↞Indian Law Outline↠

Navigating Life After Colonization: A Response to the Indian Law Outline

by Haley Rains

© 2017 Haley Rains Photography

↠ Native American societies are no strangers to having foreign belief systems imposed over their own on their cultural traditions, but what happens when these foreign belief systems become institutionalized devices used to dismantle and destroy traditional Native American ways of life?

       Since the arrival of the Spanish to the Americas in the late 1400s, Native American societies have faced drastic and even catastrophic change on an extraordinary level. From disease to land dispossession, to forced labor (slavery), many Native tribes in North America would see their societies forever disrupted and changed. Organized religion played a major role in this transformation of tribes from independent, thriving cultures to colonized, dependent nations.

William Gilpen writes:

The American realizes that 'Progress is God.' The destiny of the American people is to subdue the continent -- to rush over this vast field to the Pacific Ocean... to change darkness into light and confirm the destiny of the human race... Divine task! Immortal mission! The pioneer army perpetually strikes to the front. Empire plants itself upon the trails. (Gilpen, 1874)

      When we learn about the role that religion (predominantly Christianity) played in the formation of what is now the United States, it is easy to assume that religious influence on tribal societies is a simple matter of the natural trajectory of history, but what we often fail to acknowledge in this simplistic view is just how much influence historical Christian institutions continue to exert on contemporary Native societies.

      Today, many Native people still struggle to reconcile the cultural disparities between their own societies and the Western societies that have imposed their culture and customs on them.  Because the narrative of “manifest destiny” is so ingrained in American society, it is often difficult for Native people to form their identities in a way that allows them to be a member of the dominate society while still remaining connected to their traditional customs; one could argue that this struggle for identity is due to the fundamental difference of traditions, values, and ways of life.

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Work Cited

Gilpin, W. (1874). Mission of the North American people, geographical, social, and political. Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott &.