The Modern Indians: Not Just another Minority Category, and Why - Essay Example

Task: The Modern Indians: Not Just another ‘Minority’ Category, and Why Indians are the original Native inhabitants of United States, i.e. they are the Native Americans who originally occupied the entire country. Columbus is the one who discovered these Indians in America. However, there exists no real evidence to prove their origin. This is because their traditions vary from one group to another and have an unsatisfying conjecture. This community has unity, and they have physical features that run throughout the entire race. Their physical identity is similar, such as their dark-brownish skin, rounded full lips, and cheekbones that are prominent. In addition, their main economic activities were hunting, war, fishing and agriculture (Brumble 21). These Indians lived a humble and traditional life for a long time. However, the invasion of America with new inhabitants such as the whites from England, and Africa Americans who came in as slaves, they had to improve their ways of life. America is the country with the highest and fastest technological advancement in the world. This advancement, together with infrastructural development and the wave of globalization forced these American Indians to change from their traditional life and begin adapting to a modern style of living. Development projects in what used to be their habitats displaced them from their original homes paving way for new high-rise buildings, subways, and institutions. This forced them to abandon their traditional ways of life such as hunting and agriculture since they did not have a lot of land left out for them to use. Furthermore, they got new neighbors who inducted them into modernity and influenced them to change their traditional practice. Global changes also made significant changes to their practice of life (Hagan xxi). The modern world posed numerous challenges to these Native American Indians. It brought along serious socio-cultural dilemmas that threatened their traditional cultural settings. Several issues emerged from modernity that changed their scale of survival and cultural practices such as alienation, poverty and alcoholism. Modernity also robbed them their cultural identity owing to the interracial marriages with other communities. Furthermore, a large number of their young population continues leaving their traditional territories to become fully adapted to the American culture. Once they leave their communities, they abandon their old ways, forget their cultural history, and become fully integrated Americans (Brumble 21). These Indians were the ones who ruled the entire American continent until settlers arrived on their land to conquer them. They conquered these Native American Indian tribesmen in wars so fatal that almost led to genocide of the Indians. American government that came to power after gaining victory against these Indians set aside reservation land for them because the victors were unwilling to share the land with the race that they defeated. These reservations formed the central habitats for the population of American Indians that survived the invasion. This segregation turned this once mighty community into a minority tribe under oppression. This oppression led to a significant drop in the population size of American Indians who were once the most populous community on the land. So far, there are only twenty four million Indian Americans remaining on their original homeland. This new reservation culture imposed upon the Indians compelled them to adapt to new ways of life. This marked the inception of their social and cultural problems that plagues three communities until today (Hagan xxi). This life of isolation on reservation land generated a myriad of problems to this once powerful community. It constrained their mode of survival and creation of an economic profit. Traditionally, this community practiced trading, hunting, and farming activities. However, this became impossible owing to their new limitations of land and animal protection movements. Eventually, mass poverty struck across the entire community due to their inability to thrive in the new setting forced onto them by the new government. The tribe has become very poor and lives in hunger and starvation due to their inability to make ends meet. Some of them try salaried jobs away from their traditional practices but they rarely make enough to live on (Brumble 21). This hunger, starvation, and poverty experienced in reservation camps induced numerous young generations of Native American Indians to depart from their reservation camps in search greener pastures. they walk out of their reservation lives and travel far and wide to places that give them an opportunity to improve their standards of living as well as providing for their families. This movement from the reservation camps causes a slow erosion of cultural moral values and social practices from those who still devote themselves to old traditional customs. It destroys their practices, their traditions and their languages, which were the foundations of the culture of these Native Americans for thousands of years. Christianity, American culture, national educational systems, and the English language are gradually replacing these old customs. Schools also erode their culture, as educational systems do not permit teaching of American Indian Culture in schools through academic curriculums (Hagan xxi). Modern culture made it impossible for parents to pass onto their children old traditions and values of their tribe. More youngsters from the tribe fail to learn the old culture passed onto them by their community elders. This erodes their history and gradually the ideals and culture of the community fades away. Children raised out of the reservation camps do not learn their Indian language; they learn other languages and adapt other heritages because of their mixed cultures. With time, the stability of this culture and customs fail to stand forever. They erode and disappear forever due to the intermingling of with different cultures (Brumble 21). This development and interaction of cultures completely eroded their culture and made them adapt to other social vices in the community. The national average on the rate of alcoholism is much higher among these Native American Indians. One in ten of deaths among these American Indians results from alcohol consumption. Their rate of consuming alcohol is much higher when comparing to any other minority group found in the United States. This rate of alcoholism is very high owing to the fact that most of these Native American Indians lived under oppression in these reservation lands. As an oppressed society due to poverty and unemployment, they end up in depression and drown themselves in alcohol in order to forget their problems. This excess consumption of alcohol leads them to unplanned deaths, the most frequent of which are deaths related to suicide and car accidents. The women in the community tend to drink more compared to their men. This is why Native American Indians rank highest in the United States in disorders related to Fetal Alcohol Spectrum (Hagan xxi). However, these Native American Indians begun adapting to the modern society and are no longer a minority group any more. The community’s population diminished with the rough tide of globalization and development to a little over half million settled in United States alone and millions more others living in the rest of the American continents. This interaction with different cultures compelled the American Indians to try to cope with adjusting to white civilizations. This adjustment is at different developmental stages starting with the very primitive to the very sophisticated. Most Indians living in the United States speak in excess of one hundred different languages (Brumble 21). Economically, these Indians range from pauperism to extreme affluence. A few of them made a fortune from oil found in their reservation lands, as well as from other natural sources. However, thousand others very low economic standards, i.e. at levels that are near starvation. Many others went through the set education systems and assimilated into the white society completely. On the contrary, many others still live near complete isolation from their tribesmen. However, relocation programs started by the government and other society groups took hundreds of these Indian tribesmen to find jobs and employment opportunities in cities. Nonetheless, thousand other still hold back from these programs and cling to the security provided by their reservation camps with the hope of later gaining education together with all other necessary assistance for developing resources found on their lands, thereby they would become self sustainable (Hagan xxi). Generally, the Native American Indians keep pride in their cultures, heritage and traditions. Therefore, they tend to resist to give them up or to allow white civilization to corrupt or submerge them. However, because they realize they have to raise their standards of living they sometimes opt to give up their cultural heritage, which is unique. They organize tribal councils that aid them in soliciting for assistance from the federal government. These councils settle on weighty matters such as resource planning, vocational training, health services, financial credit and education. These long-range programs provide solutions too many of the problems that traditionally beset them for very many decade filled with sadness (Brumble 21). The constitution of America bestows the right to reside in any place of the country, and this applies to the Indians too. They are now free to move out of the reservation lands and live anywhere on the land. Estimates prove that nearly 1/3 to ? of the total population of Native American Indians reside in cities nowadays. The city of Los Angeles has the largest concentration of Indians living in urban areas. Nonetheless, other cities still keep a considerable number of these Indian populations such as Washington DC, New York City, Phoenix, Oklahoma, Arizona, Colorado and San Francisco (Hagan xxi). A positive memento that the Native American Indians enjoy is their renaissance of Indian art. This Indian crafts and artifacts drawn using traditional forms and techniques finds reliable markets from tourists and collectors. These Indians use this to generate some income in order to take care of their families as well as to improve their standards of living. Furthermore, they blend their fine art of traditional designs with a blend of modernity. This makes their artifacts and paintings gain significant international reputation in the world of arts. The culture of Native American Indians is now a national treasure valued by both Canada and the United States and renewing it renews everyone else in return (Brumble 21). Nowadays, Indians are a representative of romantic and heroic historical figures who stood firmly against very overwhelming forces through a lot of courage and skills. In addition, they also represent human beings in tune with the nature, one another, and with themselves. The modern society heavily borrows concepts of harmony and balance from the way Indians lived their lives. They also copy the way Indians achieved peace in their inner life through their traditional cultural practices. Finally, the current society is causing alarming ecological damage due to advancement of modern technologies. In this case, the coexistence of these American Indians with their natural environment provides the best model for survival (Hagan xxi). In conclusion, it is very evident that modern Indians are no longer just a mere minority group as they were for decades. This is because of their adoption of modern cultures and exceptional integration with the white cultures. They are now able to engage in several income generating activities and become reliant, unlike in their old days when they languished in poverty because they remained trapped in reservation lands. Nowadays, they are free to leave these lands, travel out, and explore the world but still manage to maintain their cultural values. They now live in cities, take modern education, speak new languages and exploit natural resources in order to improve their lifestyles. This makes them an independent society with power and authority to stand at the same footing with other major tribes in the United States. Therefore, they are no longer a minority category in the society (Brumble 21). Work cited Brumble, David. American Indians Autobiography. Nebraska: University Of Nebraska Press, 1988. Print. Hagan, William. American Indians: Fourth Edition. Chicago: University Of Chicago Press, 2012. Print. Read More