Chris Nerf
Topian

America is, arguably, the greatest nation on the planet. However, the current high of America was built on the blood and tears of the innocent. The country which now stands for freedom for all, once, to a minority, stood for oppression and treachory. Two groups had received the majority of the deception and tyrany: the Native American Indians and the African Americans. 
	The African slaves were brought to America solely by accident. In August 1619, twenty slaves were sold to the British citizens at Jamestown. And slavery would be a general theme for Africans and people of African descent in America for nearly the next two and a half centuries. Slavery in the colonies, originally, was not as brutal. Slaves and their owners coexisted, more like a symbiotic relationship than parasitic as it later evolved to. This is because in the early days of the colonies survival was more difficult.
	This symbiosis would soon be over. An improved economy in London which lowered the number of indentured servants plus a fear that escaped slaves would ally themselves with the Indians and eventually usurp controll gave the Whites reason enough to enact the Slave Codes. The Slave Codes are the agenda of paranoid wealthy people which was the foundation of true racism against Africans. Prior to the slave codes, slavery of Africans was considered much like the slavery of a European: the enslaved person was alowed some degree of legal protection and some degree of freedom and the progeny of the enslaved would be free. However, the Slave Codes changed that. Slaves could not own property, they could not leave the plantation with out a pass. In addition, Slave Codes prevented slaves from entering legal contracts, and some contracts, such as marriage, if entered, would be punished by death. Furthermore, conversion to Christianity once allowed a slave to be free, with the Slave Codes, that no longer held true. What once was a mutual relationship became a most brutal serfdom in the Wetsern Hemisphere.
	African Americans would have essentially no rights until the end of the Civil War. Only minor victories between the Slave Codes and then would be achieved. Such as the case of the Amistad, in which Africans illegally enslaved would be freed in America because of the illegalization of the trade slave in 1808. After the Civil War, however, the Africans would, at least males over the age of twenty-one, in theory, gain the rights of full citizens. Amendments Thirteenth, which prohibited non-voluntary servitude, Fourteenth, which made ex slaves citizens, and Fifteenth, which gave black males the right to vote, were passed to protect the rights of ex-slaves. As said before, this was only in theory. The Slave Codes simply needed to adapt to the change in times. 
	What was once slave codes was now Jim Crow, the unequivocally American version, and precursor to, Apartheid. The Jim Crow laws, were a multi-State attempt at reasserting white supremacy in the South. In general these are the laws that segregated blacks from whites in supposedly seperate and equal facilities. They were seperate and rarely, if at all, equal. Prior to the turn of the century, one and only one major challenge was issued to the Supreme Court. A man named Plessy, a resident of Lousiana and citizen of the United States, was ejected from a Lousiana train simply because he was one eighth black. Of course that was his plan, but it back fired. The Supreme Court held that Lousiana could legally segregate the races so long as facilities were "equal". That cemented the Jim Crow laws a large piece of Americana for the three quarters of a century. 
	Native Americans, too, have their story. But, unlike the African Americans, the Native American tale has two overwhelming themes: genocide and treachory. Ever since Columbus installed himself as Viceroy of the modern day island of Haiti and began the practice of systematically killing the Natives (Waller 23), genocide has been a common practice among the "civilized" nations when dealing with Native tribes. The native population of Haiti shrank from about eight million to only two hundred in fourty years (Waller 23).
	The Practice of the United States Government three hundred years later were just as maniacal. In 1835, the Federal government signs the Treaty of Echota with a Cherokee tribe in Georgia which will ultimately lead to their assimilation into the United States of America. The treaty is only respected by the Federal government for three years. In April, 1838, General Winfield Scott begins forcivly moving Cherokees from Georgia to Indian Territory, modern day Oklahoma, at bayonet point. It is a march to their death. The ones bayonetted by Scott's forces were lucky, they died relatively quickly. The others died of  malnutrition, disease and the elements. This march was known as the trail of tears and it set the tone of American-Indian relations for the next seven decades.
	In the Colorado Territory, similar deeds happened. In 1864, Governor John Evans decreed that Indians were hostile to whites and called for the men to organize and kill Cheyennes (Waller 24). The outfit was led by Colonel John Chivington. On the day of November 29, Chivington's forces made Evans' plan a reality. The outfit came accross a village of Cheyenne. They rode rampit through the town in the style similar to the S.S. Toetenkopf. Chivington reportedly said, "Kill and scalp all, little and big... Nits make lice." (Waller 25). At the end of the massacre, over one hundred and fifty Cheyenne and Arapahos lay dead, but that was not enough, Chivington reported that five hundred to six hundred lay dead (Waller 26).
	Not all white men, however, took this gung-ho attitude towards erradication. Quite the contrary, relations between Natives and whites across the border in Canada are very peacful (Harpers 1). The blood shed at Colorado never occured accross the border. That is most likely because the Canadians respected treaties. Treaties the American Government made with Indian tribes were nothing more than lip service. The United States continously pledges faith and leaves swindlers (Harpers 2). Cheif Joseph put it best, when he said that the talk comes to nothing. It would be true, countless treaties have been broken by the United States government, and countless war crimes committed. This was all for nothing, in many cases however. Many Indians were willing to give up there old way of life and live under American rule just as long as they were recognized as men (Chief Joseph 5).
	But, they were not. The United States congress passed a law, the Dawes General Allotment Act, that would destroy the cultural identity of the natives. A man with a new cultural identity is not that same man he was before. This law would give the United States, in its mind at least, a legal way to destroy Indian Culture. Ancestral lands would be taken from a tribe that agreed, held by the government, some of it sold and some of it would be given back to the Indians (Dawes 1). 
	While on these lands and on there reservations, Natives often had a bad steryotype about them. The steryotype is that they are lazy. It may or may not be true. And if they did not work, they had good reason: prior to them being fenced in, they were a hunter gatherer society. With fences, one can not hunter or gather too well. Furthermore, corruption in the reservation system ran rampent. The crops of the people working the reservation were often unjustly seized (Jackson 1). If a person will only know thievery, why should that person work hard to loose everything? They would not. And with such stereotypes such as laziness can be formulated.
	In the modern day, massacres of sorts still happen. However, it is not so much people who are being killed. No instead of massive casualties, there are only a few. It is the land that is being destroyed. Corporate America is launching a war of sorts on the Indian. Sacred land is being by companies like AMAX mines, Peadbody Coal Company, and EXXON ( Weyler 13).  The modern day shows startling contrast to the past. Money was the sole reason as to why the Indians were forced from their lands and nearly destroyed as a society. And in the modern day, it is money again which is destroying the ground once held sacred by Indians. In the modern day, there are laws that are designed to protect Indian heritage. Such as only allowing people of Indian descent to adopt Indian children. But what use is preserving the culture, if the land held sacred is destroyed? Islam would not be the same with out Mecca, Catholicism would not be the same with out Rome. Indian culture will never be the same with out the lands that they hold sacred.
	Between Natives American Indians and African Americans there a quite a number of similarities. Ignore the fact both had their freedom ripped away from them, and a large number of similarities still exist. First, the Dawes act which worked to assimilate the Natives is very similar to the Freedman's Buro. Both were, at least in theory, designed to look after the education and voting rights of the people under their jurisdiction. However, the citizenship both had after becomming citizens was in name only. Second, both NAtive Americans and African Americans had laws targetted specifically for adoption. Jim Crow laws many times prohibited white families from adopting black children, while preservation laws prevent anyone who is not Native American from adopting a child who is Native American. In the modern day, both minorities still have significant economic problems. Despite these similarities, major differences still exist between them. Which need not be said, but with out these differences they would not be a unique culture.
	America was not always the land of the free. For a while in its history it was the land of the free and the land of the opressed. Native Americans and African Americans were only two of oppressed. However, both had a similar backround. Not so much because of planning, but because of inevitability. Opression always comes down to those with power making rules for those with out power, and those rules always work to strengthen the powerfuls position.