Faith Tong Week 6: Freedom is given and taken away?
Freedom Is Given And Taken Away?
This year in history, my teacher really discussed more in depth about the harms and cruelties the Native Americans had gone through. It led me to ponder this question: How can America be considered a country of freedom when we stole it from another group of people and stripped them of their culture and heritage? The contradictory nature that America has truly amuses me but is also disappointing at the same time.
The president behind all these actions is known as Andrew Jackson. He’s also the person I wanted to research more in depth for the Person of American Significance project. Jackson was the one who allowed open prejudice against Native Americans, signing laws here and there to prevent the Native Americans from living their way of life peacefully and constantly used violence to suppress and drown out Native Americans’ voice. I believe the government also backed him up on it, responding with full scale wars whenever there was a dispute between the U.S. and Native Americans. The government was also very crafty and dishonest. For example, they would make “peace treaties” with Native American but the terms required from them were often biased. Basically what happened was the government forced the Native Americans to sign their so called treaties and agree with the government one hundred percent.
When I learned about all this information, I felt angry and disappointed towards not only our presidents (not all presidents) but also the government. I could not comprehend why Americans back then could have such hatred towards a group of people who are simply just trying to live their lives peacefully. It’s not like the Native Americans were stealing or disrupting American citizens' lives. Is their existence really such a bother? I’m glad our presidents and government are improving now, being able to really make apologetic statements to Native Americans and learning to accept all races and cultures in America.
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