Assimilation:
As the American population grew and European culture became the norm in America, Native American's were forced to assimilate, or be forced off their land. This was the assimilation of the Native Americans, an event that has occured for over 100 years. During the mid-late 1800's (a period in America known as the "Western Expansion" the government attepmted an event that would take advantage of the Native Americans bodies and minds. Firstly, in 1848, during the gold-rush in California, the population of Native Americans was reduced from about a quarter of a million to less than 20,000. This was an obvious massacring of these people who were doing nothing but live on their own rightful land. To do this American's employed different methods to rid themselves of these "problem people." They destryed the food sources of the area, including animals, so that many Native Americans were forced to either move to another area or die of hunger. In creating this continous migration of Native Americans towards other territories, the Americans gained another effective killing tool. Stumbling upon the land of other tribes these Natives became invasive, which led to wars between tribes. Also they exposed a large population of Natives to smallpox, a disease that Europeans were resistant to but that Natives had relatively no power to fight off. Lastly was the simple, blantant, and outright killing of the Natives. As the years past, and the American's realized there were simply just too many Native American's to kill them all, they targeted the children for assimilation.
Children were forcibly removed by soldiers from their parents and put into forts. These forts, created by Jesuits, were designed to indoctrinate these young minds with Christian beliefs and colonial culture. These kids were not allowed to see their families and, in fact, many did not reunite with their families until they were well into adulthood. This assimlitation and relocation of Native Americans left their population with a loss of culture and, essentially, a loss of generations. Their group was handicapped in more ways than one and they were perpetrated by the Americans.
Children were forcibly removed by soldiers from their parents and put into forts. These forts, created by Jesuits, were designed to indoctrinate these young minds with Christian beliefs and colonial culture. These kids were not allowed to see their families and, in fact, many did not reunite with their families until they were well into adulthood. This assimlitation and relocation of Native Americans left their population with a loss of culture and, essentially, a loss of generations. Their group was handicapped in more ways than one and they were perpetrated by the Americans.