Native Americans: an Historical Perspective, 1968-1980

Native Americans: An Historical Perspective, 1968-1980

Sandra Carson

HIS/145

December 8, 2012

Dr. Edward Zevin

University of Phoenix

Native Americans: An Historical Perspective, 1968-1980

Native Americans, largely identified as “Indians” by Christopher Columbus, having instruments less reliable than our present GPS devices, mistakenly believed he had found that elusive passageway to the central Asian sub-continent instead of the island now labeled Hispaniola

That was 1492. Continuing the historical background largely omitted from discussions of the plight of Native Americans, which is deeply terrifying and embittering, initial experiences with Europeans were beneficial.

Not until the arrival of the Spanish conquistadores to the plains in the16th Century, the horse population (nebraskastudies.org/0300) was extinct in the western hemisphere The indigenous peoples took quite readily to this new adaptation which then vastly improved their mobility and hunting successes for large game.

One could easily assert that without the arrival of Europeans the native population wouldn’t have advanced beyond their original condition. That worked well for a while as indigenous peoples on the plains continued to sustain themselves.

Fast-forward four centuries.

Indians, or, Native Americans, claiming and also argued against, as being the original occupants of this hemisphere, didn’t thrive equally as well in subsequent centuries. AIM, the American Indian Movement, began to assert and seek redress of passed grievances to the federal government. That was February, 1973 (Rhetoric and Resistance, page 3) with the press running paper through full throttle on Watergate, Vietnam, the Arab oil embargo and the wrenching of militant protest groups all vying for message space and credibility, here come the Indians with their demands too. The U.S. definitely had a full plate in which to measure spoonfuls of goodies which might...