Three hundred years ago, in 1711, the various European powers in North America were involved in a divide and conquer strategy against the Indian nations. The Europeans-the British and the French-encouraged and supported the Indian Nations in their wars against other Indian Nations. In this way, the European powers weakened the Indian Nations and strengthened … Continued
In 1964, with one out of every five Americans living in poverty, President Lyndon Johnson addressed Congress in his State of the Union message and proposed a war on poverty. In response, Congress passed the Economic Opportunity Act which established the Office of Economic Opportunity. While the War on Poverty reduced overall poverty in the … Continued
The occupation of Alcatraz Island in California by a group of Indians from various nations during the late 1960s and early 1970s became the symbol for Indian activism around the United States and inspired similar events in other parts of the country. The occupation of Alcatraz was more than a cause: it became a symbol … Continued
When the French first entered North America, their primary focus was on gaining wealth through the fur trade. They viewed Indians as trading partners, as important elements in acquiring the furs which would generate great wealth. Following the system of rivers and lakes, French traders using Indian canoes penetrated deep into North America. To be … Continued
By 1830, non-Indians in Mississippi, motivated by greed and racism, were strongly advocating the removal of the Choctaw from the state. According to the citizens of Mississippi (Indians could not be citizens at this time), the reasons for the Choctaw removal included: (1) Mississippi needed more land to attract immigrants from the east (2) The … Continued
As with many other aspects of history, the fur trade in North America has re-enactors who bring this aspect of history alive by acting out the parts of fur traders, mountain men, and trappers. I recently attended a re-enactment, celebration, and historical discussion about the establishment of the Howse House-a Hudson’s Bay Company trading post … Continued
Sometime in the late 1300’s and early 1400’s groups of hunting and gathering Athabascan-speaking peoples began arriving in the Southwest from the far north in Canada. These were the ancestors of the Navajo and Apache peoples. While most scholars agree that the ancestors of the Navajo and Apache originally lived in western Canada, probably on … Continued
When Ulysses S. Grant assumed the Presidency, he inherited a major problem with regard to the administration of the Indian reservations. The Indian Service was notoriously corrupt and his solution was to create faith-based reservations: that is, to turn the administration of the nation’s Indian reservations over to Christian, primarily Protestant, missionary groups. The missionaries, … Continued
During the last part of the nineteenth century the emphasis of the United States Indian policy was on assimilation. According to this philosophy, American Indians, just like other immigrants to the United States, should assimilate into “mainstream” America. One of the concerns at this time was the lack of surnames among Indians. American Indians … Continued
When the Spanish under the leadership of Francisco Pizarro arrived in Peru in 1532, they encountered the Inka empire. With a population of about 8 million people occupying the area from the Ecuador-Colombia border in the north to central Chile in the south, the Inka empire was the largest indigenous empire in the Americas. … Continued
