Native American Genocide Essay Research Paper b

Native American Genocide Essay, Research Paper

b. doing serious bodily or mental injury to members of the group ; c. intentionally bring downing on the group conditions of life calculated to convey about its physical devastation in whole or in portion ; d. enforcing steps intended to forestall births within the group ; e. forcibly reassigning kids of the group to another group. ( Destexhe ) .In this paper, I will reason that the act of race murder as here defined, has been committed by the United States of America, upon the folks and civilizations of Native Americans, through mass indoctrination of its young persons. Primary support will be drawn from Jorge Noriega & # 8217 ; s work, & # 8220 ; American Indian Education in the United States. & # 8221 ; The paper will so climax with my personal positions on the topic, with thoughts of if and how the United States might do reparations to its victims.In stead of the well known and barbarous & # 8220 ; Indian Wars, & # 8221 ; there is a agency of cultural devastation of Native Americans, which began no subsequently than 1611. This method was one of indoctrination. Methods included the forced remotion of kids from their cultural surroundings and registration of these kids in & # 8220 ; educational plans, & # 8221 ; which were intended to transfuse more European beliefs. As the United States was non officially a State, until 1776, it would non be just to utilize grounds, before this twelvemonth in constructing a instance against it. The most detrimental, to the United States, are packages of grounds that are drawn from events after 1948, the twelvemonth of the Convention on Genocide.Beginning in 1778, the United States Board of War, a merchandise of the Continental Congress appropriated grants for the intent of, & # 8220 ; the care of Indian pupils at Dartmouth College and the College of New Jersey? & # 8221 ; The immature people who had returned from the schools are described by Seneca leader, Cornplanter as, & # 8220 ; ? ignorant of every agency of life in the Woods, unable to bear either Cold or Hunger, [ they ] knew neither how to construct a Cabin, take a Deer, or kill an Enemy, [ they ] spoke our Language amiss, were hence neither tantrum for Hunters, Warriors, nor Counselors ; they were wholly good for nil & # 8221 ; ( Noriega, 376 ) .Grants given to other schools was merely the beginning. In 1820, the United States made programs for a big graduated table system of embarkation and twenty-four hours schools Noriega, 377 ) . These schools were given the mission to, & # 8220 ; teach its pupils in & # 8216 ; letters, labour and mechanical humanistic disciplines, and ethical motives and Christianity ; & # 8217 ; & # 8216 ; developing many Indian leaders & # 8217 ; & # 8221 ; Noriega, 378 ) . In the instance of embarkation schools, Native American kids would be forcibly stripped from their places every bit early as five old ages old. They would so populate sequestered from their households and civilizations until the age of 17 or 18 ( Noriega, 381 ) . In 1886, it was decided, by the United States federal authorities that Native American tribal groups would no longer be treated as & # 8216 ; autochthonal national governments. & # 8217 ; The determination was made, non by the conjoint attempts of the Native American folks and Congress ; but, by the & # 8220 ; powers that be & # 8221 ; the United States Legal System. This self-ordained power allowed Congress to go through a assortment of other Torahs, directed towards, absorbing, Native Americans, so that they would go a portion of & # 8220 ; mainstream white America & # 8221 ; ( Robbins, 90 ) By this clip the United States Government, had been funding over a twelve distinct bureaus, to supply compulsory & # 8216 ; instruction & # 8217 ; to all native kids aged six through 16. Registration was enforced through purchase given by the 1887 General Allotment Act, which made Natives dependant on the Government for Annuities and Rations ( Noriega, 382 ) . The pattern of autochthonal faiths by these pupils was prohibited ( Noriega, 380 ) . Students were compelled to undergo day-to-day direction in Christianity. In add-on, merely the usage of English was accepted within these schools. & # 8220 ; The nutrient was non sufficiiently nurturing? wellness supervising was by and large neglected? A sincere attempt was made to develop the type of school that would destruct tribal ways & # 8221 ; ( Noriega, 382 ) . While being held prisoner at these schools, the pupils were forced to larn an idealism complet

ely foreign to them. They would study histories, which had no significance to there lives. “The books talk to him [the student] of a world which in no way reminds him of his own,” (Noriega, ??). This is exactly how the students must have felt; as if they were in another world. To compound the torture, the ’students’ at these institutions were forced to work as maintainers and farmers in order provide for the continued existence of the very establishments, which were destroying them. The methods of forced labor were considered, by the educators to be a “means of ‘developing’ the native ‘character,’ and as a way of financing further expansion of the system itself” (Noriega, 379). The “rigid military style” enforced by the schools contributed to the assimilation of the Native Americans’ culture. The students began to not only “think white” but also to, “work white” (Noriega, 384).To this point, I have provided enough evidence to make a hypocrite of the United States. However, it is my intent to prove that the United States has performed a criminal act under International law. I will do so by describing genocidal acts committed well after the time of the convention on genocide.The government was not satisfied with only educating the Native American youths, they wished to implant their victims as “a virus, a medium through which to hurry along a calculated process of sociocultural decay” (Noriega, 379). They turned their victims into witless traitors spreading their insipid ideas, and fracturing the cultural infrastructure.The apotheosis of this implantation project is clearly delineated in “The Indian Self-Determination and Educational Assistance Act” of 1975. In this act, the United States Government declared that “educated” Native Americans’ should be used to staff the “various programs aimed at them by federal policy makers” (Noriega, 356). These are the same programs which, “the government has always viewed as the ideal vehicle[s] by which to condition Native Americans to accept the values, and thus the domination of Euroamerica” (Noriega, 387). Through the implementation of this act, “nothing really changed?the curriculum taught in Indian schools remained exactly the same, reaching exactly the same conclusions, indoctrinating children with exactly the same values as when the schools were staffed entirely by white people” (Noriega, 387). In this way, the government attempted to mask the face of evil with one of familiar physical origin. It is a classic story of a “wolf in sheep’s clothing.”These violent acts have not ended, even with the convention on genocide. Indeed, the United States is guilty of committing a law, which it has promised to not only abide by, but also, to help enforce. Does this represent the “Mainstream American Culture” we so want to instill into the minds of Native Americans? We should begin taking a look at our own culture and worrying about its problems, before we start thinking about spreading it like a dreaded disease.The fact that Native Americans have arrived at this point with any of its culture left intact, is an astonishing feet in itself. It shows a character, which is ostensibly lacking, or at least not shown, within the “European” and “American” cultures. Perhaps the United States should be more the pupil than the pedagogue. Works CitedDestexhe, Alain (1995). RWANDA AND GENOCIDE IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY. New York University Press: New York.Noriega, Jorge (1992). “American Indian Education in the United States: Indoctrination for Subordination to Colonialism. In Jaimes, Annette, ed. The State of Native America: Genocide, Race, and Resistance (pp.371-401).O’ Brian, Sharon. “Native American Policy,” Microsoft? Encarta? Encyclopedia 99. ? 1993-1998 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.Robbins, Rebecca L (1992). “Self-Determination and Subordination The Past, Present, and Future of American Indian Governance.” In Jaimes, Annette, ed. The State of Native America: Genocide, Race, and Resistance (pp.371-401).”United Nations: Human Rights,” Microsoft? Encarta? Encyclopedia 99. ?1993-1998 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.