The Rights Of Native Americans - 2516 Words

The United States government has always been quick to dismiss minorities. Many movements are happening today to gain the rights they never had, such as Black Lives Matter, feminism, LGBTQIA+ rights, and more. Yet, one of the most oppressed groups has silence in the media - Native Americans. Their struggles are rarely addressed and remain relatively unknown. Their cultures are continuously appropriated by fashion companies and slandered by the film industry. Since the beginning of the United States’ interaction with Native American people, they have been treated with complete disrespect; even now their basic rights are compromised as they are continually treated dishonorably. The disrespect towards Native Americans is more than simple†¦show more content†¦This idea started with Christopher Columbus who, contrary to popular belief, never set foot in North America (Gilio-Whitaker, Why the Legend of Christopher Columbus Is a Lie). He set the tone for the beginning of European-Native American relations. As described by Davey and Yellow Thunder Woman in The Canary Effect, from the beginning of meeting the natives in South America, where his ships actually did land, he began exploiting the natives for their goods and he and his men slaughtered them for fun, even feeding them to the dogs they brought with them. This horrible abuse carried on to the settling of what is now the United States. There were slaughters of Native Americans, resulting in bloody history. In the 1800’s, bounties were paid for the scalps of Native Americans by the federal government, as an attempt to eradicate the group. These killings demonstrate the first and second elemen ts of genocide. As for the third genocidal element, Native Americans were forced off their lands, in violation of treaties, and onto the Trail of Tears taking them away from their ancestral lands in the southeast. During this event, each nation lost around a quarter of their population, with 25,000 deaths. Andrew Jackson, who was the President at the time, operated under the faà §ade that it was to help the Native Americans. The fourth element of genocide occurred very recently. In 1970, U.S. House of Representatives committee spokesman George H.W. Bush proposed the