Native Americans and civil rights: Latin America, the United States and Canada

Question 1

Place the Native American movement in Context (Do elborate on this super detailedly in an exam, option focuses predominately on Post 1945 era)

Answer 1

between the 15th century & the 19th century when european colonist began disrupting the well being of indigenous people of north and south america.
- Settlers generally disrespected native traditions and treated them as inhuman (creating an often-hostile relationship) Social Darwinism (white supremacy) was prevalent in these early settler’s ideologues. They sought to ‘civilise’ native people whilst taking their lands. A good example is the island of Manhattan which was traded for $24 worth of glass beads and cloth.
In 1887 US congress passed the General allotment act (or the Dawes Act). This act was aimed at breaking up the reservation lands and supposedly set native american free by assimilating them into american society despite Native american having no desire to become assimilated into american society. When the failure of the dawes act become apparent, many native american had to abandon their smallholding and head to the cities. Failure of assimilation policies made native americans more determined to return to their traditional culture and way of life. Additionally, since many families owned little land, they rarely qualified for federal assistance during the 1930s depression

Question 2

Discuss the first Native American progressive organisation

Answer 2

• The first unified Indian civil rights group was the SAI (Society for American Indians, 1911) that attempted to campaign for improved healthcare and education opportunities for Indians. Although this initial group failed due to a lack of financial support and coherence, the same demands were made by groups 60 years later, (demonstrating a lack of action by the American government.)

Question 3

Describe the Native Movement in 1941

Answer 3

Despite its failure, situation with native americans had significantly improves by 1941 as a result of FDR & BIA(Bureau of indian affairs) policies - lead to some native lands been restored - however the negative sentiment continued to persist
Those who sought assimilate faced prejudice and those who stayed in the reservation faced poverty

Question 4

What hindered the progression of the Native American Movement prior to 1945

Answer 4

• Due to the sheer volume of differing Indian groups in America, there was little unity between the tribes. The ambiguous determination of the word “Indian” meant that there was little defining feature in their identity besides their tribes, and their respective value. (this lead to americans further generalising the natives)
• So many different values and groups = difficult for a total representation by a unified body

Question 5

To what extent did indigenous peoples in the Americas achieve their civil rights in the period after 1945?
(The answer to this question would be to some extent.
This question would be explored by looking at the indegenious civil right movement in the united states and in canada and seeing how each country and their organization succeed or failed to achieve civil rights for the native american country.

(Argue that they achieved it)

Answer 5

Indian Vocational Act was passed in 1956, aiming to tackle workplace discrimination in the cities against native Americans (however little change was made to the reality of moving to cities for natives.)

Question 6

Describe Native American involvement in WW2

Answer 6

The Second World War had a massive impact on Native Americans and led to a large scale exodus of Native Americans from the reservations. Around 25,000 men left the reservations to serve in the armed forces; a further 50,000 left to work in defence industries. Several hundred Native American women also worked as nurses. Unlike African Americans, Native Americans did not have their own units but rather served in integrated units with white Americans. For many Native Americans, the war took them to cities where they then stayed. Whereas in 1940, only five percent of Native Americans lived in cities, by 1950, this number had increased to nearly 20 percent of Native Americans living in urban areas.

Significance: With Indian participation in WW2, Americans recognised their ability to contribute to the workforce & the economy,

Question 7

When was the National congress of american indians (NCAI) formed

Answer 7

In 1944, the National congress of american indians (NCAI) was formed, giving indigenous people a voice (although major problem still existed)
Land rights still remained a major issue and the dilemma between tradition and mainstream, poverty & health continued persist