2018 Fall SUNY First Peoples of North America

     The first time I had heard about the Navajo Code Talkers was during their 2017 visit with the present President of the United States. In 1982 they were given a certificate of recognition by Ronald Reagan, and in 2000 they were given gold and silver Congressional Medals of Honor during President Bush's term in office. There were also the Comanche code talkers who in 1989 were awarded the highest honor, the Chevalier of the National Order of Merit, by the French government. Gold and Silver Congressional Medals of Honor      The Navajo were sought out by the United States Marine Corps to volunteer, train, and develop a code language that could not be understood by the Japanese. Twenty-nine code talkers were inducted into the Marines and between they developed an unbreakable code that was committed to memory. One of the Navajo Marines praised the Indian School which he attended for his success, as he stated they had been trained in the milita...

The year was 1942 and the United States and its allies were currently losing WWII.   The improbable scenario of Nazi Germany and Japan taking control of the United States and it’s allies was looking more and more like it was becoming a reality. Our biggest problem: communication. Japanese cryptographers were breaking our top-secret military codes just as quickly as we were creating them. Our only hope to ensure the freedom of the U.S. and ending the costliest war in the history of the world, lie in the language of the Navajo Indians, the Dine Warriors, who coincidentally had been treated with horrible disrespect and betrayal throughout the short history of the United States. In accomplishing such a fantastic feat that resulted in saving the world from the spread of communism the Navajo Code Talkers would receive tremendous amounts of praise. This was not the homecoming received as you may suspect. They were told not to talk about anything they had done during the war becau...

I reviewed the website of the National Museum of the American Indian. The museum is a part of the Smithsonian network of national museums in Washington D.C. and the website was created by the Smithsonian institution itself. The perspective is that of broad academic approach, much as the museum itself does. It is rare that you will find anything that would be described as controversial from this source as it’s primary goal is to educate the public while acting as an entertainment attraction. The museum brings in people from around the globe and is a huge source for the dissemination of information regarding Native Americans to tourists including both those who live in the United States and those who come from abroad. I believe the lens of the museum aims to be respectful and does a decent job of explaining the horrors that were often inflicted on native peoples by colonists and the American government however it often stops short of criticizing these people or groups outright. I bel...

I chose to review the Library of Congress’ page ‘ Indian Removal Act .’ It is a collection of primary sources about the 1830 law that led to the forced relocation of the Cherokee people in 1838. I chose it in part because of an image that caught my eye. This image is a painting of a Cherokee Chief named John Ross, yet he is dressed in such a manner to be essentially indistinguishable from any white man of his time. It creates a great deal of cognitive dissonance that even tribes that assimilated to European culture were treated as horribly as the Cherokee were. “John Ross, a Cherokee Chief” I believe that this source is not meant to convey a specific perspective so much as provide access to primary sources that demonstrate the perspectives of the members of the United States government who took part in the creation of and debate around the Indian Removal Act. Unlike most other courses about North American history, this course relies alm...