Native American Genocide
Zack Siemsen
Merri Ferles
HIS 202
02-12-13
Native American Genocide
The Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of Genocide states that according to Article 2. “Genocide, deems any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group. Such as killing members of a group, causing serious bodily or mental harm, inflicting the group member lives to cause destruction, imposing measures intended to prevent birth, and forcibly transferring children of a particular group. Based off these criteria of genocide I believe the acts upon the Lakota Sioux Indians highlighting the instance of the Battle of Wounded Knee and Indian Boarding Schools are acts of genocide. The acts committed on the Sioux Indians can be deemed genocidal for a number of reasons, they might not have been acting on the basis to destroy the culture and the people of the Lakota Sioux yet it was the inevitable outcome. By default the members of the 7th Cavalry and United States Federal Government have committed acts of genocide on the Lakota Sioux Indians. The intermitted war between the Unites States and the Plains Indians stretches across three decade of brutal struggles according to Charles Phillips stated in “A Day to Remember.” Phillips argues, “The Wovoka first introduced the Ghost Dance, to bring about a day of deliverance-a day when we’re strong enough again to wage an all-out war against the whites.” This dance was quickly branded by the Indian Bureau in Washington as, “fomenters of disturbance” and a threat to the western conquest. Sitting Bull-the most influential of all Sioux leaders-was invited to leave Standing Rock and join his people at the Stronghold on the Pine Ridge reservation. Agent McLaughlin dispatched 43 reservation policemen to arrest Sitting Bull before he set out to Pine Ridge. Denying the fact that Catch-the-Bear shot the initial shot at a preservations police officer, the fact that Sitting Bull was
Merri Ferles
HIS 202
02-12-13
Native American Genocide
The Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of Genocide states that according to Article 2. “Genocide, deems any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group. Such as killing members of a group, causing serious bodily or mental harm, inflicting the group member lives to cause destruction, imposing measures intended to prevent birth, and forcibly transferring children of a particular group. Based off these criteria of genocide I believe the acts upon the Lakota Sioux Indians highlighting the instance of the Battle of Wounded Knee and Indian Boarding Schools are acts of genocide. The acts committed on the Sioux Indians can be deemed genocidal for a number of reasons, they might not have been acting on the basis to destroy the culture and the people of the Lakota Sioux yet it was the inevitable outcome. By default the members of the 7th Cavalry and United States Federal Government have committed acts of genocide on the Lakota Sioux Indians. The intermitted war between the Unites States and the Plains Indians stretches across three decade of brutal struggles according to Charles Phillips stated in “A Day to Remember.” Phillips argues, “The Wovoka first introduced the Ghost Dance, to bring about a day of deliverance-a day when we’re strong enough again to wage an all-out war against the whites.” This dance was quickly branded by the Indian Bureau in Washington as, “fomenters of disturbance” and a threat to the western conquest. Sitting Bull-the most influential of all Sioux leaders-was invited to leave Standing Rock and join his people at the Stronghold on the Pine Ridge reservation. Agent McLaughlin dispatched 43 reservation policemen to arrest Sitting Bull before he set out to Pine Ridge. Denying the fact that Catch-the-Bear shot the initial shot at a preservations police officer, the fact that Sitting Bull was
Cited: Bateman, Robert. “Wounded Knee: Who Spoke the Truth?” Military History 24.4 (2007): 62-69. History Study Center. Wed. 12 Sept. 2011. Black, Elk, and John Gneisenau Niehardt. “Accounts of the Wounded Knee Massacre.” Black Elk Speaks: Being the Life Story of a Holy Man of the Oglala Sioux. Lincoln: University of Nebraska, 1988. MyHistoryLab | Person. Person,2009. Wed. 12 Sept. 2011. Charles. Phillips. “A Day To Remember: December 29, 1890.” American History 40.5 (2005): 16+. Proquest Direct Complete. Web. 13 Sept. 2011. US Bureau of Indian Affairs. “Rules for Indian Boarding Schools.” 1890. Speaking of America: Reading in U.S. History. Ed. Laura A. Belmonte. Belmont, CA: Thimson/Wadsworth, 2007. Print