Indian Ancestry

For many years a debate has persisted over who first "discovered" America. Some have claimed that it was the Viking leader Leif Ericson who first set foot on these shores in 1004 a.d. Most people favor the view that it was Christopher Columbus, the Genoese sea captain whose several voyages were financed by King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain.

The debate is quite academic; for whichever European first set foot in America, he was not the original discoverer.

There were people living on the North American continent for thousands of years, long before any European crossed the Atlantic Ocean. The irony is that the Indians do not even receive credit for getting here first.

In the days before the conquests began 1.500,000 Indians occupied the territory now comprising the United States and Canada. A wide range of culture patterns marked their differing social structures and political organizations. There never was a characteristic or single Indian culture.

The conquerors—who often treated them as one people (mis­named "Indians" by Columbus) — markedly influenced their customary ways, and many tribes suffered the humiliation of being dispossessed from their traditional areas of domain.

From almost the first excursions to the New World, many tribal groups were mistreated and abused by Whites—first by Spaniards seeking to extort riches from them and to convert them to Christianity, later Englishmen who made them retreat from their lands.

Trail of Tears

In 1754 a general policy was established by the British Crown. They took decision and jurisdiction away from local communities and from the various colonial administrations.

The tribes were to be recognized as "independent nations under the protection of the Crown. Any attempt by an individual or group, subject to the Crown, or by a foreign state, to buy or seize lands from Indians, was illegal."

Attempts to implement this new policy met with strong resistance from many settlers. As the frontier moved westward and homesteaders hungered for land for cultivation and grazing.

Though the Congres­sional Indian Removal Act of 1830 specified that consent of the natives or their leaders was required by those to be moved to new ter­ritories, what could not be accomplished by treaty, was accomplished by military force.

In the first half of the nine­teenth century, thousands of Indians from eastern states were transported, often under brutal conditions, to the territories of the West. It is reported that one-third of the Cherokees, who in 1838 were driven from their homes in North Carolina and Georgia, died en route to Oklahoma. Their route is still referred to as the "Trail of Tears.").

After the Civil War attempts were made to resolve the "Indian problem" by means of government, reservations were established for the purpose of assimilating the subdued and severely depressed Indians. In 1871 Congress ruled that henceforth no Indian tribe would be recognized as an independent power.

All Indians became wards of the federal government. Federal agents were to help the tribes adjust to reservation life and to farming.

Yet, as should have been foreseen, reservation life created many problems of adjustment—and sheer survival—for the Indian residents. Adjustment proved difficult since both land ownership and agriculture were foreign ideas to a number of Indian peoples.