Freedom to Isolation, the Native American Story

Freedom to Isolation, the Native American Story

Jason L Huckins

Ashford University

American History Since 1865

HIS204

Dennis Magnuson

August 27, 2011

Abstract

Since the first people arrived in the new found lands, the Native American has been in the back seat for all that the nation has gone through. They used to roam the free lands of what we call America; they lived in peace, hunted, fished and farmed their lands without issue. They had the freedom for hundreds of years, before any outsider came to the new lands. As the new lands were settled, they soon lost all that was theirs, hunting grounds, streams and land. This is where the isolation starts, as we pushed for more land to settle and explore, it did not end there, we wanted the lands they were settled on. The Native Americans went from having a freedom on their lands to isolation on the lands we pushed them too.

From early on in American history the first people to step foot on the new lands, had little or no contact with the indigenous people who lived there. Did the Chinese first meet with these Native Americans that predate the Europeans or Vikings? Whoever it was started the ball rolling for the visualization of tribes located on the eastern seaboard as well as the west coast. Some of the local tribes became friends with the missionaries and traders, but saw the settlers as invasive of their lands. Soon after settlers started arriving on the new lands and building homes and small settlements, many tribes started trading and learning from their new counter parts as they taught the settlers how to survive in the new lands and which foods were eatable.

As the new settlers began to build larger villages and more pilgrims arrived each day to find their freedom from England’s rule the Native Americans started to feel the pinch of being invaded of their lands. With the influx of new settlers came with it the sicknesses that they brought that the Native Americans had not experienced...