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by moonwatcher
[I wrote this paper during my senior year of high school, after I had "dropped out" of regular school and was unschooling. I have mentioned some cultures in here that I no longer feel are Leavers, such as the Native Hawaiians and some Pacific Islanders. While they were technically "indigenous" as the first people to live on those islands, they practiced intensive farming and had a hierarchical social structure, though they weren't as "advanced" as other Takers. I have also included the Aztecs and other civilizations of the new world, which are also not Leaver cultures, although not entirely Taker, either.]
Thesis
In many places all over the world, the original inhabitants of an area, the indigenous people, are faced with a challenge when newcomers arrive. These newcomers want the land or resources used by the indigenous people, and often don't care how their actions affect the indigenous people. The experiences of indigenous cultures, when invaders (not always white) come to their area, are remarkably similar. Parallels of the ways the invasion affects the people exist not only across the world, but also throughout time. This paper demonstrates these similarities through examples from the experiences primarily of the Native Americans, the Saami of Northern Europe, the Australian Aborigines, the Bushmen of Southern Africa, the Native New Guineans, the Pacific Islanders, the Ainu of Japan, and the Inuit of the Canadian and Siberian Arctic.
Motivation for Invasion
The reasons the invaders come to a new area are often the same, no matter who the invaders are or where they are invading.
When the Europeans came to the New World, some came for religious freedom, some came for gold and other resources, but most came for land-because the population was increasing in Europe, and the demand for land made it too expensive for many people. But in the New World, there was a vast expanse of wilderness that belonged to no one as far as they were concerned, so the settlers came by the thousands and claimed this land for themselves. When Europeans came to Australia, it was for the same reasons, except for the convicts that Britain sent there to relieve overcrowding in their prisons.
It is not known why the ancestors of modern Japanese came to Japan, most likely from Korea, about two thousand years ago. For nearly all of the time since then, the Japanese remained on the southern islands and only came to Hokkaido, where the last remaining Ainu lived, to set up trading posts and to fish. Then in 1868, Hokkaido was opened for Japanese settlement by the government. This time it was for land, as the Japanese population was growing quickly.
The Bushmen once lived all over Southern Africa, and in parts of Eastern Africa. Then, beginning about 3,000 years ago, the Bantu, pastoralists from the north, spread into the Bushmen's area, taking over the best grazing lands. The Bushmen fought back but were no match for the Bantu's numbers and advanced weapons. Though the Bantu took over much of their land, the Bushmen were relatively secure in their remaining areas until the Europeans came to Southern Africa, who took much of their land for farming.
During the period of European expansion that followed the Renaissance, Russia began to spread eastward into the regions that were inhabited by northern peoples who herded caribou and hunted sea life. The land was not very good for farming, so very little was done, and the Russians began taking the resources they could find there, the main one being fur-bearing animals.
Diseases
Usually, the first thing to happen to an indigenous culture when others invade its lands is the onslaught of diseases. Because the invading cultures tend to live in highly populated areas, diseases form and spread quickly among them. Without any immunity to these diseases, the people of this indigenous culture are often nearly wiped out.
Sixty percent of the Yahi Indians, the Californian tribe that the famed Ishi came from, died of diseases introduced by settlers in the 1800's. Ishi was one of the few remaining.
In Alaska, when settlers came to the area, diseases raged among the Native Alaskans, in some cases killing nearly all of them, which lessened the strength of the tribes.
The Penan of the rainforests of Borneo suffer from many diseases spread by the loggers and other people taking resources from the forest. In the relocation camps where most Penan now live, the diseases are much worse than they are for those who still live in the forest.
In Australia and New Zealand, the Aborigines and Maoris suffered from a multitude of diseases brought by the British settlers.
In Canada, the multitude of people coming to the Arctic to hunt whales and trap fur-bearing animals led to the spread of diseases like measles, syphilis, small pox, tuberculosis, influenza, and diphtheria among the Native population. Those few who survived often suffered from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.
Art Davidson, author of Endangered Peoples, said, "Wherever Europeans had arrived in the Western Hemisphere, indigenous peoples had experienced a common trauma: battles over values and beliefs followed by diseases such as measles and small pox."
Supremacy Attitude
Most likely without a single exception, invading cultures feel that they are superior to those they are invading. Their feeling of superiority is often used as an excuse to steal land from indigenous people, to massacre them, and to absorb them into their society. Indigenous people are called "primitive" and "uncivilized" and "savage" because they practice a different way of life, worship different gods, and adorn themselves in different ways.
New Russian settlers in Siberia considered the Inuit's ways "backward" and called them "crude savages" and "impure people."
Around 1900, a Japanese official said, "The Ainu are an unenlightened people, backward, inferior, and doomed to disappear." Today, many Ainu, especially the younger ones, don't want to be Ainu.
In Malaysia in 1992, a Malaysian official said of the Penan, "We'd like to take them out of the jungle, give them a decent modern living.... I mean we're talking about 1992. We're talking about the 21st century. We cannot afford to have some of our population still hunting monkeys.... Some people actually believe this is the way these people should live. No schools. No nothing. Let them go walking around in a loin cloth."
In Australia after years of mistreatment at the hands of whites, Aborigines lived on the fringes of society, their population declining. Many places, even cemeteries, were segregated. At the turn of the century, white Australians considered the Aborigines to be a doomed race. They used recently accepted Darwinian ideas to explain it: the strong whites would survive, the weak Aborigines would die out.
In the Kalahari Desert, the invading Bantu and Europeans consider Bushmen to be inferior. The Europeans also called them lazy and heathen. The Bantu use them as slaves, the whites want to be rid of them. One European said in 1907, "What can the civilized human being manage to do with people who stand at the level of [the Bushmen]? Jail and the correction house would be a reward...Does any possibility exist but to shoot them?" Today many Bushmen are ashamed of their heritage.
Usurping and Destroying Resources
An invading culture often uses up or destroys an indigenous culture's resources, such as game or a forest. They often do not realize it, but sometimes they understand they are hurting these indigenous people and look the other way, or in extreme cases, intentionally destroy the indigenous peoples' resources to upset their way of life.
In the 1980s, oil companies were interested in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, where the caribou that the Gwich'in rely on give birth to their calves. Despite the laws of protection given to the wildlife there, for a time it seemed as though the calving grounds were seriously threatened, which would in turn threaten the Gwich'in. The Gwich'in and others protested, and in 1992 a bill passed to protect the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. [Note: Since this paper was written, ANWR has become threatened again, mainly by President Bush and others who want to drill for oil there. For more information, go to The Natural Resources Defense Counsil.]
In 1971, hydroelectric project in Quebec to produce electricity for many Canadians was announced. This project would severely affect the environment of a Cree Reservation. The Cree protested and went to court, but the Quebec government felt it was more important to protect the interests of the general population, and the dam was built anyway. The government said it would reimburse the Cree for any damages. Not only did the dams cover important fishing grounds with water, but the water washed all the mercury out of the soil, which flowed directly into the water the Cree used, affecting both the environment and their water supply. Now, almost everyone on the reservation has a high level of mercury in their body, and one study showed that 47% have a dangerous amount.
As is widely known, the rainforests of Brazil are being cut down, for land and lumber. It is estimated that 15% of the forest has already been cut, and that 20 million acres are cleared each year. Among all the living things in the Amazon affected by this are the many different cultures of Indians that dwell there. There are a few reservations for them, but the laws protecting them are not very strictly enforced, and the forests are being cut anyway.
What is less widely known, however, is that the rainforest of the island of Borneo in Southeast Asia has the highest rate of deforestation in the world. The animals and plants of Borneo have suffered great loss of habitat. In 1984, loggers began clearing the land that the Penan people inhabit. Aside from the loss of forest, the Penan are also affected by the pollution caused by the encroaching loggers. The rivers have been contaminated by runoff, poisoning the fish and other wildlife. Now only a few groups of Penan can still survive by gathering plants and hunting animals. Most have been moved to relocation camps, where they lack clean water, medical care, and adequate food. The Penan have protested the logging, but are chased away or put in jail. Contracts call for 73% of the forest to be cut.
When whites entered the Canadian Arctic in the 1800s, they began trapping fur-bearing animals and hunting whales. Many Inuits began trapping animals to trade for goods or helping on the whale hunts, and adapted to this new way of life, forgetting many of the traditional skills they had used. When the populations of whales and fur-bearing animals decreased dramatically due to the hunting and trapping, the whites left and the Inuits no longer had access to the white goods they now relied on.
Today in the Kalahari Desert, mining companies are interested in the minerals found in the desert, where the last few groups of Bushmen still gather fruit, roots, and grubs, and hunt antelope. The Bushmen are already severely threatened by encroaching herders and farmers; the land they inhabit being mined could push them over the edge. In addition to this, the underground water that desert life relies on is being pumped away to farms, and some of the best hunting grounds are reserved for tourists.
In western Russia, the reindeer herded by the Saami for centuries were taken away by the government when settlers began moving into the area. In the South Pacific, radiation from the US's 1940s nuclear bomb testing is still affecting the fish and other life there. The cancer rate among Marshall Islanders has risen tremendously. Before Hokkaido was opened to Japanese settlement, one Japanese clan operated trading posts there, and did hunting and fishing at will, severely depleting the supply that the Ainu needed. When Hokkaido was opened to Japanese settlement in 1868, the influx of Japanese did even more damage, until the Ainu could no longer subsist in their traditional ways.
Perhaps the strongest example of an invading culture destroying an indigenous culture's resources is the U.S. government-sponsored slaughter of the buffalo in the 1870s. In 1800, there were 30 million buffalo in North America. By 1870, they numbered 20 million, presumably due to loss of habitat. But by 1879, there were only a thousand remaining. It was not just unregulated hunting that caused this sudden decline, although that was a part of it. The government started a program that called for the slaughter of the buffalo to purposefully rob the Plains Indians of the animal they relied on for just about everything. The government knew that the way to destroy the Indians' strength was to kill the buffalo, and it worked quite well. In 1876, Texas representative James Throckmorton said, "There is no question that, so long as there are millions of buffaloes in the West, so long the Indians cannot be controlled, even by the strong arm of the Government. I believe it would be a great step forward in the civilization of the Indians and the preservation of peace on the border if there was not a buffalo in existence."
Stealing Land
In their desire for land to farm or take resources from, invading cultures often drive out indigenous ones, or else cajole them into leaving, with money, goods, and promises of protected land elsewhere.
In western Russia, following the revolution, the government forced the Saami off their land, took their reindeer away, and forced them into jobs on farms and in factories. In Siberia, at the same time, Russian settlers and farms, fur-farms, and mines took over the area where the Russian Inuits lived.
Once, a people called the Jomon inhabited all of Japan. When the Japanese came there, they pushed back these people until the Jomon occupied only Hokkaido. The Ainu, thought to be the descendants of the Jomon, remained safely on Hokkaido until the Japanese government opened it to settlement in 1868. After that, Japanese settlers flooded onto the island, and now the Ainu represent only a tiny percentage of Hokkaido's population.
After the illegal invasion of Hawai'i by American businessmen (backed by U.S. Marines) in 1893, Hawai'i was annexed by the U.S. and settlers took over the islands, taking the land for sugar plantations and other farming, and leaving the Natives on the poorest lands.
When British settlers first went to Australia, they established small farming colonies and then spread out from there, taking over land inhabited by Aborigines. They thought that because the Aborigines didn't have permanent settlements, the Aborigines could just move somewhere else. As the colonies spread, the British took over more and more of the Aborigines' land, often removing them by force.
In New Zealand, after much of the Maori's land had been taken, they signed treaties with the British for the Maoris to have control over their own land and resources. But mostly the whites ignored these treaties and took the land anyway.
In 1492, Columbus reached the Americas by accident, causing masses of Europeans to immigrate here. In Central and South America, the Spanish left the Aztec, Maya, and Inca civilizations in ruins within 50 years and set up colonies on their land. North of Mexico, the British and French set up colonies, and when the colonies gained their independence, the whites felt that God had given them the whole of the continent to settle. As they spread west, they chased away or killed off the Native Americans they found, and took the land for themselves. The governments of the U.S. and Canada had a lot to do with the displacement of so many tribes, using their armies to force the Native Americans off their land so that whites could settle it. As the east grew more populated, the U.S. Government forced or bribed the few remaining eastern tribes into moving west.
When a dam project threatened the Igorot Tribes of the Philippines, they protested. One Igorot man said, "You ask if we own the land and mock us, saying, 'Where is your title?' Such arrogance, to speak of owning land when we are instead owned by it. How can you own that which will outlive you? Land is a grace that must be nurtured. Land is sacred and beloved."
Murder
In some cases invading cultures resorted to purposeful killing to rid the land of its indigenous inhabitants.
In Central America in the early 1500's, the Spanish invaded and conquered the Aztec and Maya civilizations. Many of those Indians surviving the European diseases were killed in the mass slaughterings by the conquistadors. For 500 years, those people of Spanish descent held nearly all the wealth in the central American countries, and those of Indian or mixed descent were poor and landless. In Guatemala in 1954, a man came into power who was sympathetic to the Indians and began giving them pieces of land. However, American businessmen owning land there got word, and soon military groups backed by the CIA began systematically massacring the Indians for their land. These mass killings lasted for forty years, and roughly 150,000 Indians were killed. In the U.S., little was heard of this despite their government's role in the killings.
When the Bantu invaded the Bushmen's land, some were killed, and some died in battle. However, when the Europeans arrived, many Bushmen were killed by the newcomers, and Bushmen women were sometimes taken as concubines. German settlers sent out hundreds of patrols to seek out and destroy Bushmen camps, and kill any Bushmen who resisted. Europeans considered the Bushmen's simple way of life primitive and the Europeans felt, or claimed they felt, it was their duty as "superior beings" to destroy the Bushmen.
As the Japanese settlers pressed northward into the Ainu's land in the 17th century, the Ainu fought back, but their bows and arrows could not defeat the Japanese metal weapons. Many Ainu were killed. Once, when an Ainu leader tried to meet with Japanese leaders to work out a treaty, he was killed.
As the British settlers spread out across Australia, many Aborigines were killed, often for their land. Some settlers left out poisoned meat for them to find, and some were hunted down and killed for alleged crimes. In Tasmania, despite the laws against it, many Tasmanian Aborigines, called the Palawa, were killed, sometimes for sport. In 1859 a settler wrote, "...it was a favourite amusement to hunt the Aborigines; that a day would be selected and the neighbouring settlers invited, with their families to a pic-nic...after dinner all would be gaiety and merriment, whilst the gentlemen of the party would take their guns and dogs, and accompanied by two or three convict servants, wander through the bush in search of blackfellows. Sometimes they would return without sport; at others they would succeed in killing a woman, or, if lucky, a man or two." Today there are no full-blooded Palawa left.
Outlawing Traditions
In an attempt to destroy indigenous peoples' cultures, many of the invading cultures have outlawed some of their traditions, particularly their religious traditions and language.
In Hawai'i after the U.S. invasion, Native Hawaiians were not allowed to speak their language, perform the hula or other traditional dances, or to heal in the traditional way with medicinal plants and prayer. Later these traditions were made legal again.
In Japan, after the Japanese settled Hokkaido, the Ainu language, religious rituals, and the women's tradition of lip tattooing were banned. Though these laws were later repealed, when a group of Ainu recently tried to start a school that would teach the Ainu language and culture, the Japanese government shut it down, fearing an Ainu revival that would lead to the Ainu trying to claim rights to land and other things.
In Indonesia, indigenous people are not allowed to speak of their cultural identity, and may be jailed or even killed if found doing so. In Siberia in the 1950s, following waves of Russian settlers, the Inuit's shamanism and rites were made illegal as part of a plan to assimilate the Inuit. In Canada, the tradition of potlatches, held by Northwest Coast Indians, was outlawed in the early 1900s.
In the U.S. in the 1800's, laws forbade the speaking of Native American languages in schools, and in some cases they were banned altogether. Many religious ceremonies, such as the Lakota Sun Dance, were prohibited, sometimes because they were considered heathen, and sometimes to further disintegrate the tribe's cultural identity. Most of those rituals banned were not allowed again until the 1978 American Indian Religious Freedom Act.
Assimilation
In the U.S., Native Americans were pushed onto reservations, without the access they needed to their former hunting, fishing, and gathering areas, or enough land to farm effectively. Many Native Americans had to take jobs in factories, mines, and the like in order to support themselves. Their children were sent to boarding schools, where they were taught the cultural attitudes of whites and encouraged to give up their Indian heritage and become part of white society. One law about Indian schooling stated, "education should seek the disintegration of the tribes."
There are many thousands of people belonging to the Bushmen racial group in southern Africa, but only a few still live in the way of their ancestors. Due to loss of land and the lure of European goods, most make their living doing only menial labor: working on farms, mining, or herding a Bantu's cattle.
In many places, indigenous children were or are taken away from their parents and community and sent to boarding or day schools. This was often done to intentionally destroy the culture of these people. Some places where this was or is done include the U.S., Canada, Australia, Japan, Russia, Hawai'i, and New Zealand.
In the early 1900's, the Australian government began an assimilation plan that would bring the Aborigines into white society. A white official would be given power over a tribe and had the power to tell them where to find work and whom to marry. Children were sent away to boarding schools where they were taught the white culture, and were encouraged to break the taboos of their tribe in order to offend their parents. Australian law said that an Aborigine could become a citizen if they could understand English, had broken all ties to their former tribe, and had adopted white ways.
In Japan, the Ainu were given Japanese family names and the children were sent to school to learn about Japanese culture. In New Zealand, the schools broke the spirits of Maori children, and they were taught that the white culture was superior to theirs.
In Hawai'i, before the U.S. invaded, the rulers were already adopting white attitudes, and established a school system in 1845. The view of one Hawaiian official reportedly was, "The way to destroy the kingdom of Hawai'i and the feelings and attitudes in favor of it...is to allow people to acquire a contempt of their native language." Following the U.S. takeover, children were sent to white-run schools where they learned the cultural values of their white invaders. Today, Native Hawaiian children usually do not do as well in school as white children. The school system continues to be taught from a western perspective and still separates Native Hawaiian children from their culture.
Resurgence
Despite all that indigenous people have suffered at the hands of invading cultures, in some places, usually where it has been a long time since the invasion, the indigenous people are experiencing a revival of their cultural traditions.
In many places, such as Australia, Canada, the U.S., and Hawai'i, indigenous people have gained back some of their ancestral lands, thanks to dedicated efforts and understanding government officials. In still other places, indigenous people are working toward similar goals in their homelands.
In the U.S. and Canada, many Indians attend powwows. These celebrations may last days and include traditional dress and music, and dancing contests. In many places, where the indigenous people can no longer make a living in the ways of their ancestors, many continue their traditional religious practices as a way of reviving and perpetuating their culture.
In the early 1900s it was thought by many that indigenous cultures were "doomed to disappear," and the decrease in the indigenous populations seemed to back up that idea. But then indigenous populations in places such as the U.S., Canada, and Australia began to increase, and it became clear that indigenous people would not just conveniently disappear. Today in the U.S. and Canada, there are more then a million Native Americans.
Many invading cultures knew that one of the best ways to destroy a culture is to destroy their language, and many indigenous languages were banned or made to seem inferior. However, today many indigenous people, such as the Maoris, Aborigines, Native Americans, Pacific Islanders, Native Russians, and the Ainu, are teaching their children their language again, in an effort to revive their culture.
In the Canadian Arctic, where whites nearly drove certain types of whales to extinction, one of the main sources of food was eliminated from the diets of many of the Inuit. Today, the populations have increased tremendously, and recently, Inuits teamed up with experts such as anthropologists and biologists, and have found that the whale populations are again stable enough for the Inuit to hunt a few whales each year, and the Canadian government has agreed to allow it. The tradition of hunting whales is important to their culture, and is also a great help to their meager food supply. In the late 1990s, the U.S. government gave permission the Makah of Washington State to hunt a small number of gray whales, who are protected from commercial whaling. In 1999, despite the protests of animal rights activists, the Makah successfully killed their first whale in more than 70 years.
Rigoberta Menchu, a leader of the indigenous rights movement in Guatemala said, "Many people have said that indigenous people are myths of the past, ruins that have died. But the indigenous community is not a vestige of the past, nor is a myth. It is full of vitality and has a coarse and a future. It has much wisdom and richness to contribute. They have not killed us, and they will not kill us now. We are stepping forth to say, 'No, we are here. We live.'"
Conclusion
When indigenous cultures are invaded, they usually experience the same results: disease, being considered inferior, resources used up or destroyed, land taken away, murder and war, traditions forbidden, and attempted assimilation. Whether the culture is from the Canadian Arctic, the Kalahari Desert, or the Amazon Rainforest, they are affected the same way by the invasion, and no matter who the invaders are, their feelings of cultural superiority and the right to the land lead them to take these actions against the indigenous culture. In conclusion, the invaders have the same motivations, attitudes, and ways of dealing with the indigenous people no matter where the invaders are from or where they are invading.
Bibliography
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Davidson, Art, Endangered Peoples, Sierra Club Books, San Francisco, 1994.
Davis, Wade, "Vanishing Peoples," National Geographic, August 1999, p. 63.
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Lame Deer, John (Fire), Lame Deer, Seeker of Visions, Touchstone Books, New York, 1972.
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