Oppression of Native Americans Essay examples -- history, craniology,

Two-hundred years ago, there was a scientific study on the brains of Native Americans called the craniology and phrenology. The Europeans examined only indigenous peoples heads and were command to use any Europeans brains. The Europeans did three experiments, such as decapitating the tops of the heads and filling them with sand to see if their brains were smaller than blacks. The Europeans also looked at the drum and said that if the bones were in a certain way (such as natives cheek bones being up higher) the person was thought to be stupid. The be experiment the Europeans did to American Indians was that they had a small devise that they would put on the head and it would slice the brain open. There would be an award for retrieving a manfuls brain that was five cents. By retrieving a womans brain the price would be three cents, and lastly a childs brain which would be two cents. This is when the term redskin was invented (Poupart, 2014).Although we often remember First Nation c ommunities by their history of oppression by the Europeans, as schematic above, present day communities are defined much differently. The Anishinabeg are an independent, non-interference independent nation and they follow their bear rules by oral traditions. They are also a nation who were oppressed, exploited, and also misunderstood by non-Native Americans. When asked about the definition of a sovereign nation, Selma Buckwheat (September 25, 2013), elder member of the Anishinabeg tribe, explains by stating, We govern ourselves and have our own laws (personal communication). They have a lot of meetings that help understand most of the sovereign nations. In other words, a sovereign nation is power or a territory existing as an independent s... ...governments policies. The changes of the 1900s influenced many people such as historians, writers, film-makers, and other non-Native-Americans, causing them to view Indians in an progressively sympathetic way. The non-Native Americans p erceived Indians as a historically-oppressed minority who were victimized by imperial conquests and were dignified as peace-loving people in a sovereign nation.Works CitedPoupart, L. (2014, October 16). First Nations Studies Social Justice. University of Wisconsin Green-Bay.Loew, P. (2001). Indian Nations of Wisconsin histories of endurance and renewal. Madison, WI Wisconsin Historical Society Press.Mihesuah, D. (1996). American Indians stereotypes and realities. Atlanta Clarity Press.Poupart, L. (2000). Ojibwe Women of the Western Great Lakes. Retrieved from D2L.https//uwgb.courses.wisconsin.edu/d2l/