The Effects of Colonization on the Native Americans

    When europeans began settling the eastern portion of the United States in the 16th and 17th century, the majority of them were running away from an oppressive government that did not tolerate their religion or beliefs. The native americans, at first, treated these new settlers like allies. They traded, ate together sometimes, learned each other's language and in some cases even fought together side by side against common enemies. Unfortunately, over time, there were those who held power and could sway the masses that believed that the United States would, and should belong to an Anglo-Saxon majority, knowing full well the terrible effects that would have on the native people of this land. This was Manifest Destiny.
    There are many reasons that people betray other people. The colonization occurred quickly. More and more settlers appeared from all over europe once the word got out how beautiul, how rich and how much of the land there was to explore and claim. The wealthy and the powerful cut up huge chunks of land to take for themselves despite there being an entire race and culture of people already living on that land for possibly thousands of years. the betrayal came in the form of force. Native americans who generally lived humbly and happily were welcoming of the white man. They welcomed trade and technology. The white man saw the natural resources and an uncivilized people who could be duped and forced to move away from the precious forests and clean, warm lakes and rivers. In the end it was the white man who, through greed and racism lay claim to the whole North American continent, promising to the native americans that i they just move here or there then they would not be disturbed. Over and over again they were forced to move and lie after lie was told. Some native americans fought hopelessly to stop it, but it soon became apparent that the white man would not stop and didn't care about the native americans in any respect.
    About 350 years of living like a second class citizen is what Thomas and Victor from the story "This is What it Means to Say Phoenix Arizona" by Sherman Alexi, have had as a history for their people. Two men who are very different, but come from the same blood, and the same generations of a devalued people. If the Chinese were to suddenly decide that they were going to settle the united states and move everyone that wasn't chinese to the coldest regions of Montana, or the hottest regions of New Mexico, and they had laser guns, disease warfare, and mechanized robots that could attack us if we refused, that still wouldn't be as harsh as what happened to the native americans because we have all the comforts that we have to make that journey at least for awhile.
    It seemed like Victor, who was by far more emotionally intense about his people and the way they had to live, would have fought against Manifest Destiny and the genocides that occurred during that time. Thomas seems like he would have let it happen eeing the movie "Smoke Signals", and the way the reservations are portrayed is a grim reminder of how the white man has abused an entire race. Through all these years of this life I wonder why we haven't assimilated with them. Are they keeping their cultures alive by staying segregated? or is the white man still there putting up a fence? It may be many factors like preservation, racism, shame.
    In the future will there still be seperate tribes? say in 1000 years? I enjoy speculating about the time when we are basically all one race and one color. Then no matter what we were doing we couldn't use those as reasons for pushing a people out of their land. We couldn't use Hitler's theory of genetic superiority. We wouldn't kill our brothers and sisters because of their color. We probably won't have anywhere left to colonize except another planet, where the natives may chew us up and spit us out if they found out about our history of colonization and what effects it has had on our own people.