Before European explorers colonized what is known today as the United States, there was an estimated 10 million-plus population of Native Americans. Later on, in the 1900s, there were only around 300,000 Native Americans living in the United States. Many events over the past 5 centuries treated the Native Americans cruelly and slashed their populations to an all-time low. The most popular confrontation is the Indian Removal Act of 1830. Another not very known event that took place that was a strong indication of a violation of human rights is Phips Bounty Proclamation. All of these occurrences treated Native Americans as if they are not humans, as if they are invasive animals that weren’t allowed to live where they want and have the freedom to believe in whatever they wanted to believe in.
Around 1675 and 1763 french and Englishmen would viciously attack Indian villages including the native American settlement known as Wiscasset. An incident known as the Wiscasset incident took place where one man was killed and two others were injured. Only three men were arrested out of the six that took place in this event and only one person was charged with assault. This event resulted in tons of violations of peace treaties. More events occurred after this incident and eventually, Massachusetts declared war against a Settlement named Penobscot. This is where Spencer Phips (Governor of Massachusetts) Created a proclamation that violated basic rights and treated the native Americans as terrible criminals that needed to be eradicated no matter the gender or age. 50 pounds for males 12 and over to be taken to Boston and 40 pounds for their scalps. Females and kids under the age of 12 were taken as prisoners for 25 pounds and 20 for their scalps (Exploration of Contempora pg. 3-5). This proclamation is significant because it’s a beacon of decolonizing and against human rights such as Article 3 (Right to life), Article 9 (Random Arrest), Article 11 (No one shall be guilty until proven), and many more (Universal declaration of HR pg. 1-5).
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In 1814 Andrew Jackson used the U.S military to take over and control the Creek nation land (an extremely populated Native American tribe). He succeeded and took 22 million acres. He then carried on and invaded “Spanish Florida” to punish Seminoles for having fugitive slaves. As a whole decade pass, Jackson would leave the Native Americans no choice but to negotiate most of their land away to hopefully keep some of their lands. Most Native Americans didn’t move though and the supreme court made a decision where Native Americans were allowed to live on US soil but not claim any of it. Tribes wanted to protect the last of the land Native Americans owned. Native Americans went through the U.S government to keep their rights. This was due to the fact that whites would steal more and more of their land. They were denied to claim their land by the Supreme Court. They didn’t give up as they tried again in 1831 basing it on Georgia law and not US policy. The court finally decided to approve the Cherokee's request to self-govern. This stirred up problems as Georgia and President Jackson didn’t agree and refused to enforce their rights. President Jackson then created an act called the “Indian Removal Act” under this treaty Native Americans would have to give up their land. This treaty at first was meant to be peaceful but the Native Americans rightfully resisted for their land. Jackson thought of this act as a beneficial way to fix the harassment problems of the whites towards the Natives but even some Americans thought otherwise. They even tried to protest the treaty but ended up failing. Seminoles were brainwashed into signing and for 28 years the US tried relocating the Cherokee nations. During this process, 3 wars erupted and thousands of lives were lost. Millions of dollars were wasted. By 1837 only 2000 migrated, the beginning of the Trail of tears approached where 400 Cherokee people died and by 1838 46,000 Natives were relocated west to white settlements and slavery(Indian Removal Paragraph 1-16). This was a horrific event that affected all parties and still affects all parties to this day. This event also was against human rights such as Article 1 (free and equal rights), Article 17 (right to own property), Article 12 (random breaches of privacy), Article 25 (right to a standard of living), and many more (Universal declaration of HR pg. 1-7).
After both of these horrific events, changes were made to countries to make sure events that are similar to these events don’t occur again. They use Phip's proclamation as a way to connect homelands and ancestors. It’s also a big example of the events that take place when decolonization is happening. It also honors the people violated by this proclamation. Like other violent treaties, it can have a variety of messages to make it beneficial to our world (Exploration of the Contempora pg 8-9). One of the biggest and most confusing lawsuits was settled on December 8, where 3.4 billion dollars was settled to native Americans. This was a big step in resolving all of the conflicts during the 17, 18, and 19 centuries mostly including the removal act of 1830. This gave $1000 to each member and the rest scattered throughout the amount of property owned, etc. The removal act is also taught through the education system to state the effects removing races from their rightfully owned land has on all parties.
From all of these events, I believe that creating groups to fight for social change would be extremely hard, especially when it’s against an extremely powerful government. But as shown in both examples with enough numbers, persistence, and most important passion to fight for what you need it can definitely make a change and not only benefit that social group but also develop all of humanity and improve the quality of life for all.
The Phips Proclamation and Removal Act of 1830 was a definite violation of human rights. And the Native Americans fought and are still fighting to this day. And because of it, The population of Native Americans was 300,000 and now in 2010, the population is 5.1 million due to all these rights being reverted and turned into a way of connecting. This shows how powerful groups of people can come together. This shows that Human rights can be fought for and make the world a better place.
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