Comparing the Treatments
The Native American Timeline shows how the Native Americans suffered in the hands of both the American colonialists in the 1600s before the country gained independence and in the hands of the United States military during the first half of the 1800s after independence (Campbell 78). When the White settlers started pushing the Native Americans out of their ancestral land, the natives felt that they were justified to resist.
They, therefore, organized armed resistance against the colonial militia that was responsible for the forceful eviction. However, their resistance was met with excessive military force as most of them were killed, and others were injured, while their properties were destroyed. The colonial militia did not treat the natives as people who had rights to their land (Peskin 112). They had to not only obey the White settlers by moving away from their land but also support them by working on those lands as slaves.
When the country gained independence, the Native Americans thought that they will be part of the population enjoying the benefits of freedom. However, that was not to be as the American military started an ambitious expansion program towards the south. In the early 1800s, the Indian Removal Act was passed and the government started an ambitious project to push the Native Americans out of their lands into reservations.
Just like they did during the colonial era, the Native Americans resisted their removal out of their ancestral land. This forced the United States government to use military force to implement the Act. The result of this military intervention was the loss of scores of lives, suffering from the locals due to injuries sustained in the war and loss of loved ones, and massive destruction of property. The way that the colonialists treated the Native Americans is the same cruel way that the American military treated them. Benn says that the United States military was meaner to the natives in their attack than the colonial militia (54).
Justification of the Actions of the Colonial Militia and the United States Military
The colonial militia and the United States military tried to justify their cruel actions towards the Native Americans based on expansion. The colonialists indeed wanted to expand their territory during the colonial period (Waddell 87). It is also true that the United States realized the benefit of expanding its territories to the south soon after gaining independence. However, none of them had any justifiable reason to use the amount of force that was witnessed against the Native Americans.
These natives were not on the offensive. They were not trying to gain new territories. They only felt that it was unjustified for the colonialists and the United States government to tell them that they had no right to land in this country (Tucker 71). The land belonged to them because they inherited it from their forefathers. They had lived in these lands for several years before the settlers even knew of the existence of the American continent. Therefore, they felt that it was illogical for these settlers to confine them to reservations while they had land they rightfully deserved. Both the colonial militia and the United States forces should have tried other means of getting land from the natives other than using force (Tucker and Fredriksen 24). The treatment of the Native Americans by the colonial militia in the 1600s and the United States military in the 1800s was unjustified.
Works Cited
Benn, Carl. The War of 1812: The Fight for American Trade Rights. New York: Rosen Pub, 2011. Print.
Campbell, Ballard. American Wars. New York: Facts on File, 2012. Print.
Peskin, Lawrence. Captives and Countrymen: Barbary Slavery and the American Public, 1785-1816. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1900. Print.
Tucker, Spencer, and John Fredriksen. The Encyclopedia of the War of 1812: A Political, Social, and Military History. Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO, 2012. Print.
Tucker, Spencer. Almanac of American Military History. Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO, 2013. Print.
Waddell, Steve. United States Army Logistics: From the American Revolution to 9/11. Santa Barbara: Praeger, 2010. Print.