Destruction of the Peaceful

A few hundred years ago, Native Americans had a rich, beautiful culture that was almost completely destroyed by the insatiable white man and his dreams of western expansion. Reading Life among the Piutes by Sarah Winnemucca, opened my eyes to the grace and purity of the Native Americans. In Winnemucca’s writing, the young Native American girl speaks of loving others “without being told to” (Winnemucca 65). Their way of life puts our society today to shame. I explored into the struggles and pain that the Indians were forced to endure because of one sentence from the Winnemucca piece. The sadness can be felt when the young girl talks of the Festival of Flowers that was celebrated “many years ago when [her] people were happier” (Winnemucca 66).             

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                For many US Generals in the 19^th century, the ultimate goal was extermination. They had no respect for human life and only cared about their white culture. When talking about the Apache Indian tribe, the Arizona Miner wrote, “Extermination is our only hope, and the sooner the better” (Jacoby 252). That was written in 1864 and apparently the white man’s plan worked. Today it is rare to see Native Americans because they are living on the reservations they were forced onto. I found an article that details the horrors Native American tribes went through.

                It was common for American settlers to go about the way of a mob mentality and terrorize Native American tribes. In one instance of doing so, a group of settlers burned down an entire Apache camp, along with their supplies so that if any happened to survive they would have no choice but to starve to death. If that wasn’t bad enough, one particularly brutal settler named Sugarfoot Jack, found an orphaned infant, “tossed him into one of the fires and watched him burn alive” (Jacoby 257). It is upsetting to hear politicians put America up on a pedestal as if the founders of this country accepted the culture that was here first. The United States is not built upon the idea of equality, peace, and acceptance. It is built on greed, hate, and wickedness.

                Since killing Native Americans was becoming too extreme, the government decided to take matters into their own hands and passed laws could legally break up tribes.  The government wanted the Indians to assimilate to the white culture and began sending young Indians to boarding schools in the cities. The children would not see their parents or their tribe for many years and were returned to their reservations around the age of 16. During their time at the boarding schools, they were forbidden to speak any Indian words and often times their native languages were forgotten. Many became out of touch with their former lives, could no longer relate to their tribes and that often led to alcoholism and many times, suicide.

http://www.racialicious.com/2008/05/13/npr-reports-on-the-strange-history-of-native-american-boarding-schools/

                The sadness can be seen in this picture of Tom Torlino. Tom was sent to a boarding school and when he was released his native culture was essentially eradicated. There are many other stories and photos just like his. It is safe to say that the common image of an elderly Indian tribesman weeping for the loss of his people is quite accurate.


Works Cited

Jacoby, Karl. "“The Broad Platform Of Extermination”: Nature And Violence In The Nineteenth Century North American Borderlands." Journal Of Genocide Research 10.2 (2008): 249-267. America: History and Life with Full Text. Web. 23 Feb. 2012.

Peterson, Latoya. "NPR Reports on the Strange History of Native American Boarding Schools." Racialicious. 13 May 2008. Web. 23 Feb. 2012. http://www.racialicious.com/2008/05/13/npr-reports-on-the-strange-history-of-native-american-boarding-schools/.

Winnemucca, Sarah. Life Among the Piutes:Their Wrongs and Claims. New York: G.P. Putnam's,

1883.