Were Native Americans treated fairly?

Sitting Bull,Native American chief, in a South Dakota Reservation with his family.

Native Americans were showed as the “bad ones” according to many movies, they were the ones who were cruel to the whites and did not share their lands with the whites. But according to history, the whites were the ones that were being cruel with the Native Americans and they were treated unfairly. The whites started being unfair when they took the Native American’s lands and they were forced out. Then white troops were sent to reservations and began banning all of the Indian’s firearms. Also, if Indians disobeyed the whites, then the whites would take advantage of them and use their firearms.

The whites knew that the lands of the Indians was one way to gain money. The United State’s government soon forced the Indians to move out of their lands. The whites knew that the Native Americans needed a place to live, so they created reservations. The whites tried to do the reservations so that the Native Americans lived as they did in their land. Some of the reservations had a fenced area where the Indians could “hunt” animals and feed their families. Some of these reservations were Pine Ridge and Rosebud Reservations in South Dakota.

Native Americans practiced the “Ghost Dance Religion”. In this religion they claimed that the Earth would soon perish and then come back alive in a pure state in which Indians could inherit. The whites got alarmed and yet scared of this religion and of the Native Americans. Later, white troops were sent to reservations to “protect the whites from the Indians”. The soldiers then prohibited the Indians to carry firearms with them.

Some Native Americans did not understand the language of the whites and others had health problems like being deaf. There was a case where the white officers tried to disarm a deaf Indian, known as Black Cayote and he did not do anything. A discussion started and firearms discharged from both sides. This discussion ended as a brutal and violent incident known as the Wounded Knee Massacre.

There is only a few words to describe how Native Americans were treated by the whites and it was simply unfair. It was completely unnecessary to force the Indians out of their land and make them live in reservations. The Indians did not do anything wrong or bad to the white Americans to receive such bad behavior from them. The Wounded Knee Massacre was completely unnecessary since 150 Indians were killed for no reason. Indians were trying to live peacefully with their religion and without being controlled by the whites.

Bibliography:

http://www.lastoftheindependents.com/wounded.htm

www.hbo.com/.../bury-my-heart-at-wounded-knee/index.html