Overview of the ethnocide
Ethnocide makes reference to the bringing to an end certain aspects of a community with the objective of infiltrating new cultural practices ( Duchesne, 2017) . The Native American Indian culture is one that has faced ethnocide ( Boarding School - Native Words Native Warriors., n.d.) . A rather well-preserved culture prior to ethnocide, the culture was slowly eroded through the adoption of American Indian Boarding Schools especially before the Civil War ( Novic, 2016) . Children were separated from their families and taken to boarding schools where English as a language was forced upon ( Woolford, 2015) . Furthermore, the children were forced to abandon traditional clothing, cut their hair, and their traditional religious practices forcibly replaced by Christianity.
The historical root cause of the ethnocide
The idea of racial superiority was at the center of the ethnocide where assimilating the American Indians into Christianity as well as the English culture was flaunted as modest, progressive, and superior. Additionally, the process of assimilation was aimed at stealing land belonging to the natives noting that with assimilation there would be no need for the natives to remain reserved but rather they would migrate to towns ( Polanco, 2018) . With the enactment of the “Dawes Act”, the culture of the natives would be eroded as Lieutenant Henry Pratt said, "kill the Indian, save the man" ( KUED Productions, 2019) .
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Effect of the ethnocide on survivors
The effect of the ethnocide was largely felt by the Native American Indians. The loss of culture has been indicated to have resulted in the trauma of shame, anger, and fear that was widespread among the Native American Indians. Subsequently, these negative traumas have been explicitly displayed by negative aspects such as drug use, alcoholism, and domestic violence ( Wössner, 2009) .
Moving on after the ethnocide
American Indians in their efforts to move on started activism such as the 1972 “Trail of Broken Treaties” caravan that occupied the Bureau of Indian Affairs for six days. It is worth noting that the policy of assimilation was started by the federal government and hidden in the premise of promoting education ( Novic, 2016) . In efforts to make amends, there are evidenced government attempts to create an environment suitable for healing with the establishment of the “Native Americans Rights Fund”.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the ethnocide experienced by the American Indians was to a large extent destructive not only to their culture but also on their psychological wellbeing. There possibly may not be a standard way of taking the events back and amending history. However, putting in place legislative measures protecting American races and the cultures would prove significant in abetting future ethnocides.
References
Boarding School - Native Words Native Warriors. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://americanindian.si.edu/education/codetalkers/html/chapter3.html
KUED Productions - Unspoken: America's Native American Boarding Schools. (2019, January 1). Retrieved from https://www.kued.org/whatson/kued-productions/unspoken-americas-native-american-boarding-schools
Duchesne, R. (2017). Canada in Decay: Mass Immigration, Diversity, and the Ethnocide of Euro-Canadians . Black House Publishing.
Novic, E. (2016). The Concept of Cultural Genocide: An International Law Perspective . Oxford University Press.
Polanco, H. D. (2018). Indigenous Peoples In Latin America: The Quest For Self-determination . London, England: Routledge.
Woolford, A. (2015). This Benevolent Experiment: Indigenous Boarding Schools, Genocide, and Redress in Canada and the United States .
Wössner, S. (2009). Factors which contribute(d) to Native American Persistence, Resistance and Adaption to American Mainstream Culture . Munich, Germany: GRIN Verlag.
