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Tragedy of the American Indians

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Tragedy of the American Indians

Today there are more than half a million Indians in the United States. They are still trying to adapt to the white civilization, being in all stages of development. There are a few Indians who have made money from natural resources found on their lands, but there are still thousands who live at close starvation levels. Many live in almost complete isolation from Americans who are not Indian, but there are some who are educated and living among the white society. Hundreds of Indians work in cities close to their reservations; thousands of other Indians hold onto the security of their reservations in hope of gaining education and being able to develop the resources of their lands and provide for their own needs without help from others. Today, there are about 300 federal reservations in the United States largely found west of the Mississippi. There are many environmental issues which have created many tragedies among the American Indians, which have left most of them facing poor living conditions.
There is a long history of tragedies among the American Indians starting back in the 1830s. The Trail of Tears, also known as the “death march,” was the first initial tragedy that caught the attention of many historians to this day. The Trail of Tears is known as the enforced relocation and movement of American Indian tribes from southeastern territories of the United States with the Indian Removal Act of 1830 following. This removal included the members of Cherokee, Muscogee, Seminole, Chickasaw, and Choctaw homelands to Indian Territory in eastern parts of the present-day state of Oklahoma. It is said that the term “Trail of Tears” came from the tears of those who experienced the suffering of the marchers, also referring to that the American Indians whom marched in silence. Many American Indians suffered from exposure to

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