Page 309 - Essencials of Sociology

282 CHAPTER 9 Race and Ethnicity

Politics. Asian Americans are becoming more prominent in politics. With about half of
its citizens being Asian American, Hawaii has elected Asian American governors and sent
several Asian American senators to Washington, including the one now serving there (Lee
1998; Statistical Abstract 2013:Table 421). The first Asian American governor outside
of Hawaii was Gary Locke, who served from 1997 to 2005 as governor of Washington, a
state in which Asian Americans make up less than 6 percent of the population. In 2008,
Bobby Jindal became the first Indian American governor when he was elected gover-
nor of Louisiana, a state in which Asian Americans make up less than 2 percent of the
population.

Native Americans
“I don’t go so far as to think that the only good Indians are dead Indians, but I believe
nine out of ten are—and I shouldn’t inquire too closely into the case of the tenth.
—Teddy Roosevelt, President of the United States 1901–1909
(As cited in “Past Imperfect” 2012)
Diversity of Groups. This quotation from Teddy Roosevelt provides insight into the
rampant racism of earlier generations. Yet, even today, thanks to countless grade B Westerns,
some Americans view the original inhabitants of what became the United States as uncivi-
lized savages, a single group of people subdivided into separate tribes. The European
immigrants to the colonies, however, encountered diverse groups of people who spoke
over 700 languages. Their variety of cultures ranged from nomadic hunters and gatherers
to farmers who lived in wooden houses (Schaefer 2004). Each group had its own norms
and values—and the usual ethnocentric pride in its own culture. Consider what happened
in 1744 when the colonists of Virginia offered college scholarships for “savage lads.” The
Iroquois replied:

“Several of our young people were formerly brought up at the colleges of Northern Prov-
inces. They were instructed in all your sciences. But when they came back to us, they were
This depiction breaks stereotypes, but bad runners, ignorant of every means of living in the woods, unable to bear either cold or
is historically accurate. Shown here is
an Iroquois fort. Can you guess who hunger, knew neither how to build a cabin, take a deer, or kill an enemy. . . . They were
the attackers are? totally good for nothing.”
They added, “If the English gentlemen would send a dozen or two of their children to
Onondaga, the great Council would take care of thfeir education, bring them up in really
what was the best manner and make men of them.” (Nash 1974; in McLemore 1994)

Native Americans, who numbered about
10 million, had no immunity to the diseases
the Europeans brought with them. With
deaths due to disease—and warfare, a much
lesser cause—their population plummeted
(Schaefer 2012). The low point came in 1890,
when the census reported only 250,000 Native
Americans. If the census and the estimate of
the original population are accurate, Native
Americans had been reduced to about one-
fortieth their original size. The population has
never recovered, but Native Americans now
number about 4 million (see Figure 9.5 on
page 271). Native Americans, who today speak
169 different languages, do not think of them-
selves as a single people who fit neatly within a
single label (Siebens and Julian 2011).
From Treaties to Genocide and Population
Transfer. At first, the Native Americans
tried to accommodate the strangers, since