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Madison Smith
Professor Flowers
EDU 280-1002
16 June 2013
A Society Overruled
Christopher Columbus is the person who gets credit for discovering the New World,
however, the Native Americans discovered it many, many years before hand. Native Americans
underwent so much loss and tragedy when Europe came to their land. Today there are not many
full blooded Indians left. American Indians is another race within the U.S. and they have their
own history that includes ethnic group, statistics, background, and important dates.
I am one-sixteenth American Indian! I am one-twentieth! We are Indians! It is
quite common today for people to have some American Indian ethnicity, but what makes them a
real American Indian? According to the text by Christine Bennett, tribes differ from what they
would consider an American Indian, but the majority considered one-fourth of tribal heritage to
be considered a member (141). When someone thinks about being one-fourth of anything it is
not a lot. While history shows that many people wanted to rid the United States of Indians all
together, today there are still many different tribes living among us.
There are still reservations for American Indians, but they are not forced to only live at
that certain location. Today the U.S. federal government recognized 690 tribes. The largest tribes
include Cherokee, Navajo, Chippewa, and Sioux. In 1492 two billion acres belonged to the
American Indians compared to todays 94 million acres (or five percent of U.S. land), their land
has significantly decreased 106 million acres over 500 years (Bennett 141). As the U.S.
continues to expand its grounds, they should also expand the grounds of the American Indians,

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because hasnt the U.S. learned its lesson? So how exactly did the American Indians discover
the New World?
Indians have been in the New World for centuries before Columbus ever
discovered it. So, how did they get there? It is said that 15-60 thousand years ago hunters and
fishers crossed the Bering Strait via land bridges to the New World, and their decendents became
known as the American Indians. Other also say 14,000 years ago other Indians arrived via the sea
from Asia or the Pacific Islands (Foner 2). American Indians discovered the New World
thousands of years before Europe even realized the world was a sphere. It was their home and the
Europeans ripped it away from them. However, there have been recent studies that may link
American Indians to European decent (Pre-Columbus) instead of East Asia. A 24,000 year-old
arm bone was found and tested. The DNA showed that it was a boy that was closely related to
American Indians and people living today in Europe and Western Asia. However, experts thought
American Indians came from East Asia, so another set of ancestors may need to be accounted for
(Lopatto). This is very interesting because for many years people had believed they had come
from East Asia. It, however, is still possible that some had migrated from there as well. Many
important events took place for the Indians, most not too great.
The first major important event for the Indians was when Columbus sailed to the
Americas in 1492, by accident discovering the New World. This event is the start of a downhill
slope for the American Indians. In 1804 Lewis and Clark began their expedition into the Pacific
Northwest. Their hope in this expedition was to expand U.S. soil, which would also kick Native
Americans out. In 1823 Chief Justice, gave to the United states all the powers of a conqueror
with respect to Native people (Bennett 144-145). This basically means that the U.S. was now in
control of their land and the Natives land without murdering any Natives. Which, gave them that

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power to expand. The Indian Removal act was then enacted in 1830 to re-locate American
Indians onto reservations; forcing them from their homes for centuries. In 1924 American
Indians were considered U.S. citizens. In the 1950s many acts were passed saying that Indians
were subject to the same laws as Americans. Then finally in the 1960s the Self-Determination
Policy was enacted. The policy basically means, A goal that ends the old debate about
termination of Indian programs and stresses self-determination; a goal that erases old attitudes
of paternalism and promotes self-help (Bennett 144-149). The Indians have been through so
much pain from the hands of the English. Today we recognize them as one of our own, but will
the prejudice and stereotyping ever end?
An effective discovery is when someone discovers something and knows what to do with
it. Columbus used the New Worlds recourses. The Native Americans made the New World their
home and believed the land was a gift from the Gods. Europe may have done horrible things to
the American Indians, but they sometimes got along, and people from the Europe were less likely
to die with the help of the Indians.

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Works Cited
Bennett, Christine. Comprehensive Multicultural Education: Theory and Practice. 7th ed.
Boston: Allyn and Bacon, 2011. Print.
Foner, Eric. Give Me Liberty!; An American History. 3rd ed. New York: W.W. Norton, 2012.
Print.
Lopatto, Elizabeth. "American Indian Origins Complicated by Ancient Boys DNA." ProQuest.
Bloomberg, 20 Nov. 2013. Web. 15 June 2014. Web.