The Roots of Dependency essays

The Roots of Dependency essays 1. The Navajos, Pawnees, and Choctaws all had to endure European, political, economical, and environmental threats to their own culture. When the life and subsistence system (hunting and gathering) of an Indian Nation is affected; in one way or another it has an affect on an Indian population as a hole. The trials and tribulations that these three tribal nations have experienced is proof of that. Gradually the Indian community would go through a period of destruction and enormous amounts of prejudice that consequently would be the North American Indians downfall. The reliability of the Navajos to the government to maintain their everyday Navajo culture was prevalent due to the despicable attitudes and influence of Europeans. By 1945 the government had transformed the Navajo economy.....They were no longer self-supporting people (White, 310). Navajo dependency would point the finger at the reduction of resources as the cause of the problem. Resources such as the issuing of grazing permits, stockowners being forced below subsistence, and one-half of the Navajos corn crop were just a few of the reductions the government demanded. Fortunately Navajos rejected commercial economical values during the early 1900s, which prolonged their independence. Once the government gave the Navajos the power to revise the existing regulations to meet their objections, it (government) retained the right to veto any objectionable provisions the Navajos might insert in the regulations (White, 309-310). Once this occurred non-Indians could hold on to adequat e resources. The Navajo population was doubling and the resources were dwindling just as fast. The loss of subsistence land would be the biggest change of the North American Indians. Take for example the Choctaws. European diseases, the slave trade, and racially motivated influences forced t ...