Talking Back to Civilization Essay -- Frederick E. Hoxie American Indi

Talking Back to Civilization Talking Back to Civilization , modify by Frederick E. Hoxie, is a compilation of excerpts from speeches, articles, and texts written by various American Indian authors and scholars from the 1890s to the 1920s. As a whole, the pieces provide a rough good word of the American Indian during a period when conflict over land and resources, cultural stereotypes, and national policies caused tensions between Native American Indians and Euro-American reformers. This paper will get down to sum up the plight of the American Indian during this period in American history. American Indians shaped their critique of modern America through their photo to and experience with civilized, non-Indian American lot. Because these Euro-Americans considered traditional Indian lifestyle savage, they sought to assimilate the Indians into their civilized culture. With the increase in industrialization, transportation systems, and the desire for valuable re sources (such as coal, gold, etc.) on Indian-occupied land, modern Americans had an excuse for the advancement of the human race (9). Euro-Americans moved Indians onto reservations, controlled their education and practice of religion, depleted their land, and erased many of their freedoms. The national result of this conquest of Indian communities was a steady decrease of Indian populations and drastic increase in non-Indian populations during the nineteenth century (9). It is natural that many American Indians felt fearful that their culture and people were slowly vanishing. Modern America to American Indians meant the destruction of their cultural pride and demise of their way of life. American Indians associated many t... ... the advancement of the Indian race in a Euro-American-dominated society. These endeavors bring us back to the meaning of the title, Talking Back to Civilization . The fundamental of American government that was the greatest aid to th e American Indians in their plight was their freedom of speech without it, it is questionable whether American Indians would have been so progressive in finding justice. Convicting and compelling, words can be a potent asset. In a way, words and voice were used to preserve the American Indians distinctive identity they were used as a weapon to hold on to whatever culture they had left. Words also documented the American Indian plight so people in the future (like us) could understand how distinctive they very were. Works CitedHoxie, Frederick E., ed. Talking Back to Civilization . Boston Bedford, 2001.