Tohono O’odham Nation has built the Desert Diamond West Valley Casino near Glendale, Arizona. This on the surface is not controversial but has become just that, because of money and politics. The Tohono O’odham Nation has been through multiple courts over multiple issues since deciding to build a casino in the Glendale area. Two things remain constant out of all these court rulings and Interior reviews; Tohono O’odham Nation can have a casino in Glendale and the opposition will find another angle to fight them on it. The opposition on this issue is comprised of multiple elected officials and other Arizona Tribes that are fighting for each of their constituents. The Arizona Tribes that oppose the casino do not…
The Shawnee were spread across multiple states and therefore had a rich, diverse culture. Taking this whole group of people and placing them in one condensed reservation is naturally going to cause some discourse within the group. Complications only increased with the introduction of Christian Missionaries into the Indiana Reservation. They tried to divide people up in relation to their religious affiliation, which changes the traditional Shawnee social organization (Warren 99). Many Native American leaders began holding religious services twice a week, which helped them gain power within the reservation and with the missionaries and other Americans outside the reservation (Warren 101). Taking highly respected religious positions also became a way to gain power and respect, and religion began to function the dominant power on the reservation. The Shawnee Methodists proved to be the strongest faction among religious groups, and it was their ideology that controlled the reservation (Warren…
In the searching solution to the multiple health care issues that the AI/AN faces, it could use the SWOT analysis that can help the IHS to create a strategic map. 1. Strength: • Dr. Trujillo during his mandate as Director of the IHS recognized that have to respect and work together with the IA/ AN culture. • The leadership belong and knows their culture.…
Since the colonization of America, there have been tensions and confrontations between white settlers and Native Americans over territory and civilization. President Andrew Jackson signed the Indian Removal Act in 1830, allowing him to communicate with Native American tribal leaders in order to negotiate their voluntary relocation to Federal reservations west of the Mississippi River. When several tribes refused to relocate, the conflict turned violent and was conducted through the use of militias and military force. Due to this violent conflict and the subsequent relocation of hundreds of thousands of Native Americans, relations between Native Americans and the United States Government have since been strained. Native Americans continually experience higher rates of poverty, fewer opportunities for educational advancement, higher rates of physical and mental illness, as well as general discrimination through social systems and policy. Strained relationships, societal, and economic opportunities have weakened and are less readily available to Native Americans, all factors that can be traced back to the Indian Removal Act.…
In the early 1800s, White settlements were expanding westward. This threatened the Cherokee land which was located in the Southeastern part of the United States. This left the Cherokee with a big decision to make for their entire tribe. Would they relocate West ,or stay for the White settlements to invade where they call home. After all, the Cherokee had owned the land for over 10,000 years. It was not the United States’ land to take. This is why many of the Cherokee Nation felt the need to stay. Others wanted to move because they felt that if they did not, then the United States territory would override the Cherokee customs and they would have to follow United States laws. Clearly the best chance of survival for the Cherokee was to stay in…
A general history of Native Americans has been a part of my education for as long as I can remember. I remember how during the week before Thanksgiving, my 1st grade class did a skit about the “First Thanksgiving”. In order to look like Indians we made vests out of paper grocery bags and crumpled them up to look like leather and drew on them with crayons. When I think of my education of Native American culture, I think of going to North Pacific Reservations and seeing 10-12 ft tall totem poles with the shapes of animals carved into them. Most of the Native American tribes that I have learned about have been Western United States tribes because I grew up in California. When I read the list of Wisconsin Native American tribes, I, unlike most of the class, had no idea what they were. I chose the Oneida tribe because my former youth pastor works at the Oneida Reservation. I look forward to learning about the Oneida tribe and comparing them with the Cherokee tribe.…
The Cherokees understood their “national and individual rights” as not having the rights, which the fathers planned, in their favor. The U.S. see them as an evil eye unlike many other Indian tribes. Many of the members of the tribes are changing the culture and they agree that the American soil is not the land of their birth and affections.…
In the southwestern United States, on 16 million acres (6,475,000 hectares) of land stretching from northeastern Arizona throughout adjacent northwestern New Mexico and southeastern Utah, the land of the Navajo Nation stands proud. The tenacity of the Navajo people has proven to take them from the brink of annihilation, through its establishment as a sovereign nation in 1868, to its current place as the largest reservation in the United States. This quiet, pastoral society rests on the matrilineal kinship system, although egalitarian relationships exist between Navajo men and women. The extended family included husband and wife, unmarried children, married daughters, sons-in-law, and unmarried grandchildren, who traditionally all lived together in camps. Among the Navajo, women are as likely to own sheep as men and their participation in herding, shearing, and butchering is no different. Their status is further elevated by their wool-weaving abilities and the artistry of their blankets (Nowak & Laird, 5.2). Since the central symbol of Navajo social organization is motherhood, a relationship between motherhood and sheep is formed and even though sheep are owned by individuals, the herds are kept communally within a matrilocal residential group (Nowak & Laird, 2010). The change from a subsistence economy to a wage economy among the Navajo is a direct result of white contact that disrupted their traditional way of life (Native, 1998), however, in the face of contemporary challenges, Navajo women remain respected for their wisdom and knowledge and still retain their roles as the carriers of their native culture. Their ability to adapt and adjust to societal opportunites, while concurrently reclaiming cultural traditions, is the glue of the Navajo Nation.…
The Cherokee are perhaps one of the most interesting of Native American Groups. Their life and culture are closely intertwined with early American settlers and the history of our own nation 's struggle for freedom. In the interest of promoting tolerance and peace, and with regard to the United States government 's handling of Native affairs, their story is one that is painful, stoic, and must not be forgotten.…
These actions, initially, were a response to increasing conflicts between settlers and Native Americans, yet, by the end of the relocation of the Cherokee, the sentiment itself had been reformed to that of devout manifest destiny. The Jackson Administration 's decision to relocate the Cherokee was indeed more of a reformation of national policy and sentiments. The simple reason for this is that there are clear differences in both policy and sentiments prior to, during, and after the relocation, and this shift in sentiments and policy are what greatly contributed to an increase in Native American relocation efforts during this general time period (Pierce 22-25). This state of mind is considered by many to be callous and has led to a great amount of criticism as to the actual methods utilized to remove the Indians. Counter-arguments to this mode of thinking cite the increasing tensions and conflicts that were arising between settlers and Indians prior to their removal. In many respects, the removal of the Indians was done for their own good, in order to prevent continued casualties on both…
Native Americans were forced onto Reservations on the West-Side of the Mississippi River. “A long time ago this land belonged to our fathers; but when I go up to the river I see camps of soldiers here on its bank. These soldiers cut down my timber; they kill my buffalo; and when I see that, my heart feels like bursting; I feel sorry.”(Santana, Chief of the Kiowas, 1867) This was a drastic change to the Native Americans because they were used to living in the environment prior to having other people move in. On the reservation, they were not able to hunt buffalo or able to roam around as they did before. Now that they lived on the reservation they also lost their spiritual ties to the land. And when they were moved on to the Reservations, their whole life changed.…
"What is the population of Georgia, where there is no room for these few Indians? It is less than seven to the square mile. We, Sir, in Massachusetts, have seventy-four to the square mile, and space for a great many more,” states a Congressman. The occupation of Indians in Georgia had little effect on the society or development of it. Georgia wanted to “consolidate their society” but they weren’t going to strengthen their community by kicking people out.…
The Cherokee people were forced out of their land because of the settler’s greed for everything and anything the land had to offer. Many Cherokee even embraced the “civilization program,” abandoning their own beliefs so that they may be accepted by white settlers. Unfortunately for the Cherokee though, the settlers would never accept them as an equal citizen. A quote from historian Richard White says it very well, “The Cherokee are probably the most tragic instance of what could have succeeded in American Indian policy and didn’t. All these things that Americans would proudly see as the hallmarks of civilization are going to the West by Indian people. They do everything they were asked except one thing. What the Cherokees ultimately are, they may be Christian, they may be literate, they may have a government like ours, but ultimately they are Indian. And in the end, being Indian is what killed them.”…
The Cherokee Nation is are Native American’s who according to 19th century ethnographers originated in the northern portion of the United States in the Great Lakes area’s and eventually migrated south to the Southeastern United States, Georgia, The Carolinas and Tennessee. Eventually the Cherokee’s were forced to relocate in Oklahoma (the authors home). This paper will cover the origins of the Cherokee, The Trail of Tears and some interesting cultural differences and rituals.…
"My People the Sioux" is a good literary work written in 1928. This book leaves an everlasting impression with some because it definitely intensifies the sympathy for the Indians. Luther Standing Bear, also known as Plenty Kill, portrays the dramatic and traumatic changes about the Sioux throughout their traditional way of life. As a young boy growing up, he experienced many of these hardships first hand between his people and the whites. This autobiography is quite valuable as it helps allow us to envision what really happened in the battling times of the Indians. Luther stated this quote, which to me, is unforgettable and very well said. It reads:…
