Introduction
Being a native Indian, I spent most of my childhood in an Indian reservation. I attended most of my formative schooling within the reservation, venturing out to seek higher education. Growing up, I had the misconception that my people were visitors in the Americas, hence their confinement in reservations. I was therefore shocked to learn that it is the other way round and learned of the forceful eviction of my people (natives) from their lands. Speaking to older generations and from doing research, I learned that my family and other native Indians were subjected to cruelty by the settlers. The natives brought diseases and ruthlessly massacred the native Indians, subjecting them to inhumane conditions, drastically reducing their population over time.
Native Indians in the Americas
When the settlers arrived in America, Native Americans were as many as 10 million. They had their way of life and their culture. Some tribes lived in Eastern Woodlands. They mainly consisted of the Algonquian, the Iroquoian, and the Muskogean. They were hunters, fishers, and also practiced rudimentary farming (Reich, 2016) . Cunfer, & Waiser (2016) point out that a nother set of Native Americans lived in the Great Plains of North America. They were known as the Plains Indians, who were nomads, following the migration routes of the bison. Another group of natives was the Western tribes, who practiced fishing, whaling, and farming. From the above documentation, it is clear that the native Indians represented a big population. However, a series of events and actions done by the settlers drastically reduced this population.
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Diseases
Diseases that were brought about by the settlers was one of the main causes of the drastic reduction of the native Indian population. Roy & Ray (2018) posit that f or the Europeans, being in close contact with livestock was their norm. Consequently, their body had developed a resistance for diseases such as smallpox and measles, among others. With the natives lacking immunity in the pathogens carried by the settlers, they were immediately affected by them. Though the exact number is not easily quantifiable, the native Indians died in their millions from these diseases. The settlers did not come up with any medicines or cures for these diseases for the natives as they did not think it was worth it.
Massacres and Killings
Apart from the diseases, massacres and mass killings also hastened the reduction of the native Indian population. There are many reasons for these massacres. The biggest reason was that the settlers that arrived were hungry for land and other natural resources that they found in the vast lands of America. The native Indians were, however, an impediment as they roamed free in the lands. As a result, the authorization of more than 1500 wars and raids against the natives took place (Anderson, 2017) . Since the natives used crude weapons against the settlers who had guns, the wars were uneven. Consequently, the settlers killed the natives in their millions, with only a few thousand left after the end of the war. With only a few thousand left, it then became easy for the settlers to take the land from the natives.
Conclusion
With the arrival of the settlers, the native Indians population reduced drastically due to diseases and massacres, all brought by the former. The reduction of this population was to the advantage of the settlers as they got the land and its resources easily. It, therefore, explains why native Indians are even in present times confined to reservations.
References
Anderson, G. C. (2017). Native America and the Question of Genocide by Alex Alvarez. Holocaust and Genocide Studies , 31 (1), 133-134.
Cunfer, G., & Waiser, B. (Eds.). (2016). Bison and People on the North American Great Plains: A Deep Environmental History . Texas A&M University Press.
Reich, J. R. (2016). The Native Americans. In Colonial America (pp. 24-35). Routledge.
Roy, K., & Ray, S. (2018). War and epidemics: A chronicle of infectious diseases. Journal of Marine Medical Society , 20 (1), 50.
