Examples Of False American Ideals

False American Ideals As many call the Indian Holocaust, the poor treatment of Indians in America existed the minute Europeans stepped foot on their land. In 1492, Columbus arrived in the New World only to find that it was already inhabited. Still, the Europeans murdered, enslaved, and relocated the Native Americans westward. Still, hundreds of years later in the 1800’s, this indigent treatment of Native Americans still existed. By examining the events: the Cherokee Nation in court, the Trail of Tears, and the Seminole Wars; it can be concluded that there is a false sense of constitutional government, equality, and opportunity for Native Americans. Americans’ treatment of the Cherokee tribe in the 1820’s and 30’s shows that a constitutional government is meaningless when it does not enforce its decisions and laws. The Cherokee Nation in the 1820’s had lost many of its land to angry
Immigrants called America ‘the land of opportunity’, however, they did not see the asterisk next to it which expounds that it only pertains to Anglo-Americans. The Native Americans, although they did not immigrate to the country, realized this fact as well. In 1835, American troops were tasked with removing Native Americans from American territory, known as the Seminole wars (255). The leader of the Seminoles, Osceola, led his tribe to resist the United State’s efforts to relocate them. However, Osceola was captured and placed in prison, where he would die in 1838 (255). Many of his followers agreed to the United States’ terms to relocate to the west. These wars show that Native Americans were not given the opportunity to live in peace alongside Americans. They were proffered to leave in the Indian Removal Act, but when they refused, they were obliged to leave in the Seminole Wars. The only opportunity Native Americans got, like the Seminoles, was to give-in to American