Letter to a Friend

Dear Jason,

I am writing this letter to you to continue our discussion about my ethnic group, Native Americans, which we started but were unable to finish. I thought that if I were to put down my thoughts and ideas on paper it would be easier for me to explain a few of the topics I wanted to cover.

The first topic that I wanted to go over was the Native American experiences throughout U.S. history. We as Native Americans have been living on North America for a few thousand years before Christopher Columbus and the first settlers arrived on our shores. They thought of us as savages and treated us as such for quite some time. Over the next couple hundred years or so, the White man tried to force his cultures and beliefs on us and strip us of our native language, traditions, spirituality, and lands. Needless to say we resisted and many skirmishes and even wars broke out. Over time our lands were slowly taken from us and today we are allowed to live on reservations instead of the open land that once belonged to us.

There have been many political, social, and cultural issues and concerns regarding Native Americans throughout American history. One of the biggest issues I believe was the fact the White man believed we were all similar and forced different tribes together and did not care if those tribes were friendly to one another. Another issue that came about was the fact that we had our own traditions and tribal laws. We are considered both U.S. citizens and Native Americans and some of our tribal laws and American laws overlap. Up until 1871 we were able to negotiate with the U.S. government in regards to the treaties and what we gave up and what the government would give us. With the passing of the Indian Appropriations Act in 1871, the U.S. government effectively stripped us of our sovereignty because some members of the U.S. government were not included in discussions and treaties with various Indian tribes. The fact that some of your...