Why did the Native Americans failed to unify against the Europeans during the 1800's - Research Paper Example

?Why did the Native Americans fail to unify against the Europeans during the 1800’s? Introduction History reveals that at the time of the European arrival there were as many as 15 million Native Americans present in the Americas1. These men and women had been present on the land for many thousands of years before the first arrival of the new race, with theories suggesting that they arrived in the land from travelling across a land bridge which crossed the Bering Sound during the Ice Age. They arrived from where we now call Alaska2. Their culture was substantially different from the Europeans that arrived and later colonized the Americas and the differences led to much tension and conflict between the two races. By the 1800s a short time after the revolutionary war the colonists were beginning to push heavily west, encroaching on Native American land in an aggressive manner, causing heavy casualties in the already decimated population and forcing relocation on many Native Americans from their native lands to reservations as well as the enforcement of the colonists ideas and ideals on the natives3. One question that can be asked of this is why did the Native Americans not band together and fight back against their oppressors? The answers to this question are varied and complex and will be addressed in the following sections. The first is as a consequence of the culture and dispersed nature of the race. In addition, they paid a heavy price for any rebellion against the Europeans demands, and by this point in time the Native American population was already heavily decimated. Organized rebellion by the Native Americans was limited by these factors, and as a consequence they were oppressed by the newly arrived Europeans, who had now formed a government, and suffered the loss of much of their culture as a consequence. Background When the Europeans first arrived in New World in the late 15th century, they did not arrive to an unpopulated land; rather they entered one that was home to a rich and diverse native race. It is considered that there may have been as many as 15 million natives living in America prior to European arrival4. Early meetings between the two cultures were friendly and peaceful, but this peace quickly deteriorated as the European settlers continued to move further West in the continent and placed increasing demands on the Native Americans5. The arrival of Columbus to the Americas, or as he identified them, the Indies, introduced a new form of culture and values into the area. As a race the Native Americans had a substantially different culture than the Europeans. Native Americans focused on the community as a whole, there was no ownership of property or possessions, rather these were shared among the tribe in order to meet needs6. Culture and history was largely passed on through oral tradition which involved the telling and re-telling of stories and lessons rather than writing, and as a consequence few documents remain from the race. In contrast, European culture centered on money, private property and individual ownership. The Native Americans were not one uniform race as the Europeans generally viewed them as. Instead they consisted of many distinct tribes and villages, although aware of each other’s presence, there was little interaction between them except during war. Tribes living on the plains were nomadic in nature, moving frequently in order to follow their sources of good. In contrast, Native Americans in the Southwest lived in brick villages and depending on farming as a food source7. Native American religion was not clearly defined, but there was a strong concept of a Great Sprit which provided for everyone and to whom every individual needed to show respect. This was in contrast to the European culture which held faith in a single God. Europeans were aggressive in nature and towards the religion too. They believed that it was their duty to convert the natives into Catholicism or Protestantism8. Both the Natives and the Europeans had completely different social structures as well. For instance, the Europeans followed a defined hierarchical society with the kings at the top most position, and the hierarchy ending at slaves. This meant that there was no equality, and each set had its own pre-decided rights. The natives on the other hand were not a proper hierarchy, but it was a basic one with one person at the top notch position, while all the others were in the next position. For natives, everyone and everything was equal. This idea led them to have equal opportunities and not oppressed by anyone. Whereas in Europe, the lower middle class faced many constraints as they were oppressed by the class above them. European social structure encompassed their entire society, with the same people being in power regardless of an individual’s level in society. In contrast, for the Native Americans, their social structure was strong within a tribe or village, but there was little recognition for the authority of the head of one tribe within another9. The large differences between the Europeans and the Native Americans, as well as the substantial diversity of the Native American culture lead the Europeans to generalize concerning Native American culture. The Europeans saw the Native Americans as savages, red-skinned men and women that possessed strange beliefs and customs. The differences between the two cultures were a large source of tension and conflict10. Throughout the interactions between the two races, the Europeans consistently sought to impose their own belief system and values onto the Native Americans11. In the 1600’s European settlement began and the cost for the native population was vast. The Native American population was devastated by the introduction of many diseases that the Europeans unintentionally brought with them such as smallpox, measles and influenza. As the diseases were entirely new to the Native American population, they had no resistance to them and the amount of death that was caused was high. It is thought that millions of Native Americans died as a consequence of diseases introduced by the Europeans12. However, the most significant advance of the Europeans occurred between the mid-1800s and early 1900s. Here the Europeans began to move West in increasing numbers, breaking treaties that they had made with the Native Americans, destroying food and natural resources as well engaging in significant amounts of warfare and killing many Native Americans. The eventual outcome of this was the creation of the reservation system13. This system involved forcibly confining Native Americans to designated reservations, which were often some distance away from the land that they previously occupied. Reservation confinement meant that men were unable to hunt, reducing their ability to provide for their families in addition to their cultural role. The cultural role of females changed also as many traditional female activities were no longer able to be undertaken, such as quilling and tanning14. The Relevance of Culture The Native Americans had a substantially different culture than the Europeans in many ways, as has been examined above. Native Americans were a diverse race, many of whom were nomadic and did not stay in one place for long periods of times, while others settled in villages and were involved in fishing and farming. While the Europeans acted as a single culture, with unified beliefs and strong communication. This was not true of the Native Americans. . In contrast, the natives which were seen as one entity had no sort of an interaction and were completely disconnected with one another. Natives were based on subsistence, where they provided for themselves for everything and did not depend on anyone or other tribes for anything. The Europeans were completely opposite to the Natives. They were interactive communities and interacted with each other especially when it came to trade. The only times that Natives interacted with other tribes was in times of warfare, at other times they remained autonomous. Native Americans were diverse culturally and there was little communication between the tribes except in times of war. Because of this, forming a united rebellion against the Europeans was difficult. Even if the tribes had been able to communicate readily with each other, they were not used to working together and had no knowledge of how to do so. Intertribal politics would have made unifying difficult, with each tribe insisting their own leaders play a prominent role15. There is evidence that Native Americans did attempt to unify and rebel against their oppressors, but this was unsuccessful16. Later in the 1700’s, the English king increased taxes so that he can pay for the European wars which were raged in North America. The king tightened his power throughout the time that the increased taxes led to riots and rebellions across America. This was until the oppression became intolerable. In 1775, a bold writer by the name of Thomas Paine arrived in America. After realizing that the loyalty of America has reached the breaking point, he wrote a pamphlet by the name of ‘Common Sense’. In this pamphlet he made his people realize the Englishmen were greedy people and that they were in the lands of the Native Americans for their national interests, apart from which they were greedy warmongers. He made them realize further that Native Americans s can trade with whomever they want and that they are not limited to trading with the English only. In addition, he also awakened in them the concept of not falling into the trap of European wars all over again. On the basis of freedom and equality, Paine called for the European colonists to declare independence. Apart from which he asked to declare for a democratic government. His pamphlet awakened the thought of independence among many of these European colonists and they stood to fight for the cause. Later, Paine also joined the army and continued writing and motivating the soldiers- even though the cause seemed lost17. Despite these strong goals concerning Native Americans, European culture prevailed and even when the new government was formed and the States had achieved their independence, the view and culture towards the Native Americans remained unchanged. The Cost of Rebellion One of the factors that prevented Native Americans from banding together against the Europeans was the high cost that came from incidences of rebellion. The first ever-English settlement was established in North America at Roanoke Island. The English sent an expedition to Roanoke to search for gold and silver. Later they involved in the fur trade and then they grew crops such as sugar and corn. Although the English relied on the Natives for food, they treated them like slaves, beat up the women, kidnapped them, burnt the cornfields, and eventually, beheaded the chief. Finally, the expedition was called back to England18. An early example of a serious conflict between the Europeans and the Native Americans occurred in 1637. It was when the word reached Boston in July that one of the English Trader, John Oldham has been killed by the Pequot Indians. This outraged the English colonies and therefore they waged a war against the Natives for one whole year. Sometime later, the militia, which was raised by the English, destroyed a large village at Pequot, Connecticut. Later, they moved further, destroyed, and slaughtered each and everything that was present. The boys and the men were made slaves and were sold to the West Indies. The girls and the women on the other hand became slaves to the white settlers. The villages were stolen, their food supplies stolen and those few people who survived escaped to the west. Until 40 years after this incident, relations between the two parties were mostly cordial. They both were guilty of the kidnapping and the theft. However, English could not resist for long, they continued to take more and more of the land, and the disputes continued19. The cost of this was great to the Native Americans in terms of people lost and the incident served as a strong example of the power that the Europeans held to kill and destroy. The white people would not give up their arrogance, which led to great destructions because of Indian wars, the Indian Removal Act (1830), and the world’s biggest massacre by the name of Wounded Knee in South Dakota. The US cavalry ferociously slaughtered women, children and warriors. The US government initiated various Relocation Programs. There was a Trail of Tears March, where a huge number Cherokee died from starvation, exposure and illness. This was not all. The Native Americans were tortured to severe extents, for example, they were taken away from their houses and beaten, stripped of their customs, to the extent that they were forbidden to even speak their native language. The young children were taken from their homes and they were forced to be ‘civilized’- which meant that they had to abandon every aspect of their heritage. Later, the US government demanded them to live on reservations, which are still where most of the Native Americans reside today20. King William’s War was one of the first of the four battles of North America which was waged by the English and the French from 1689-1697. In this war, the French and the English, each of them aided by indigenous people, attacked each other’s settlement. After a series of attacks in Canada, Comte de Frontenac, the French Governor of Canada planned to attack New York City and Boston in1690. However, the French were leading the battle for they along with their allies ravaged the northern frontiers of the English colonies. A lot of warfare, but the main problem remained unresolved. This war followed three more wars in which the Native Americans took considerable part, but yet were unable to make a position for themselves21. Sometime after this, the chief of Ottawa, Pontiac gathered together all the Native Americans from the Mississippi river valleys, the Ohio and the Great Lakes Regions in order to drive out the Europeans. The whole purpose of driving out the Europeans was to restore their own autonomy. Pontiac has fought several battles against the Europeans during the French and Indian wars- by fighting on the side of French. Two years after the French and Indians, Pontiac began a two year siege in 1763, which was against the British Garrisons in the region. In addition, this was known as the Pontiac War, which ended in 1765, with Pontiac surrendering. Sadly, Pontiac had to surrender because a peace treaty signed between the French and the Europeans because of which Pontiac’s men deserted him, and the French aid stopped. Three years a tribe member of Illinois murdered later Pontiac22. The chief of the Powhatan confederacy of Algonquian tribes was Powhatan in 1607. This tribe started fighting with the Europeans when they settled in Powhatan and they were capturing the lands of the tribe. Pocahontas, who was the daughter of Powhatan married one of the English settler, which led to an 8 year peace treaty between the Natives and the Colonists. The Powhatans were originally from Virginia which was the first European colony to be established within the Western Hemisphere. The Company of Virginia was given direct authority over the European colony through a charter. Authority was shared between the directors and the shareholders of the company. The company eventually established the first representative assembly in Colonial America. Virginia did not succeed as a trading venture because the natives did not have sufficient crops to exchange/trade with the Bruisers, as mentioned earlier, these tribes did not have a sense of ownership to things. In retrospect, the Europeans turned to the farms. The Powhatan confederacy did not let this last for long, and soon they attacked the colonies and nearly destroyed them23. Natives of the Tidewater area never gained back their earlier power. This led them to fight various wars in the interior and farther south. For instance, a war broke out between the British and the Tuscarora, who were tribesmen of North Carolina. This was when the English started expanding up the Virginia’s river. It was because of some local aggression and a series of misunderstandings, which led these wars24. During the 1700’s there were serious outbreaks between the French and the British people over the fur trade. This led to the French and Indian wars. Alas, the Europeans won the French colonial empire the North America. In the late 1700’s the trade began declining. This was because most of the lands were cleared because of which the fur bearing animals were scarce. However, by 1870, most of the fur trade ended25. These examples are selections from the many different conflicts which occurred between the Native Americans and the Europeans. The conflicts were bloody and violent, resulting in significant losses for the Native Americans. It became evident that they did not have the power to resist the Europeans, with every effort resulting in substantial losses, and retaliation at a later date from the Europeans was always a possibility. By the 1800s, the Native Americans were well aware of the cost of rebelling against the Europeans, and the establishment of a Union and a government by the Europeans made them an even more difficult adversary. It was evident that there was little they could do about the forced relocation and pressure on their culture and people in the 1800s as any resistance would lead to more bloodshed and further losses to an already decimated population. Effect of Diseases The arrival and colonization of the Americas by the Europeans brought many diseases. The Europeans were immune or resistant to these for the most part, however the Native Americans had no resistances and their numbers were substantially reduced. These diseases, such as smallpox, cholera, yellow fever and measles were able to kill entire Native American tribes and villages26. As a consequence of these diseases the number of Native Americans had significantly decreased since the first arrival of the Europeans, and this decrease substantially limited the ability of the Native Americans to fight back. Smallpox became more than just an accidently passed disease, as when the Europeans began to realize its strong effect on the Native Americans they began to use it as a weapon. As a disease, smallpox is extremely infectious, and can be transferred from one individual to another through close contact or also through bedding and clothing27. There was no treatment against the disease, although the Europeans had methods of inoculation which reduced the likelihood of obtaining the disease28. During the French and Indian wars which occurred between 1754 and 1764, the British soldiers took advantage of the friendship between the French and the Native Americans to enable them to distribute infected blankets to the Native Americans. The consequences of this method of attack were dire, with many tribes and villages being wiped out as a consequence29. These attacks substantially decreased the ability of the Native Indians to respond to the European pressure in the 1800s as they remained vulnerable to the disease, they knew that it originated from the Europeans, although were probably not aware that the Europeans had intentionally distributed it, and their population was significantly decreased as a result. Conclusion There was little or no hope for the peaceful co-existence between the Europeans and the Native Americans because they were completely different people. The two sorts of people lived completely in different worlds, and this cause significant strife, especially as the Europeans generalized the Native Americans as being primitive savages and saw themselves as having the right to the land and all of its riches despite the Native Americans having being present long before the Europeans ever arrived. The history of the Europeans and the Natives started with Christopher Columbus, the tale stretches to that of greed, wars, genocide, insensitivity, xenophobia, and grabbing of the land. The cultural differences arose from the first day and they still exist today. Therefore, this was the primary reason that the two, Native Americans and the Europeans could not unify under one banner, because the differences kept arising each day. Three of the major factors that prevented the Native Americans from uniting under one banner and rebelling against the Europeans are discussed above. These were the decimation of the numbers of Native Americans prior to the 1800s, the evident costs of any rebellion and the difficulties in uniting the diverse Native Americans. All of these factors contributed significantly and resulted in the Native Americans for the most part allowing the relocations and oppression to occur. References  Read More