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Abstract:
Native Americans experience high rates of poverty and lower levels of education and income in comparison to white Americans and other minority groups. This paper traces the history of Native Americans in relation to federal policies which disrupted native culture and created reservations. A review of literature suggests some surprising results. Recent findings point to a growing interest in Native American culture and a growing population on reservations. Reservation life appears to be attractive but perhaps for reasons that are less than apparent. The authors note similarities between the cultural disruption wrought by the rise of the Protestant work ethic and capitalism in feudal Europe and the experiences of Native Americans in relation to larger American culture. Parallels between traditional feudal society and reservation life today are made for the purpose of explaining what continues to keep people living on reservations.
Keywords: Native American, feudal system, capitalism, reservation, minority groups, traditional society.
Indian reservations were created by the federal government to clear land for white settlement and negotiate peace, often through forcible means, with Native Americans. The system of reservations was also a method of controlling Native Americans; in the past, reservations have been under guard by United States troops. Federal legislation created a sovereign nation of Native Americans within the nation's borders but the reality of self-determination has never been fully realized.
The reservation system exploited Native Americans in a similar manner to the antebellum plantation system's exploitation of Blacks. In the plantation system Blacks were exploited for their labor; in the reservation system Native Americans were exploited for their land. Reservations also isolated Native Americans from the rest of the nation. Nevertheless, numerous programs have been employed to assimilate Native Americans into the dominant White culture. For example, Native American children have been forcibly educated by Whites. Sometimes the children were even removed from the reservation and their parents and sent to boarding schools. And speaking Native American language was commonly prohibited in such schools (Farley, 1995).
Native American culture has been assailed by the onslaught of the dominant white culture through the use of military force, federal legislation, and in numerous other ways. What is so surprising is that today interest and identification with Native American culture appears to be...