Blog #4

Before reading the play Pow Wow; or, The Great Victory by William Lang I never linked the connection between the history Native Americans and racism.  The United States Government and people used racism to target Native Americans way of life and culture.  In doing this they took nearly everything the Native Americans had, however the Native Americans fought back.

I always new that Native Americans were never treated fairly by the United States Government, however I did not think of it as a form of racism.  I though the government just figured the best place for the “Indians” was all together on an reservation.  My reasoning for this was the Indians as a people made the poor decision after surrendering to move on specific small tracts of land so they could be with each other and live like they always have.  When I say this I mean they assumed that they were going to be able to live the hunter gather lifestyle, with out the interference of outsiders or the government.  Clearly I was wrong in the assumptions I made about how the Native Americans just made a poor choice when surrendering.

In the early beginnings of the United Sates there was a policy in the form of racism that targeted Native Americans. At first the government pushed them west of the Mississippi with the passage of the Indian Removal act of 1830. Soon there after settlers began to move west with the “Indians” wanting more and more land.  Eventually the “Indians” were forced to sign treaties and move to reservations.  What the United States government was doing to the native Americans is an act of racism. This continued when they began to take or buy land that was on the reservation which was supposed to be reservation land. The United States government wanted everything the Native Americans had even their treaty rights!

I now have a new understanding of American “Indian” history and how they lost everything to a form of racism.  The  United states government thought it was superior to the Native Americans and decided it had the right to rule them which they did.  The government even tried to take back there treaty rights, which were supposedly given to the Native Americans. I feel that Lang wanted to show us all how the natives have started to get some of their land and rights back. He does this In the play when the Menominee wild rice people take back the Catholic Abbey which was once on treaty land.  In today’s time Native Americans are getting many treaty rights back including the highly touted Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe’s right to net lake Mille Lacs of fish.

In summary, I will now think of racism when I think of how the Native Americans were forced on to reservation and striped of almost everything.  It is also apparent to me that racism can get carried away with some horrible outcomes