Essay Database

The Native American experience in American history has been a central process in forming America's "institutions, ethos, and the character of its people" (Ringer 117). Through the construction of a "dual colonialist-colonist societal system" the American has forcibly and systematically secluded the Indian from all societal, cultural, and economic gains reaped by territorial expansion (116). Frederick Turner makes a valid claim when addressing the "importance of the frontier in the development of American institutions and society and …

…enhancing the Indian's position was neglected to ensure American supremacy and sovereignty. Virtually helpless, the Indian could only strike out against these forces of control with inferior technology, guile, and insolence. The American, thus, was systematically eliminating the Indian's freedom along with his rights to be governed respectfully and benevolently. These diplomats broke essential diplomatic ideals and motifs, as well as disregarded Rousseau's most important concepts of social contract, individual sovereignty, and positive communal rationality.