The Lives of American Indians

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The Lives of American Indians

• In the
• Nineteenth Century
• (1800s)

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The Lives of American Indians in the 19th Century

• Today we are going to begin learning about how
  our new nation the United States of America
  and its new government leaders our founding
  fathers decided to deal with the American
  Indians.
• But before we can learn about the actions of our
  governmental leaders, we need to learn something
  about the people who lived on the land that we
  now call the United States of America.

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When the US was born, it consisted of 13 states.
The rest of the United States was owned by the
French, the Spanish, and the American Indians.
Between 1776 and 1853 just 77 years all of
that land came under control of the United States
government.
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An important part of our study about American
Indians is just how the original inhabitants of
North American lost almost all of their land
during this period. As you can see on this map,
before the English colonists arrived in the early
1600s, all of the North American continent was
under the control of the many Indian tribes.
By the end of the nineteenth century, almost
all that land had come under the control of
non-Indian peoples.
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• Before we can learn how the American Indians lost
  their land, we need to learn a little more about
  who they were and how they lived when the United
  States was born.

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The Lives of American Indians in the 19th Century

• When the US Constitution was signed, hundreds of
  tribes lived in North America tribes that had
  been living there for thousands of years.
• Tribal members spoke
• hundreds of different languages,
• practiced many different spiritual beliefs,
• and experience a wide variety of different
  political, cultural, and economic lifestyles.
• Indians of North America were diverse peoples.

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Diversity

1. Discuss the word diversity. What does it mean
   in general? What is cultural diversity?
   Spiritual diversity? Political? Economic?
2. Discuss the concept that from the time of
   European contact forward, North American became
   even more diverse, especially in terms of race.

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Diversity

• Racial diversity arrived early to North America.
  Indeed, as early as 1619 when the first Africans
  arrived, the continent became the home to at
  least three races of people Anglo Europeans,
  black Africans, and American Indians.
• Ask students if they think there is much
  diversity among themselves? Ask them to relate
  some information about their ancestry and
  emphasize how truly diverse they are even
  though they may not appear to be diverse.

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SOVEREIGNTY

• Not only were Indian peoples of North America
  quite diverse, they were also politically
  sovereign.
• Does anyone know what sovereignty is?

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SOVEREIGNTY

• Sovereignty is the supreme power from which all
  political powers are derived. A nation is
  sovereign when its people have the power to
  govern themselves.
• Were the Indian Nations sovereign at the time of
  European contact with the North American
  continent?
• Yes! All Indian nations originally exercised the
  powers of sovereigns. Indian nations recognized
  the sovereignty of other Indian nations by
  forming compacts, treaties, trade agreements, and
  military alliances with one another. All the
  colonies recognized the sovereignty of Indian
  nations by entering into treaties with the Indian
  nations.
• Sovereignty, then, was an inherent right of
  Indian peoples - a right that could not be taken
  away.

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SAVAGE

• But many Americans, instead of recognizing either
  the diversity or sovereignty of American Indians,
  instead referred to them as savages or noble
  savages.

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SAVAGE

• Noah Webster, the author of the first new
  dictionary produced in the United States in 1828,
  included the following definition
• Savage, n. A human being in his native state of
  rudeness one who is untaught, uncivilized or
  without cultivation of mind or manners. The
  savages of America, when uncorrupted by the vices
  of civilized men, are remarkable for their
  hospitality to strangers, and for their truth,
  fidelity and gratitude to their friends, but
  implacably cruel and revengeful towards their
  enemies.
• Questions
• By this definition, Indians were savages who were
  uncivilized. What did uncivilized mean?
• 2. What do you think Webster and other Americans
  felt was civilized?
• 3. How are the definitions of savage,
  uncivilized, and civilized different in a
  contemporary Websters Dictionary?
• Discussion This definition reveals the mixed
  feelings that many white Americans felt about the
  Indians. On the one hand was the so-called
  noble savage belief that Indians were good by
  nature (remarkable for their hospitality to
  strangers, and for their truth, fidelity and
  gratitude) because civilized society had not
  taught them to be otherwise. On the other hand
  was the cruel savage belief that Indians were
  violent, cruel, and revengeful. Regardless of
  whether white Americans viewed Indians as noble
  or cruel, they were always defined both as
  savages and as heathens persons who did not
  believe in God and were in need of conversion to
  Christianity. Nowhere was there any understanding
  that the actions of white settlers might be to
  blame for some of the cruelty, revenge, and
  violence they encountered among the Indians. It
  was easier to regard the Indians as fundamentally
  different from and inferior to whites.

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Assignment

• Now lets take a brief moment to think about our
  own beliefs and attitudes about American Indians
  who lived over 200 years ago.

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Assignment 1

• My Thoughts about American Indians
• Goal To help students think about their beliefs
  and/or stereotypes about American Indians.
• Directions Write a brief paragraph describing
  your thoughts about American Indians who lived in
  the US over 200 years ago. What clothing did they
  wear? What were their homes like? What did they
  do for a living? How did they have fun? Now,
  write a brief paragraph describing your thoughts
  about American Indians today.
• Have students turn these in and keep them
  throughout this unit of study. At the very end of
  the unit, have them write a new paragraph about
  their thoughts. Then have them compare the two.
  Finally, have them write a brief paragraph
  telling how and why they think their thoughts
  have changed.
• Homework Assignment Have students collect at
  least one example of stereotyping of any group of
  people from each of the following a television
  program a television commercial a popular song
  a newspaper article and food package. In at
  least one written page, have students explain
  each of their five examples and describe why they
  are stereotypical. Be sure to have them identify
  the group that is the focus of each stereotype.

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Discussion

• Discussion What is stereotyping? Do you think
  that American Indians have been stereotyped?
• Stereotyping occurs when an entire group of
  people is characterized by mistaken ideas of how
  they behave, live, dress, or think.
• What types of stereotypes exist about American
  Indians in our society?
• What is harmful about such stereotyping?
• Stereotyping degrades Indian people and their
  cultures and it distorts the reality of Indian
  people for non-Indian people. It is
  dehumanizing.