Compare and contrast different fortunes of native, hispanic and asian americans

Compare and Contrast the Different Fortunes of Native Americans with Hispanic and Asian Americans from 1865 to 1929.

The period of 1865 was a time of unrest and unsettlement for Native Americans, who were previously left to their own devices on the Great Plains, occupying their time in their cultural norms, such as hunting and practising their own religious beliefs. However by 1865, there was increasing westward migration with white settlement on the Great Plains, which was further increased with the help of the transatlantic railroad across the continent. Also, the previously freed slaves, were granted the homestead act, which saw a migration of 20,000 to westward onto the plains. This left Native Americans with limited land and a downgrading of their previous way of life, leading to clashes with the army, such as the Plains Wars.

Hispanic Americans, however did not clash so much with the white population because of the belief that they were only short term workers, although there was conflict over the fact that they were Spanish speaking, Roman Catholics. Unlike Native Americans, Hispanics were forced into the USA as a result of the war with Mexico, where California, Arizona and New Mexico were absorbed into the USA. The majorities of Hispanics became Labourers in Ghettos and like Native Americans, were deprived of their land.

Asian Americans migrated through choice into the USA, to work in the gold mines and do the jobs, which no one else wanted to do. They were resented because of their alternative appearance and actions, for example males choosing a bride through pictures. In 1865, Chinese felt welcome into the USA for work purposes, however exploitation wasn’t far off. Japanese Americans were denied citizenship on first migration and were met with hostility and seen as taking all the jobs.

It is clear the all of the above groups received hostility with the white population, but this essay will compare and contrast the fortunes of the groups from 1865 to 1929.

When looking at the fortunes of the different race groups in the USA, it is important to firstly look at running themes, which were faced by all groups. I feel that poverty was an issue faced by all groups in the period of 1865 to 1929. Native Americans, in particular experienced high levels of poverty and lost their lands in which they had built their lives on. Made to live on reservations, due to white settlement, it was impossible to sustain their traditional hunting. Furthermore, the buffalo had become extinct, due to white killings, meaning the Native Americans had to depend on white generosity, which was unreliable. As a result, Native Americans were left starving and abandoned. The Dawes Act assigned land to the head of each family, although this only led to more poverty as they received the poorest land. The key theme in Native American poverty was the fact that the majority of Native American families continued to live isolated on reservations in hunger, disease and hardship. Throughout the late 1800s Native Americans were desperate as the government had cut meat subsidies to Sioux reservations and there was already a large reduction in cattle, due to disease. Native Americans were left starved and poor.

Asian Americans didn’t suffer poverty to the same high level as Native Americans or in the same way. The poverty in which Asian Americans experienced was due to exploitation of workers. Migration to the USA was influenced by their decision to work in the newly discovered gold industry, however were excluded by the English, German and Irish and driven into jobs, which no one else wanted. This led to increased exploitation and minimal wages. Unlike Native Americans, Asian American poverty was based on low pay and poor job opportunities, rather than suffering due to starvation and loss of land. Therefore ...

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Poverty faced by Hispanics was similar to that of Asian Americans because they too faced poverty due to lack of work. Although it wasn’t all Hispanics which faced poverty, as some lived as whites in the House of Representatives, whereas some darker skinned Hispanics were poorer and became agricultural labourers with lower wages. Their illiteracy and race meant that they weren’t ingrained in many job opportunities and were left with low pay. Therefore it is clear that Hispanic Americans didn’t all face poverty, unlike Native Americans and much of the Asian Americans. And we can see that Native Americans suffered the most poverty, which was continual throughout the period, as their whole way of life became corrupt, including their methods of hunting and making money.

Another issue, implemented by the US government, which widely affected all groups from 1865 to 1920, is segregation. 1877 saw the issuing of the Dawes Act, where Native American’s land was divided up into reservations. This segregated Asian Americans from white society and encouraged private ownership. The difference, however, between Native American segregation and the other race groups is that they were previously isolated from whites and didn’t care to be integrated into white society. A further difference is that the other groups’ segregation focuses on isolation of the groups socially, for example in schools. Whereas Native American segregation focused on segregating them based on their cultural values, for example land ownership. Native Americans were actually encouraged to integrate into white schooling, as an attempt to downgrade their values.

Segregation was a well-known existence to the Asian Americans where they were excluded in the industrial workforce and received only the unwanted jobs. Furthermore, the Chinese were segregated into their ghettos of the city – China town, which limited integration into white society.

Hispanic Americans, on the other hand, experienced segregation based on de facto separation in schools and public entertainment, such as cinemas and swimming pools, and like Asian Americans, were segregated from whites into ghettos.

We can see that segregation widely existed against all race groups in 1877 to 1920, however, Native Americans were segregated for their cultural values and Asian and Hispanic Americans were segregated socially, for example in schools or jobs. All methods of segregation would have had a de-moralising effect on the groups.

All groups, to an extent, faced institutional racism. The Dawes Act of 1877, saw that Native Americans’ land was restricted to reservations, with the best land being given to the white population. This is clearly a racist approach to the values of Native Americans, as limiting their land, also limited their cultural activities. Furthermore, whites tended to kill bulls for entertainment purposes, which was highly offensive to Native Americans, as the bull had been a traditional part of their culture. The White population used the Native culture for entertainment, using racist names in sporting games. Furthermore, Native American children were forced into boarding schools as an attempt to ‘civilise’ them.

Asian Americans faced racism in terms of jobs. They were made scapegoats for the unemployment situation and the march by the Working Man’s Party, included demands for the removal of the Chinese. Like Native Americans, Chinese racism involved violence, where the march consisted of beatings, burnings and terrorising the Chinese population. However this violence was not to the extent of the violence felt by Native Americans, for example, the Massacre at Wounded Knee, where 200 men, women and children were shot dead by the US army, in a racist attempt to repress ‘uncivilised’ and ‘un-American’ behaviour. Although the institutional racism felt by Asian Americans was still at a high level, as they were the only group who were denied citizenship and the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 banned Chinese immigration for 10 years. Therefore, it is evident that continual violent racism existed in both Asian and Native Americans, however the Native American violence was taken to a higher level, as it involved the US army, with much greater deaths, and the Asian American violence was a march by a San Francisco group. When looking at non-violent racism, I feel the Asian Americans were repressed the most, due to exclusion from the country, although the Native American land restrictions would have had a disheartening effect also.

Hispanic Americans didn’t face racism to the extent of the above groups, as the government felt that they were short term workers, however the segregation laws were a racists move to ensure whites didn’t have to mix with them. They were also racially discriminated against with insulting comments and viewed as undesirable due to lack of necessities, such as indoor toilets. They were discriminated against for their illiteracy and race. However, some Hispanics were previously educated and brought into white society, which puts them in a position where their discrimination isn’t viewed as harsh as Native Americans or Asian Americans.

The two main groups of the governments concern; the Asian and Native Americans, both received broken promises of the US government. In 1880 the Burlingame Treaty Revision was signed which suspended the immigration of the Chinese labourers. This broke the promise of rights of citizenship and free migration. A continual factor for Asian Americans was the vetoing of exclusion bills, which would have resulted in false hopes, and then increasing exclusion, cutting off the hopes. This was seen where Chinese Exclusion was extended and then vetoed. The turning point in 1924 was when Asian Immigration was completely banned, which went against the promise of citizenship completely.

The Dawes Act granted Native Americans reservation lands which they could use to become farmers, however, these hopes were broken as the reservation lands weren’t set up for years after the act. Furthermore, whites got the best of the land, leaving the Native Americans as poor as they already were.

Like, Hispanic Americans, Asian Americans migrated into the USA, however due to different reasons. Thje Hispanics were forced to migrate as a result of the war with Mexico and the Asians moved due to employment seeking. However, both groups ended up resented by the American population and the Asians were banned from entering by 1924.

Overall I feel that the fortunes of Native Americans, Hispanic Americans and Asian Americans were all down to racial predudice, discrimination and poverty. These issues continued throughout the period and unlike African Americans, these groups didn’t have any political activists who could gain rights. The NIA failed in it’s attempts to gain economic improvements and the Hispanics didn’t have any speakers.

By Caroline Sims