Indians Essay - 2,976 words

Indians The First Nations The Native people (Indians) are the people who were the first inhabitants; they lead traditional way of life. In such a way, the concept of native people consists of two aspects. First of all we speak about indigenous, native-born people who lived at the territory from the very beginning. Americans have their special term that reflects this quality of the native people: First Nations. Actually, the Indian and Northern Affairs Canada (INAC) organization determines the natives as follows: They are the descendants of the original inhabitants of North America. The Canadian Constitution recognizes three groups of Aboriginal people: Indians (now known as First Nations people), Metis and Inuit.


These are three distinct peoples with unique heritages, languages, cultural practices, and spiritual beliefs (Frequently Asked Questions About Aboriginal Peoples December 2003) Secondly, native people lead traditional indigenous way of life that is quite different from the modern. Besides, this aspect is one of the main conditions of preservation of ethnos as such. These two aspects determine peculiarities of legal regulation of status of the First Nations as well as criterion, which is used by the federal courts during court examinations regarding the rights of aborigines. The government undertakes obligations to preserve the natural environment and territories belonging to the natives as well as protecting their specific rights that are peculiar to aborigines. Excursus in History As every country in the world, America has its own peculiar features that attract attention and provide a powerful stimulus for interest to American history. The ancestors of native people of Northern America (Indians and Eskimos) left for America approximately 30-40 thousands years ago. The archeologists have found the most ancient utensils made more than 25 thousand years ago at the Western part of Northern America (The territories of the U.S.


and Southern Canada). More than one million of Indians lived at the continent till the beginning of European colonization. According to archaeologists, 220-350 thousand of native people lived at the territory of future Canada. In the 16-17th centuries there were several types of cultural-economic types of Aboriginal people. Settled Indian tribes (Tlinkita, Khaida, Cimshianas, Nutka, Quakutl, Selishes and Inuki) lived at the Western coast of the Pacific Ocean. They lived in big settlements, built wooden dwellings and totem columns. Bison hunters (Indians Alkonkin Kri, Assinoboya, etc) lived in prairie.


Forest hunters (Atapasks, Algonquin, and Selishes) lived in the Eastern and Northern Canadian forests. They hunted for fur-bearing animals and built wooden dwellings and canoe. Indian tribes, who settled down in the Great Lakes area, were mostly involved in agriculture. The Indian tribes were united into tribe leagues: Iroquois (consisted of Gurons, Mohawks, Senequa, Oneida, Onondaqua, Cayuga, and Tobacco), The Union of Gurons (four Indian tribes), the Neutral Union, etc. The Native people of Canada lived in villages and cultivated maize, beans and pumpkin. The ancestors of Eskimos lived in the North of the country and formed an independent ethno-cultural community.


The Indian Issues From the very beginning racial issues were explained by variety of reasons mainly based on religion. When Columbus first stepped at the land of the New World, he thought the land belonged to the India. Therefore, the natives were inferior, the second-chop people. Later the Holy Church announced that the Indians were descendants of Adam and Eva and should be put in Christianity in the same manner it was practiced in other pagan countries. When the king signed New Laws, he understood that the law can be met with strong resistance in West-India. He needed strong people to embody the law into reality.


Thats why Charles V offered Las Casas a bishop chair in Peru. Bartolome preferred Chiapas, because he had a good knowledge of language of area, located between Mexico and Guatemala. In the end of 1544 the bishop with group of Dominicans entered the New World (Baptiste 72). From the very beginning colonizers granted honors to new bishop, because they thought they will be able to get along with. Soon Spaniards understand that compromise is impossible and Las Casas came to abolish the former regime. New Laws threatened to enquomedoro to lead a good life. It was the beginning of tragic story. The bishop seemed to fail. Intrigues, debates and claims became permanent companions of his life.


He works hard and soon announces that he will not give absolution to colonizers who have Indian slaves. Finally he realizes that he will not be able to win without support. In 1546 he leaves for Spain. Bartolome tries to put the ideas into the kings head that system of colonization is doomed to failure. In order to solve the problem, the government arranges a special meeting of theologists and lawyers. It doesnt bring any valuable results and Las Casas publishes work about the destruction of the Indians (Brev sima relaci n de la destrucci n de las Indias).


He presents evidences of crimes committees against Indians. Spaniards treated natives as they treated livestock. The Conquistadors were rude and cynical. They acted with the cross in their hands and insatiable thirst for gold in their hearts. Colonizers were trying to get cheap labor source; they threatened Indians with brutal punishments and forced them to work as slaves. Conquistadors had the feeling of impunity and permissiveness.


Passive resistance of Indians made Conquistadors to be crueler. Some people believed in possibility of peaceful colonization of Europeans and tried to draw distinctions between good and bad methods of colonization (Bakewell 114). Yet, the Indians were justly treated as slaves. It is easy to understand that the murders committed by Conquistadors were the direct threat to metropolitan interests. The Indian strong resistance to Conquista was a fair and righteous affair, because the colonization of Indian lands was a violent bloody usurpation. Las Casas writes that inhabitants of all colonized lands have right to wage war against colonizers and to raze them to the ground.


This will be their rights till the Justice Day (Las Casas 49). The historical documents witness the pseudo-missionary work of Spaniards who used brute force and made the pagans judge Jesus Christ as the cruelest God in the whole world. Christian religion is equal for all people in the world. Christians shouldnt deprive people of personal freedom and property. The Christian religion (and Spaniards in particular, being the weapon of religion) shouldnt turn people into slaves with excuse that people can be slaves or free because of their origin. The removal of Indians it is a story of Conquista, full of gloomy facts of crimes, murders, violence and cruelty. Many historians stigmatize colonizers, because the closer we get acquainted with Indians, the more we understand that situation between the Spaniards and Indians was in a terrible plight (Las Casas 48).


The God created Indians as ordinary naive people without any malignancy and insidiousness. The Indians are very obedient and devoted to their gods and Christians, whom they serve. The native people are extremely patient, peaceful and virtuous. Some social and political leaders considered necessary to keep national traditions of Indians and power of their chiefs-cassics. They understood they Europeans cannot judge the pagans as barbarians. Conquistadors were impressed by monuments made by local inhabitants: pyramids, statues and citadels. Olmecs, Aztecs, Maya and other people of continent belonged to highly-developed civilizations that were highly competitive with those of Ancient East or Medieval Europe. Even Diego de Landa, a person who strictly persecuted American natives, confirmed that Maya have long and significant history.


Does the removal of Indians concern race and racism? We need to admit that the main losses brought to decline of Indian population were directly caused not by conscious actions of Spain government but by actions of Spanish colonizers. Ignorance and cruelty of colonizers resulted in devastation of territories they could derive better benefit from and both with less economic losses and use of violence and brute force. Some leaders, as well as Bartolome de las Casas in their passionate accusation spoke about Christian mercy. They proposed more rational policy of colonization. For example, instead of treating Indians as livestock and shorten the period of their capacity for work by three-four years, Bartolome de las Casas proposed to create special colonies where the Indians could obey their ancient customs and traditions and work effectively. Otherwise they would be wiped off the face of the earth. We can suppose that the common feature of policy of colonization was vicious mentality of colonizers.


The king gave Spaniards free hands to do whatever they would consider as necessary. The Spaniards, in their turn, determined the future of Indians without any remorse. Some historians often resort to various semantic tricks to draw a veil over the genocide and racism during the epoque of colonization and use term ethnocide instead of genocide. In such a way they accentuate the destruction of culture and put the destruction of the Indians aside not to compromise the harmonious world history. The gap between colonizers and Indians was sorely felt and colonizers made all conscious efforts to deepen this gap and draw clear- ...................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

...................You are reading a preview................... Visit our Blog and Unlock Full Access to this essay

Continue READING the FULL Essay by clicking HERE

Essay Tags: native people, indian, aboriginal people, first nation, aboriginal

This is an Essay sample / Research paper, you can use it for your research of: Indians