June 15, 2012

Dear John Smith, I was writing to you today to express some of the feelings I have about my Native American ancestors and how the experiences that they have had throughout U.S. History have affected us in political, social, cultural issues and concerns as well. As you know, we were the first of our kind to come to “American” lands. And because we “looked” different than those other European people that came to our land, we were looked upon as the “enemy.” Many of the women in our tribes did the cultivation of numerous crops such as beans, squash, and corn; while the men of the tribes were the hunters and protectors of the tribes. And since our tribes told of our history instead of writing it down, the Europeans were able to say that they came to the “American” lands before we did. In 1830, the U.S. Congress passed a the Indian Removal Act, which allowed the government to relocate Native Americans from their homelands within established states to lands west of the Mississippi River. This was to accommodate the European-American expansion into the U.S. lands. There were numerous Indian wars during the duration of the American Civil War, which were frequent up until 1890’s. There were still wars, but not as many, up until the 20th century. The transcontinental railroad brought over more non-Native into more of the tribal lands. But over a period of time the U.S. finally decided to force a series of treaties and land concessions by the tribes and helped reservations in the western states. But the U.S. also tried to force the reservations to adopt the European style farming. Over time, this technique made the Indian reservation lands dry up. In 1924, Native Americans who we not already U.S. citizens were granted citizenship by Congress. The Native Americans are said to have a unique relationship with the United States because they may be members