This paper focuses on the oppression of American Indians in the U. during the seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth centuries. From the arrival of European explorers into the, "New World," Native American tribes were brutally killed and forced out of their own land. White settlers considered them savages because their technology was not as advanced and they had a different culture. As a result, they were considered a threat to the peace. This paper will focus specifically on the treatment of Americans Indians by the U.S. Federal Government. They have experienced physical slaughter, murder, land theft, forced removal and relocation, economic hardship, racism, and the devastation of their tribal culture. These, "acts of genocide," were committed against American Indians on the idea of, "otherness," the state of being different. Through American education, religious conversion, and forced assimilation into our culture and capitalist economy, the culture of these people was destroyed. .
The arrival of Europeans to the Americas in the seventeenth century marked a major change in the natives' society and culture. American Indians were instantaneously misunderstood by Westerners because they were different. This idea of, "otherness," led to centuries of oppression and discrimination against native people. American Indians became the, "others," members of the dominated out-group, whose identity was considered lacking. Because they had a different culture and were not as technologically advanced as westerners, American Indians were seen as savages and barbarians. Westerners felt it was their job to either get rid of them, or ,"civilize," them. As a result, they inflicted physical slaughter, murder, land theft, forced removal and relocation, economic hardship, racism, and the devastation of tribes and culture onto natives. American Indians suffered a great deal at the hands of the U.
