Native American Lands under Siege: The Endless Fight against Colonization - Literature review Example

History repeats itself, as the Lakotas fight for what is theirs because they are under siege from the same forces that ejected them from their lands more than five hundred years ago. In Chapter 2 “The Invasions of America” of the book First Peoples: A Documentary Survey of American Indian History, Calloway (2012) described the centuries of land grabbing and extermination that Native Americans endured since Columbus first stepped on the New World. The European settlers created laws and waged wars that aimed to take away the lands from the natives.

Up to now, the same strategy persists. The descendants of these settlers continue the practice of using the law to dispossess the natives of their lands. The Black Hills is a sacred site that the United States government and it's Supreme Court recognize as the property of the Lakota people. The Reynolds family, however, “owns” it too, and so they can do as they please with it. At present, the Lakota tribes are accumulating funds to buy at least Pe’ Sla, which is quite saddening, because they are raising so much money to buy land that belongs to them.

Hence, even in the twenty-first century, the natives continue to battle the settlers, who want to take fundamental signifiers of their culture- their sacred ancestral lands.  The century has turned but the fight against colonization continues. This time, no blades, cannons, and guns are used, and instead, property rights laws are used. The victims have the same faces, the faces of the native tribes of America. The Black Hills is a sacred site. More than that, it belongs to the Lakota. They do not even use it to make money.

They need it to preserve their racial and cultural identity. Astonishingly, they have to buy it, or else, they will lose it. Pe’ Sla provides proof that colonization goes on, but the Native Americans seek to fight it within the system, the same system that promised them the land that will soon be held for an auction.