History & Demography of Native North America OS215 Contemporary Native American Issues Thursday, January 12, 2012

Historical Context About 15 million Native Americans pre-contact (estimated 12 million within present-day U.S.) Spanish exploration and European colonization Discovery Doctrine

Historical Context Population decline

Historical Context Destruction of tribal life ways

Historical Context Forced relocation (“Trail of Tears”)

Historical Context Extermination (“Wounded Knee”)

Historical Context Assimilation

Affects on Contemporary Native Life Look at contemporary Native American experience and issues through a lens of over 500 years of Western colonial intrusion and accelerated change Conflicting concepts of territory, political power and community organization Cultural interrelations, religious conversion, language loss, western values and concepts

Survival and Re-awakening Many Native American communities are seeking to retain cultures and communities despite colonization Borrowing Western ideas and concepts Reclaiming traditional concepts Change and negotiation

U.S. Census Data (2000) National Congress of American Indians (NCAI) Policy Resource Center: million people (1.5% of U.S. population) reported American Indian or Alaska Native ethnicity. 71% (compared to 80% of total U.S. population) had at least a high school education. 2/3 (66%) of Native Americans live in Urban areas (not represented within NCAI, will explore more next week with Identity, About 700,000 (of 1.7 million) live on or near Indian Reservations