American West-minority group

Try to explain why Native Americans have been treated so differently as a minority group than other minorities in our society . What is there about the Native American experience that accounts for those differences

Native Americans have been treated so differently in our society due to a number of inter-related factors . Their special treatment relies on the fact that even though Indians were the original inhabitants of this land , American progress and expansion has taken precedence over equality of treatment . This brief essay will outline the major determining factors that have

led to this treatment

Once the colonialists had settled on the Atlantic coast and began their expansion westward , they came across tribes of Native Americans that they had never before encountered . Contrary to popular myths and stereotypes , Native Americans are not a homogenous population with the same traits and modes of existence . Much of history has settled on this napve idea at the cost of understanding how different tribes and different colonialists interacted . Some interactions were of course very violent while others were somewhat peaceful

Another factor that has shaped how Native American populations are treated is how they have been identified . They were and are treated different from other minority groups such as African Americans because they were minorities by conquest and not by immigration . This is why there is a Bureau of Indian Affairs but not similar organizations for other minorities and it may help explain why Indians have been relegated to live reservations instead of being...