They destroy what they fear.They fear themselves.

The wind will blow them across the oceanthousands of them in giant boats

swarming like larvaout of a crushed ant hill.

Amy CadenasTu Nguyen Arjun SharmaNuri FatemaAnh Huynh

Tayo

Tayo is sick and has to see a doctor/medicine man. Tayo came back from the war with trauma of the events that were occurring. He wanted to travel and enjoy the different places. Tayo was a curious person who wanted to see new things. The new explorers, the “white people” created by the witches, ended up killing his kind. This is opposite to Tayo who actually did not like killing people. This connects with the poem, because the people who came to the Native American land wanted to do the same thing. They came to Native American land to explore and ended up discovering new resources and people, as well as new land. They also brought diseases and destruction to the land and the Native people. They had the same curiosity as Tayo did, when he decided to travel. “He remembers the clash of his path between what the white man wanted and his path”.

The Native Americans of the east coast met the new 16th and 17th century visitors from Europe with enthusiasm. They regarded these bearded white men as strange but were delighted with the steel knives, mirrors, copper kettles, and other intriguing novelties. The indigenous tribes were more than accommodating and hospitable. Without their aid, the first waves of settlers would not have survived in the land they knew little about.

But in time the Europeans disregarded all respect for the valued land and resources and instead displayed insatiable greed and arrogance. The Europeans soon pursued their intent to conquer this new continent with brutal attacks and invasion. The Native Americans soon realized that the invaders would arrive in overwhelming numbers, as many “as the stars in heaven.” Initially, the people of this land tried to co-exist with the Europeans. But many more problems arose. With all their intriguing gadgets, the white men brought deadly diseases to the Native Americans.

The colonists and explorers brought measles, smallpox, cholera, yellow fever, and many more devastating diseases. This drastically diminished the Native American population and annihilated entire villages. In addition to this, the arrogant attitude of the ever-growing whites led to the Indian Wars, the Indian Removal Act (1830), and in 1890 one of the worst massacres ever -- Wounded Knee, South Dakota. Here warriors, women, and children alike were ferociously slaughtered by the U.S. Cavalry. The U.S, government began Relocation Programs and the now famous Trail of Tears march where hundreds of Cherokee died from starvation, exposure, and illnesses. The Native American peoples were not only reduced in number but taken from their homes, stripped of their customs, and even forbidden to speak their native languages. Their children were taken from them and sent to schools to “civilize” them, forced to abandon every aspect of their heritage. In January 1876, the U.S. government forced them to live on ‘reservations’ where the majority of Native Americans still reside today.

Resourcehttp://www.allabouthistory.org/native-american-history.htm