The book mentioned discrimination of the Native Americans, but never really talks about them. I decided to do my blog to learn more about the discrimination of Native Americans and their hardships. Just as African Americans were beginning to gain some freedom, the downfall of the Native Americans was about to get started . Even though African Americans were given freedoms because of the 14th amendment this did not include giving United States Citizenship to the Native Americans. Even though the Native Americans were living on the land that they had lived on for many more years than the Americans, the whites started forcing the Native Americans into dirty and very cramped reservations.While the reservations were becoming more and more deteriorated the whites settlers also started trying to civilize the Native Americans which contributed to the downfall of the Native Americans. Even though the Native American culture, social structure, and economy were diminishing, the United States Government passed Acts that started making it even more difficult for the Native American ways to stay alive within a tribe and on the reservation. One act that was passed was the General Allotment Act, which began taking the reservation lands of the Native American tribes. The act was in 1887 and broke up more than 285 federal reservations. This made it very easy for whites to purchase and use the land for building homes and agricultural purposes. By 1932, around 65% of the Native American land had been bought by white settlers.
It was not until the end of World War I that Native American's plight started to get better. There was a large number of Native Americans that volunteered to fight with the Americans in battle. The U.S. Government were grateful to the Native American men who had volunteered, and passed two important bills that helped the Native Americans. The first one was the Bureau of Indian Affairs, it said that American's would no longer try to make the Indians conform to American Society. The second bill was the Indian Citizenship Act, it stated that all Native Americans born in the United States were granted citizenship.
I think that the discrimination of the Native Americans was very harsh. They had been living in this country for many more years than the white settlers that took their land, which I believe is completely unfair. I also believe that if the Native Americans didn't fight in World War I they might have been facing discrimination for many more years. I also think that the book did not give enough justice to all of the suffering that the Native Americans went through. I learned that Native Americans were discriminated against for more years than African Americans.
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