Matt's Final Presentation

After reading the beginning of Matt's presentation, I was much more aware of why Americans had a dislike for Native Americans. It began with the Native Americans choosing to fight for the British instead of the colonies. When the colonies won, the Native Americans were forced to live close to villages that hated their tribes. Due to the hatred between the two groups, the colonists often forced Native Americas off their land because of how deceived they felt. Although I do not agree with colonists' unkind treatment towards the Native Americans, I can see how difficult it would be to accept the "enemy." The Native American had made the choice to help the British succeed, little did they know that it would seal their fate with Americans for many years to come. After reading about the short story he read, I felt that one of his points referred back to a discussion we had in class. The two main characters remember a story of how they celebrated the Fourth of July as children. However, they celebrated the fact that the United States gained freedom on this day while the Native Americans lost it. They were only celebrating this day because it's a tradition in America. They completely disregarded their own culuture because of all the pressure there is in America to all be the same. Immediately after reading this part of the book, I thought of Washington's Fourth of July speech about how African Americans shouldn't celebrate it since they were not free on that day. They had celebrated if for so long because it was the tradition of white Americans, not African Americans. I think that this shows the lack of loyalty most have to their cultures. A reason that the Native Americans could be sturggling so much is because of the little recongnition they give their own culture. They decide to focus on integrating to American culture, however this is not entirely their fault. Our society definitely has put pressure upon Native Americans to change thier way in order to properly fit in. Another main topic that I did not know was that many Native Americans own casinos. There are very limited ways for Native Americans to make money, but they have found success in running the casinos. Even though some Native Americans have become very wealthy from this lifestyle, not all of them live like this. Many are still suffering through the worst poverty in America. Some Americans do not recognize this case, thus making them not want to support Native Americans. What the Americans do not understand is that the Native American problem is our fault. They lack opportunity because of the American government's actions. Going back to what I first read about, we forced unfair treaties upon the Native Americans, and encouraged the Americans to take their land. We caused their poverty now, so it's up to our government to fix the terrible poverty they live in.