Back in high school, there were rarely any classes that taught Native American history. As Professor Eric Cheyfitz said on Wednesday at the Becker/Rose Cafe, the American school system tends to focus on a “binary” black-and-white history. Much of the aftermath of Western civilization into Indian territory is rarely spoken of and tends to be ignored even to this day.

For instance, did you know that the land that Cornell is built upon belongs to the Cayuga people?

In addition, passive and aggressive forms of genocide, such as preemptive war and ethnic cleansing, have plagued the Native American population. One of the examples of ethnic cleansing that Professor Cheyfitz gave was Native American children would often be made to wear Western clothing as well as have a clothespin clipped onto their tongue if they did not speak English. While this isn’t any physical indication of genocide, Western civilization basically discovered a loophole to wipe out the Native American population by targeting the youngest of the community. But the children weren’t the only ones who were affected by westernization. Professor Cheyfitz also mentioned that one in three Native American women were raped, much of which have been told through a story in a book called The Roundhouse by Louise Erdrich.

Furthermore, Professor Cheyfitz listed both political and economical complications that Native Americans had and still have to go through. While the government takes responsibility of the reservations that they live on, many criminal cases are rarely tried. One of the more notable ones that did occur was Cherokee Nation vs State of Georgia, when the Cherokee Nation sued Georgia for determining boundaries on the land they shared and depriving the Indians of their rights. The Supreme Court ruled that Cherokee Nation wasn’t seen as a foreign nation and therefore could not sue Georgia for depriving land rights. But while the case that followed a year later, Worcester vs Georgia, said that Georgia had no right to take away the Native American’s rights, President Andrew Jackson refused to station troops in Georgia, but in fact rooted to expel the Cherokee Nation. This is more commonly known as the start of “The Trail of Tears”.

Overall, I think that this talk was educational and eye-opening. I have never really considered the condition of Native American and I think it’s overlooked because high schools rarely expose students to the history of the indigenous. I am very thankful that Proefssor Cheyfitz took the time to attend the Becker-Rose Cafe to enlighten us on the issues that still plague the group today. I certainly would like to take a course on Native American history in the future.