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The Impact Of European Settlement On Native Americans

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It can be argued that the impact of European settlement on Native Americans is still being felt today. I base some of my response on firsthand experience dealing with the Navajo Nation criminal justice system and having been on the Nation many times. Schultz (2013) highlights issues such as disease, removal from land, and massacres – but the British, Spanish, and French settlements all introduced similar issues, just in different geographical areas of the country.
The European settlement of North America changed the American Indian’s way of life forever. Since the Continental Congress in 1775, the government has been formally dealing with American Indians by way of the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA). This agency is as old as the country itself;

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