The Enduring Spirit of the Native American People

An examination of interactions between European colonists and Native American peoples, the resulting impacts on the natives’ cultures, and the ongoing spirit of people-hood among the indigenous tribes and peoples.

Although Native Americans were profoundly impacted by the arrival of European settlers and their colonization of North America, they were always considered to be outside of, or separate from the United States. Native Americans traded with, warred with, and suffered from mass deaths due to the diseases introduced by the European settlers, therefore their lives and histories have been intertwined since the first step of a European explorer onto the soil of North America. While they were subject to the will and campaigns of the United States, forced into subjugation and forcibly transported onto reservations, they never received recognition as being part of the United States. It wasn’t until 1924 that all Native Americans were granted citizenship and given the right to vote, which was nearly 500 years after Columbus and his men first set foot in North America in 1492. Native Americans were considered a separate people from the citizens of the United States and were not included in those rights which were given to the people by U.S. constitution, but they had their own idea of what the term “the people” meant because they had their own cultures, customs, and political structures. Their lives and cultures would however be forever changed by the arrival Europeans, and their continued exploration, settlement and eventual…