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Topic Closedamerican genocide? (long but interesting)

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TasunkaWitko View Drop Down
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Direct Link To This Post Topic: american genocide? (long but interesting)
    Posted: 22 January 2004 at 06:37

this one is a bit long, but anyone interested might want to read it and offer opinions?

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Institute for Global Studies

"Teaching about the Holocaust and Contemporary Genocide"

Lesson Plan - Is the Native American Experience a Genocide?

Grade Level: 10th grade U. S. History

Time: 7 - 10 days

Focus: Since I teach on an Indian Reservation and more than half of my students are

Native Americans, I would like to create a unit based on their history. My goal is to

present and help students locate information about the Native American experience from

early exploration through urbanization. Students would than analyze that information and

come to a conclusion on whether or not the Native American experience can be defined

as a genocide. As an end project, students will write an essay demonstrating how and

why the Native American experience can be defined or not defined as genocide.

Resources: Alan S. Rosenbaum. Is the Holocaust Unique? David E. Stannard. American

Holocaust. Russell Thornton. American Indian Holocaust and Survival: A Population

History Since 1492.

OBJECTIVES

1. Define genocide and Holocaust with students understanding that the Holocaust refers

to a specific genocide.

2. Study Native American experience from European exploration to urbanization.

- Acts committed against Native Americans

- U. S. government policy

- Declining numbers

3. Analyze whether Native American experience can be classified as genocide.

Day 1: Define and discuss genocide.

Genocide

UN Convention, Dec. 11, 1946 Art II - Means any of the following acts with intent to

destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, or religious group, as such:

a) Killing members of the group

b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group

c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about

its physical destruction in whole or in part

d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within a group

e) Forcibly transferring children of this group to another group

What does this mean?

National - relating to or belonging to a nation

Ethnical - usually associated with language or culture

Religious - relating to a religion

Class breaks into monitored groups to discuss the five categories of genocide. What are

examples of each? Does the group understand the definition of genocide? Groups come

back and class as a whole reviews the group discussions.

Day 2 - 4: Discuss and define the Holocaust. (This is meant to be a general overview, not

an in-depth study of the Holocaust)

Holocaust

The dictionary defines holocaust as a great or complete devastation or destruction,

especially by fire or a sacrifice consumed by fire. Holocaust is a biblical term meaning

"burnt whole" or "burnt offering" or a sacrifice made to God. After 1945, the Holocaust

was gradually applied to the Jewish destruction by Nazi Germany.

When we talk about the Holocaust, we are referring to the Jewish genocide by Nazi

Germany during WWII. While there were other victims of the Nazi regime, including

Poles, Sinti and Roma ("Gypsies"), the handicapped, homosexuals, and Jehovah's

witnesses, the Jewish genocide is different in that the Jewish victims of the Holocaust

were targeted as a race of people to be destroyed.

At this point, I would use the Historical Summary section of the "Resource Book for

Educators: Teaching about the Holocaust" from the United States Holocaust Memorial

Museum in Washington D.C. to present information on the Holocaust to my students. I

would also provide other sources of visual information to the students, including the tape

by Seth Kramer.

Day 5 - 8 (time period here is subject to change): Outline the Native American

experience and decline relating to European exploration and colonization, the Indian

wars, establishment of Reservations, assimilation, and urbanization. As we go through

the experiences of Native Americans, we will refer back to the definition of genocide by

the UN.

Native American Experience

I. Population Decline

A. Although there is no way to know for sure the Native American population prior

to European exploration, it is estimated that between 5 - 8 million resided in

what is now the United States

B. By 1800, the number had declined to 600,000

C. By the late 1800s, the number reached its lowest at 250,000

D. Since that time, the population has continued to increase

Chart: "American Indian Population Decline and Recovery in the United States Area,

1492 - 1980" (Thornton, xvii)

II. Causes of Decline

A. Disease

- Generally associated with early European exploration

- Single most important factor in Native American population decline

1. Smallpox, measles, bubonic plague, cholera, typhoid, pleurisy, scarlet

fever, diphtheria, mumps, whooping cough, colds, venereal diseases

(gonorrhea, syphilis, and chancroid), pneumonia, typhus, malaria, and

yellow fever were some of the diseases brought from Europe and Africa

2. Native Americans did not have previous exposure to these illnesses, and

therefore no natural immunity or ability to combat them

3. The diseases came, spread, and killed again and again and again.

4. Alcoholism can also be considered a disease that has contribute to Native

American population decline

- Linked to high mortality rates from suicide, accidents, diabetes, and

cirrhosis

B. Warfare

1. "While warfare and genocide were not very significant overall in the

American Indian population decline, they were important causes of

decline for particular tribes." (Thornton, 47)

2. The U.S. Bureau of the Census asserted in 1894:

"It has been estimated that since 1775 more than 5,000 white men,

women and children have been killed in individual affairs with

Indians, and more than 8,500 Indians ...The Indian wars under the

government of the United States have been more than 40 in number.

They have cost the lives of about 19,000 white men, women, and

children ...and the lives of about 30,000 Indians. The actual number of

killed and wounded Indians must be very much greater than the

number given, as they conceal ...their actual loss in battle, and carry

their killed and wounded off and secret them." (Thornton, 48)

C. Removal and relocation (Reservations)

* The dispersal of Native Americans from their homelands to the Reservations

caused increased mortality for several reasons:

1. Associated military actions

- Removal to Reservations did not mean an end to warfare or rebellion

2. Disease

3. Starvation

- Native Americans were removed from their native homelands and way

of life, put on reservations, and expected to become farmers

- Native Americans were not giving the necessary tools or supplies to

succeed. They were also not given any instructions on how to grow

crops, something they were unfamiliar with.

- Destruction of buffalo herds

4. Extremely harsh conditions during the moves (Trail of Tears)

5. Destruction of ways of life

- U. S. government policy of trying to force Native Americans to

become farmers and ranchers

- Efforts by churches & government to undermine Indian religious,

government, and kinship systems

- Deliberate destruction of flora and fauna used by Native Americans

- Near extinction of the buffalo

D. Assimilation

- Complete submergence of one culture into the larger, dominant culture

- Assimilation has always been the policy of the U.S. government

1. Children were removed from their families

2. Taken to boarding schools (generally run by Christian churches)

3. Forced to change their names, cut their hair, change their dress

4. Required to learn and speak only English language

5. Attempt to remove the "Indian"

- Assimilation has created many problems for Native American people

- An entire generation was removed from their way of life

- An entire generation did not learn how to parent

- Increase in depression, alcoholism, and suicide

E. Urbanization - movement of Native Americans from rural areas (Reservation)

to urban areas (cities)

* Table: "Percentage of the United States Indian Population Who Were Urban,

1890 – 1980" (Thornton, 227)

1. U. S. Bureau of Indian Affairs' relocation program

2. Majority of Native Americans migrate to urban areas for economic

opportunities

3. Returnees - total return rate between 30 and 70 percent

- Reasons for return are generally personal or economic

- Better-educated Indians more likely to move to and stay in urban

areas

- Mixed bloods more likely to stay in urban areas

- Individuals with stronger self-identification as American Indians

are more likely to leave urban areas (Thornton, 230)

- Many Native Americans follow a circular pattern of movement

back and forth between rural and urban areas

Along with this outline, we will look at U. S. documents and Indian policy.

1. U.S. Declaration of Independence

- Examine the wording of the Declaration and Independence and apply that to

the treatment of Native Americans by the U. S. government

2. Handbook of Federal Indian Law, Felix Cohen

3. Indian Reorganization Act of 1934

4. President Andrew Jackson's policy for Indian removal

5. American Indian Policy in the 20th Century, Vine Deloria

Visual depiction of treatment of Native Americans by settlers and government. (This

section will come with a warning as some pictures may be disturbing.

Day 9: Hand out and discuss table "Genocide and mass murder: Structural situations

in the 12-types scheme." Students have the remainder a class to work on their final

project.

FINAL PROJECT: On day 1, students will be given the following assignment due

on day 10.

Is the Native American Experience a genocide?

Directions: Using the information presented in class along with your own personal

knowledge and research, write a 2 to 3 page essay answering the following question:

Is the Native American Experience a genocide? Here are the requirements for your

essay:

1. Essay must be educated

2. Essay must answer whether or not you believe the Native American

experience is a genocide

3. You must give reasons for your answer along with the how and why

4. Finally, your essay should include examples and documentation supporting

your conclusion.

 

-------------------------------------------

what do you think?

TasunkaWitko - Chinook, Montana

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Direct Link To This Post Posted: 22 January 2004 at 07:43

It may be a bit intense for high schoolers, but is a very important part of American history. Rather than limit this to the one class, I would like to see it as a part of the curriculum through out the country.

Black history is stressed in schools now, being politically correct, but the native peoples suffered much more than any other minority in this country. Slavery continued among the Indians and Mexicans in the Southwest for a couple decades after the Civil War was ended.

I have held for a long time that the U.S. government had as a policy that which they went to war sixty years later against, when Hitler was doing the same thing, only on a larger scale.

On the other hand, before the Europeans set foot on the shores, not all was idealic, nor was it afterwards, in regards to inter tribal warfare. Trade routes were protected ruthlessly, lands were taken, others were driven away or killed, and slavery was rampant.

The only thing the whites added to the fray, was better weapons, better long term organization, and some one to write down the history, albeit from a slanted view of the victor.

The down side of it is to set a racist hatred in the minds of impressionable kids. It is a subject more suited for college, and I have heard some pretty stupid arguments at that level. Even on the Plains Indian Seminar, of which I am a part,  there are occassional heated arguments on this subject between very mature and knowledgable academics, natives, collectors, and researchers. With no satisfactory conclusions, just hurt feelings in the end.

The reservation system should end. It can't continue on for another century. The People can't dance back the buffalo. The white people are not going to go away. The Indians must adapt, or die, just as any other creature when thier habitiat is encroached upon.

Now the natives are in an artificial environment of welfare, public housing, alcohol, surgar, and drugs. It will be up to them to get away from this trap, and maintain thier identity. 

It is a hard subject to discuss, as too many are uninformed on all aspects of the history of Manifest Destiny, and common sense isn't all that common.

Let me know how the course of study goes.

 

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Direct Link To This Post Posted: 22 January 2004 at 08:30

ric -

this "lesson plan" was just one that i found on the internet while doing research. as far as i know, it hasn't been implemented anywhere around here.

i agree that it is a bit "deep" for high school, but would be a very good course for college. also agree that while the history of slavery etc. is important, the history of the settling of the west is very glossed over in proportion to what really happened.....on BOTH sides.

it might be true that anyone living west of the mississippi is an accessory after-the-fact of a whole host of crimes ranging from land fraud to kidnapping to murder and even a few worse ones, but as you said, the buffalo are not coming back, and time must march on. your conclusions regarding the reservation system are harsh, but most likely correct. the only positive thing that i see about the reservations today is that they do provide a cultural base, an anchor for self identity and preservation of the old ways. unfortunately, the negatives, including the ones you listed, probably outweigh the few positives.

TasunkaWitko - Chinook, Montana

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Direct Link To This Post Posted: 22 January 2004 at 12:25
[QUOTE=TasunkaWitko]

it might be true that anyone living west of the mississippi is an accessory after-the-fact of a whole host of crimes ranging from land fraud to kidnapping to murder and even a few worse ones, but as you said, the buffalo are not coming back, and time must march on.

Looking back on Montana history, the white interlopers didn't stop with hurt to the Indians. Look into the history of the Anaconda Mining Company. Up until the early sixties, they held the state with an iron hand, and pumped 80 tons of arsenic per day into the air from the Anaconda and smelter. They thought they were doing good when they reduced it to 140 tons per month. That's why the Anaconda area looks like it does today.

The railroad companies were into wholesale rape and robbery of the timber lands.

I suppose I may be an accessory after the fact. I know my ancestors drove the Sioux from the Great Lakes area, as the Hurons and Winnebagos were driving my people from the eastern part of the Lakes. So it goes. I may have some black in me, along with Chinese, Inuit, and Mexican, for all I know. We are pretty much all Heinz 57. Maybe I need free cheese the rest of my life! And reparations!

 

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