Athabascan Voice: Native American Genocide

Raina Delema

History behind the News

Spring 2005

Introduction

When people think of genocide, there are many different examples that may run though their heads. For example, right now there is an intensely watched genocidal issue in Sudan. Another important genocide which occurred was during World War II when Adolph Hitler wanted to exterminate everyone who was of the Jewish faith. This example may be the most prominent in history, but it may not have been the earliest. Many think that issues of genocide only occur in foreign countries, but it may have in fact occurred here within the United States.

When Europeans first came to the Americas, they thought that they were discovering new land. Instead they were greeted with a land which was already inhabited by people with their own way of life. What happened after that is described by some as an American Holocaust. A lot of death and destruction came to Native American tribes when the European explorers and settlers landed.

Columbus, 1492

Christopher Columbus landed in the Americas on October 12, 1942. He brought with him the hope of prosperity and an excitement of discovery of a new world. Little did the voyagers know, there was already a “world” which existed in that land. That sense of hope and discovery from one part of the world eventually led to the death and destruction of another.

Many Native Americans believe that when Columbus first landed in the Americas, it was the beginning of what is now referred to as the American Holocaust. Columbus brought with him greedy men which ultimately led to discrimination, diseases and the death of thousands of Native American people.

Columbus himself brought men who were looking for gold. They took the inhabitants and made them into slaves. In some accounts, the Natives were murdered, tortured and deprived of the necessities. This occurred throughout other voyages as well, as Columbus and his men went from island to island.

English Europeans

It wasn’t necessarily the Spanish that did all of the damage, it was what (or who) followed after that. When the English started to come to the Americas from Europe, they didn’t particularly care who was already living on the land and they certainly didn’t have any regards for the Native Americans way of life. Europeans looked at their discovery as a new way of starting over and they saw the land that they had complete rights to. The English wanted the land and they would literally take it form them without a second thought. Native Americans soon became a minority as settlers poured in from Europe and began to expand. Not only did they treat then poorly but many tried to kill them altogether.

When Europeans first settled in North America, one of the biggest problems for Native Americans was the diseases which they brought with them. Since they had never been exposed to these diseases as the Europeans had they extremely susceptible to catching them. The Natives immune system could not handle the change. An intense amount of Native Americans died to diseases such as the plague, influenza and smallpox. The toll it took one each tribe was immense. Most tribes lost anywhere from fifty to ninety percent of their people due to illnesses alone.

The Indian Removal Act of 1830 – Trail of Tears

Throughout decades of English immigrants and the formation of the United States, Native Americans were continually mistreated. They were looked at as “savages” and were made slaves. The English had no tolerance of them and many wanted them dead. This was mostly because they did not share religious beliefs and they did not share the same way of living. Natives were killed by attack after attack. Their crops were destroyed by settlers leaving them dying of starvation.

On May 28, 1830, Andrew Jackson enacted the Indian Removal Act as a means to “trade” land which lied on the eastern side of the Mississippi where the Native Americans resided. In return, the Native Americans would be given land which was designated for them west of the Mississippi. Within the treaty there were some important terms of conditions in which the President guaranteed these different nations.

Jackson promised the protection of tribes from all outside forces while they were o the newly designated land. The act also guaranteed “aid” for those who were moving and needed help in doing so. In one paragraph it was stated that the land which was traded was to always belong to the tribes, regardless if it was them or their successors living on it. (There was however one exception to this rule. It stated in the treaty that if the “Indians become extinct, or abandon the same” then “…such lands shall revert to the United States”).

With all of these promises and more from President Andrew Jackson, five different tribes decided to move to the other side of the Mississippi. Their destination was Oklahoma which was known as Indian Territory. This began the incredible (albeit deadly) move of over 70,000 Native Americans within the span of ten years. This trek is sadly known as the Trail of Tears.

The move from east to west proved to be more destructive to the tribes than it was helpful. What seemed to be a fair trade soon turned a terrible ordeal as many people died from the move. Native Americans died from exhaustion and starvation from the long journey. Over 3,000 Natives of the Cherokee tribe alone died on the Trail of Tears. This was not to mention all of those who died once they arrived in Oklahoma.

Western Expansion

As America was expanding, Native Americans were being pushed farther west and even up into Canada. With Manifest Destiny and the United States constantly taking shape, the English settlers were much greedier for land and grew less tolerant of the Natives standing in their way. There were numerous amounts of massacres and things were not getting better.

One example of a state and its extreme efforts to move the Native Americans out of the land was Texas. When Texas entered the union they had different policies regarding Native Americans than the United States had already outlined. Texans did not think they needed to trade land nor did they think that the Natives even had rights to the land to begin with. Because of this, Texans would invade land owned by Native Americans because they supposedly had no claims or rights to it.

In 1847, Texas granted “speculators” pieces of land. This land was already inhabited by Natives. When the new settlers had surveyors check out the land they found Native Americans who were none to happy about the situation.

Texans wanted the Native Americans out so the new settlers could help to expand the state. Texans continually went onto their lands and they continually killed many people. In 1859, after a system of reservations failed, Native Americans were finally forced out of Texas.

Another example on a Tribal level (rather than state) occurred in 1877 with the Nez Perce Tribe. Approximately 750 members of the Nez Perce tribe were forced to move to designated reservations under orders of General Howard. The Nez Perce fled to Montana where they thought that they would be safe from Howard. Once they were settled, Colonel John Gibbon took orders from Howard to carry on an attack on the tribe with the intention of wiping them out, not just relocating them. Gibbon issued a surprise attack which left numerous dead (a significant amount of those were warriors). The war ended in surrender with Chief Joseph’s now famous words “I will fight no more forever.” Upon surrendering the Nez Perce were forced to move to a reservation, which was what they had tried to avoid all along.

These are just a couple of examples which occurred out of a numerous amount. History books show many massacres and many wrongdoings toward the Native Americans before and after these occurrences.

Raphael Lemkin and “genocide”

The question is not whether they were treated inhumanly because that has already been established by history itself. The question is whether or not the treatment they received constitutes a form of genocide. In 1944, Raphael Lemkin introduced the term “genocide” and provided a set of definitions or guidelines for the word.

Lemkin defined genocide after the Holocaust of World War II. He described it to be the destruction of a “culture, language, national feelings, [and] religion.” According to prevent genocide.org, part of genocide is the “abolition of local laws and local courts.” Within the treaties and even in the Indian Civil Rights Act if 1968, Native Americans were given sovereignty whether or not this actually kept. There are many tribes today which still have tribal governments. Economically, Native Americans were targeted. There lands were taken from them and their crops were destroyed. They were endangered by the disease which were carried and sometimes administered among the Natives. Being forced out of their homelands on long trails such as the Trail of Tears led to deprivation of many things which caused the deaths of thousands.

Can the mistreatment of Native Americans constitute genocide? There are certainly many instances in which it could be considered genocide. The outspokenness of some men back in those times of war distinctly called for the extermination of Native Americans. There were many actions which were taken to “get rid” of them.

One also must look at the fact of whether or not the removal of Native Americans constitutes as a form of genocide if negative consequences occur along the way. The intended death and destruction of a people just because they are of a certain origin or ethnic background does fall under the definition of genocide. What the history of Native Americans gives us can be determined as a form of genocide. While we can not go back in time, we can learn from mistakes and learn tolerance from history. This can help us to realize that not only does this go on in other nations, it may also occur on America’s homeland.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Bowman, Sally Jo. “From where the sun now stands.” National Parks. Jan/Feb 99.

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Connery, William S. “Fight No More Forever.” World & I. Aug 2002, Vol. 17.

http://www.historicaldocuments.com/indianremovalact.htm

http://www.preventgenocide.org/lemkin/AxisRule1944-1.htm

http://www.preventgenocide.org/lemkin/AxisRule1944-2.htm

http://www.rosecity.net/tears/trail/timeline.html

Katz, William Loren. “Columbus and the American Holocaust.” New York Amsterdam

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McDougall, Walter A. “Freedom Just Around the Corner.” Harper Collins: 2004

Norrell, Brenda. “ANALYSIS: American Indians see Columbus as the trigger man for a