Featured playlist:  Clips for College: Native Americans by Jenna Makowski, Alexander Street Press

The Navajos were persecuted first by the Spanish in the 16th century, then the 19th century brought General Sherman and Kit Carson who persecuted the Native Americans, especially the Navajo. "The Long Walk" was a march of exile for the Navajo people by the white man. After 4 years in exile, the Navajo people were returned to the "Four Sacred Mountains" as part of a treaty with the U.S. government; that treaty also required that Navajo children be educated by the federal government. These children were not allowed to speak their own language or carry on their own cultural ways.

With the world at war, the Allied forces were up against a formidable enemy and had very little capability to communicate overseas to troops without the enemy intercepting the information. The American military was coding all of its orders, but the enemy had great code breakers and cryptographers. The idea to use the Navajo language as a code to pass Japanese intelligence was ingenious since hardly anyone who wasn't Navajo had any understanding of it.

The Navajo Code Talkers were trained and then deployed as Marines to fight overseas. The military wasn't quite ready to use the perfected code yet; the purpose of the code talkers wasn't first utilized until Guadal Canal where it was used instead of runners to pass information, it was a great success. The Code Talker unit grew to almost 400 Navajos.

The Navajo Code Talkers worked tirelessly on Iwo Jima; the perfection with which they spoke, sent, and decoded messages without error was something the Marines had over the Japanese. Major Connor honored the Navajos by recognizing their contributions as invaluable to the taking of Iwo Jima. When they were discharged from service, there was no ceremony, no promotion, no thanks, due to the military still being segregated. It wasn't until 1969 that the Code Talkers were publicly recognized.

The unprovoked shooting of Cheyenne Chief Lean Bear by U.S. Officials sparked the Indian War of 1864 where, in an endless spiral of retaliation, Indian Dog Soldiers attacked White transportation systems and settlements while Colorado Govenor John Chivington ordered U.S. troops to kill all Indians.

Despite Black Kettle's confidence that he had solidified a peaceful negotiation with Chivington and U.S. Officials, Chivington ordered a deliberate attack on the Cheyenne village of Sand Creek. On November 29, 1864, U.S. Officials brutally massacred over 200 women and children, crudely displaying trophies of their attack in town.

By the end of the 18th century, the Cheyenne had established themselves as Great Plains' warriors via assimilation of guns and horses into their previously agricultural livelihoods. White-authored documents of the times record images of the Cheyenne as a strong, fearless and beautiful people - a warrior society.

Conflict became further inflammed when gold was discovered in 1866 in Idaho, accessible via the Bozeman Trail, which cut through the heart of Cheyenne buffalo land. As the U.S. Army built forts along the trail, Dull Knife and his Sioux Ally Red Cloud retaliated with ambushed attacks. After the Battle of 100 Slain/Fetterman's Massacre, where an entire infantry of White men were killed, the U.S. government negotiated the Treaty of 1868.

Hailed as the greatest battle victory the Sioux nation had ever seen, The Battle of Little Big Horn was quick and decisive, led by Crazy Horse and his Cheyenne allies. Sitting Bull provided key spiritual guidance. The U.S. Army was quick to retaliate, targeting women and children and forcing Sitting Bull to surrender.

As mental, emotional and spiritual breakdown plagued the Sioux Reservation, a new religion called the Ghost Dance swept Indian nations in the West. Sitting Bull brought the dance to his reservation in hopes of erasing the White men. The U.S. Army enlisted a group of Indian police officers to arrest him, but chaos broke out between two rival Indians and Sitting Bull was killed in the crossfire.

By the 1820s, the Cherokee nation in Georgia had developed a policy of trying to assimilate and integrate elements of White society and culture into their own, creating schools, farms and their own constitution. Feeling threatened, the state of Georgia passed a law requiring residents to claim primary citizenship to the state. Many refused, and the case went to the Supreme Court, which ruled in favor of the Cherokee Nation. President Andrew Jackson refused to reconize the ruling, the only time in history a president has defied the Court.

The Trail of Tears continued just as violently as it began, with entire families, some of whom had been physically removed from their dinner tables, perishing of extreme cold and disease during the 5-month walk west to the western Cherokee settlement.

In the early 1860s, a campaign for removal of the Navajo and Apache to a reservation called Bosque Redondo was instigated by General James Carlton. The roundup executor, Kit Carson, implemented a Scorched Earth policy, burning Navajo villages and crops. A group of Navajo, led by Barboncito, hid in the Canyon de Chelly over the winter, where many froze to death. Though never officially documented, many stories and eye-witness accounts verify that they only officially surrendered when the militia opened fire into the canyon.

After four years in the camp, Navajo leaders persuaded officials to let them move back to their land, and the Treaty of 1868 allowed it. Despite the government's continued brutal efforts to educate Navajo children in a White system, Navajo society continued to flourish as it gained economic strength through sheep breeding. By the 1890s, the Navajo were selling wool and jewelry to a White market.

The basic Indian weaponry consisted of the lance, shield, bow, and arrow. There were many other weapons though that varied with Native American cultures and tribes. Not all the weapons were made to inflict death as killing was not usually the goal. Lances, spears, and clubs are discussed.

Native Americans felt strongly about showing their religious beliefs through decoration of thier weaponry and tools. The symbols represented on the weapons were just as important as the physical make up of the weapon itself.

The Indian warriors were the most prized members of most Native American tribes. To hunt, fight, protect, and provide for the tribe was the job of the warrior. To become an accomplished warrior was the main objective for most males in Indian culture.

The firearm was the what initially created fear in Native Americans, not the Europeans, but their weapons. There was an essence of mystery to them, they were not at first understood by the Indians. Through trading with the white men, Indians came to use firearms on a regular basis. The natural homeostasis is disturbed amongst the Native American tribes.

After the American Civil War, the white men turn their sights to expansion in the West. Within 3 decades they have taken over the North American continent, destroying much of its land and native people as they went. Because the Indian tribes would never unite and combat the Europeans together, they were never able to stop the white invasion cohesively.