REASONS FOR NATIVE AMERICAN GENOCIDE!

POSTED BY KELVIN A. TUREIKU LAO

Reasons for Native American Genocide

By Robin Hewitt, eHow Contributor

From the time Christopher Columbus first stepped onto North American land until

the mid-1900s, there was a policy of Native American extermination in the United States.

Columbus himself oversaw the genocide of 8 million members of the Arawak tribe during his

second trip to North America. It was not until 1928 that Native Americans were given

citizenship and the right to vote, yet the federal government still held the right 

to remove children from Native homes in order to assimilate them into European cultures.

There are no valid reasons for Native American genocide, only greedy explanations.

Superiority:

Columbus, as well as Spanish, English and other explorers and settlers

to the New World, saw Native Americans as less than humans. According 

to the Religious Tolerance website, standard policy was to either 

exterminate or enslave Natives; often Natives were mutilated, tortured,

raped and dismembered by the thousands during a single excursion. 

The Fellowship for Intentional Community states that this attitude

continued after the Colonies were formed; New Jersey, Massachusetts

and Connecticut first placed a scalp bounty on dead Indians; 

a practice that was not ended until the 19th century. 

"The American Indian Quarterly" explains that forced sterilization

of Native Americans in the United States continued until the mid-1970s.

Land:

As colonization expanded, land became a primary reason for Native American genocide.

As reported by PBS, fueled by the need for land expansion, the American government 

removed natives from their homeland through mass murder, razing villages, and forced

marches such as The Trail of Tears. A prime example is the California gold rush years.

According to PBS, the governor of California called for the official extermination of all remaining natives. From 1848 to 1870, California's native population shrank from an estimated 150,000 to about 31,000 due to massacres, slavery, and by being purposely exposed to European diseases such as smallpox.

Religious Beliefs:

Christianity held that Native American religious beliefs were pagan, and held it to

be Christian duty to baptize the Natives into Christianity and teach them "civilized" 

ways of life. While religion was often held as a shield of virtue, it is noteworthy 

that the same persons who committed Native genocide in the name of Christ typically 

profited heavily by accumulating the lands and possessions of the Natives they so 

piously removed. It was not until 1978 that the United States passed the American

Indian Religious Freedom Act, which allowed Native Americans the right to practice 

their religious beliefs with freedom as well as the right to sacred places, plants 

and objects pertaining to Tribal religious beliefs.

Assimilation:

The United States continued its policies through forced assimilation of Indian 

children into the 20th century. Children as young as 4 years old were forcibly 

removed from their homes and placed in "Indian Schools," where they were forbidden 

to speak their native language and were taught to dress, act and work in the European 

tradition. Although Native Americans were awarded citizenship in 1928, the federal 

education law remained in effect until the mid-1950s when jurisdiction over education

was returned to individual tribes. Note that on May 19, 2005, Massachusetts repealed 

a law that made it illegal for Native Americans to enter Boston.