英语专业毕业论文-关于美国印第安人生存现状成因的研究.doc

A Study on the Causes of American Indians Current LifebyThesis Advisor: Ms. Submitted to the B.A. Committee in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the Degree of Bachelor of Arts in the English Department of School of Foreign Languages of 20 May. 2010本科生毕业论文题 目： 关于美国印第安人生存现状成因的研究学生姓名： 指导教师： 二级学院： 外国语学院系 别： 英语系专 业： 英 语年 级： 2010届学 号： 完成日期： 2010年5月20日Title: A Study on the Causes of American Indians Current LifeAbstract: It is generally accepted that American Indians enjoyed a long history and created a great civilization. However, American Indians current life is rather sad and miserable. Human rights are not offered equally to them. They are still restrained to live in pieces of reserved lands. Furthermore, their culture is dying out. Therefore, the causes of American Indians current life are worth studying. In recent years, scholars all over the world have paid great attention to the study of American Indians current life, human rights, and so on. Thus, this thesis firstly introduces some brief background information about American Indians way of life, customs, culture, language and so on. Next, this paper gives facts about the sad and miserable life that they are having now. Then, this article tries to find the causes that lead to the current situation and finally draws the conclusiona peoples attitude toward modern and advanced civilization decides its destiny. The aim of this paper is to find the reasons why a civilization died off through history and give some inspirations for the development of a nation.Key words: American Indian; Westward Expansion; governments policy; wars; life situation题目：关于美国印第安人生存现状成因的研究摘要：众所周知，美国印第安人曾有着悠久的历史并创造了灿烂的文明。但如今，美国印第安人的生存现状令人堪忧，甚至有些悲惨。他们享受不到平等的人权，至今还被限制在一些保留地上，更为严重的是，他们的文化正在消失殆尽。因此，美国印第安人的生存现状值得研究。近年来，全球的学者对美国印第安人的生存现状，人权状况等方面做了很多关注与研究。这篇论文将首先介绍一些美国印第安人生存方式、风俗、文化及语言等的背景信息。随后，文章将给出印第安人悲惨生存现状的史实。随后，文章将努力探究造成这种现状的原因并最后得出结论-一个民族对待先进文明的态度决定了它的命运。此文的目的是通过探究文明衰落的原因来为一个国家民族的发展提供启示。 关键词:美国印第安人；西进运动；政府政策；战争；生活现状Contents. Introduction.1. A Brief Introduction to American Indians.3. The American Indians Current Life Situation.4A. The cultural decline of American Indians.4B. Indian religion being kept in marginalization.4 C. Social conflicts.5. The Causes Leading to the Situation.7A. Wars through history.7B. Westward Expansion.9C. American governments Indian policies in the 20th century.10. Conclusion.12Works Cited.13AcknowledgementsMy sincere gratitude first goes to Ms. , my supervisor, for his/her constructive suggestions, valuable ideas, great patience and encouragement. Without his/her help, the completion of this thesis would have been impossible.I owe great gratitude to all the teachers in the English Department. Their lectures and instructions have been of great help to my study.I would also like to express my thanks to my friends for their constant concern, generous help, and meaningful comments on the study.Finally, I must say I owe gratitude to my parents. Their love and encouragement have supported me to overcome difficulties and achieve the final success. IntroductionThe American Indians once created a magnificent civilization. Although they dont have the writing record history, their stories are widely spread by moving fables and fairy tales and have great influence on American literature. They also have high achievement in art. They are good at drawing up the geometric pattern to decorate the attire. The American Indian is also a people who can sing and dance very well. The melody of their music has already dissolved in American symphony and the opera. Their dance is not only a kind of art, but also a kind of ceremony of prayer. The American Indians also have rich knowledge of geography. They can give various names for different places where they have been according to their experience and observation. These geographic names attach great importance to the early pioneers for distinguishing the new world and finding the path to the west in the luxuriant wilderness. A large number of these geographic names are still being used until today. “It is estimated that today more than 50% of American states, the cities, the rivers and the mountains are using Indian names” (Wilson 328).Compared to the magnificent civilization ever created by American Indians, the current life situation of them is rather sad and even miserable. According to the material of American State Department, the American Indians have the population of more than 2530000 belonging to more than 560 tribes and living in more than 200 Indian reservation areas. “The American Indians overall income level is lower than the national level by far and the yearly income below 25000 accounts for 41.7%” (Wilson 328). Among American Indians, the middle and low earning people take the majority of the total number. The American Indians educational level is also the lowest in America. “Moreover, the American Indians unemployment rate is the highest of the entire US which is 2 to 3 percentage higher than the average” (Gibson 499).Naturally, people may wonder what causes can lead to this sharp difference between the past and the current life situation of American Indians. The American Indians issue has caused wide concern these years all over the world. In James Wilsons book The Earth Shall Weep: A History of Native America, American Indians sad and miserable history was presented very vividly. Guy B. Senese pointed out the poor educational level of American Indians from the cultural aspect in his Self-Determination and the Social Education of Native Americans. In political aspect, Ray Allen Belingtons Westward Expansion: A History of American Frontier criticized the US governments cruel policy toward American Indians and put great sympathy to them.Besides, studying the causes of American Indians current life situation is of great significance. It can help us understand more about American Indians and American society. Furthermore, it can give some inspirations for Chinas development and the attitude with which China should face the modern civilization. . A Brief Introduction to American Indians The American Indians are the indigenous inhabitants of America. They use Indian language, including several branches. Most scholars believe that the American Indians came to Alaska from Siberia through Bering Strait some 25400 years ago and then moved gradually to the south until they arrived at the very south of America. “In 1500, the population of American Indians is about 1.5 million” (Gibson 499). The constitution of these indigenous inhabitants is of great difference according to heredity, language, and society. Each kind of these Indians formed their own tribe group and their life style varied from each other. Some of them were engaged in gathering while others took hunting and fishing for a living. A small number of them even did well in agriculture. The Eskimos and Aleutians hunted walrus and seal for a living; Indians in northwest America were mainly engaged in fishery; Californias Indians lived a way of gathering wild fruits; Indians living in southwest and southeast America had already been engaged in agriculture. Before colonial time, American Indians occupied different periods of the clan commune system. The clan is the basic unit of a society, which forms the butcher race. Several butcher races then forms the tribe. Each of American Indians tribe has its own territory and dialect. There was a powwow in each clan in which the grown-up men and women enjoyed the equal voting right and the democracy of primitive society. The American Indians made a significant contribution to the world culture as being the precursors of American agriculture. “They cultivated the corn, the potato, the cassava, the cocoa, the tobacco, the cotton, the tomato, the pumpkin and so on” (Prucha 219). American Indians believe that everything in nature has its mystical power. They respect nature and have awe manner toward it. The religious belief is of high status in American Indians lives. The most important tribe leaders are the religious leaders who have the greater authority at internal affairs than tribe officers. In most of the tribes, the tribe officers are only responsible for the foreign affairs which are always the business with federal and local government. The tribe officer is the representative to foreigners and his appointment power is in the hands of religious leaders. . The American Indians Current Life SituationThe American Indians and their culture go to the distressing abyss of being extinct. However, they still live a poor life nowadays. In 1924, American government admitted Indians as American citizen by the law. But poverty, misery condition and being rejected remain the main features of American Indians today. “There were about 19 million living in America in 1991. About 800,000 American Indians are living under poverty line. Today, less than 1% American Indians own their private land” (Senese 1).According to the American scholars, in various American minorities, the current life situation of American Indians is the worst and the cultural decline is also astonishing. The magnificent culture that has shone brightly on North America now lies down under the light of museum calmly only for the appreciation of the guests.A. The cultural decline of American Indians The culture of American Indians is facing the danger of withering away. The US government never cares the subject of life of American Indians, nor the survival of their culture. American Indians culture is now being signified and abstracted and their language, history and tradition are losing. “Because rushing to the cities to make a living has already been a tendency of American Indians, the young generation of them has been “Americanized” and the Indian culture in fact has been a “dead culture” only to be seen in museums” (Fixico 4). In terms of education, for a long time American Indian students have been excluded from American main universities for various reasons such as poverty, over-drinking, suicide as well as the language and the geographic barriers. American Indian students have a high rate of discontinuing study. Only 15% of them continue to receive the intermediate education, and few of them can get a degree. It cant be denied that, the tribe leaders have set up several institutions to help their nation unite to preserve native culture and enhance tribe competence. “Thus, they can get rid of the destiny of being fringed through education. But the tribe institutions account no more than 1% of the American secondary school, which can only meet 18% of all to receive higher education” (Belington 46).B. Indian religion being kept in marginalizationBefore the invasion of colonists, the Northern American Indians mainly believe in primitive religions, among which shamanism is their principal belief. Shaman is a person who is able to contact and dispatch the elves. As one of the main Indian tribes, Iroquois not only believed in Shamanism, but also worship agricultural products such as corns, beans and pumpkins, which are addressed “Three sisters”, “Our lives” and “Our mothers”. (Riegel 37)Having been living on the prairies, Indians worship the sun more than anything else. All kinds of rituals, dances, mythologies have been created to show their worship for the sun.In a word, Indian religious belief is full of mysteries. Today only pants of the rituals and activities are kept. Many details are nowhere to be found due to ruthless wars. Before Westward Expansion, Indians had established their own Polytheism. But their religious beliefs had been assimilated unprecedentedly by the thoughts of the whites during Westward Movement. This led to a large number of Indians to be Christians. Therefore, when white Americans celebrate the “Thanksgiving Day”, and when Hollywood stars are invited into Portsmouth to shoot the scenes again every year that how the European Puritanism landed on this land in those years, groups of Indian protestors are certain to put up a protest movement condemning what the white Americans have done in the past such as their invasion to American continent, the ethnic cleaning and forcing Indians to change their own religious belief. The protesters remind people that it is European emigrants who have brought all the hardness and sufferings upon them. American dream is nothing but a nightmare. Whats more, they address the “Thanksgiving Day” as their “Mourning Day”.C. Social conflictsConflicts between the federal government and Native Americans occasionally erupt into violence. Perhaps the more notable late 20th century event was the Wounded Knee incident in small town South Dakota. During the period of expanding civil rights protests, activist members of the American Indian Movement (AIM) had taken control of Wounded Knee. They were protesting issues related to Native American rights and the nearby Pine Ridge Reservation. On February 27, 1973, federal law enforcement officials and the United States military surrounded the town. In the ensuing confrontation, two members of AIM were killed and one United States Marshal was wounded and paralyzed. Leonard Peltier, an AIM activist and leader of the event, was arrested and charged, and at trial convicted of causing the uprising that resulted in the attack on the US marshal. He was sentenced to life in prison. The Causes Leading to the SituationA. The wars throughout historyWhen the first colonizers arrived at North America at the end of 15th century, the Indians aided them generously. However, when these colonizers stood firm, they started to capture the Indians lands. After American independence, the way of capturing became especially sinister. The US ruling class expelled the Indians from the lands where they had lived for thousands of years by military force and cheat. Only in the 19th century, the US government took more than 200 times of attacks and sweeping wars to slaughter the Indians, driving them away to the deserted land in the west and some reservation areas. The population of American Indians enjoyed a sharp decline and to 1865, except Alaska, the population was only 380000 left. In the whole process of conquering and capturing, the American Indians fought against the colonizers with great courage and heroic spirit. The fight continued for several centuries.For the detail of the wars, this article will introduce 4 wars through history. They are King Philips War, American Civil war, Spanish-American War and WW.King Philips War sometimes called Metacoms War or Metacoms Rebellion, was an armed conflict between Native American inhabitants of present-day southern New England and English colonists and their Native American allies from 16751676. It continued in northern New England (primarily on the Maine frontier) even after King Philip was killed, until a treaty was signed at Casco Bay in April 1678. According to a combined estimate of loss of life in Schultz and Tougias King Philips War, The History and Legacy of Americas Forgotten Conflict, 800 out of 52,000 English colonists of New England (1 out of every 65) and 3,000 out of 20,000 natives (3 out of every 20) lost their lives due to the war, which makes it proportionately one of the bloodiest and costliest in the history of America. More than half of New Englands ninety towns were assaulted by Native American warriors. One in ten soldiers on both sides were wounded or killed. The war is named after the main leader of the Native American side, Metacomet, known to the English as King Philip. He was the last Massasoit (Great Leader) of the Pokanoket Tribe. Upon their loss to the Colonists and the attempted genocide of the Pokanoket Tribe and Royal Line, many managed to flee to the North to continue their fight against the British (Massachusetts Bay Colony) by joining with the Abanaki Tribes and Wabanaki Federation.Many Native Americans served in the military during the Civil War, the vast majority of whom sided with the Confederates. By fighting with the whites, Native Americans hoped to gain favor with the prevailing government by supporting the war effort. They also believed war service might mean an end to discrimination and relocation from ancestral lands to western territories. While the war raged and African Americans were proclaimed free, the U.S. government continued its policies of assimilation, submission, removal, or extermination of Native Americans. General Ely S. Parker, a member of the Seneca tribe, created the articles of surrender which General Robert E. Lee signed at Appomattox Court House on April 9, 1865. Gen. Parker, who served as Gen. Ulysses S. Grants military secretary and was a trained attorney, was once rejected for Union military service because of his race. At Appomattox, Lee is said to have remarked to Parker, I am glad to see one real American h