Exam 9: Race and Ethnicity.

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Native Americans have been the victims of genocide and forced migration. Many Native Americans were either massacred or died from European diseases (such as typhoid, smallpox, and measles) and starvation. In battle, Native Americans were often no match for the Europeans, who had modern weaponry. Europeans justified their aggression by stereotyping the Native Americans as "savages." After the Revolutionary War, the federal government offered treaties to the Native Americans so that more of their land could be acquired for the growing white population. The government broke treaty after treaty as it engaged in a policy of wholesale removal of indigenous nations in order to clear the land for settlement by Anglo-Saxon "pioneers." The "Trail of Tears" during the winter of 1832 resulted in over half of the Cherokee Nation dying. Native Americans were made wards of the government (meaning they had a legal status similar to that of minors and incompetents) and were subjected to forced assimilation on the reservations after 1871. Currently, about 2 million Native American live in the United States. Most are concentrated in the Southwest, and about one-third live on reservations. Native Americans are the most disadvantaged racial or ethnic group in the United States in terms of income, employment, housing, nutrition, and health. The life chances of Native Americans who live on reservations are especially limited. They have the highest rate of infant mortality and death by exposure and malnutrition. They also have high rates of alcoholism and suicide. Native Americans have had very little educational opportunities and have a very high rate of unemployment. In spite of the odds against them, many Native Americans resist oppression. The American Indian Movement, Women of All Red Nations, and other groups have demanded the recovery of Native American lands and reparation for past losses. The American Indian Anti-Defamation Council advocates doing away with the word tribe because it demeans Native Americans by equating their level of cultural attainment with "primitivism" or "barbarism." Moreover, reinterpretation of federal law in the 1990s has made it possible for Native American nations to open lucrative cigarette shops, bingo halls, and casino gambling operations on reservations.