Assimilation in Native Americans

Assimilation

America has long celebrated education and has time and time again called it the key to success. We have never stopped though to think if it is a choice or if we force an education on people. History has shown that we often force education on people, especially those who aren’t like us. A good example of this is the Native Americans.

Native Americans are some of the first people to live on this continent. They are composed of 562 federally recognized tribes and many more that aren’t recognized. Their hunting way of life differed greatly from the Europeans that came over. Nonetheless, the Natives were very helpful and were one of the big reasons the Europeans were able to survive at first on the land they knew nothing about.

In time, the settlers lost all respect for the Natives, their land, and the resources they needed to live. The Natives tried to co-exist with the new settlers, but new issues just kept coming up. The Indians kept getting over =wheeled by the numbers the white men came in. In admission to all the weapons, the white men brought they also brought deadly diseases. These diseases ravaged through the Native population.

At the beginning of the 19th century, the idea of “civilizing” the Natives became a priority. The idea of Manifest Destiny was one of the main causes of the new outlook on the natives. In the eyes of the Americans, the natives were sitting on valuable land, and why should