Displacing Indigenous Peoples PDF

DISPLACING INDIGENOUS PEOPLES THEME-10 (PART-1)  Native Americans In the fifteenth century, when European settlers began to arrive in North America, the continent was richly populated with Native American communities. Hundreds of thousands of people lived in a wide range...

DISPLACING INDIGENOUS PEOPLES THEME-10 (PART-1)  Native Americans In the fifteenth century, when European settlers began to arrive in North America, the continent was richly populated with Native American communities. Hundreds of thousands of people lived in a wide range of environments from shore to shore, each community or nation with its own distinct culture. The centuries that followed the arrival of Europeans were years of tremendous upheaval, as the expansion of settler territory and the founding and growth of the United States resulted in Native American communities being moved, renamed, combined, dispersed, and, in some cases, destroyed. How do we reconstruct the history of natives Till the middle of the twentieth century, American and Australian history textbooks used to describe how Europeans ‘discovered’ the Americas and Australia. They hardly mentioned the native peoples except to suggest that they were hostile to Europeans. These peoples were, however, studied by anthropologists in America from the 1840s. Much later, from the 1960s, the native peoples were encouraged to write their own histories or to dictate them (this is called oral history). Today, it is possible to read historical works and fiction written by the native peoples, and visitors to museums in these countries will see galleries of ‘native art’ and special museums which show the aboriginal way of life. The new National Museum of the American Indian in the USA has been curated by American Indians themselves. The National Museum of the American Indian (NMAI) has one of the most extensive collections of Native American arts and artifacts in the world—approximately (825,000 items) representing over 12,000 years of history and more than 1,200 indigenous cultures throughout the Americas. Native Art Different forms of European Imperialism The American empires of Spain and Portugal did not expand after the seventeenth century. From that time other countries – France, Holland and England – began to extend their trading activities and to establish colonies – in America, Africa and Asia; Ireland also was virtually a colony of England, as the landowners there were mostly English settlers. From the eighteenth century, it became obvious that while it was the prospect of profit which drove people to establish colonies, there were significant variations in the nature of the control established. In South Asia, trading companies like the East India Company made themselves into political powers, defeated local rulers and annexed their territories. They retained the older well-developed administrative system and collected taxes from landowners. Later they built railways to make trade easier, excavated mines and established big plantations. In Africa, Europeans traded on the coast, except in South Africa, and only in the late nineteenth century did they venture into the interior. After this, some of the European countries reached an agreement to divide up Africa as colonies for themselves. The word ‘settler’ is used for the Dutch in South Africa, the British in Ireland, New Zealand and Australia, and the Europeans in America. The official language in these colonies was English (except in Canada, where French is also an official language). Examine the different forms of European Imperialsim. Names given by Europeans to Countries of the ‘New World’ AMERICA’ First used after the publication of the travels of Amerigo Vespucci (1451-1512) ‘CANADA’ from kanata (= ‘village’ in the language of the Huron-Iroquois, as heard by the explorer Jacques Cartier in 1535) ‘AUSTRALIA’ Sixteenth-century name for land in the Great Southern Ocean (austral is Latin for ‘south’) ‘NEW ZEALAND’ Name given by Tasman of Holland, who was the first to sight these islands in 1642 (zee is Dutch for ‘sea’) NATIVES PEOPLE OF NORTH AMERICA The earliest inhabitants of North America came from Asia over 30,000 years ago ona land-bridge across the Bering straits and dring the last ice age 10,000 years ago they moved further south. These people lived in bands, in villages along river valleys. They ate fish and meat and cultivated vegetables and maize. They went on long journeys in search of meat, chiefly bison, the wild buffalo that roamed the grasslands. But they only killed as many animals as they needed for food. 1 Agriculture They did not attempt extensive agriculture and since they did not produce a surplus , they did not develop kingdoms and empires as in Central and South America. There were some instances of quarrels between tribes over territory , but by and large control of land was not an issue They were content with the food and shelter they got frm the land without feeling any need to own it. An important feature of their tradition was that of making formal alliances and friendships , and exchanging gifts. Goods were obtained not by buying them, but as gifts.  NATIVES OF NORTH AMERICA 2 The natives spoke numerous languages , though these were not written down. 3 They believed that time moved in cycles , and each tribe had accounts about their origins and their earlier history which were passed on from one generation to the next. 4 They were skilled craftspeople and wove beautiful textiles. They could read the land, understand the climates and different landscapes in the way literate people read written texts. Picture is of Wampum belts, made of coloured shells sewn together, were exchanged by native tribes after a treaty was agreed to Q. Describe the culture and lifestyle of the natives in North America.  NATIVES AND THE SETTLERS In the 17th century, the European traders who reached the North coast of North America after a difficult two-month voyage were relieved to find the native people friendly and welcoming. These adventurers came to trade in fish and furs in which they got help of the natives who were expert at hunting. The French found that the natives held regular gatherings to Exchange handicrafts unique to a tribe or food items not available in other regions. In exchange for local products, the Europeans gave the natives blankets , iron vessels , guns and alcohol. The natives were not familiar with alcohol and they became addicted to it. It suited the Europeans , because it enabled them to dictate terms of trade.  MUTUAL PERCEPTIONS In the 18th century , Western Europeans defined civilised people in terms of literacy, an organised religion and urbanism. To them the natives of America appeared uncivilised. To some like the French philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau , such people were to be admired as they were untouched by the corruptions of civilisation. A popular term was the noble savage, Some lines in a poem by the English poet William Wordsworth indicate another perspective. Neither he nor Rousseau had met a native American , but Wordsworth described them as people living close to nature, having only limited powers of imagination and emotion. To the natives , the goods they exchanged with the Europeans were gifts , given in friendship. For the Europeans , dreaming of coming rich , the fish and furs were commodities , which they would sell for a profit in Europe. The natives could not understand this. They had no sense of the market in faraway Europe. They were puzzled by the fact that The European traders gave them a lot of things in exchange for their goods , sometimes very little. They were also saddened by the greed of Europeans. In their impatience to get furs, they had slaughtered hundreds of beavers and the natives were very uneasy. They faered that the animals would take revenge on them for this destruction. MUTUAL PERCEPTIONS The European settlers had a problem with the Native Americans from the moment they landed in America. For one, they thought the indigenous way of life to be “savagery” and believed that the Native Americans needed to be “civilized”, something they believed only Europeans could teach them about. They found the gods and spirituality of the various indigenous cultures to be blasphemous and nonsensical, and many Europeans attempted to convert the Natives to Christianity, a more “proper” religious belief. Most of all, though, the Europeans and the indigenous communities had vastly different concepts of property and land ownership. To the settlers, who came from the feudal systems of Europe, land was a commodity, purchased and sold by individuals, and prosperity (and social status) was determined by who owned the most properties, and the most prosperous lands. They became lords and could employ the less fortunate to work under them, paying them a fraction of their profits, while keeping the rest for themselves. This was how things worked in Europe back home, and this is the system they brought with them when settling in the New World. MUTUAL PERCEPTIONS Native Americans, however, had a different lifestyle and concept of ownership. To them, the thought of owning a piece of land was bizarre, as they viewed the land to belong to the various energies and life forms that existed in the said land. The tribal lands of an indigenous community not only fed and nurtured the tribal members but also protected the tribe’s history and held the ancestral burials of their people. The indigenous communities had a spiritual and emotional connection with their tribal lands, one that cannot be sold to another, similar to how you cannot sell to someone else the relationship you hold with your family. Many (if not most), Native tribes even practiced animism, a belief system that accepts all living and non-living things (and natural phenomena) as being capable of having a life force (or soul). For Native Americans, land ownership was a foreign concept. In fact, when European settlers began purchasing lands from the Native Americans, the indigenous people believed they were only “leasing” the lands to the settlers, not giving up their rights to them. For the indigenous communities, the land was just as much a right of every human as sunlight, water, or air. Different terms are used in English for the native peoples of the ‘New World’ aborigine – native people of Australia (in Latin, ab = from, origine = the beginning) Aboriginal – adjective, often misused as a noun American Indian/Amerind/Amerindian – native peoples of North and South America and the Caribbean First Nations peoples – the organised native groups recognised by the Canadian government (the Indians Act of 1876 used the term ‘bands’ but from the 1980s the word ‘nations’ is used) indigenous people – people belonging naturally to a place native American – the indigenous people of the Americas (this is the term now commonly used) ‘Red Indian’ – the brown-complexioned people whose  Who were the settlers The first Europeans were the traders. Later They came to settle in America. From the 17th century , there were groups of Europeans who were being persecuted because they were of a different sect of Christianity Many of them left Europe and went to America to start a new life. As long as there was vacant land , this was not a problem but gradually the Europeans moved further inland, near native villages. Some of the migrants from Britain and France were younger sons who would not inherit their fathers’ property and therefore were eager to own land in America.Later there were waves of immigrants from countries like Germany Sweden and Italy who had lost their land to big farmers , and wanted farms they could own. People from Poland were happy to work in the prairie grasslands , which reminded them of the steppes of their home , and were excited at being able to buy huge properties at very low prices. They cleared land and developed agriculture , introducing crops which could not grow in Europe, like cotton and rice. Thus could be sold there for profit. The three principal colonial powers in North America were Spain, England, and France, although eventually other powers such as the Netherlands and Sweden also received holdings on the continent. How did USA expand How did USA expand The countries that are known as Canada and America came into existence at the end of the eighteenth century. At that time they occupied only a fraction of the land they now cover. Over the next hundred years they extended their control over more territory, to reach their present size. Large areas were acquired by the USA by purchase – they bought land in the south from France (the ‘Louisiana Purchase’) and from Russia (Alaska)1867, and by war – much of southern USA was won from Mexico. It did not occur to anyone that the consent of natives living in these areas should have been asked. The western ‘frontier’ of the USA was a shifting one, and as it moved, the natives also were forced to move back. The Alaska purchase is also known as " Seward's Icebox" or "Seward's Folly" because the United States Secretary of State, William Henry Seward, purchased Alaska from Russia for $7.2 million which was considered to be a huge mistake by many and an economic liability for the nation.  The Natives lost their land 1. In the USA as settlement expanded the natives were forced to move after signing treaties selling their land. The prices paid were very low and there were instances when the Americans cheated them by taking more land or paying less than promised. 2. Even high officials saw nothing wrong in depriving the native peoples of their land. This is seen by an episode in Georgia, a state in the USA. Officials had argued that the Cherokee tribe was governed by state laws, but could not enjoy the rights of citizens. (This was despite the fact that, of all the native peoples, the Cherokees were the ones who had made the most effort to learn English and to understand the American way of life; even so they were not allowed the rights of citizens.) 3. In 1832, an important judgment was announced by the US Chief Justice, John Marshall. He said that the Cherokees were ‘a distinct community, occupying its own territory in which the laws of Georgia had no force’, and that they had sovereignty in certain matters. 4. US President Andrew Jackson had a reputation for The Natives lost their land 4.Those who took the land occupied by the tribes justified it by saying the natives did not deserve to occupy land which they did not use to the maximum. They went on to criticize them for being lazy, since they did not use their crafts skills to produce goods for the market, for not being interested in learning English or dressing ‘correctly’ (which meant like the Europeans). They deserved to ‘die out’, they argued. The prairies were cleared for farmland, and wild bison killed off. ‘Primitive man will disappear with the primitive animal ‘wrote a Frenchman. 5. Meanwhile, the natives were pushed westward, given land elsewhere (‘theirs in perpetuity’) but often moved again if any mineral – lead or gold – or oil was found on their lands. Many tribes were forced to share the land originally occupied by one tribe, thus leading to quarrels 2019-2020 223 between them. They were locked off in small areas called ‘reservations’, which often was land with which they had no earlier connection. 6.They did not give in without a fight. The US army crushed a series of rebellions from 1865 to 1890, and in Canada there were armed revolts by the Metis (people of native European descent) between 1869 and 1885. But after that they gave up. Q. How did the natives in North America lose their land? Q. What was the “Trail of Tears”?  What was the gold rush There was always the hope that there was gold in North America. In the 1840s, traces of gold were found in the USA, in California. This led to the ‘Gold Rush’, when thousands of eager Europeans hurried to America in the hope of making a quick fortune. This led to the building of railway lines across the continent, for which thousands of Chinese workers were recruited. The USA’s railway was completed by 1870, that of Canada by 1885. The California Gold Rush of 1849-1855 radically transformed California, the United States and the world. It prompted one of the largest migrations in U.S. history, with hundreds of thousands of migrants across the United States and the globe coming to California to find gold in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada mountains. This led to rapid economic growth and prosperity, as well as the building of railroads, churches and banks to accommodate the newcomers.  Change in conditions 1. Not till the 1920s did things begin to improve for the native peoples of the USA and Canada. The Problem of Indian Administration, a survey directed by social scientist Lewis Meriam and published in 1928, only a few years before the USA was swept by a major economic depression that affected all its people, painted a grim picture of the terribly poor health and education facilities for natives in reservations. 2.White Americans felt sympathy for the natives who were being discouraged from the full exercise of their cultures and simultaneously denied the benefits of citizenship.  CHANGES 4 In the 1950s and 1960s, the US and Canadian governments thought of ending all special provisions for the natives in the hope that they would ‘join the mainstream’, that is, adopt European culture. But the natives did not want this. In 1954, in the ‘Declaration of Indian Rights’ prepared by them, a number of native peoples accepted citizenship of the USA but on condition that their reservations would not be taken away and their traditions would not be interfered with. A similar development occurred in Canada. In 1969 the government announced that they would ‘not recognise aboriginal rights 5 The natives, in a well-organised opposition move, held a series of demonstrations and debates. The question could not be resolved till 1982, when the Constitution Act accepted the existing aboriginal and treaty rights of the natives.  CHANGES 6. Many details remain to be worked out. Today, it is clear that the native peoples of both countries, though reduced so much in numbers from what they had been in the eighteenth century, have been able to assert their right to their own cultures and, particularly in Canada, to their sacred lands, in a way their ancestors could not have done in the 1880s. Q- Discuss how the conditions of natives improved in North America.