FREE ESSAY ON THE ROOTS OF DEPENDENCY

THE ROOTS OF DEPENDENCY

Reemy Reem Anth. 307
The Roots of Dependency
1. The Navajos, Pawnees, and Choctaws all had to endure European, political, economical,
and environmental threats to their own culture. When the life and subsistence system
(hunting and gathering) of an Indian Nation is affected; in one way or another it has an
affect on an Indian population as a hole. The trials and tribulations that these three
tribal nations have experienced is proof of that. Gradually the Indian community would go
through a period of destruction and enormous amounts of prejudice that consequently would
be the North American Indian's downfall. 
The reliability of the Navajos to the government to maintain their everyday Navajo
culture was prevalent due to the despicable attitudes and influence of Europeans. "By
1945 the government had transformed the Navajo economy.....They were no longer
self-supporting people (White, 310)." Navajo dependency would point the finger at the
reduction of resources as the cause of the problem. Resources such as the issuing of
grazing permits, stockowners being forced below subsistence, and one-half of the Navajos
corn crop were just a few of the reductions the government demanded. Fortunately Navajos
rejected commercial economical values during the early 1900s, which prolonged their
independence. Once the government gave the Navajos the power to "revise the existing
regulations" to meet their objections, "it (government) retained the right to veto any
objectionable provisions the Navajos might insert in the regulations (White, 309-310)."
Once this occurred non-Indians could hold on to adequate resources. The Navajo population
was doubling and the resources were dwindling just as fast. 
The loss of subsistence land would be the biggest change of the North American Indians.
Take for example the Choctaws. European diseases, the slave trade, and racially motivated
influences forced the Choctaws westward, leaving behind them a reformed land of
"impoverishment." They regulated land and what was on the land. They fought European
disease and avoided a social collapse of the Choctaw, until the market became an issue.
Anything from knives and guns to agriculture was considered the market. Trade and market
meant for the Choctaws to be dependent on anyone but themselves. Land sales were forced.
The Choctaws land and labor gradually took the back seat. The Choctaws were never
defeated; "instead, through the market the Choctaws were made dependent and dispossessed
(White, 146)." 
The Pawnee independency was much more subsistent than the Choctaws and Navajos. "The
increasing poverty of the Pawnees as their subsistence base failed and made them
dependant on American annuities (White, 209)." The Pawnees original dependence on goods
that are redistributed within the society now was dependent on American goods outside
their community. How did the Pawnee get to this point? Disease, subsistence failure, and
cultural breakdown were the major factors. The death rates of the Pawnee were so
preposterous in such a short amount of time that disease couldn't be the only factor. The
biggest factor other than disease was simply the "will to live (White, 205)." The Pawnees
like the Choctaws fought the slave trade and refused American ways. Ways such as the
depending on crops raised by the Pawnee. The Pawnee disagreed. Since agriculture the
Pawnee tended to become more and more unreliable than what would be a healthy lifestyle.
Their eating habits became malnourished; therefore when disease did come there was no
chance for the Pawnee Indian to fight it, much less survive. "Deprived of hunting lands,
sporadically horseless, often hungry, the Pawnee were literally fighting for the lives
(White, 207)." Pawnee population never recovers from the "disastrous mix" of American
ways and politics. 
All three tribal nations, the Choctaw, Pawnee, and Navajo share the unique religious
aspect of having symbolic cultures. All these Indians shaped their environments. Once the
white man came and made contact with each and every tribal nation, nothing would stop the
depletion of game, the growth of the market, and chaos in the government towards Indian
Nations. Towards the end Richard White discusses a very good point about decision-making.
The Choctaw, Pawnee and Navajo all made decisions in altering traditional economic and
cultural ways clearly caused by those actions of whites. Indians needed a way to reform
from these costly decisions influenced by whites. One way for reform was modernization.
Being able to accept modern day ways and assimilate into a larger society without
disregarding their own culture.
2. 
The goal of the colonizers was to socialize, politically undermind, and culturally depict
the relations of Indians in order to totally dominate the lifestyle of the North American
Indian.