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OCR History a level Y319/01 - US civil rights notes
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Native Americans Civil RightsCivil rights for Native Americans:
1) The right to carry on traditional practices (religion, languages and customs), free
from discrimination. Religious rights have been repeatedly threatened. The right to
preserve tribal sovereignty as indigenous peoples, tribes see themselves as separate
and different from the rest of Americans. Tribes should have the right to govern
themselves, define their membership, manage tribal property, and regulate tribal
business and domestic relations.
2) Economically: The fight to preserve treaty rights. Treaties (the law) signed between
tribes and the federal government must be respected and upheld. If they are to
integrate – to have good prospects, employment rather than poverty, addiction etc.
3) To survive as a race and have some sovereignty rather than assimilation.
Themes:
Religious/social practices: control over schooling, laws,
Self-determination + economic: poverty in cities, cuts to handouts,
Land/treaties
Even the collective Native Americans is contested, because all the different tribes are so
different, many don’t want to identify as American.
By the time Columbus had got to America, people had forgotten that there had been
Europeans who had crossed already - Vikings and Basques.
When Europeans went over the Columbus exchange began. Goods like chillies, peppers,
potatoes, tomatoes, tobacco etc. were brought back. They also brought European diseases
across, which wiped out huge numbers of unexposed indigenous peoples. Historians think
that in 40 years after Columbus arrived, the population of the new world fell by 90%, mainly
because of diseases spreading rapidly.
Europeans then needed to find a workforce, so they went to Africa and the slave trade
began.
There were huge arguments over land, as the Europeans wanted to conquer and buy land,
but the indigenous tribes had a completely different understanding of land, and they were
often taken advantage of and forced to sign unfavourable treaties.
From the beginning, Native Americans were treated differently under the constitution.
Anything concerning Native Americans belonged to the federal government, usually the
army is involved. Indians were the federal government’s responsibility whilst on the
reserves, but if they went off them, they were subject to state laws. Native Americans were
not citizens of the US. The civil rights act of 1866 confirms that they were not recognized
, Manifest Destiny is the view that Americans had; that God had granted them this land and
they had to take it. This involved getting rid of anyone in their way to do god’s will. It was
used to excuse displacing the Indians from their land.
US government has to find a way to clear the land… ideally humanely.
After the civil war, there is a large push to start making railways, so people could travel
further faster. The telegram was invented. Guns developed more and were now able to fire
much faster than before.
There were around 240,000 plains Indians in 1860 living in the middle of America (Nebraska,
Kansas, Iowa, Missouri, Colorado). They were then displaced which was devastating. These
tribes relied of buffalo for their diets, houses, bags, arrows etc. Therefore, the US army tries
to kill off the buffalo. In 1865, there were 15 million buffalo estimated on the great plane. In
1883, they could only find 1000. From the end of the civil war until WW1, the army mainly
just hunted down Indians and tried to get them to go to reserves. This period is often called
the Indians wars or the planes wars.
Fetterman massacre 1867: The US government made an agreement with a group of Indians
to never go onto their territory, but white Americans broke it, looking for gold. They
managed to kill 200 Indians in the process. Under an Indian called crazy horse, they killed 81
US soldiers in response, who were under the command of Fetterman. Americans were
shocked and scared to hear this. Congress decided to investigate what had happened. This is
referred to as the Peace commission, 1867 commission, Doolittle. They decided that they
needed to protect Indians, so they decided to relocate all Indians onto reservations whether
they wanted to or not. Part of this agreement was that the government would cover
whatever they needed.
In the 19th century, most of the Indian population lived in the Great Plains, which was
unfavourable for farming and very poor conditions generally, so they white population was
happy for them to stay there. However, as farming techniques improved, they began to be
able to use that land effectively, so they wanted to take it from them, voluntarily or by
force. In the post-civil-war period, the Native American population suffered the most, as
they were forced to move away from their hereditary lands and move onto reserves. Many
of these tribes relied on things, such as buffalo, which they needed to follow as they moved,
so when they were relocated, they were unable to live their same way of life. There were
many instances of atrocities from both sides.
The Sandy Creek Massacre 1864.
There were issues in trying to understand and integrate the Indian population, because they
were subject to their own tribal laws, and it was difficult to cooperate with them. Politicians
with very little experience wanted to “Americanise” them. They attempted to convert them
to Christianity and give up their traditions, such as the dependency on hunting, customs,
skills, medicinal cures, polygamy (multiple wives) and parents were forced to send their
children to schools. They now became entirely dependent on the government for food,
clothing, shelter etc. This was extremely humiliating, but more than that, it created a ceiling
for Indian development, as they could never thrive due to this dependency.
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