Native Americans' Economic Growth and Prosperity During 1865-1898: A Brief History - Essay Sample

Introduction

The United States has a rich history between 1865 to 1898. Within this period the native Americans experience massive economic growth, they were able to achieve prosperity to its peak. This period indicates the United States becoming the world powerhouse in economic, industrial growth as well as becoming the agricultural superior. It is during this reign that the native American enjoys wages increase by more than 75%. Moreover, it is during this period that the Reconstruction Period happened. This time saw the end of slave legalization across the united states. The slave was later given United States citizenship. However, that marked the beginning of the pervasive segregation of the black Americans that continued in the United States for the next 80 to 90 years under the oppressive Jim Crow system. Under this period, the United States received an unprecedented wave of European immigrants that are estimated to 27.5 million. These immigrant plays an important role in industrial expansion since they provided plenty of labor. Furthermore, the boost and increased the population of the growing urban regions. By the late 19th century the native Americans together with the immigrants had made America global industrial power, new technology invention, expanded networking across the world, additional and accumulation of resources. The essay seeks to describe the cultural traits of native American tribes, also analyze the relationship between the whites and the native Americans and finally assess how the United States policies affected Native Americans.

Is your time best spent reading someone else’s essay? Get a 100% original essay FROM A CERTIFIED WRITER!

Save 25%

Cultural Traits of Native American Tribes

The Native American culture existed in the present land united states many years before Christopher Columbus's ships arrived in the Bahamas region. The nomadic ancestor of the modern-day American Natives occupied the land bridge from Asia to Alaska. To keep track of the native Americans, geographers and anthropologists have separated them into culture regions. The regions only located in Northern America. For instance, Northeastern Iroquoian and Algonquian (Gaetano, 2019).

The Northeastern

The Northeast culture area is the one who comes first in contact with the Europeans. These group has been known and identified to stretch from today's region constituting the coast of Canada's Atlantic to areas of North Carolina as well as the main inland of the Mississippi river valley. The Northeasterners inhabitant constitute of two main speakers; Iroquoian (who includes, Cayuga, Oneida, and Erie), most of these group lived along lakes and rivers in fortified, also had a stable political village. Moreover, the other speakers were Algonquian (who includes, Pequot, fox, and Delaware), this group lived along the ocean coast where they practice small farming and fishing (Indovina, 2019). They indulge in growing crops such as corn, vegetables, and beans.

Northeast culture lifestyle was already full of conflicts, the Iroquoians tribe were rather warlike and aggressive since villages and bands bordering their confinements were never safe from their usual raids. The conflicts escalate even to worst when European colonizers arrived in their culture region. Although the natives were hostile to each other, the colonial war forced the native American to take a side, this even made Algonquian pitted against their neighbors Iroquoians in the quest for survival (Smith, 2019). However, the white settlers kept pressing westside, where the native were eventually displaced.

The Relation Between Whites and Native America Between 1865- 1898.

In 1865, the first built transcontinental railroad was essential since it made traveling easier. The journey from New York to San Francisco could now take only six days contrary to six months in the earlier years. As a result, the rail expansion lured more immigrants from Europe and the East Coast. Therefore, the new railroad provides a great opportunity for the immigrants to explore in search of land and resources. The farmers sought extensive large pieces of land at a cheaper price, more fertile land. Merchants were seeking new leadership in new territories as well as the new customers. Laborers, on the other hand, wanted a higher paying work as well as better working conditions. As a result, the Whites immigrants interacted with the native Americans. However, this interaction brought along conflicts between the native Americans and the immigrants. For instance, expansion seen on the plains, mountain as well as the region of the mine caused conflict with the already settled Indian tribe people. Therefore, the government comes to intervene in these disputes by insisting that the Indians should be assimilated to general American society or otherwise remain in the reservation and forced used to keep them in place. Those who accepted to be assimilated were absorbed into society and given opportunities such as the Indian leaders representative and even own lands. Those who resisted stay at the reservation in poverty because of restrained (Shulman, 2020). Immigrants came with a variety of skills such as advanced and skilled farming that were passed on to the native Americans. As such united states experience a dramatic shift in the agricultural sector because of the massive expansion of farming. The sizes and number of farms triple from 2 million acreages in 1865 to 6 million in 1898. Moreover, farmers and workers on the farm increased in numbers from 10 million in 1865 to more than 25 million in 1898. The farm product value rises from $8 billion in 1865 to $30 billion. The native Americans who had embraced farming, understand the importance of having a hardworking wife and having numerous children. Purposely to handle several chores on the farm. Although Native farmers seemed to be isolated in the farms, they had a rich and lavish life, plenty of food and activities they form among themselves prove to be satisfactory. Indeed, the interaction of the immigrant and the Native Americans had a tremendous impact.

How the United States Government Policies Affected Native America

At the end of the 19th century, there was an estimated number of 250,000 native Americans. This represents just 0.3% of the total population of Americans in the United States of America. Most of the remaining native was found in reservation region where they restricted under force by the United State government. The government policies had a tremendous impact on the native American because at the end of the 19th century they had been depriving almost entire all of their lands and pushed towards the reservation zones by forced removal on the westward side under treaties conducted by the white American authorities (Springer, 2019). In 1867, the chief justice of the Supreme Court by then, John Marshall had given them their status as just guardians and custodians of American Land. This indicates that they were not allowed to own any land in the United States. The relation between the Government and Native Americans has been always troubled. The USA government aimed to protect native Americans, specifically helping Indian development. However, it lurked its responsibility it seems to assimilate native Americans to become the American Mainstream. The reason the government policies focused on the native American was that the land they initially occupied were fertile and have resources such as mines. However, the government of the united states of America redeemed itself by the implementation of one Acts; The Dawes Act

The Dawes Act

This policy was established in between 1865 to 1898. In the act the Unites State government aimed at assimilating the native Indian American into American society mainstream. In modern society, the act seems patronizing and racist. However, during that time the United States views it as civilizing practice and mission which was compared to the European missionaries' practice on Africa (Margolies,2020). The act was meant to eradicate the Indian traditional way of doing a thing and embrace westernization which was considered modern.

Conclusion

The United State of America has a rich history. The coming of the Immigrants brought about a lot of change in the western United States. The industrial revolution, growth in the agriculture sector and also growth in innovation. Native American has also a rich culture of different tribes. Furthermore, the interaction between the immigrant and the native Americans made the United state advanced and become a global powerhouse. Additionally, the United States place policies to ensure the native American is inferior. However, the assimilated Native Americans enjoy society's culture and privileges such as leadership and education. Perhaps, between 1865 to 1898 there has been a lot of changes that have affected the native American.

References

Gaetano, D. (2019). Native American Men and Revitalized their Culture, 1880-1920 (Doctoral dissertation, Oberlin College).

Indovina, A. (2019). Wild West in Upstate New York: Native American Culture, Performances, and Public Debates about Indian Affairs, the 1880s-1930s.

Smith, T. (2019). History, "Unwritten Literature," and US Colonialism in Hawai 'i, 1898-1915. Diplomatic History, 43(5), 813-839.

Ariffin, M., & Binti, N. D. (2019). American imperialism, anthropology and racial taxonomy in the Philippines, 1898-1946.

Margolies, D. (2020). THE UNITED STATES: ImperIum In Imperio IN AN AGE OF IMPERIALISM, 1865-1886. A Companion to US Foreign Relations: Colonial Era to the Present, 217.

c Indigenous Peoples in the United States: The Challenge of Balancing Inclusion and Sovereignty. Journal of Progressive Human Services, 1-17.

Springer, P. J. (2019). The Indian Wars. Daily Life of US Soldiers: From the American Revolution to the Iraq War [3 volumes], 317.

Shulman, P. A. (2020). CONNECTION AND DISRUPTION: AMERICAN INDUSTRIALIZATION AND THE WORLD, 1865-1917. A Companion to US Foreign Relations: Colonial Era to the Present, 252.