Although people are aware of native Americans and some of their more iconic history, they’re true history is often easily forgotten or ignored.
Many Americans today still cling to the idea of manifest destiny and westward expansion claiming areas of ‘free land’ all the way across to California, most prominent during the gold rush. This idea was promoted by the US government to increase economic growth and prosperity, but to a hugely detrimental cost to the native population living there, and the US made sure their history was not well known in order to protect their reputation. In the National narratives given by the US across time, their impact has been barely acknowledged and claimed, but rather, other sources are struggling to raise their voices among the power of US teleology creation.
It is important to appreciate the massive negative effect felt by natives, whose population was decimated, and culture was irreversibly destroyed. Many were massacred in the US attempts to drive out the population- their roaming practices were a hindrance to the US industrial development. One of the main polices that destroyed the Native culture was reservations. They were assigned small areas of land that they could roam on, but more and more policies limited this right and took away aspects of their culture, such as joint ownership of land. Unable to hunt buffalo, their main cultural practice, they began to be assimilated. Children needed to attend US school, speak English, and traditional cultural practices were condemned. This is touching the surface of the effects felt by natives, but we must understand that their population, culture and livelihood was completely destroyed.
Is it time to the US to take blame for the atrocities committed? Many claim it is pretty much impossible for this to happen as it would destroy the reputation of the US. But it can help if we become more aware, rather than blinded by alternative narratives, to appreciate and respect the disintegration of native culture.