Blog Seven

Anna Julia Cooper explored the sociology of race. She believed that individuals aren’t completely accountable because it isn’t the fault of one person but the entire society and culture to blame. Cooper looked at how societies dealt with minority groups. There are four models to deal with this. Pluralism is the first model. Pluralism is the act of celebrating cultural diversity and having equal rights for everyone. Assimilation is the second model which is where the minority group loses cultural variability and assumes the dominant culture. Segregation is when there’s a distinct separation, either formal or informal, of a group of people. Cities are racially segregated sometimes. Genocide is the last model. This is the deliberate killing of a group of people. All four of these models are dealing with the majority minority dynamic in society. There are a multitude of examples in the United States where all four models have been visible.

I am in a tribal government class this semester and I think this majority minority dynamic directly applies to the Native Americans in the United States. All four models have directly affected their lives.

In the late 1800s, Native American children were ripped from their homes and placed in boarding schools where they were expected to learn blacksmithing, sewing, laundry, etc. The children were beaten if they spoke their native tongue and no freedom of religion was granted to them. These schools were Americanizing Indian children and also teaching them a trade. Once their schooling was over, they were displaced into American society where they faced mental breakdowns and the suicide rate skyrocketed. They were attempted to be assimilated.

Segregation occurred when the government created the Indian Removal Act in 1830. Indian peoples were forced to move west and their land was allotted under the Dawes Act of 1887, which also forced assimilation, but also segregation. Tribes ended up on reservations, but that’s a complicated situation as well.

 

Genocide has definitely been witnessed in tribal life. Not only did a lot of Native Americans perish on the Trail of tears, where about 15,000 natives died on the march, but coastal Indians in California were legally killed. Bounties were placed on Indian heads. In the 1840s there were 150,000 natives, but by the year 1890, there were 17,000 natives left. The government allowed people to slaughter the Indians and essentially scalp them. People were granted $1 for a woman, $2 for a man, and 25 cents for a baby Native American. Not only did genocide occur with mass scalping, but small pox blankets were given to natives as ‘gifts’ but little did they know they were about to contract a deadly disease.

Lastly, pluralism is evident when we celebrate Native American’s cultural diversity. People explore native life and try to understand their rituals and practices against our own. Unfortunately, I think this is the model that is least evident in Native American’s lives in the course of their unique history. Taking this tribal government class allows me to really understand that this majority minority dynamic will never be fair in accordance to natives in the United States. I think natives just want fair treatment and ideally to be peacefully left alone. 

Drums of Thunder is a video on youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DYvNAHByKPM that demonstrates Native uniqueness and a great reason why we should genuinely accept and celebrate their way of life.