Native American Genocide
Native American GenocideIn this paper, I will argue that the act of genocide as here defined, has been committed by the United States of America, upon the tribes and cultures of Native Americans, through mass indoctrination of its youths. Primary support will be drawn from Jorge Noriega\'s work, \"American Indian Education in the United States.\" The paper will then culminate with my personal views on the subject, with ideas of if and how the United States might make reparations to its victims.
In lieu of the well known and brutal \"Indian Wars,\" there is a means of cultural destruction of Native Americans, which began no later than 1611. This method was one of indoctrination. Methods included the forced removal of children from their cultural milieu and enrollment of these children in \"educational programs,\" which were intended to instill more European beliefs. As the United States was not formally a Nation, until 1776, it would not be fair to use evidence, before this year in building a case against it. The most damaging, to the United States, are parcels of evidence that are drawn from events after 1948, the year of the Convention on Genocide.
Beginning in 1778, the United States Board of War, a product of the Continental Congress appropriated grants for the purpose of, \"the maintenance of Indian students at Dartmouth College and the College of New Jersey�\" The young people who had returned from the schools are described by Seneca leader, Cornplanter as, \"�ignorant of every means of living in the Woods, unable to bear either Cold or Hunger, [they] knew neither how to build a Cabin, take a Deer, or kill an Enemy, [they] spoke our Language imperfectly, were therefore neither fit for Hunters, Warriors, nor Counselors; they were totally good for nothing\" (Noriega, 376).
Grants given to other schools was just the beginning. In 1820, the United States made plans for a large scale system of boarding and day schools Noriega, 377). These schools were given the mission to, \"instruct its students in \'letters, labor and mechanical arts, and morals and Christianity;\' \'training many Indian leaders\'\" Noriega, 378). In the case of boarding schools, Native American children would be forcibly stripped from their homes as early as five years old. They would then live sequestered from their families and cultures until the age of seventeen or eighteen (Noriega, 381).
In 1886, it was decided, by the United States federal government that Native American tribal groups would no longer be treated as \'indigenous national governments.\' The decision was made, not by the conjoint efforts of the Native American tribes and Congress; but, by the \"powers that be\" the United States Legal System. This self-ordained power allowed Congress to pass a variety of other laws, directed towards, assimilating, Native Americans, so that they would become a part of \"mainstream white America\" (Robbins, 90)
By this time the United States Government, had been funding over a dozen distinct agencies, to provide mandatory \'education\' to all native children aged six through sixteen. Enrollment...
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