In the nineteenth century, the United States reached a strong authority, directly touching the local Native nations. The basic concept of negotiated treaties between the United States and the Indian people implied the declared peace and companionship between the established American government and the Native population (Calloway). However, such treaties turned into the asset for seizing Indian lands, expanding federal control over the Indians, and, most importantly, undermining the role of their cultural identity. According to Smithsonian NMAI, the country, however, neglected the treaty-making process’s key principle, which is based on the recognition of the Native people as the self-governing nations. The incident of Native American dispossession led to the fundamental power of the United States across the continents.
The United States incorporated the policies that jeopardized tribal sovereignty, along with immense land losses, relocation and removal, population decrease, and cultural decimation. The advent of American global economic power is inherently connected to the Indian land dispossession, given that any economic activity was ultimately dependent upon the “access to the land” (Cornell 201). The process was mainly enabled by two critical categories, such as assimilation and removal, which are considered the complementary aspects of the U.S. Indian policy. The process of removal, in turn, had a direct adverse impact on the “tribal economies, intertribal relations, and cultural practice” (D’Costa and Achin 35). Therefore, it was the traumatic experience of cultural transformation for the Indian population because the land as space was closely intertwined with the nation’s identity. The Euro-American civilization also forced cultural reinforcement through Christian education (Haselby). To conclude, the dispossession of the Indian people’s territory and their cultural core resulted from the fundamental economic event marking a turning point for the United States’ future position on a global scene. Such interconnected economic and cultural designs define the early historical relationships between the United States and the Indian population.
Works Cited
“The “Indian Problem”.” YouTube, uploaded by SmithsonianNMAI, 2015, Web.
Calloway, Colin. “Treaties and Treaty Making.’ Oxford Handbooks Online, 2016, pp. 1–16.
Cornell, Stephen. The Return of the Native: American Indian Political Resurgence. Oxford University Press, 1988.
D’Costa, Anthony, and Achin Chakraborty. The Land Question in India: State, Dispossession, and Capitalist Transition. Oxford University Press, 2017.
Haselby, Sam. “The Invasion of America.” Aeon, 2015, Web.