미국 인디언의 과거와 현재

The Past and Present of the Natives Americans

The history and culture of American Indian has been regarded as inferior to European civilization. Historians have argued that the Indians had no common language, operated on diverse and distinct cultural levels, and their families, tribes, and governments were structured very differently from each other. But during the first contact period the white man borrowed heavily from Indian culture, notably in the area of agriculture, while the Indian came to depend upon European trade and goods. As a result the Indians were uprooted and settled on reservations. The reservation period was one of tragic neglect and broken promises. The federal government's attitude toward the Indian in recent decades is characterized by a growing sensitivity to Indian cultural needs and a policy of improving economic well-being, enhanced by access to educational opportunities and buttressed by legal protection accorded inherited tribal and individual rights. Americans today have a greater awareness of past injustices perpetrated upon racial and ethnic minorities than in earlier times. The way Indians have been treated still affects the national conscience. That national conscience toward the Indians was manifest in a long series of federal reforms. We can forsee a period of healthy coexistence between Indian and white, one which will make amends in some part for earlier efforts at total destruction or total assimilation of the Indian presence. Also we will recognize that the history of America is a history of peoples, white, black, and red.