American Indians

Manifest Destiny, Assimilation, and Self-Determination

With the arrival of Christopher Columbus, a lost sailor who worked for the Spanish, in 1492, Natives were removed from ancestral homes, starved to death, [Page 973]and massacred as a means to secure land and resources. This westward movement was justified under the auspices of Manifest Destiny. This movement was a form of what has come to be known as ethnic cleansing. Native Americans suffered new sicknesses and diseases brought by colonists, illnesses that claimed more lives than combat claimed.

The assimilation era was between 1890 and 1970 and was characterized by efforts to socialize Natives through missionary activities and the practices of boarding schools. Both of these acts of forced assimilation served destructive cultural, social, and psychological influences on Native groups. With the advent of the boarding schools, children often witnessed the loss of tribal life ways. These practices represented the shift from physical genocide to cultural genocide. Common practices of corporal punishment and sexual abuse impeded healthy psychological development and, in many cases, impeded the ability to develop appropriate relationships with others.

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