Carly

**N**__ative__ **A**__mericans__  There has been a number of Native Americans killed in the United States from racial discrimination. In 1492, the beginning of persecution and genocide of Native Americans started. This was when Columbus first founded America and made first contact with the Native Americans. Genocide became an important issue for the Native Americans. In this same year, Native American population dropped because of European contact. Many people died from diseases like small pox, influenza, and measles. The Native American population decreased from 12 million to 237,000 over the next four centuries. In 1493, Columbus introduced the policies of slavery and mass extermination. After three years of having these laws, five million people ended up being killled. The Spanish colonists have treated the Native Americans very poorly. For example, they hung them and also hung their children. The Indian Removal Act was created which cleared land for white settlers. Many Native Americans died because the white settlers where taking over their land and people had to start finding someplace to go. The Trail of Tears which was in 1830, forced the march of the Cherokees and destroyed their population. The Native Americans started to live in small areas, were seperated from their homelands, started to have an increase of death, were starving, and had a very harsh way of life. The U.S. governments started to make attempts to destroy the Indian way of life by making Native Americans farmers and cattle ranchers. By the 20th century, actions by the government and religious organizations, destoryed the Native culture and religious beleifs. This genocide of the Native Americans was the most intense and longest persecution. The Native Americans history can be compared to the Pyramid of Hate because they went through most of the steps on it. Most of the steps that they went through were at the top at the pyramid which were the worst to go through. The ones that they went through the most were discrimination, violence, and genocide. They went through housing discrimination because they were thrown out of their homes and were living in small areas. They also went through violence because they got hung and also watched their children get hung. Most of all, the Native Americans went through genocide because of all these harsh conditions that they were going through during this time period. The Native Americans went through a similar experience as the people in "Night" did. The people in "Night" and the Native Americas both got separated from their homes. They were both were starving and didn't have much to eat. Another way that these two groups had a similiar experience was that they both had an increase in death rate from not eating and were being harassed by other organizations or groups. Both groups also started to go against their religious beliefs. In the book 'Night," Elie Wiesel starts to go against his religious beliefs because of what he is going through and he starts not to believe in God anymore. On the other hand, the Native Americans didn't have a choice of whether or not they could keep their religious beliefs because the government and religious organizations destoryed it for them. One more way that they were similar was that the Native Americans died from diseases like small pox, influenza, and measles. The people in "Night," got sick and got diseases from all of the bad conditions that they were living in. Overall, these two groups had a very harsh way of life.

This picture represents that because of genocide, the Native American population was decreasing one by one. This happened because of all the harsh conditions that they went through. There was an increase in death rate in this time period.  " By then the native population had been reduced to 2.5% of its original numbers and 97.5% of the aboriginal land base had been expropriated....Hundrends upon hundreds of Native tribes with unique languages, learning, customs, and cultures had simply been erased from the face of the earth, most often without even the pretense of justice or law." -Peter Montague

This quote represents that the Native Americans had all of these unique qualities but it was taken away from them. This quote also shows how much the population was decreased and how all of their land had been destoryed. They had no where else to go because they were separated from their homelands.

This picture shows a Native American being burned by a Christian priest and a crowd of European settlers. This relates to the Pyramid of Hate because a Native American is being harassed.

 "This violent corruption needn't define us.... We can say, yes, this happened, and we are ashamed. We repudiate the greed. We recognize and condemn the evil. And we see how the harm has been perpetuated. But, five hundred years later, we intend to mean something else in the world." Barry Lopez.

This quote represents that all of the genocide that happened to the Native Americans, made them into stronger people. This picture is the Cherokee Trail of Tears in 1838 through 1839. The picture shows adults and children being forced to march and many were killed because they were freezing and the conditions were terrible. This map shows the Indian Removal Act. It shows all the Indian tribes home territories and the red arrows show where they moved. They moved because the white settlers were taking over their land. Lands in the purple were lands that were granted to the Indians. __Citations__ Robinson, B.A.. "Past genocides committed against Native Americans." religious tolerance. 23-May-2008. Copyright © 2003 to 2008. 1 Nov 2008 <    http://www.religioustolerance.org/genocide5.htm       >. Trabich, Leah. "Native American genocide still haunts United States." __An End to Intolerance__. Copyright © 1997-2005. 1 Nov 2008  http://www.iearn.org/hgp/aeti/aeti-1997/native-americans.html     .

