of celebrating the massacre of Native Americans, we should honor them. The reservations need to be taken care of. These people don’t have homes, and what homes are there are falling a part. I think that the government needs to raise/get money to put towards the reservations. I don’t think the government will ever give the Natives back their land, but if we cant do that we can at least fix what they still have. We should go in to these reservations and build houses, bring in companies, provide health care, everything that you and I have they should have the opportunity to have as well. There needs to be better education with teachers who care and buildings/supplies that are up to date and beneficial for the student.
This isn’t impossible, I think that there is an easy fix, and while we cant give back what we we’ve taken/done we can try and fix the problems they’re facing now. We need to contact the government, petition, get the word around because this isn’t impossible.
Watching the Ted Talk video really showed how much the American Indians have been through in the past and even still today. Even with the knowledge of APUSH and what we have learned so far, some of the things we have not covered yet I had no idea about with prior knowledge. One thing that really did surprise me was when the speaker was talking about how many times we have ignored the Treaty of Fort Laramie and continued to decrease the number of Indian population all the way until the early 20th century. Also, I found it interesting when they showed the picture of what modern day America would look like if one of the Indian tribes was taken and made up into a territory or even a state of its own. I also did know about the Wounded Knee massacre and yet alone how much damage it did not just physically to the Native Americans, but also morally, giving us a bad reputation that made them fearful that we had complete control over them and were not being compassionate or respectful whatsoever. For today’s issues with the Indian tribes and reservations, I do have some prior knowledge of the lifestyle they live, the poverty they are in, and the constant threat of alcoholism that has been a higher issue than ever before. I do agree with the speaker when he says that the events and issues that have unfolded in today’s Native American societies are a result from the mistreatment that has been a reoccurring theme for the past nearly two centuries. I too liked the analogy the man makes at the beginning of his presentation about the man getting the best meat, and how everyone in the auditorium listening to him is getting the best of the meat, meaning they are quite wealthy and have decent lives. This was interesting and I liked it because I thought that it put people in the mode and perspective to see how the American Indians did not get the best meat and the best lives. My thoughts on the debt owed to the Native Americans is that at the very least members of communities can put themselves out there to try and help them out. With the bad conditions they are in, it would be very generous even just to help with something as simple as a food drive or something along those lines. I also believe that the Apology Resolution is a great start and great way of sending an apology to the Native Americans and letting them know that we are the ones that were completely at fault for the events that went down and the massacres and mistreatment that had occurred in the 19th century and part of the 20th century as well.
I thought the TED talk was very informational, and honestly not too surprising. The TED talk focused a lot on the negative things America has done to the Natives. Throughout history we have seen Native people be treated poorly, and unfairly. We’ve seen them from the very beginning becoming enslaved or in way thrown away. We have also tried converting them to our own ways, or we’d just kill them and their culture. Americans and settlers had always shown and tried to have the upper hand on them to be superior. The Natives have never really done anything to us, but as the TED talk had mentioned, we were (kind of still are) greedy and selfish. I was only a bit surprised or even disturbed hearing about how even recently they live or are treated terribly. The houses or just conditions of their reservations shown in the TED talk were in horrible condition. The violence happening to them as well also saddens me. I remembered learning lots of other things about Natives and their conditions in honors English as well, specifically on the sports teams. In an essay it discussed how sports named after a tribe often think it shows more respect to those tribes. Some Natives don’t like it however finding it offensive. Eventually agreements were made to really get the tribes permission if it offends them or not since some tribes actually like it. I’ve also seen videos of reservations and how several Natives waste their lives (like with alcohol and etc.) because they believe they have no chance to make it far. I do partially agree that it is also Americas fault as we took away their hope and pride when keeping them in horrible conditions and not giving them as many opportunities throughout history. However, contradicting what I just said, they do have more opportunities and rights today than before, so they could technically make a change in the way they’re living right now if they tried hard enough. Although I do know that not all reservations these days aren’t that bad and all Native people aren’t treated as badly as well. I think he could’ve focused more on both views. But I do agree with the TED talk how we (Americans) have taken the “best meat” from them (the Natives). I do think that we don’t necessarily owe the Natives because It was a long time ago and the Natives didn’t really just let us have this land. But we could do things to help them out like maybe give them more of a chance and help improve their lives with water, better conditions, etc. as they are still apart of America, and are citizens. But I don’t think we exactly owe them for what we did, even though what we did wasn’t exactly good. We did what we had to do to gain this country (it would’ve most likely happened eventually with how weak or slow they were growing anyways) and make it the way it is today, and it’s too late to change that now. I think it was right however when we/Obama gave them an apology, as back then we could’ve settled things better with the Natives and not damage and discriminate against them as much throughout history.
While watching the Ted Talk- I was appalled. It is horrendous to think about our history of crimes and oppression involving the Native Americans. The fact that we have taken everything away from the Native Americans and haven’t given anything in return is astounding. Having previously studied the topic of reserves in English class, I already have a background of empathy towards the Native Americans. We watched a documentary that detailed life on reserves. It showed the American attitude towards them- which tended to be oblivious to their plight or unwilling to help. Those on the reserves suffered from obesity and alcoholism- they only had fast food places like Mcdonalds that they could afford. The high unemployment rate and low college attendants showed a never ending cycle of miserable life for the Native Americans. People tend to have an attitude that you should be able to work yourself out of a bad place, but this isn’t possible for the Native Americans. They need help to recover from the situation we put them in. But in my opinion- reservations aren’t necessarily a bad thing. If we were to make them a suitable environment to live, it could provide a place for people who share the same culture to escape the westernization of modern day America. I also believe that the Cleveland Indians, Washington Redskins, and Atlanta Braves should change their names. This makes it seem acceptable to dress up like an Indian, and view them as “savages”. Large crowds of people do not even give a single thought towards dressing up and appropriating their culture. It is highly offensive towards the Native Americans to wear headdresses, and it is becoming even more common to sell them. An example of this is on Halloween. Tons of “indian” costumes are sold. If you feel the need to wear traditional indian clothing (like moccasins), it is important to purchase them from an actual Native American vendor. If everyone did something this simple, it could help employ more Native Americans and make an impact on the reserve. Recently, at a pom competition, Atomic pom had a very controversial routine. This is a themed competition, where each team portrays a theme of their choosing. Atomic chose to be Native Americans. They ran around with headdresses and war paint, and in the music there were war cries and it spoke of savages. So even this shows that we still view the Native Americans as beneath us and just a joke.
While I personally do not feel responsible for the oppression of the Native Americans, I do think it is important that our government does something to help (although with our current administration that doesn’t seem likely). They should return the sacred lands to the Native Americans and provide funds for schooling and the creation of jobs. The Black Hills are sacred to the Native Americans, and there are many tribes with rituals or ceremonies that involve the land. It is important to let them practice their culture and religion- lots of churches are protected, so there should not be a double standard with the Native American religious grounds. I think it is also important to create programs that help the Native Americans get back to a functioning and thriving society. Volunteers can help fix up the black-mold infested houses and AA can provide sponsors for the many alcoholics at the reserves. We should also stop the Dakota Access Pipeline from being created. It crosses through the Standing Rock Sioux reservation, where they set up a Sacred Stone camp. The pipeline would damage the sacred burial sites (which we were the cause of). Americans start by causing the need for mass burial sites, and now are pushing to mutilate the bodies as well. Although the pipeline doesn’t technically cross the reservation, it does cross the land that was unlawfully taken. The Native Americans weren’t consulted in the approval of the Pipeline either, so it should not be constructed. We have already interfered enough with the Native Americans that we should not continue to do so with the pipeline. Education is also a major issue with the reserves. Most students don’t end up going to college, and end up unemployed. The K-12 schools there are very old buildings with outdated textbooks, a lack of technology, and crowded classrooms. We should also remove Jackson from the $20 dollar bill, because he caused tons of strife for the natives. He ignored a court case that let the Cherokee stay on their land, he used a veto and forced them out. He caused the trail of tears and didn’t pay any attention or respect to the Native Americans. The fact that he his still in circulation on the bill (thankfully going to be replaced by Harriet Tubman) is intolerable. Every time a native american has to pay with a $20 bill, he is reminded of the man who killed thousands of his ancestors and pushed him onto prisons called reserves.
I believe Huey’s raw portrayal of Native Americans on reservations is admirable, of course, however I think there’s so much more to Native life than just being taken over by white settlers. I definitely agree with him that reservation life is difficult, but it’s not like they can’t leave. The majority of Natives don’t even live on reservations anymore; only about 22 percent. Many of them live successful lives as average Americans. And calling them “prisoners of war” is incorrect. My grandfather was a prisoner of war in the Indo-Pakistani War (he was held in India) and those conditions were so much worse than that of reservations now. Current-day reservations are open and most are free to go in and out of them. There’s also access to much more food and water than actual POWs had/have; note that alcohol is a huge thing on reservations. I also want to comment on the overload of upsetting photos and buzzwords Huey used in his presentation. Although it IS terrible, I felt like he was trying to guilt-trip the audience with overly-depressed discourse. I don’t really think we should give back the land, either. This leads me to if we owe them anything. I know what our ancestors did to the Natives was terrible, however we shouldn’t have to take on their burden and give everything back to the Native Americans. The only thing I think would be beneficial is to acknowledge our history, and learn from it. That’s as much as you can do before you throw away all the achievements our country has made. We went westward into Native land because we wanted our country to be successful. That’s always been the case–with everything. I think reservations should be abolished and Natives be introduced to modern/average American life. We can all integrate and become united. Even though I don’t think giving back the land is right, because it’s what America worked for, I don’t think we should continue to do things that show we don’t care about our Native brothers and sisters. For example, constructing the Dakota Access Pipeline is something I highly disagree with because of its impact on innocent people. These Native Americans have lived there for so long, and Trump coming in to build it (after all the successful and difficult protesting that occurred) is simply inhumane. I understand that it’s for economic purposes, but there must be another way to accomplish the same goal without destroying people’s homes and water. Another thing to think about is the Washington football team, the Redskins, which literally has a racial slur as a name. This isn’t saying that they should straight up change it; It’s fine that they have history with it and are known as that, however it’s appropriate to acknowledge how messed up that is and not to do it in the future. Essentially, to me, that’s the most we can do for the Natives without disregarding all of America’s work to be the country it is today—acknowledge that things in our history affected Natives terribly. But people that live in the US today shouldn’t apologize for what our ancestors did or didn’t do. It’s important to know what happened, but we (today) didn’t do those things. Our country has drastically changed since then and Native Americans have more opportunities than ever.
In this Ted Talk, the subjected discussed is mainly “Native Americans”. They talk about the various treaties that were made throughout the years, and the steps Americans took to get the Indians out of their land. They explain how the treaty of 1951 was betrayed and how the military used armed forces to move the Indians out. They show various images, all of them with Indian faces and homes. These images show depressed faces, people of all different ages, living in terrible conditions. The justification for these horrible images are Americans. The Ted Talk blames the “Manifest Destiny” as being the cause. They say that this idea pushed Americans to chase off the Indians and settle in their land. This blame on the American society and capitalist way is justifiable, and I partially agree with all the blame put on America. It is true that the ways the American settlers pushed the Indians is very immoral: the way they justified it because they believed to be a higher race and having more power. The breaking of the treaties by the government is also extremely immoral, breaking completely the trust of the Indians. They were kicked out for no good reason, and had to endure unwanted punishments. This surprised me, since America experienced kind of the same thing with England, where they couldn’t make any own decisions and were forced to pay taxes that weren’t even helping them. Taking this fact in consideration, it extremely surprises me how the Americans kicked out the Indians, with armed forces and submission. A passage that touched me very much was the one where Aaron Huey says that American soldiers beat the Indians, and under this massacre, pointed guns at these poor people and asked them if they still wanted to be Indians. This way of undermining a group of people is, I think, very coward way of doing things. Beating a weaker army is a thing, but making fun of the people you beat is very downgrading! This video showed me how much this poor group of Native Americans suffered throughout the years, and surprised me with facts about Americans that I sincerely doubted they were capable of doing.
The question remains, how can we help these Native Americans? I believe that the first step is to stop calling them “Native Americans”. To achieve equality, you need to all be called people, without being differed by race. Also, I think that reservations should be abolished. I understand it’s a place where their ancestors lived, but I think that to get help they need to come into the American society, and keep their rituals and ways of living. I know it very well, if you take the first step, the American society will accept you extremely well. If the Indians show collaboration, I think they could really step away from their poor lives and join a better one with more modern concepts (all of this keeping their culture of course).
I never knew how much I didn’t know about the treaties with the Indians, and how we violated them. I also didn’t know home much the Indians were affected by these treaties and violations. I thought that the ted talk was powerful, and had a lot of meaning to it. It wasn’t somebody who was just stating facts about the Indians, but it was more what the Indians went through. Aaron Huey had seen how the Indians live on the reservations, and how they are affected. I think that the pictures that went along with the presentation helped portray how the Indians live. I thought that the timeline helped show how the Indians’ land has always been violated, and how the United States doesn’t honor the treaties. Something that surprised me was all of the things Abraham Lincoln did against slavery. Lincoln is seen as a character who stood for equality, but disliked the Indians. Nobody talks about how Lincoln pushed the Indians away. Huey also talked about the Wounded Knee massacre. The Chief Big Foot and 300 prisoners of war were massacred. What caught my attention in this massacre was the number of Medals of Honor given. There was the most medals of honors awarded in a single battle. There were 20 congressional medals for valor given to the 7th cavalry. I don’t understand why there medals of honor given in a massacre. The Wounded Knee massacre wasn’t provoked by the Indians. The United States talks about how we don’t discriminate, and are accepting everybody. Why are we saying the Indians are property of the federal government? How does the United States justify their actions? How does the United States continually violate treaties by invading the Indians’ land? This Ted talk helped me realize how much the policies against the Indians haven’t changed.
I agree that the problem with Indians isn’t a simple fix. I think that we are far from fixing those problems. The United States needs to first realize their mistakes, and apology for all of them. The problems with Indians started hundreds of years ago, and may take longer to resolve. I think that the United States should solve one problem at a time. We need to start respecting their land, and respecting the tribes. Americans need to realize that though this was not a problem we started, we are responsible to fix the problem. The United States needs to try and at least start to talk peace with Indians. Maybe make a new treaty, and have consequences for breaking that treaty. I think that if the United States tries and fix all problems at once, they will create more problems. Not all Americans will be supported of the attempt to try and fix problems, and trying that all at once will bring too much surprise to Americans. We need to start to help the Indians, and respect their traditions. The United States needs to acknowledge the issues. The Dakota Access Pipeline is putting a pipe through sacred land. This is not acknowledging our debt to the Native Americans, but creating more debt. The Pipeline, even though it would bring oil, it would disrespect the Native Americans. The United States should start to acknowledge their mistakes, and allow their to be peaceful discussion with the Native Americans. We aren’t going to know what the Native Americans want, unless we talk. America needs to be able to do peace with the Native Americans. If we don’t then we risk the loss of a vital historical culture. America needs to start building bridges not fences. Respect and trust are what we need to build with the Native Americans.
TED Talk Response:
1) As I watched this TED talk, chills ran down my arms and back. My hairs stood on end as
I saw children helpless and hopeless. I could hear the heartbreaking emotion laced in Huey’s voice and tried to understand as he conveyed the destruction that he witnessed with his own two eyes. It is one thing to read about the Native Americans out of a textbook written by the people who threw them out of their sacred land, and another thing to see the complete devastation in their eyes today. I find it sickening to hear that people can think that the pictures shown were worthless and meant nothing.
They meant everything.
They showed the pain as the Native Americans try to hold onto their culture in their land that was ripped from them so long ago. They showed the poverty-ridden houses that children have to live in. They showed the pain of ancestors in their eyes when they were massacred because we wanted more land. It was our own greedy hands that are stained red with the blood of thousands of Native Americans. Saying that these pictures meant nothing is thoughtless and absurd.
When watching this video, I was able to realize how many things I have taken for granted. My clean house where I don’t have to worry about disease or where my next meal is coming from. To us, a bad day might be failing a test we studied hard for or not getting the shoes we have been looking at for forever. But for the Native Americans in the reservations, a bad day is not eating for the third day in a row, or having to go out into the streets to find your drunk parent who is passed out on the side of the liquor store. To say that we owe nothing to them is ridiculous and what has damaged the morals of this country for centuries.
I do agree that what happened in the past is in the past and we can’t do anything to change that. But that doesn’t mean that we have to stand back and watch these Native Americans suffer and loose the sacred land they have tried so hard to hang onto. Huey shows the person watching that the Native Americans, that we have for so long disregarded as people and instead barbarians, are people that have been pushed to the ground too many times with the government then turning their backs. This video has opened my eyes, and I hope others too, to the harsh realities that Native Americans face in the reservations today.
2) I do think that America owes a debt to the Native Americans. For too long we have
pushed the “problem” of Native Americans to the side. I feel that we should help to rebuild the society that lives in the Indian reservations to help decrease the number of alcoholic parents and kids dropping out of school, among many other things. Reservations don’t have to be a bad thing, they should be a place where Native American culture is respected and where they are able to freely exercise their beliefs. With the problem of Indian artifacts, I feel that some of the artifacts should be returned to their rightful tribes to remember their culture. But I also do recognize the importance of some of the artifacts to stay in history museums, IF, they are respected and described correctly with the history behind them. Another thing I think America should do is apologize. An apology won’t return the mothers and fathers we have taken from their kids as they were separated or killed on the trails that led them to the reservations. But an apology will show that we are able to recognize the Native Americans as human beings as well as our own mistakes. It would be the first step in repairing the wall of trust that had been broken between the Indigenous peoples and our European ancestors. With better funding in the reservations we could start to repay the debt that has gathered over centuries.
My concern is that it won’t be enough. That our own greed will see the final end of the Native American culture. My concern is that there are still people in this world who think they are entitled to land that is not theirs. My concern is that we will never be able to repair what has been broken. My only hope, in our divided nation, is that attention will soon be brought to the hundreds trapped behind the bars of our own gluttony. And that, one day, we will be able to pay off our debt owed to the Native Americans.
Dear Mr. Wickersham,
Roses are red,
Violets are green,
Mr. Wickersham is the ideal human being.
APUSH is great,
The left will prevail,
You are so smart, you should go to Yale.
Canada says eh,
You brighten my day
To you Mr. Wickersham, Happy Valentines day.
Thanks, “Ian”. Little did you know, but there is an assignment where you will have to create a Valentine for me from an historical figure.
1. I’ve always known that Americans and Native Americans have always had a “checkered” history, to say the least. After watching this TEDTalk I now know that this is a gross understatement, that the history is more than a little spotty, that it borders on genocidal. Why did this video come as such a shock to me? Well, we often don’t like to talk about certain negative aspects of our country; we briefly touch on them and then move on. This video opened my eyes to how much more there is to American-Indian relations and how unfair the US government truly was. I knew that we often would make treaties with tribes only to go back on them years later, but I never knew how often this happened, and I certainly never knew how we were very obviously in the wrong every single time, but nothing happened. I didn’t know about the massacres, about the atrocities at Wounded Knee. I think that the most shocking part of all of this is that I didn’t know about it – any of it. You’d think that a massive massacre where US troops killed hundreds of innocent Native Americans would be common knowledge, but it’s not. We don’t talk about it. It’s shocking not only that this happened, but that its story remains untold.
2. The United States clearly has a long history of grossly mistreating and abusing the Native Americans. One thing all Americans must do is recognize and acknowledge what occurred. It is disheartening and surprising (well maybe not that surprising) just how many Americans do know who what the Native Americans had to endure and who was responsible for that. Part of that recognition could certainly include the creating of a new holiday (replacing Columbus Day or in addition to it) honoring the sacrifices made by Indians. However, these atrocities occurred over a hundred years ago and to me, extensive reparations are not necessary. This is not to say that all discrimination and hardships faced by natives suddenly disappeared one day – far from it – but the truly awful stuff mainly happened prior to the 1900s. This does not mean that we can continue to turn our backs on Native Americans. We must help them – more than we have been doing – not because we did bad stuff in the past, but because we are committed to a brighter future for all. Yes, we should support Indian reservations – not because Jackson removed them from their land in the 1800s, but because it’s simply the right thing to do. I do think we must rescind Medals of Honor from those who fought Indians, but first we must educate our nation so that we can accept that it even did happen. we need to do whatever we can ensure that does not happen in the future.
1. In this presentation, a photographer, Aaron Huey presents a mediocre portfolio of pictures from his journey to the Lakota whilst also lecturing the audience about his moral superiority over the rest of America. Now would be the apt time to mention that he was born wrong; he had mentioned in his presentation that he is white, which is a social barrier to the Indians. He presents us with a list of dates and events which demonstrate how America has taken from the Indians. He tries to bait an emotional reaction out of the audience by using a quivering voice and crying, as if he had witnessed the most horrible thing a man could ever have seen. This demonstrates the red herring fallacy of appeal to emotion. He tries to distract the audience from the deeper story behind why the Indians are in such bad shape today by using words like ‘genocide’. As if manifest destiny was set forth with the explicit intent of destroying an entire race of people.
Huey does briefly mention the terrible unemployment and rampant alcoholism within the reservations, but includes it as if it was a direct result of the United States’ broken promises. In reality, it is the reservations themselves that permit extensive alcoholism and unemployment issues. The federal government funnels in money to these reservations. Perhaps not ample amounts, but money nonetheless. What do the vast majority of Indians do with this money? Spend it on drugs and alcohol. This is a severely harmful act to take on themselves and their kin. At the end of the day, what a child deems okay is what they see the most of, or what they see their family do. To have a father and a mother completely given up on their hopes and dreams, while resorting to alcohol, facilitates the child to become the same exact way. It is obviously a terrible deed indeed that the US has done to the Indians, but their misfortune is not perpetuated by the lack of action from government.
A government should, before all else, act in the interest of the nation it represents. The United States is the greatest country in the world because it acts in the interest of capitalism, economic freedom. Huey proposes that the United States government give back Black Hills to the Indians. Black hills is roughly the size of Vermont. It is not a realistic proposal for a government to cede land to a new sovereign state without forced actions taken against said government. Especially if this new sovereign state does not reciprocate benefits back to the government. However, let’s go down the rabbit hole, and say the United States cedes the Lakota tribe their land back. In a modern world, this state would fail rapidly. The United States would likely give the appropriate amount of foreign aid to this nation, as it does with most. Since this tribe wouldn’t have use for money, it would decline. The native peoples would then find that they do not have the ability to hunt and gather and migrate for their food, so they would have to settle down in this one spot, and hence create a government. They would ask the US for foreign aid again, and the US would presumably oblige. These people would then become communists as all of their GDP comes from foreign aid and must be distributed to its citizens. The government formed would instantly become a US puppet. Unless, of course, the nation becomes capitalist, which would go against the ideals of the Indian’s culture and at that point there would be no reason they should be an independent nation.
At this point, the United States cannot return the Black Hills land to the Lakota Indians. So, how do we repay the debt? One could argue we have paid that debt in reparations due to creating reservations and providing monetary aid. They may not have spent it wisely, but that is their own fault. If you are asking what I should do personally to repay their debt, I would say nothing. I do not owe them anything. Your obvious reply to this would be: “though we may not have been personally responsible for oppressing the Native Americans, we benefit from the results of past policies of our government towards Native Americans”. To that I say: yes, I benefit from being a citizen of the United States, a liberal western democratic nation that has been incredibly successful historically. The country values capitalism and competition the most, and provides great opportunities to amass great fortune. It also creates potential for poverty if I don’t produce enough. I didn’t choose to be born here, but I accept the risks, rewards, and consequences for living here. For the same reasons, the Lakota Indians also benefit from being citizens of the United States. As an Irishman, whose ancestors were oppressed in the British Isles and as immigrants to America, it would be a lovely thing to live for free due to mistreatment, but I don’t get that privilege. Even if my ancestors won a war against the American government and the American government didn’t follow through on their promises. Then is then, and now is now, and I don’t take credit for battles I didn’t fight.
2. Now that that tangent is over with, I will now discuss the solution to poverty on Indian reservations. It is a rather simple solution, get rid of the reservations, and have the Indians assimilate. The Bureau of Indian affairs is keeping reservations in poverty by limiting economic development there, while providing money that is not well spent. If the people in the reservations were to be moved to a more urban area, where everyone has the ability to get a job, these people overall are going to be in a much better economic position than before.
I will now answer the list of questions you have provided and elaborate.
Should we replace Columbus Day with Indigenous peoples day?
I could care less about the excitement of Columbus Day, there aren’t any major celebrations that occur on it. What it is however, is the recognition of European settlement of the New World, a period that wrought many changes, positive and negative. One major positive element, is the formation of the United States, the reason I exist. At the very least I am thankful for that. To answer, I don’t think we should get rid of Columbus Day, I don’t know much about what Indigenous peoples day would entail, but I am open to it.
Should the Washington football team, the Cleveland Indians, or Atlanta Braves be forced to take new mascot names?
This would set a bad precedent. A governmental agency forcing a private entity to change their title based on what is considered ‘derogatory’ is a violation of the First Amendment right to freedom of speech. Disregarding the First Amendment in the case of derogatory terms is harmful as that is all subjective to who considers it derogatory.
Should we continue to oppose the Dakota Access Pipeline (since President Trump has rescinded President Obama’s cancellation of it)?
Who is we? I have never opposed the continuation of the Keystone Pipeline. It is much more economically advantageous to the U.S. to acquire our oil from Keystone, than to fight for it in the Middle East and ship it over by boat. In a situation where citizens have to die, or citizens have to get relocated, I always choose the latter.
1. I was shocked and surprised when I heard what the U.S. did to the Native Americans. Throughout history the Natives have been constantly hurt and screwed over. Native Americans live in reservations which are practically POW camps. I knew from reading “The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian” in my Honors English class last trimester how horrible living conditions were. “Part-Time Indian taught me that most families who live on these reservations live in cramped, molded, and ruined homes. Most grandparents raise children because the child’s parents, overcome with alcoholism, cannot care for the child. I knew that the schools were awful and most people drop out. As for any of these treaties or battles, I had no clue they existed. This video opened up my eyes to the completely horrid mistreatment of the Indians. I don’t understand why people do not stand up and unite together for this minority as they do other times. Native Americans have rights to this land just as much or even more than we do. I was shocked to hear that 70% of kids drop out of schools, the mortality rate for Indians is the highest in the country, and most men don’t even make it to their 70’s. When I was younger I always romanticized the western expansion and thought of how much of a great opportunity it was for the Americans. I failed to realize that the manifest destiny was ruining the Indians lives. This video showed me the cruelness of the American people. The Wounded Knee Massacre, for example, had the lives of Native children and adults stolen. The murderers then got medals of honor for doing that. That really got my blood to boil. This video made me angry at the American people. Abraham Lincoln, known for ending slavery and getting rights for blacks failed to achieve the same for Indians. We consistently hurt natives with unfair treaties and taken so much land that they are now hidden away in reservations. Huey spoke about broken promises a lot. If some of these atrocities got out into the social media networks the whole nation would freak out. The U.S. government has ruined the great name of the Indian people and lead them to kill themselves off from drugs and alcohol abuse. Since elementary school I have always heard story after story about Americans defeating the Indians to gain land that was rightfully theirs. That is untrue! Native people should not be hidden away like a blemish on our country’s “great name”. All in all, my reaction to the mistreatment of Indians was mad and upset. I felt bad for them. This video really showed another side to the U.S. as a nation and it made me ashamed that our country did this to these people.
2. I don’t think there is a simple solution or a shortcut to repay the Indians for all their hardship. First, we cannot repay lives that Americans have taken. The U.S. should feel a great amount of grief and understand that actions like these are what led to what the Natives have to deal with today. What they have today is poverty and pain. Second, money is not a good idea because it would soon run out and only have a short term effect. There is not enough money one can pay to make up for a life that was lost. Third, the U.S. should not input more government rules into the reservations to try and fix them. The natives dislike the U.S. government and this would not be a good solution. Actually, I believe that reservations should not exist. The Indians should be allowed to live freely and coexist with the rest of the ethnicities in this melding pot of nations called America. I believe that the U.S. government should give back part of the Black Hills to the Sioux. I think that the medals of honor should be taken away from the murders who received them for the massacre. I don’t think the Dakota Access Pipeline should be continued because it runs right through native land. There have been several major red flags about the pipeline that have came up. We should respect and honor the natives like Canada does. Overall, I feel that there is not a simple solution to change the way the Indians have been portrayed for the past few hundred years. It is not easy to change a prejudice about someone and it certainly won’t happen overnight. I think that in the next few years everyone should learn about the struggles of the Native Americans and try to put themselves in their shoes. Americans should rethink how they feel about Natives and how they treat/talk about them. It will take a while for change to occur but I believe that it can happen. Rebuilding the American to Indian relationships will be a long process but it needs to happen. The Natives should be repaid someway for their loss of pride and land. Native Americans need better lives. They need good schooling and jobs. We can never fully repay the Native Americans but at least trying to fix the broken promises of the past is a step in the right direction. There should be an Indigenous People’s Day instead of Columbus Day because this was their continent first and should be credited for it. The Natives need a bit more recognition, support, and help. If this happens, hopefully the tension between Americans and Indians will cease to exist. There will always be the horrible past between us but there is always the future and it should be open to changes.
1. As I was watching this Ted Talk, I was appalled to hear about the suffering that the Indians obtained throughout history due to America’s greed and selfishness, willing to take land from innocent people, not thinking twice about how it will affect them, their tribe, their culture. I agree with Huey’s beliefs that we should pay back the Black Hills. Although personally, we may not have hurt Indians ourselves, in the past, we most definitely did and there is absolutely no denying that. Our constant oppression of American Indians in the past is disgusting to me, although I understand that I was not there in that time period when things may have been different, and I may have had a different opinion. Yes, this happened a long time ago, and you can’t go back in time and change history, but that doesn’t mean that there is no reason we should neglect American Indians and the treaties. We kicked these people off of their own land for OUR own benefit, I do not see anything morally correct about that at all. Along with that, the Lakota’s nowadays are struggling immensely. Children are taken care of by grandparents because their parents have fallen into alcoholism, or struggle with domestic abuse. Kids and teachers are leaving school at a rate almost unimaginable to me, considering I go to a school in which not many people, to my knowledge, drop out. This Ted Talk also made me realize how absolutely privileged I am, and I would not have all of these privileges had the Indians not suffered. Another thing that surprised me while watching this video was how people who are seen as heroes, or at least portrayed as such, treated Indians poorly. For example, I had no idea that Abraham Lincoln, the man I know as abolishing slavery, expelled American Indians from their territories. The facts and statistics that Huey used were extremely surprising to me. As I learn more and more in history, I’ve come to realize how certain people that are viewed and portrayed as heroes in history classes and within history textbooks, also made bad decisions and weren’t the perfect person they are so commonly seen as. I was unaware about some of the massacres and the battles mentioned within the video. All of the treaties and such we placed upon the Native Americans continued to oppress them further and further, as if that was even possible at that point. If anything, we should be grateful to these people, considering they taught us their ways in hunting and farming, teaching us how to survive in this unknown land we came upon. But how did we repay them? By taking their land as our own and continuing to treat them as less than us.
2. Agreeing with Huey, I think it will be difficult and seemingly impossible to completely pay off the debt that we owe to the Native Americans. In my opinion, there is no full way to pay back the years and years of oppression and poor treatment the Native Americans endured, however I do believe there are certain things we can do to help them out after all we have done. Although the American Indians are clearly apprehensive to our efforts to help them, that is completely understandable to me. I believe they could benefit from our help by doing things such as building new homes for them, helping reduce the amount of alcoholism by opening rehab centers if possible. Giving them more land to create new businesses and make more income I believe would benefit them as well. Although there is no sure way that any of this could work, we at least owe it to these people to try our best and help them out. In no way, shape, or form, should reservations be abolished. These reservations are where these people live. It is the only thing they have left standing of their culture, and we have absolutely no right to deny someone of that. Although these reservations are clearly not in the best shape, that does not mean they should be taken out of them and put somewhere else, although they might live a better life there. The Indians in these reservations CHOOSE to live there, it is their home, these are their families, it’s where they grew up and they have the right to stay there if and when they please. I also believe that Columbus Day is not a day that should be celebrated in the way that it is, priding Columbus for coming to the New World (considering he wasn’t as great of a guy as everyone thought he was, and he “found” America by accident), and if anything, it should be renamed to honor the people that were treated awfully by these newcomers. Today, you may not oppress Native Americans, I might not, but from their losses, we receive our gains, and without their losses we would not have all of the priveledges we have today, and for that, I believe they deserve our help in making their reservations, their homes, a safe and comfortable place to live for generations going forward.
In my overall opinion, I don’t think we should give anything to the Native Americans other than a simple apology to pay our debt to them. What happens in the past is already done and we can’t change that. Secondly, We have already given them land in which they can practice their culture and religion in and we also not forcing them to stay there either. I also agree that it is sad that the vast majority of reservation Indians are living in poverty and in third world conditions, but there current state doesn’t have anything to do with what happened in the past. I don’t agree with the Ted Talk because it just states problems in the past that we can’t fix.
To address certain Native American issues we should start by not replace Columbus Day with Indigenous Peoples Day. First of all, the reason we celebrate Christopher Columbus day is to acknowledge the discovery of the American continents to the European people. Even though people say that Columbus killed 90% of the Indians, he didn’t do it personally or intentionally. Europeans brought over diseases that they were immune to so they didn’t know they could spread it. Plus, the Europeans did kill several Indians by arms and that is because they saw the continent as free land because the Indians were so far behind them in civilization they saw them as intelligent as animals, or in other words more superior. This was evidently shown by heavy slaughter of Indians. The reason why Indigenous People’s Day shouldn’t be a holiday is because the whole point of human nature is to conquer. We see this as people conquering nature through deforestation or also by making innovative inventions to surmount nature’s hardships. This also goes for the conquering of people especially in that time. Lastly, I think it would make more sense to have Black People’s Day instead of Indigenous People’s Day because we did a dramatically amount more harm to them and for a longer time. I think we shouldn’t push Congress to rescind the Medals of Honor distributed to the 7th Cavalry handed out after the Wounded Knee Massacre in 1890. The Medal of Honor is the highest military honor which is awarded for personal acts of above and beyond the call of duty. The 7th Cavalry receiving the Medal of Honor should not be reversed because they did handle government’s commands with bravery and also because they received it more than 120 years ago so what good would this do? I think that reserves should be abolished because it isn’t do any good for them. According to studies by NBC news, 1 out of 10 Indian deaths are alcohol related, if we got rid of reservations Indians would be surrounded by a society that frowns upon drugs and alcohol instead ignoring the problem. Secondly, the education on these reservations are horrible. In a recent book I read, The Absolutely True Part Time Diary of an Indian, they state that the only way for a Indian to make it somewhere in life and be successful is by attending a school outside the the reservation. Additionally, one of the most common arguments of abolishing reservations is that you are taking away their culture. In America, the first amendment of the constitution states that you must have freedom of religion and you cannot prohibit the exercising of a culture. So in the end, abolishing reservations would only help the Indians by solving the problem of alcoholism and education on a reservation and also by letting Indians practice their culture and religious traditions. I think the Washington football team, the Cleveland Indians, or Atlanta Braves should not be forced to take new mascot names for because people who are offended by this are too sensitive and focus on the small problems in this country. Also, a study shown by the Washington Post states that 9 out of 10 Indians aren’t offended by these team’s mascots.
I am writing this after my first watch so that I can give the most accurate initial impression that I possibly can. One of the first things I thought about this talk was that it didn’t quite seem right that a white guy was giving a talk about the suffering of the Lakota Sioux tribe. The problem I have with this is that he seemed apologetic, and, while trying to be “brutal” with his facts, he always seemed to try to play the guilt card on his audience. I think it would have been a better idea to have someone who lives on the reservation come to speak for the audience; that person would be truly unapologetic in their delivery of the speech. A true Native American would portray the hardships as the truth, as their day-to-day life, and wouldn’t be caught up in history or facts. They would simply tell it how it is. Also, Huey mentioned at the end that we should give back the Black Hills. But, truly, how feasible is that? Didn’t Huey say that there are people living there now that aren’t Native Americans? I don’t think it would be right to do to those people what we did to the Lakota; as my dad always says, “two wrongs don’t make a right.” And that leads me to the second part of the question. What do we owe to the Native Americans? I think a more appropriate question is, what can we give to them to repay for what we did in the past? We’ve taken so much away from them that it isn’t possible to completely repay them. So that then begs the question, is it just better to ignore the Native Americans? All presidents from the past haven’t really made a big deal about the Native Americans, and it is my belief that they did that so that they wouldn’t open a can of worms that was too much to handle for America. For example, if we give the Black Hills back to the Lakota, what then? Can we leave it at that? Is that enough? And, as previously mentioned, what about the non-Indians living there now? There are too many unanswered questions surrounding this topic that any “solution” will lead to more problems that are just as bad as the original one, just more of them. Also, how would giving back the Black Hills help the Lakota? Will it boost morale to do better? Ultimately, I think there is no feasible way for us to climb out of the hole we dug with the Native American situation. This doesn’t mean I don’t want to see the Native Americans repaid, it just means that I don’t think we can without legitimately destroying our country in confusion. The best solution I can offer is protect what they have now, and by some means, try to install Indian-owned businesses into the reservations to help the economy. Other than that, I’m clueless on how to help.
My first reaction to the TED talk is compassion and sadness toward the Native Americans. I think Huey does a very good job at creating a sense of compassion for the viewers. The timeline, and pictures to go with it show the utter despair that these people have been left with. The generations of Native Americans today are put in such an awful situation. They did not chose to be who they are and live in the conditions where they are. They were stuck here since birth and have no real hope to look forward to. The rest of America just stands by and watches these people suffer, and until we do something about it the reservations and conditions will continue to get worse. In my opinion, I think we should give the people their land that we took from them long ago, but that truly isn’t enough, because of all the lives and families who were killed and now we can do nothing about. The US government (especially today with Trump in office) is obviously not going to give this land back, it would be close to impossible, taken into consideration the fact that people live their now, but the least we can do is send out support. We spend all of this money on things that don’t need too much attention. If we took just a little bit of this money and out it towards helping these tribes, giving them jobs, housing, food, clean water, it would make a huge difference. If we do this, I think that many lives would change for the better. There are very intelligent and really good people who live on these reservations and get no voice, but if we can support them, a new generation of people who we can no longer classify as “Native Americans” and just Americans can strive and become successful people. Like any group of people there are some people who are ginny bad people, and with our support may abuse it, but with time I believe this help will really change these Native Americans. I think if word got out and people really understood what these Native Americans are going through, donations will start flying in and change will happen. In this day and age of social media, word spreads fast and change can happen in the matter of days. So all in all, the land will most likely not be returned to these people, but if we can give them support, I feel that can do a lot for them. Education is also a big factor and if these Native Americans can be given proper education and we as Americans offer it to them, generations to come will change in a great way.
1.
In the TED Talk, Huey talked mostly about a timeline of the affairs between Americans/Europeans and Native Americans. This was a very grim start to the presentation, but it was necessary. He went through all the horrid things we did to the Native Americans, such as breaking treaties and taking land. I thought the most surprising thing about it was when we took 3/4ths of the Native American land. I also found it surprising Abraham Lincoln suppressed them because he was mostly known for ending slavery. I thought the Massacre he mentioned (the ‘most important’ throughout the timeline) was extremely devastating and needed to be mentioned. This timeline did not capture all the times the Natives took Americans under their wing and helped us settle into life in North America in the 1400s. Huey captured the real way Natives were being treated and it was not good. The pictures he captured and the facts about Native Americans life really brought them to my attention and made me think hard about how we should treat this population.
2.
In the present day, I do believe we still and always will owe a debt to Native American people. There is no way to capture all the lives and opportunity we have taken from these people. Even though we aren’t the generation to do horrid things to Native Americans, at least not as bad if you scale in past generations, I still believe we should show our compassion towards this group. Like the TED talker said, there is no easy way to give back to this community. Maybe we give them money, or land, or even food, but there is no way to repay them for our actions in past decades. We should definitely replace Columbus Day with Indigenous Peoples’ Day because it would be another way of repaying Native Americans. I do not think we should push the rescind of the Medals of Honor ONLY because once something is in your possession, something like a Medal of Honor, it should not be taken away from you even if it was for doing something unconstitutional. I think the reservations need generous help to get them out of poverty because the Native Americans should not be forced to intertwine with Americans if they don’t want to. I also believe the football team’s name should be changed because you shouldn’t have a persons RACE as a mascot (this would be like having a teams mascot be the ‘Whites’). Overall, I think Native Americans need help and should be treated with respect.
1.During the Ted Talk, Aaron Huey showed a sequence of attacks on Native Americans by the US. Initially, I knew that the US had treated the Indians unfairly during Jackson’s presidency and with reservations, but I learned about many more destructive and terrible acts. The Wounded Knee Massacre and the fact that Lincoln released unfair treaties after the emancipation of slaves both shocked me and. It’s surprising that the cavalry in Wounded Knee Massacre were awarded the most medals of honor in any battle of all US history. Personally, I believe all the medals due to the fact that the US murdered innocent people that were indigenous to our country. Also I believe that Columbus Day should be changed to Indigenous People’s day. This is because the natives deserve to be recognized, instead of the person who spread disease and enslaved them. The reservations should be aided because the Natives Americans deserve to live in a society equal to US citizens. The disbandment of the Dakota Pipeline will be a huge step in making Indian reservations higher qualities. The pipeline destroys the environment of the reservations, and should be removed to establish a clean reservation. The Redskins, Braves, and Indians should change their mascots because their current mascots are harmful to Native Americans. I think that some of Native American artifacts in museums should be returned to them. Lastly, America should learn from Canada’s native policies. Canada established a Providence, Nunavut, that consists of their native people, and their culture and artwork. I think that America should consider creating land that preserves our native’s culture and artwork.
2. Agreeing with Aaron Huey from TED Talk, I do not believe there is any easy solution to paying back the Native Americans. This is because we are trying to pay back hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of people who have spent all their lives in conditions we associate with poverty-ridden Third World countries and the millions who preceded them all because of politically motivated decisions the United States has made to increase it’s the happiness of it’s people at the cost of the Native Americans well-being. Paying them back in literally money will be ineffective because the money will eventually be spent and most likely have short-term effects. At the very least, the US can rightfully give the Sioux tribe ownership of the Black Hills region. This is because it is a source of the Sioux’s distinct culture and one of the it was one of the final pieces of land taken by the US in its expansion over North America in the 1800s.One way I believe that we can help the Native Americans is by promoting large businesses to move to reservations. This can help because the businesses would offer jobs to many who are poverty-ridden and in need of money. It would also promote a consumer economy by offering goods to the Native Americans on the reservation. Me being a 15 year old who is still in high school, I am unsure of how this concept would actually affect Native Americans lives. Personally, I do believe it would be a step in the right direction towards paying back the Native Americans by giving them a chance to obtain a modern, stable, and healthy lifestyle. Today, the issue of the Dakota Pipeline has come to attention throughout the nation as many Native Americans protest it due to its violation of a treaty signed all the way back in the 1800s. Similar to the issue over the Black Hills region, the Dakota Pipeline can be used as a way of apologizing to the Native Americans for everything the United States has done to them. It is also a way of showing the United States follows through on the promises it has made to the many different Native American tribes by respecting the division between the United States and the Native American reservations.
When I watched the Ted Talk, I was expecting to watch a man give a speech about the American’s maltreatment of the natives. When I did watch it I was astounded at how many treaties that the United States had made and broken with the indigenous people. The point in which I was the most surprised was when he showed a picture of what the United States would look like if we had stayed within the guidelines of the original treaties we had made. There was an extremely large amount of land, larger than Michigan, Wisconsin, and Illinois combined, that would have been kept for the natives. Seeing the pictures of where these people were living and how they were living was very disheartening. In my english class with Mrs. Kay, we read a book about a boy on a reservation. Before we read the book, we watched a documentary on the Lakota people. I was astounded, even after having already seen pictures and videos similar to those that were shown in the powerpoint. I think that the American government owes a great deal to these people. We stole so much from these people and I think that it would be wrong and unconstitutional if we didn’t repay them. The fact that the Supreme Court ruled that it was unconstitutional when we took their land, and we still didn’t fully repay them is disgusting. As a country we have unjustly and unconstitutionally taken land from them, killed them, and confined them into reservations. I think that we need to repay our debt to these people. I think that sports teams shouldn’t be able to use indians as a mascot and I think that congress should revoke all the medal awarded for Wounded Knee. I think that in a perfect world we would give all land that we originally promised back and we would formally and publicly apologize for all that we have done to them. I am not educated enough about the reservations and how they work in regards to the U.S, but with the knowledge that I do have, I think that the reservations should be liquidated and we would continue with life and we would possibly try to help these people to succeed or at least get on their feet. But it is not a perfect world. I think that practically it would be difficult for all of the land to be given back. I think that we should give back a bit of it, but due to the fact that people have settled on the land and whole states would have to be given up if all the land was given back, I propose that we pay for the rest of the land we took, like the court case was supposed to enforce in the 2000s. I think that the United States has taken advantage of and marginalized the Native Americans from day one and I think that we need to repay them for the hardship we forced them through and make sure that we no longer take advantage of and marginalize the Native Americans.
1. Although I was aware of the fact that since Europeans came to the United States and the colonies and later America was first founded we treated the Native Americans terribly, I didn’t know how many treaties and promises had been broken throughout our history. As he discusses throughout time how much land was supposed to be granted to the Lakota tribe it baffles me that none of it belongs to them today and even the land that is supposed to be theirs- the reservations, are still inhabited in many places by white ranchers. When Europeans first “discovered” America it was already inhabited by the Native Americans and now about five hundred years later the entire country is taken over and the Native Americans have nothing but pain and terrible living conditions as well as a country that is no longer controlled by them to show for those five hundred years. In the Ted Talk he mentions that on December 29, 1890 the Wounded Knee Massacre occurs, where U.S. troops surrounded a Native American encampment at Wounded Knee creek and massacred Chief Big Foot and 300 prisoners of war. The Americans claimed that this was a battle up until recently finally calling it a massacre and 20 congressional metals of honor were given as a result of this “battle” or massacre. This is the most metals of honor ever rewarded for a single battle to this day. American soldiers were rewarded and congratulated for their terrible acts by our federal government which is atrocious. Although the Wounded Knee Massacre occurred about one hundred years ago, it still affects the Native American people today; about 60% of the homes of the reservation are invested with black mold, more than 90% of the population lives below the federal poverty line, the infant mortality rate is the highest on this continent, and the school drop- out rate is at 70 percent. This all is related back to the greed of white settlers and the American people and the constant need for more land. The Ted Talk discussed how as a result of Manifest Destiny we created a genocide that was so successful that the Native Americans are now killing each other. I am appalled at what the Ted Talk said and I’m even more stunned that these statistics and realities aren’t more popular to the public.
2. The debt that Americans owe to the Native Americans is huge. Americans should not only give funding to the American reservations but the government should go these communities and see the conditions and do what they have to, to make sure that the living conditions are safe. The government should also go to the schools and hire people that they know are qualified and be stricter on the dropping out rules within these communities so that the people will be educated. This is necessary because without the hands on activity of the government whether that be state or federal no change will be made and it is the government’s debt to pay so no one is better qualified to help than them.
*Updated*
In my overall opinion, I don’t think we should give anything to the Native Americans other than a simple apology to pay our debt to them. What happens in the past is already done and we can’t change that. Secondly, We have already given them land in which they can practice their culture and religion in and we also not forcing them to stay there either. I also agree that it is sad that the vast majority of reservation Indians are living in poverty and in third world conditions, but there current state doesn’t have anything to do with what happened in the past. In the Ted Talk the person uses the oldest tricks in the book to sway a person over onto the Indians side. For example, he shoes the crappy households they live in, the poverty they suffer from and the obesity rate. All of these factor do not have anything to do with Americans and what bad stuff they have done in the past. Aaron Huey also states that these Native Americans are being put in prisons and are being called prisoners of war. No one is forcing these Indians to stay on their reservations, the bus runs every single day I don’t agree with the Ted Talk because it just states problems in the past that we can’t fix. We should not replace Columbus Day with Indigenous Peoples Day. First of all, the reason we celebrate Christopher Columbus day is to acknowledge the discovery of the American continents to the European people. Even though people say that Columbus killed 90% of the Indians, he didn’t do it personally or intentionally. Europeans brought over diseases that they were immune to so they didn’t know they could spread it. Plus, the Europeans did kill several Indians by arms and that is because they saw the continent as free land because the Indians were so far behind them in civilization they saw them as intelligent as animals, or in other words more superior. This was evidently shown by heavy slaughter of Indians. The reason why Indigenous People’s Day shouldn’t be a holiday is because the whole point of human nature is to conquer. We see this as people conquering nature through deforestation or also by making innovative inventions to surmount nature’s hardships. This also goes for the conquering of people especially in that time. Lastly, I think it would make more sense to have Black People’s Day instead of Indigenous People’s Day because we did a dramatically amount more harm to them and for a longer time. I think we shouldn’t push Congress to rescind the Medals of Honor distributed to the 7th Cavalry handed out after the Wounded Knee Massacre in 1890. The Medal of Honor is the highest military honor which is awarded for personal acts of above and beyond the call of duty. The 7th Cavalry receiving the Medal of Honor should not be reversed because they did handle government’s commands with bravery and also because they received it more than 120 years ago so what good would this do? I think that reserves should be abolished because it isn’t do any good for them. According to studies by NBC news, 1 out of 10 Indian deaths are alcohol related, if we got rid of reservations Indians would be surrounded by a society that frowns upon drugs and alcohol instead ignoring the problem. Secondly, the education on these reservations are horrible. In a recent book I read, The Absolutely True Part Time Diary of an Indian, they state that the only way for a Indian to make it somewhere in life and be successful is by attending a school outside the the reservation. Additionally, one of the most common arguments of abolishing reservations is that you are taking away their culture. In America, the first amendment of the constitution states that you must have freedom of religion and you cannot prohibit the exercising of a culture. So in the end, abolishing reservations would only help the Indians by solving the problem of alcoholism and education on a reservation and also by letting Indians practice their culture and religious traditions. I think the Washington football team, the Cleveland Indians, or Atlanta Braves should not be forced to take new mascot names for because people who are offended by this are too sensitive and focus on the small problems in this country. Also, a study shown by the Washington Post states that 9 out of 10 Indians aren’t offended by these team’s mascots.
1.To be completely honest, watching that video gave me a headache. The entire thing was one big guilt trip with some dramatic words like “massacre” and “genocide” thrown in for effect. This makes me sad, because the message behind the video is actually pretty important. It’s important to recognize all the injustices the Native Americans have had inflicted upon them throughout the course of American history, and perhaps even more important to recognize that this group is still being oppressed today. The history of the relationship between the natives and the Americans is riddled with murders, seizing of land, and broken treaties, all of which have led to the current situation today, with natives stuck living in reservations with terrible living conditions, poor economic situations, and with virtually no way out, as most reservationists are below the poverty line, and literally can’t afford to leave. It is imperative that we address and attempt to fix these issues, as well as possibly give back sacred land that was taken away so many years ago. However, the nature of Huey’s presentation did a poor job of conveying these messages. He focused on feeling more than actual fact, and had a melodramatic style of speaking that distracted from the message rather than helping to convey it. In addition to this, it felt like he wanted to make the viewer feel guilty. In the beginning, he says, “So take a look around this auditorium today. We are at a private school in the American West, sitting in red velvet chairs with money in our pockets. And if we look at our lives, we have indeed taken the best part of the meat.” When he says things like this, it feels like he’s implying that it is personally our fault that Americans of the past were so oppressive towards indigenous groups. It is a sad truth that Native Americans today are suffering so much as a direct result of acts taken by white settlers in the past, but that is in no way our own faults. However, this is absolutely not to say that we shouldn’t do everything in our power to help these people, and improve living conditions, lives, and maybe return some of the land that was taken away from them. Sympathy can come without guilt; actions can be made even if you are not directly at fault. Let me be clear, I’m absolutely not trying to minimize the problems that native peoples face today, or the horrendous crimes committed against them in the past, I’m simply saying that Aaron Huey could have done a better job speaking about these issues in his speech. As for the comments regarding Indian reservations as “prisoner of war camps”, I don’t think that’s an accurate comparison at all, for modern times at least. In 1871, when Native Americans on reservations in the west were banned from leaving the reservations, yes, I can see how that comparison makes more sense, but in modern times, when people are free to (theoretically) leave the reservation whenever they want, that parallel falls apart.
2.While I think an indigenous people’s day would be nice, I don’t think it should replace Columbus Day. Columbus Day should be remembered as a pivotal moment in history that would change the dynamic of the entire world (for good or bad, depending on who you are), regardless of whether or not Columbus was a bad person. I would fully support the institution of an indigenous people’s day, because I think it would help shed more light on the issues these groups face, and create more motivation for helping these groups.
I don’t think the medals should be rescinded, because frankly I don’t think it matters that much. We need to look forward and think about problems of today rather than look back and try to fix issues of the past.
Reservations are a tricky issue, because on one hand it provides the natives with land that is truly theirs, something that we have been taking away from them since 1492. On the other hand, reservations are awful living environments, with over 90% of the people that live there being under the poverty line. I feel like, if possible, the reservations should be kept and fixed/properly funded, so as not to deprive them of what little land they have left.
Forcing the teams to change their names is unconstitutional, by way of the first amendment right of freedom of expression.
While I think that the Sioux reservation should have been consulted before the creation of the DAPL, I think construction should continue. Statements have been put out saying that the pipeline will not cross the reservation, and also will not interfere with the water supply, as it will be buried deep underground.
I think native Americans should be able to have back any artifacts in museums, within reason, if it is important to their culture.
1) In the TedTALKS, Aaron Huey lists all the horrible and violent things Americans have done to harm or go against the Indians. He justly calls out many prominent figures in American history (including Abraham Lincoln) and he points out the evil things they have done that often get overlooked. While it is perfectly fair of him to bring attention to these awful events and decisions, he doesn’t mention a single thing they did to us or a thing that we did to them that was good. I realize that the bad and inhumane actions we made outweigh the good things, but some light should still be shed on the good. In order for a strong argument to be made on any topic, there needs to be a rebuttal. For example, if I wanted to make an argument against America in World War 2, I could use the two bombs they dropped on Japan, ending the war. I could say how violent and unnecessary these were, and I could go completely against America’s action. However, the argument is incomplete if I don’t give the reason for doing this and mention the things Japan did to America. Without mentioning Pearl Harbor, the two bombs dropped on Japan could seem like rash decisions, but with the prior knowledge and rebuttal in the essay, it is much harder for an argument against the United States to be made. Had Aaron Huey listed the opposing view and then explained why these are miniscule compared to the monstrous attacks on Indians from America, the argument could have been completed and any further questions fulfilled.
2) America owes the Native Americans massive debts to make up for how they have treated the Indians since the first time they set foot on American soil. We have been booting them from their houses and killing them through both violence and the disease that we spread in the Columbian Exchange. The generous negotiations and decisions we have made with the Indians are scarce. The morally correct actions we have committed toward them: few and far between. There is no way to repay for the millions of lives lost in the Native American genocide; however, we must do something to help. We need to start with creating good living conditions within the Indian reservations and providing both life starting and life changing opportunities for Indians living on the reservation. Indians in reservations throughout America should have the same economical, educational, and political opportunities as an American elsewhere in the country. We must attempt to give back what we took from the various Indian tribes. We must take a stand and claim responsibility for our past relations with the natives of our country.
1. Seeing this TedTalk by Aaron Huey was not a shocking revelation to me, just an impactful and illustrated elaboration on the suffering that Native Americans deal with today and the history that has brought us to this point. I already knew of the challenges such as alcoholism, illiteracy and crumbling infrastructure that plague the reservations, but learning about the history of the United States government’s interactions with native people was what was most appalling to me. Time and time again, the United States betrayed those who deserve the most from this land, those who arrived before anyone else. Not only that, the number of promises and treaties that the United States government has made with Natives that they later ignored is upsetting and it is disconcerting to see the government (who makes the law) so causally brake it and brush it off. Abraham Lincoln is revered as one of the most influential men in history, as he led the nation through the Civil War and helped to end enslavement of blacks in the United States, sent thousands of Natives to their own prisons where they were essentially slaves. It really sucks that Lincoln tarnished his own image by doing that, but it sucks even more for the natives who were affected by that. The part of the video that affected me most was when pictures were shown of mass graves and heaped bodies all over the ground. It seemed like the Natives were supposed to be an enemy that we defeated, but in reality, they were a group of people looking for help that we stabbed in the back. This shows how careless the US government is with native lives, just as it was shown in the Wounded Knee Massacre, which was the largest in American history.
2. In regards to the Black Hills lands and repayments owed to the natives that are similar, we know that a ton of cash in payment for lost land isn’t what the natives are looking for, because they have already denied it. Throwing money at them for stolen land doesn’t fix the crazy problems that exist in reservations. Since we have learned about the situations on reservations in other classes, I know that it’s basically impossible to set up a business or try to become successful in a reservation. Instead of giving the natives a ton of money and forgetting about the issues at hand, it would be more prudent to put the money towards programs to make life better. The first thing to do, it seems to me, is to make it easier to set up a business in reservations because that would give so much opportunity to the people who live at rock bottom. Access to better schools and health care would greatly increase potential of Native American families and children and lengthen life spans. Special efforts and apologies should be made by the US government and all of it’s citizens to ask for forgiveness from the Native Americans and welcome them into the American Dream that they have been excluded from.
1.) Upon watching this Ted Talk, I noticed that the entire presentation was extremely one-sided. Yes, it is quite obvious to someone who glances over American History that we have been royally screwing over the Native Americans since colonial times. However, this does mean that ever interaction between the United States and the Natives were bad and the United States was always at fault. There were times when the two sides cooperated (i.e. origin of Thanksgiving), as well as times when the natives were at fault (i.e. King Phillip’s war- king Phillip made the alliance and launched the attack against the northeastern settlers, Powhatan War-instigated by Indians, or Deerfield Massacre-kidnapped colonists). However, that being said I do believe that we should not continually oppress the Native Americans in the United States. Mr. Huey makes many valid points about the poor conditions of the Indians and the way they have been treated is far from ok. I knew that we had treated these people poorly, but the constant treaty breaching and medal of honor awards being presented for massacres was eye-opening. I have gained a new outlook on President Abraham Lincoln as well as a new outlook on the entire situation in the reservations.
2.) In order to reconcile for our actions, I think the appropriate move is to pay for the land that we took and disband the reservations. I don’t think that it is necessary to give back the land that was breached by the treaties because the United States should not be broken apart as of now and have to give land back. The disbanding of the reservations will help to solve the economic problems that the Native Americans face as well as the money from the land, and that is all that should be done. Regarding sports team names, it is entirely possible that people are being ultra-sensitive about these. I think that the Natives should be proud to have sports teams named after them because it is a sign of strength, not a racial slur. Lastly, I think that the case of the medals of honor presented to the 7th cavalry is a case in which we must tread carefully. Although (in my opinion), these men should not have received the medals, this is one of those things that once given there is no correct way to take them back. The families of the people who earned the medals should have to give these up after all this time, therefore they should not be rescinded, even if they were falsely given.
1. In the Ted Talk, Aaron Huey talked about about all the evil actions throughout American history that we have inflicted on the Native Americans. Huey believes that we owe the Native Americans everything, and that we must take action to repay them for all of our crimes. I do believe that our ancestors did very bad things to the Native Americans, and that we have to help the Indians out of the situation that we put them through. However, I would not follow through on everything that Huey is suggesting. In the video, there were a few things mentioned that surprised me. First, I was very surprised when Huey displayed the map of the land that the Indians would have had if the treaty of Fort Laramie would still be intact. They would have had a giant piece of land in the middle of the United States to themselves, and it would be interesting how that would have played out had it happened. I was also very shocked to hear about the percentages of problems on reservations compared to the national average. For example, the average life expectancy of someone living on a reservation is 46-48 years old, while the average life expectancy of an average United States citizen is around 80 years old. I think numbers like these show that the Indians are living in very bad conditions, and our government should be doing more to help them.
2. Back in the 1700s, Andrew Jackson and many other ancestors of ours were hungry for land. They felt the Indians were merely an obstacle in their way of trying to pursuit Manifest Destiny. They lied, broke treaties, killed, tortured, and forcibly removed Indians out of their homes (even though they were there first). Our ancestors pushed Native Americans out of their way and left them in reservations where they wouldn’t have to worry about them. The Indians were left to terrible conditions to live in, and I think that it is our duty to help them out of this problem. Even though we personally did not push the Indians into this situation, we are benefiting from the results, just as the Indians on the reservations are suffering from what our ancestors did to their ancestors. However, I do not agree with Aaron Huey that we should give them back their land. We went to war with them and won the land, and it would create major issues in present day America if we were to give back the Indians a piece of land the size of Texas. Instead, we should get rid of the reservations, and help integrate the Native Americans into our society. It is ridiculous that we set up camps for them as if they are different than us. We have allowed African Americans, Muslims, and all other races join America as a free country, so why not allow the people who were originally here to be part of our great country. As a repayment for our past actions, our federal government should provide support to all Indians on reservations, get them on their feet, and allow them to find a job and live their life like any other American would. I also think that we should replace Columbus Day with Indigenous Peoples’ Day in order to recognize our mistakes and move past them. Christopher Columbus does not deserve his own day over the people that he killed bringing disease and torturing while being in America. I do not think that the Cleveland Indians, Atlanta Braves, or Washington Redskins should be forced to change their team names. When a sports team is picking a name, they often try to pick something that will intimidate their opponents, a symbol of toughness, such as the Detroit Lions. It is an honor to be the name of a sports team, and it can give Native Americans teams to root for. Lastly, I think Native Americans should be given back most of the artifacts displayed in museums or locked up that were taken from them a while back. They deserve to have pieces of their culture to hold onto and cherish. However, I think that some artifacts should still be displayed in order to teach young Americans about the history of the Native Americans. I truly believe that if we all work together, we can help the Native Americans dig themselves out of the mess that we put them into.
1.This Ted Talk was very enlightening. Throughout my school career, I have never been taught as much about the abuses and broken promises that the US has made to Native Americans in school, than what I just learned from this 15 minute video. I find what the United States of America did to the Indigenous people in the past, present, and what they will continue to due in the future absolutely appalling and frankly terrifying because this is a prime example of what this “Great Country” has been built on. The list of abuses Huey brought to the table should make every person who watched this film feel remorse and regret for what their ancestors did to the Natives. To those who attempted to compare what Huey said about the Natives living in “prison war camps” to other war camps in completely different situations should understand that the oppression of people such as the Jews in Germany, should never be compared. Oppression is oppression and the pain that any person of color has felt after being persecuted for something they believe in or who they are deserve to be acknowledge in their own respects. This video has allowed me to better understand that sure the US has given the Natives “good” things as someone commented in another blog post, but those things were never something to be given. White people invaded the Native American’s land, lied and said they found it first. They decided that the Indigenous people who the white men soon learned lived on the land they had discovered first, did not rightfully own the land, because they were not civilized in the way they were. In their white man words and social darwinism that if people look different from you, speak differently, and/or conduct their societies differently, then you are not human and you are need of a white savior. Along with the millions of Native people slaughtered on their own land, whites wrote all over the Native’s home in big, bloody letters “the New World”. Huey is a great ally to the Indigenous people by broadcasting their vastly, and ongoing exploitation by the American government and I am glad that he is using his white and male privilege to better reach large audiences that Natives are rarely ever afforded.
2. America was built off of the atrocities the Natives endured from the US government and from white men as a whole who happened to discover a whole new land “destined” to them by the power of God. Americans striped the Indigenous people of their native and sacred land. We stole land from them from them by promising treaties, reservations, and places they could finally call their own in treaties we knew we would never honor. The Natives were sold the biggest lie-that would be able to secure their sovereign nations (nations because the Native people did not just consist one tribe, but hundreds and thousands) in country that did not and doesn’t respect anyone who is any less “civilized” than them. We owe Indigenous people greatly and we will forever be in their debt for everything that America has done and will continue to do to them. Even though today we are not the individuals that committed those horrendous crimes against the Natives, we still reap the benefits from the everlasting suffering that the Natives continue to face. There are many solutions as to how the US government can start taking responsibility for what they did to the Natives. Reparations can start by giving the proper amount of funds to Native reservations that will revive every building, business, family, and livelihood that the federal government has viciously ripped away. The US government should respect the cultures, traditions, and lands of Native Americans by not trying to defile them by building, for example, the Dakota Pipeline. That Pipeline could potentially and is likely to contaminate the Native’s drinking water and most importantly would desecrate the solemn graves of their ancestors. If Trump and anyone else who believes that this pipeline is a good thing in terms of creating jobs for America, then how about they build the Pipeline in a predominantly white neighborhood and not a revered land that is not America’s rightful possession. We should give every artifact of the Natives that we still have be to them. The Natives have given everything they had to America. They no longer deserve to have the little that they do have be locked up in a museum for ignorant Americans to oogle at for its beauty. The Indigenous’ artifacts mean so much more to them, then they will ever mean to those who have not gone through their adversity. They deserve to hold on to everything that has been ripped from their hold by a country that has still allowed them to live in poverty and suffering despite everything that the US has done to them.
1.) While the atrocities to the Native Americans were awful and many Americans went back on their word I believe that what is done is done. The Black Hills have been settled upon and I think that it is ridiculous for his call to action to be to give back a very large chunk of land to Native Americans that people live on. As to the atrocities I found it very interesting that almost all of the significant dates were outside of the Jackson Presidency as he is viewed as a large proponent of mistreatment of Native Americans. It was interesting that Lincoln, the great progressive equal rights champion that he was, was instrumental in the massacre of too many Indians to count. I also thought that it was a little ridiculous for Aaron to get emotional about something that happened almost 150 years ago. I think that he was going overboard to try to sway an audience. I think that memorials are important but history should remain in the past and not become something that we worry about in todays society.
2.) While Columbus and his legions killed countless Natives, and that is not forgiven, he should be remembered for the positives that he was apart of. He discovered the New World for pete’s sake. You don’t remember JFK for the affairs, or FDR for Japanese internment but you remember them for their great accomplishments. I do think that Indigenous Peoples day could be a thing that would recognized a great society of people, but I do not think that it should replace Columbus Day but those should be separate.I do not think that the Medals of Honor should be rescinded because going back on something always seems like a sign of weakness to me and they were just soldiers that were doing what they were ordered to do. As for reservations Native Americans are allowed to leave reservations at anytime but they refuse because of the tradition and culture that was created in their reservations. It is there own fault that they are still stuck in poverty. The sports teams are irrelevant they are just fun names and in a way they keep us from forgetting the Natives. As long as they do not practice any racist slogans or physical mascots I see no problem. I do not think that we should continue to oppose the Dakota Pipeline. The times are changing and it is time for everyone else to catch up we cannot keep living in the past. It would help commerce and it is overall good for the American citizen as a whole. Easier transportation equals better prices and that is something that you cannot argue with.
1) I was surprised by the hardships America has put the Native Americans through. From English class I learned about many of the harsh conditions on the reservations, but I was not aware of the treaties America violated and the numbers of Native Americans America massacred. I was surprised and disappointed that President Lincoln, who was so active fighting for the freedom of slaves during the civil war, approved the death sentences of 300 Native Americans and refused to pay money America owed the Indians. I think Americans were greedy when they continually pushed Native Americans into smaller and smaller land areas. Many Native Americans did try to cooperate with Americans and adopt aspects of their lives, but America was materialistic and cared more about land and money. America disrespected the Native Americans and disregarded treaties. Many Americans did not think much of Indians and some even dehumanized them. Henry Clay once said “The Indians’ disappearance from the human family will be no great loss to the world. I do not think them, as a race, worth preserving.” America should’ve acknowledged the Native Americans and their cultures and traditions more. Even if the Native Americans are free to leave their reservations, assimilation often means saying goodbye to their cultural traditions. I don’t think that Congress should rescind the Medals of Honor distributed to the 7th Cavalry handed out after the Wounded Knee Massacre in 1890 though because it would be unfair to take away already awarded medals, but I don’t think the medals should’ve been handed out originally. I think we should continue to oppose the Dakota Access Pipeline because it’s another example of America caring more about money and convenience than the Indians’ wishes.
2) There is no simple solution because the people that took away the Indians’ land and massacred them have already passed. The generations alive today were not a part of those decisions, but still benefit from them. If the Native Americans’ land was given back to them, it would be taken away from the current owners, who were not part of the decisions regarding Indian land. America was in the wrong back when they took away Indian land and killed Indians, but it may be too late to fix those problems without causing new ones. Even though it was different people who did make the decisions of the past, we are still part of the same country, so I think it is important that we help the Native Americans. America owes a lot to them. America should have more respect for them and give them generous assistance. I think we should make it easier for Indians to assimilate into American society but still retain their cultural traditions. Reservations should not be abolished; they should be improved. America should drastically improve the education system and homes on the reservations and make nutritious food more accessible to the poor.
Although I wasn’t exactly surprised learning of the centuries old tradition of mistreatment of Native Americans, this TED Talk opened my eyes even more by giving me specific facts and instances. Huey describes the atrocities that were committed by white settlers against Native Americans, expanding on what we already knew in regard to the Native American genocide (almost 90% of them were killed). New information was presented about a man who’s often perceived as a flawless, Abraham Lincoln. Lincoln agreed to the killing of 38 Sioux men who’d initiated an uprising prior to their execution. Whether or not the hanging was necessary can only truly be decided by those who were there at the time and provided with the circumstances. However, from my standpoint here in the future, I’m having trouble considering the execution to be anything other than needless violence influenced by the dehumanization of native peoples. This act by Lincoln gives the impression of a continuation of the oppression and need to crush any fighting spirit that they might have to preserve their remaining culture.
I thought this presentation did a quality job of showing information that is controversial and many don’t want to hear. Unfortunately, a lot of it needs to be taught. Something I didn’t really enjoy about the presentation was the fact that instead of an actual Native American sharing their experiences, this white man was. The fact that he is educating and caring about the matter is important, however I don’t think he is as knowledgeable as someone who grew up in the conditions on a reservation that he is describing.
In my opinion, more recognition and support should be given to Native American’s considering the oppression they’ve faced at the hands of those currently in charge of the country. Our life today wouldn’t be what it is without the natives we replaced and so I think that more of their story should be taught. For example, I (and I know many adults, even) have never heard of Abraham Lincoln’s treatment of Native Americans and I think that that should be added to discussions of the time period. I also think that there should be a Native American remembrance day because what they endured could be considered a genocide and if it’s not, it’s gruesome enough to deserve a recognition. In the present day, Native Americans still face problems and mistreatment that comes with being as second-class citizens on reservations where alcoholism runs rampant and poverty is plentiful. Support should be given in the form of social programs and better education as well as attempts to minimize alcoholism through therapy (as that’s one of the largest problems they face). Also, poor treatment of Native Americans appears with situations like the Dakota Access Pipeline, which brings a discussion of whether or not natives of Standing Rock have a right to clean water.
1. Being a white middle class American, I have grown up with many privileges that I have no doubt taken for granted. I have always lived in a safe, clean home with a support family by my side, with food on my plate every day, and receiving an amazing public school education. But I feel guilt and embarrassed of being a part of the United States that ripped indigenous people from their land and homes, forced religion and culture on them, and sent them far away, with the leading politians and citizens in the past thinking themselves higher than the native peoples. Those people saw the native people as being in the way of the manifest destiny of the United States. That for some reason, we still thought it was logical to try and push away and demolish tribes because in the past they were our enemies. I began to learn about the way native peoples have been forced to live by the United States government and now, through this TED talk I have learned so much more. I have learned that through the countless treaties that the United States and the tribes of the native people have signed meant nothing. The government lost against the fight of the native people at times, but always went around that, and looked to get Natives to stay out of the lives of the American people. Even if the forces of the native people succeeded and won, the government would come back and put aside the last treaty and make a new one that only favored itself. Under a law ( that has since been repealed), they were made prisoners of their land, and are only a fraction of what they used to be. My reaction to the TED talk is that I feel guilty. I feel tremendous guilt for what my country has done to people that were not the same (skin color, religion, cultural) as the leader before me. Aaron Huey ‘s presentation opened my eyes even wider to what my country did to ensure the success of white domination. I feel angered at the decisions of leaders before, and the decisions of the people who can make a difference now, but chose not to, and chose to not think. To not think about the past, and to not learn from it, and realize it was wrong.
2. The way Native Americans have been treated is unbelievable to me, but I truly don’t know what could ever make them forgive us. Everything that had happened to them has made them now isolated and through what the TED talk express, feel hopeless. The majorities of Native American’s are living in poverty and are overcome by alcoholism. What I immediately think of is give them money, give them jobs, give them houses. But what I have realized is that I don’t know what they want. Has anyone ever asked what they want? I think resources should be made available to them to choose what they wish to do. Don’t we owe them that? All I know is that things must change, and change for the better. Nobody wants to live in poverty, or in a molded house. Native Americans do not deserve to live in such ways.
On the issue of the Dakota Access Pipeline, I fully believe that the reason for the pipeline is to make the American economy stronger and provide jobs and so on. But to violate the wishes of the Native People to not build it is wrong. By building the pipeline, it will cross a sacred burial ground, and intersect a major river that provides water for thousands (with the pipeline being underneath it creates fears of contaminating the water source). Native Americans have been through so much in their history with the United States, and for their pleas to be declined only adds to the long list of times the United States hurt the Native people. For our new president to push an executive order to build the pipeline anyway, even after thousands of protesters have pushed their opposition, is not helping his popularity as our president. To just show up after months of protests to just dismiss it all and go to build the pipeline anyways is an ignorant decision.
My reaction to this blog was very sad. I never really knew the real tragedy and hardships throughout history that indigenous people had to go through. I knew most of the stuff about reservations and why they stayed there, but I never really knew the history and all the treaties between the Native Americans and the US Government. Aaron Huey did a very nice job giving his point. The timeline strategy to make an effective point really worked well on the audience like me. He really set the tone for the speech in the beginning with the slide show and talking about how he knew the indigenous people. Throughout history the Native Americans have really been discriminated against. They have been fighting the United States all the way back since the beginning. I’ve known about the hardships they’ve faced, but I’ve never really thought about it as in depth as this speech did. Indians live in complete poverty with little to no money at all. Many of them live life in disease and die without any recognition. It just blew my mind that the average life expectancy for males was to the age of 46-48. The average white male is now growing into the late 70s and early 80s. Native Americans really do live in very harsh conditions and we should pay more attention to them. The whole cavalry badge thing was also very surprising to me. It wasn’t even a “battle”, it was a complete massacre.
We definitely owe a lot to Native Americans. Since the beginning, we have come in and took complete control of their land without giving much back. Throughout history, we have fought them in a number of battles. These battles have resulted in usually only the United States benefitting. Aaron Huey showed it, the map of the United States would be way different today if we were fair to the Indians. They have suffered through so much. All of the “treaties” and resolutions that he listed off throughout history have resulted in the Natives losing land or losing people. The Wounded Knee Massacre is just disgusting to listen to. The horrible things that we did to them are unbelievable. I don’t really know if there is anything at this point that we could do to acknowledge the Native Americans. A national holiday would be the best option but people would ignore it for the most part. The sadness that these people have gone through is horrible but it is a part of our history. These kinds of actions cannot happen in the future and we have to find a way to acknowledge them.
1.) Personally, I really enjoyed the Ted Talk. I thought that the presenter, Aaron Huey, did a very good job getting his point across that innocent people (the Native Americans) have gone through so much harsh treatment from white settlers and this harsh treatment still affects their place in society today. The TedTalk was moving and I liked how Huey listed chronologically, the harm that Americans have caused on the Indians. I believe that the mistreatment of the Native Americans should be acknowledged and apologized for, but honestly, there is not much we can do now. We cannot take back our actions. One thing that Huey mentioned that caught me by surprise was when he talked about Lincoln favoring the abuse of the Native Americans. This information is new to me as I thought he was a man who believed that everyone is equal, despite where they come from or what they look like. The ending of the video, where Huey presents many startling statistics about Indians today in the reservations today was a good conclusion because it left the audience with something powerful to remember.
2.) Ever since the early days of colonization in the New World, people have taken manipulated and taken advantage of the Native Americans. For all of the harm we have caused to innocent people, we would owe the Indians a huge debt. Americans had seen Indians as a threat to society, for they would side with enemies and refuse to give up land that was necessary for American expansion. However, if Americans were nice to the Indians from the beginning and actually compromised with them instead of feeling a strong superiority to them, then it is likely that their resentment towards us would have been much lower. If this were the case, then maybe they wouldn’t have allied with those trying to take America down. To be honest, there is not much that we can do to make up for the hardship we caused Native Americans to endure. Today, their rank in society is so low and the numbers introduced in the TedTalk about how impoverished & hopeless those in Reservations are mind-blowing. Unfortunately, Native Americans were always seen as inferior and never could get themselves to be in a good place in society. Our mistreatment of them has caused them to be where they are today. Many are poor or jobless. Some are alcoholics. The death rate on reservations is high and many die early. Apologizing won’t fix the mess that we put Native Americans through. However, we can start to recognize them more and maybe raise money for the Reservations or try and help those living on them lead a good path. We should continue to oppose the Oklahoma pipeline project. Native Americans had been through so much already. Why go back to the days of the 1500-1800s and make them suffer again? Instead of hurting them, we should be helping them.
1.This TED video was quite an eye opener for me. I was aware that the Americans had treated the Indians very poorly but I wasn’t aware of many of the specific things that Aaron Huey mentioned. For example, about one year after Abraham Lincoln passed the Homestead Act in 1862 (which allowed Americans to settle on Native American land), that he sentenced exactly 38 Natives to be hung. This hanging is said to have been recorded as the largest mass execution in United States history. I also learned that Lincoln had multiple treaties with the Natives and broke many of them for American advantages. Something that was very interesting to me was that the United States would look slightly different if the Treaty of Fort Laramie had not been broken. If Lincoln had respected the agreements within the treaty, the Lakota Nation would be added to the United States and would have taken up about the same size current day California. When watching this video, I realized that the Natives have/still are suffering in poverty so that we can live our days covered in wealth. Huey made a point to say that everyone sitting in that room listening to him speak was sitting on nice red seats and was carrying money on them. Natives living on Reservations struggle to make any income because 85-90% of them are unemployed. Huey mentions many statistics about current day Natives living on reservations that are truly shocking. Families of up to five live in small, run down homes that contain black mold in the Pine Ridge Reservation and 39% of those homes do not have electricity. More than 90% of the population on this reservation lives under the federal poverty line. The tuberculosis rate is approximately 8 times higher than the U.S national average. The infant mortality rate is the highest on the entire continent while cervical cancer is 5 times high than the U.S nation average and the school dropout rate has reached levels up to 70%. Unfortunately, this is the cold truth about what happens on many reservations. Because these devastating facts are being acknowledged by many people, I feel that changes could be made on Indian reservations and that the percentages of unemployment, poverty, cancer, etc. could decrease dramatically.
2. I believe that the United States is responsible for paying back the Native Americans. However, I’m not exactly sure this can really ever be achieved. This is because many, many natives have had to live out their lives in complete impoverishment on these reservations just so that the Americans could further and better themselves. I do believe that the United States can help the Natives by maybe offering the Natives more land and helping them with internal issues on reservations such as alcoholism, unemployment, etc. However, helping the natives now won’t change any of the damage that has already been caused in the past. Although helping native families on reservations with such internal problems like I have stated above would be useful, it won’t bring back anyone who died on the reservations that lived in conditions that, According to Huey, is similar to third world poverty. I believe that the Natives would be thankful that we are trying to make up for how horribly we have treated them in the past, but I don’t think anything we can do will ever fully be considered as “paying them back”.
1: To start, I want to acknowledge that Huey made some great points in the timeline that he was showing. I agree with his assessment that Native Americans have been treated unfairly in the past through means such as treaties not being upheld, being kicked off of their land, and much more. I do sympathize with the Native Americans and it’s sad to see their population plummet from 8 million in the 1420s to 250,000 at their lowest point in 1900. It’s sad to see alcoholism being a major problem in reservations. It’s sad to see an unemployment rate among Native Americans on reservations at 90%. With this being said though, I think that Huey should’ve talked about how we’re actively trying to help Native Americans. There are services that the government has instituted such as the Indian Education Act that serve the purpose of helping the Native Americans. I think that Huey’s talk would’ve been better if he added that counterpoint to show the other side of the argument. One last thought I had was that I agree with Huey when he says that we owe Native Americans. Which leads me to question #2.
2: I definitely think that our government owes the Native Americans. Multiple times our government has tried to commit genocide on this group of people, whether it was Andrew Jackson and the trail of tears or Abraham Lincoln (I couldn’t believe it when I heard about this) and the mass execution of Native Americans. Our government has called the mass executions of these people “war” even though there was no declaration of war. In my opinion it really isn’t even a question of whether or not we owe them. We killed them, made their way of life unfeasible, tucked them into small pockets across the country, and celebrate a holiday where we pretend that we get along. Thanksgiving basically mocks them. From their perspective we obliterated and disrespected their culture and now they’re stuck in lives where they are poor, alcoholism is rampant, and they have horrible relationships with American law enforcement and government. So to me, the better question we should be asking is: How can we help the Native Americans? Huey suggested in the Ted Talk that we give back the Black Hills region to the Native Americans, and I think that would be a great thing to do, but does it really solve the problems they’re facing? I think a better way to acknowledge the debt that the US owes the Native Americans is to add on and continue to implement services for tribes. Examples of existing services for Native Americans are the Indian Education Act and the Bureau of Indian Affairs. I think that we can add on to these acts and really make a big difference in the lives of many Native Americans. We can implement programs that increase jobs for Native Americans so they can increase their standard of living. We can put funds into better healthcare for Native Americans so that the disease rate and the infant mortality rate go down in reservations. This money that we would continue to be putting into these programs for Native Americans would allow us to pay off the debt that we owe them in a way that would really help out an ample amount of Native Americans.
1. The Ted Talk surprised me. We have all heard about how to United States has unfairly treated the Native Americans, however the timeline provided by Aaron Huey gave me a better idea of what had happened. Also, the pictures taken by Aaron Huey gave an insight to the life of an Indian in the present day. In the presentation I found that two things caught my attention. One of them being that Abraham Lincoln ordered the executions of 38 Native Americans, making this the largest mass execution in the history of the United States. I found this so intriguing because of many of Lincoln’s social views. I was not expecting an anti-slavery president to order the executions of so many Native Americans (keep in mind this was only two days after freeing all of the slaves in rebelling states). The other thing I found so intriguing was that so many medals of honor were rewarded for the cavalry involved in the Wounded Knee Massacre. I do not think that so many people deserved to get medals of honor for this. When Aaron Huey started to talk about the Native Americans in present day, I started to disagree with him slightly. Especially when he compared the reservations to “prisoner of war camps”. The reason I disagree with this is because the Native Americans are not being forced to stay in the reservations, as it is implied by comparing the reservations to war camps. The Native Americans can leave the reservations at any time, however many of them are not able to, due to financial restrictions. The financial state of many Native Americans is not entirely their fault, however. Actions of the government are partially to blame. One example of this is the schools there. It is difficult for many Native Americans today to be successful. Their public schools are not up to date with the current curriculum. In The Part-Time Indian book that most of us read in English this year, it showed that the schools were using textbooks that were over 30 years old. The poor education provided to the Native Americans by the government is not properly preparing the students to work in the real world.
2. The government does owe some debt to the Native Americans. Specifically, I fell that the Native Americans in reservations deserve some financial aid. The homes could be fixed, and the education could be improved. If the Native Americans are given the same education as everybody else in the united states, they would have a larger chance of finishing school and moving away from the reservation. Taking away the medals given to 7th cavalry is not something that I feel is justified. It would be wrong to take something so important away from somebody, because their actions were socially accepted at the time that they occurred, even if they are not now. I do think however that Columbus Day should be changed to something more fitting, as Columbus was not the one that discovered America.
1. After watching the speech by Aaron Huey, I was struck by his perspective of relations between Native Americans and the United States government. I was deeply saddened by the intense pictures and timeline of broken promises by the U.S. One thing in particular that I found interesting was the congressional medal of honor awards given to leading American soldiers in a battle that killed hundreds of Native Americans. I was appalled by the insensitivity shown by the government and was wondering the thought process behind this decision. With that being said, the land taken was pivotal in our progress as a nation. The land that was “opened up” by these forceful actions helped us become the worlds leader in cotton production and a top economy. Jobs all over the country were created due to the expansion of territory and the average American life bettered in general. Also, if we attempted to live side by side with these Indians, or cut out bigger land areas for them, I believe it is inevitable that wars over dominance would continue. While we could have dedicated more funds towards the reservations that are present today, our forceful actions were bound to happen as we strived to become a world leader.
2. Time and time again, Native Americans and the United States would agree upon treaties and they would be broken by Americans. Our lust for land, especially in the 19th century, caused conflicts over things like breaking treaties. Today, I believe the government should take full responsibility for the mistreatment and utter disregard for peace with the Indians. Although committing more land to reservations would be nice, you simply cannot take back history. The 50 United States are drawn the way they are due to events that transpired in history, bad or good, and it should not be undone. However, I think the government should commit many more millions of dollars to reservations across the country. As highlighted in the video, reservation conditions are awful and kids are not given the same opportunities that average public education provides. Also, the horrible history of alcoholism is present in to too many Indians living on reservations and programs should be made available to help people quit. It is a real philosophical quandary, that we built the greatest nation on the earth on the backs of Indians. By breaking peace and killing them, we set the tone for how opposing peoples would be dealt with for the rest of our history.
I feel Aaron Huey’s left us with a very opened-ended and inconclusive question. What does he suppose we do for these native indians? I feel this is the question that gets lost in speeches like this. We hear on and on about the horrible things that we did and how we must repay, but never how to reply. The way american treated the native people was not right. From Christopher columbus to the indian removal act, the way Indians were mistreated was un American. As a country we know what we did wrong and how to never let it happen again. This does not mean we owe the Indians anything, we as americans, in my opinion, have created an amazing country where people from all over the world dream to live. We are in a country that is the most advanced in science, technology, military, etc. I don’t see why these natives don’t join our country instead of living on theses reservations. Leading into the question if they should be abolished or not and i feel they should. There nowhere near a “war camp” and no one is making the natives stay there. I feel that problems the man in ted talks brought up were not our fault but their own. At anytime the indians can get up and move onto our land, get an education from our great schools, work at our world class companies. That’s were i don’t see what excuse there is for the high death rate, poverty rate, unemployment and etc. These things are brought on by themselves, if they wanted to change they can leave the reservation at anytime. I also believe the reservation is stopping the progress of advancements in American life. The dakota pipeline could employ many americans and improve our economy greatly. Along with the agreements with the canadians, building the pipeline would help america, and abolishing the reservations would help the indians. If new generations of indians grew up out of the reservation many of their problems would go away. These people would also be able to remember and cherish their history by seeing it in museums, that why i believe the artifacts should stay there. If the indians started to compile, their would be far less problems and the next generations of indians would be able to be successful and healthy. As far as changing columbus day, i disagree. If we did anything we could add a native people day but celebrating columbus will always be apart of our history, even if there were bad ties to it. I do feel creating a natives people day or month could be a good idea to help bring awareness to the indian people. The 7th cavalry were brave men, who followed their orders and did what they were told. I don’t feel that congress should revoke these medals of honor, but we as a nation should learn what and what’s not appropriate to give honor medals too. I do feel these were not the brightest days in america’s past, but the men in the cavalry did as told, which in any case is giving honor to their country. Lastly the football teams. I feel this is least important and too the point where it is almost irrelevant simply because anyone in America has a right to free speech even if it is offensive to some. Along with this, it is not being forced on any indians or anyone for that matter so if hurts you, don’t watch. I feel we live in a society where people get offended way too often, and it’s quite ridiculous, we need to teach people at an early age that words are just words, don’t let them get to you.
Honestly watching the Ted Talk video was not a very pleasant experience, for any American it probably would not be easy to watch. The first thing I thought when I heard the statistics and saw the pictures was ‘what did we do to these people, that did nothing but try to defend their sacred land as we took more and more from them until there was nothing left to take.’ Not only was I very uncomfortable watching the video , but I also felt for the Indians, and I completely agree that something needs to be done to attempt to right the wrongs that have been done. There is no possible way to make everything that has happened in the past okay and we should apologize for the part we played in the Native American genocide. I have a lot of pride for America I always have and I always will, but seeing what we did in the past to those people was devastating to watch and hear about, almost like being reprimanded for something that’s not your doing , but you still have to take responsibility for it. In my opinion the speaker Aaron Huey was trying to make viewers feel awful to support the Native Americans cause, by the tone in his voice you could tell he was angry and emotional, when it comes to the damage Americans have caused to the Native Americans. He wanted Americans to see how history had played out through a different perspective. Aaron Huey wants the United States of America to give back the black hills, and he is trying to convince the people to bring awareness ,but the Americans that currently live in that area probably would not agree with the idea. And giving back the black hills will not automatically make life for the Native Americans better , it would not provide electricity or help for the addicts and alcoholics.
In addition to an apology, I also believe we should change Columbus Day to Indigenous People’s Day, considering Christopher Columbus did nothing but sail to the wrong continent and harass and murder natives. The metals given to the 7th Cavalry after the Wounded Knee MAssacre in 1890 should be confiscated, it was not appropriate to hand out those metals then and it definitely is not appropriate now. However I do not think that it is necessary to change the names and mascots of sports teams , they are just names and unless Native Americans come out and say the names are offensive then they should just remain the way they are. I do not think that reservations should be abolished because the land is sacred to the Native Americans, just like the other land that they have lost. But, I do think that it should be required that the United States of America put in a decent amount of money into each reservation and hold the reservations to an American standard of living. I strongly believe that the Native American artifacts should be given back to their rightful owners, I typically believe in the principle the everything should returned to the rightful owner but I am not so sure if I fully believe that the United States should give back the black hills. The reason I think this is because the area of the black hills is already populated with Americans, and the America today is way different from the America that forced the Native Americans off their land for American gain, but if we did give the black hills back the the Native Americans where would the Americans currently living there go. It is completely reasonable for the Native Americans to want that land back and the right thing to do would be to give it to them, but I highly doubt that will ever happen.
1. My reaction to the Ted talk was very shocked, but also at the same time I knew that we did a lot of bad things to the Native Americans. We took everything from the Native Americans. We took there land, lifestyle/culture, and their people away from them. When Huey was talking about the how the U.S would sign these treaties, but never actually mean what they are signing for. For example the first and second Fort Laramie Treaty. In 1851 the U.S signed a the first Fort Laramie Treaty stating that boundaries of the Lakota land and that it would stay a sovereign nation. The Lakota land had parts of Montana, Wyoming, Nebraska, and North and South Dakota. This was great for the Lakota/Sioux. But it did not last long, which did not surprise me. It did not surprise me because Americans today and back then are so greedy. They always want to take the best meat. In 1862 Lincoln signed the Homestead Act that encouraged white settlers to move west onto Native land. Because of the white settlers moving west on the Native Americans land the Santee Sioux strated to uprise. This made the American government unhappy so they sent people to end the uprising of the Sioux. This ended with 38 Sioux men hung. It was the largest mass execution in the U.S history. Lincoln ordered this to happen right after he signed the Emancipation Proclamation. I was appalled the Lincoln could say that it is okay to go and hang Natives that are being repressed and having their rights and land being taken away from them by the white men. But then go and sign a document that ends slavery. We started to take away the land from the Lakota and the Sioux even when we signed the first Fort Laramie Treaty. The U.S does not stop there they just keep on taking everything from the Native Americans. The Second Fort Laramie Treaty was signed in 1868 guarantees the sovereignty of the Sioux and Lakota nation. It also protects the Black Hills which is a sacred. The treaty also gives them hunting rights. The Natives thought that they won and the Americans would stop taking things away from them, but sadly they were wrong. 1869 more settlers moved west. Many of them were hunters and they started to kill all of the buffalo/bison. This destroyed a big food, clothing, and shelter source for the Native Americans. Then the Indian Appropriation Act of 1871 happened. This act said that the Native Americans were now part of the American government. They could not leave their reservation by law and this ended all treaties. This basically said that the tribes could not live as sovereign nations because the white men wanted power and land. The Natives fought back, but the Americans ended out on top. I could not believe that the white men wanted land so bad and had to be superior to everyone else. I do not understand why they thought that they were so much better than the Native Americans and any other person that does not have white skin. This just made me so sad and I could just not believe that Americans would not just stop and actually follow any of the treaties signed. They would just massacra the Natives like at the “battle” of Wounded Knee. Killing 300 Sioux’s for no reason and the U.S military got Medals of Honors from this “battle”. More Medals of Honor were given to the men the shot and killed 300 Native Americans for no reason than in WWI, WWII, Korea, Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan. We have done all of this stuff to them and still in 2017 we cannot give them a break. We are putting pipelines through their sacred land. The reservations are like living in a third world country. 90% of Natives of reservation live below the poverty line. That is such a big percent and I do not understand why we cannot help them. This Ted talk really brought everything into perspective. It proved my point that they have and still are being shafted by the government/the white man.
2. I think we need to start to give back to the Native Americans. They were here first in American. This is their land and we came in one day and said this is our land. God gave us this land. We should definitely get rid of Columbus day. It is celebrating a guy who “found” the Americas which he thought was India. His discovery was all dumb luck. When he landed in the Caribbean he wrote in his journal saying that the people here are really nice and he cannot wait to enslave them. Why would anyone want to celebrate a person like that? I know I do not. I think their should be a day Indigenous peoples but we need to give back more than just make a holiday for them. I think that the government needs to give money to the reservation to make it better living for the Native Americans. There should be schools that should be built of reservation. So more Native Americans have to chance to get a high school degree and maybe go to college. I also think that everyone of the reservation should get electricity. It is like living in a third world country. But they live in America that is a first world country. We should be helping them not hurting them with things like the Dakota Pipelines (that should not go in). We could also learn for the Natives on like how to take care of the Earth and the land. The Natives cared and still care for the land they live on. Americans just destroye everything in nature the build a stupid parking structure or mall. Also congress should take back the Medals of Honor they gave or for the “battle” of Wounded Knee. Those men do not deserve Medals of Honor for massacring people for no reason.we have helped out all of these other countries, but we cannot fix our own internal wounds. We owe the Native Americans everything because we took everything away from them. We just hurt them and took things from them until people finally woke up and realised that this in not okay. Or there was nothing left to take. They deserve their land back and their culture. We owe them so much that I do not believe we can give back to them. We killed them off at will because we wanted more meat of America. The Tail of Tear is a good example of America “needing” more. The men gave the Natives smallpox blanket and kick them out of their home. The Natives sued but Congress said no we can take your land away. Which should have never let this happened in the first place. It went too far when it should have stopped decades ago.
I am astounded by the TED talk. I knew that Americans had done horrific things to the Native Americans, from past history classes and through books I’ve read, but the seemingly endless list of atrocities against them blew my mind. I had no idea that Lincoln had ordered the massacre of them after speaking about the how the country needs to come together. I’m also encouraged by how much he cares and the passion he showed. I think it speaks a great deal of his character that he cries over their treatment when at the end of the day it doesn’t really affect him.
Personally, I think we owe the Native Americans a hell of a lot. Though it’s true, that Americans today had nothing to do with anything Aaron Huey presented in his talk, I would argue the position they’re in today is because of the consequences of those actions. Additionally, I feel we have a duty as Americans to help other citizens who aren’t as fortunate as us and if we can’t do that, then who the hell are we? I’m undecided if we should replace Columbus Day with Indigenous peoples day. Though he did a lot of horrible things, he did in fact do a lot of good and he’s an important figure in our early history. For now, I propose keeping Columbus Day and designating another day for Indigenous peoples day. I absolutely believe the Medals of Honor should be rescinded, though I don’t see it happening. According to Wikipedia, the Medal of Honor is awarded for personal acts of valor, above and beyond the call of duty. And I don’t think what they did deserves this great honor, sorry. We should ABSOLUTELY keep the reservations and I think we should increase their funding to help out their situation as their current funding clearly isn’t enough. The state of current reservations is heart breaking to me, we’re the richest country ever, and some people want to further abandon/screw over the people who have had the odds stacked against them since birth. In terms of the professional sports teams, I think they should change their name, even though this will never happen. The current name is taken as a slur and if you replace redskin with any other racial slur, there would be outrage and people would be calling for it to be change. Of all the questions listed by you for discussion, the pipeline is the one I’m most passionate about. I could write for hours and hours about why I disagree and hate Trump’s Executive Order to begin construction. I believe people should still protest it and I would if I could. The pipeline would only bring 3,900 jobs to construct it and only 35 full time jobs to run it, which would be very short term and the effects of this, could potentially be disastrous. The pipe line threatens the Tribe’s environmental and economic well-being, and would destroy sites of great historic, religious, and cultural significance to the Tribe. Additionally, I firmly believe the US should be pursuing alternative and renewable sources of energy. If the government goes ahead with the pipeline would increase CO2 omissions, fuel climate change (no pun intended) and could further destroy the environment. So to summarize, I fully support Obama’s decision and I am against Trump’s decision to construct it, bigly.
1.My reaction to the Ted Talk was partly shock, partly sadness of the situation and its details. It was pretty shocking to see in detail all the actions committed by Americans against Native Americans. Up until this point in our education, we were only taught a very basic concept of our situation with the Indians, which is that we treated them unfairly as we tried to build this country. This Ted Talk went far more in depth by describing more specific events that occurred. I learned a lot more about what exactly Americans did, and the outcomes that resulted from it. One thing that really caught me off guard was what he discussed about Abraham Lincoln and what he did regarding Native Americans. Lincoln is most known for what he did regarding slavery and the rights of African Americans during the Civil War. What is not talked about as much, but what was explored in the Ted Talk, was how president Abraham Lincoln acted towards Native Americans. He conducted the largest mass execution by a president in US History, hanging 38 Native Americans in 1863. Following the precedent set by presidents before him, he passed the Homestead Act allowing white settlers to continue settling in land previously used by Native American. While we may have more limited knowledge on this because we have not covered Lincoln in depth yet, I believe the average American would not know the details of this horrific acts Lincoln followed through with. The video certainly left a lot of food for thought to ponder with.
2.It is very obvious that Americans have done a lot to the Native Americans over the past few centuries. While there are certainly some things that can be done by America today to try and repay that debt, I do not believe there is any 1 easy solution that can make amends for what was done. Too much irreversible damage was done that cannot simply be payed back. People were killed, environments ruined, these are things that cannot be mended. However, it would be unrealistic to think that our country would be shaped the way it is today if it wasn’t for the expansion our predecessors did at the cost of Native Americans. There are still some actions that can be taken to pay back the Native Americans. I am in support of altering or changing Columbus Day to something like Indigenous People day. This would honor the Native Americans rather than the man who terrorized them. It would also give a lot more national and international recognition to the native Americans, having a holiday named after. I also think taking much greater action towards preserving and restoring reservations would go a long way, as well as returning Indian artifacts to their rightful people. Overall, there is no solution that can mend all the damage done, but there are steps than can be taken to try.
1) In the Ted talk Aaron Huey talked about both the past and present struggles that the Lakota Indians face/faced. He talked about the history of Native abuse starting in the mid 1800’s. Huey discusses how Natives were still being kicked out of there areas at the same time that the emancipation proclamation was signed. He talks about the Treaty of Fort Laramie. The treaty was the first and only time that the U.S ended a battle and agreed completely to the terms of the other side. Although this is true, the treaty was broken many times by the U.S including taking the black hills and opening this land to whites. Another thing that happened between the Sioux and the Americans was the Wounded Knee massacre. In this battle nearly 150 Sioux members were murdered, as well as twenty five American soldiers. This continued the downfall of the indigenous population.
Besides these facts, Huey said multiple things that I disagreed with. One example of this is when he said that Native Americans used to and continue to suffer from genocide. This is completely untrue. While they did suffer a long time ago, there is no longer genocide today. Huey says that you know a successful genocide when the people in charge are able to sit back and watch and say the people are ruining their own lives. This is completely false. Genocide means the deliberate killing of one group of people by another. Considering Indigenous people are not murdered by the federal government, and actually receive health is completely contradictory to this word. Another statement Huey made that I found myself disagreeing with is when he compared reservations to internment or prisoner of war camps. One way that reservations differ from camps is that they receive millions of dollars in funding in order to make them run smoothly and to help out the Native Americans living there. In prisoner of war camps there is no attempt made to help the people as they die and are tortured. Another even more obvious difference between the prisoner of war camps and reservations is that Native Americans are free to leave at any time, while prisoners of war are held against their will and forced to stay.
2) I do not feel that we t owe these Native people for the crimes of our ancestors against theirs. Neither group remains that was directly involved in the major conflicts of the late 1800’s between the American government and indigenous people. Many Natives today face problems such as alcoholism and poverty that do need to be helped. However I do not feel that it should be the obligation of white people to fix these problems because we were not the cause of them. I believe these problems are mostly self-inflicted for multiple reasons. One of these reasons being what I said earlier: we are not our ancestors, they are not theirs. We have not discriminated against and killed millions of their ancestors so why should we be blamed. Another reason I feel this way is that Native Americans already receive benefits to help them succeed. This includes massive contributions to reservations as well as advantages on getting in to college and getting scholarships or other forms of financial help needed to enroll. Another way we are not to blame is that we are not controlling their lives, forcing them to live the way we do. A large complaint is how horrible it is on the reservations. A Native person is allowed and I believe should be encouraged to leave the reservations and join the rest of society. I think that by doing this it would be more obvious to see that we are not the same as our ancestors who did theirs so much harm. In conclusion, while we should feel sorrow and remorse