A Study on the Causes of American Indians’
Current Life
by
Thesis Advisor: Ms.
Submitted to the B.A. Committee in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the Degree of
Bachelor of Arts in the English Department of
School of Foreign Languages of
20 May. 2010
本科生毕业论文
题目：关于美国印第安人生存现状成因的研
究
学生姓名：
指导教师：
二级学院：外国语学院
系别：英语系英语专业论文题目
专业：英语
年级：2010届
学号：
完成日期：2010年5月20日
Title:A Study on the Causes of American Indians‟ Current Life
Abstract:It is generally accepted that American Indians enjoyed a long history and created a great civilization. However, American Indians‟ current life is rather sad and miserable. Human rights are not offered equally to them. They are still restrained to live in pieces of reserved lands. Furthermore, their
culture is dying out. Therefore, the causes of American Indians‟current life are worth studying. In recent years, scholars all over the world have paid great attention to the study of American Indians‟ current life, human rights, and so on. Thus, this thesis firstly introduces some brief background information about American Indians‟ way of life, customs, culture, language and so on. Next, this paper gives facts about the sad and miserable life that they are having now. Then, this article tries to find the causes that lead to the current situation and finally draws the conclusion——a people‟s attitude toward modern and advanced civilization decides its destiny. The aim of this paper is to find the reasons why a civilization died off through history and give some inspirations for the development of a nation.
Key words: American Indian; Westward Expansion; government‟s policy;
wars; life situation
题目：关于美国印第安人生存现状成因的研究
摘要：众所周知，美国印第安人曾有着悠久的历史并创造了灿烂的文明。但如今，美国印第安人的生存现状令人堪忧，甚至有些悲惨。他们享受不到平等的人权，至今还被限制在一些保留地上，更为严重的是，他们的文化正在消失殆尽。因此，美国印第安人的生存现状值得研究。近年来，全球的学者对美国
印第安人的生存现状，人权状况等方面做了很多关注与研究。这篇论文将首先介绍一些美国印第安人生存方式、风俗、文化及语言等的背景信息。随后，文章将给出印第安人悲惨生存现状的史实。随后，文章将努力探究造成这种现状的原因并最后得出结论----一个民族对待先进文明的态度决定了它的命运。此文的目的是通过探究文明衰落的原因来为一个国家民族的发展提供启示。
关键词：美国印第安人；西进运动；政府政策；战争；生活现状
Contents
Ⅰ. Introduction (1)
Ⅱ. A Brief Introduction to American Indians (3)
Ⅲ. The American Indians‟ Current Life Situation (4)
A. The cultural decline of American Indians (4)
B. Indian religion being kept in marginalization (4)
C. Social conflicts (5)
Ⅳ. The Causes Leading to the Situation (7)
A.Wars through history (7)
B.Westward Expansion (9)
C.American government‟s Indian policies in the 20th century (10)
Ⅴ.Conclusion (12)
Works Cited (13)
Acknowledgements
My sincere gratitude first goes to Ms. , my supervisor, for his/her