"They were still not considered people": why the North American Indians were deprived of civil rights for centuries

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"They were still not considered people": why the North American Indians were deprived of civil rights for centuries

On June 2, 1924, a law came into force in the United States, which granted Indians the right to American citizenship. From the formation of the United States until the beginning of the 20th century, indigenous peoples were mass exterminated, millions of hectares of land were taken from them. Despite the fact that in theory the Indians were equated with the heirs of the colonialists, in practice the document remained formal for a long time, experts say. Although after the adoption of the law on citizenship, a number of Indians were entitled to benefits, they were granted full voting rights in all states only after the end of the Second World War.

 

When European colonialists reached the shores of North America at the end of the 16th century, according to various estimates, up to 18 million Indians lived on the territory of the modern United States. In terms of technical and socio-economic development, they were inferior to the po[CENSORED]tion of Central and South America, but some nations managed to create pre-state political associations and had a high culture.

The British began to oust Indian tribes from their lands. The European diseases became an “ally” of the colonialists, against which Native Americans did not have immunity: the Indians were specially given infected objects, provoking deadly epidemics among them.

In addition, the Europeans in the seizure of land relied on a system of fraudulent treaties. Colonialists signed land sale documents with unauthorized persons and recorded streamlined language such as “days of the journey” in the papers. The Indians, when concluding agreements, understood by the “days of the journey” the standard daytime crossing of a hunter across rough terrain. However, the colonialists hired the best runners and specially prepared tracks for them. This allowed fraudulently to increase the area of the purchased territory several times.

Edited June 5, 2019 by -Dark
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