Settler Colonialism Research Paper

1797 Words8 Pages
Settler Colonialism: An Ongoing Conception of Aggression and Superiority “Settler colonialism is a global and transnational phenomenon, and as much a thing of the past as a thing of the present. There is no such thing as neo-settler colonialism or post-settler colonialism because settler colonialism is a resilient formation that rarely ends” (Cavanagh, 2013). Settler colonialism is a notion that has been created by all predominant white imperialistic cultures in order to eliminate native identity and discontinue native traditions. It is a notion that is both tangible and intangible; a notion that has no defined set of characteristics but is instead made up of various forms of assimilation, racism, and genocide that have taken place throughout…show more content…
It is intangible in the loss of religion, in the loss of beliefs, in the loss of language, in the loss of tradition and culture, and in the loss of hope of retaining a Native identity. Settler colonialism uses various tools and methods of assimilation to sever important indigenous relationships to traditional native lands and to social relationships within their kinship and family. The main goal of assimilation is to take the youth of indigenous populations away from the communities and force them to conform to the white settler cultural norms so the indigenous populations can not grow or expand anymore than they already have, eventually forcing the culture and supposed savageness of these populations to die out. In Native American tribes in the United States and Canada settler colonialism, and more specifically assimilation, was experienced when children were taken away from their families and sent to special boarding schools. These boarding schools forced them to internalize white settler beliefs about individualism, relationship to land, appropriate social norms, and what it meant to be a Native American. Native American boarding schools ultimately led the students to…show more content…
Maya Mikdashi is a Native American woman who grew up in the United States and had to deal with these misconstrued ideas of authenticity created by settler colonialism and Native American boarding schools. In her article “What is Settler Colonialism?” she discusses the struggles she faced growing up as a Native American child who did not live on her tribe’s reservation and how, because of these distorted ideas of authenticity, she was not accepted by the people who lived on the reservation full time and became a social outcast amongst her own
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