The Europeans brought with them a desire and will to conquer the new continent for all its richness, and also diseases that hit the Indians hard. Conflicts developed between the Natives and the Invaders, with the Europeans arriving in overwhelming numbers. The Europeans were accustomed to own land and laid claim to it while they considered the Indians to be nomads with no interest to claim land ownership. The conflicts led to many battles and wars. In these wars the Indian tribes were at a great disadvantage because of their modest numbers, nomadic life, lack of advanced weapons, and unwillingness to cooperate, even in their own defense. The Indian's were then herded into reserves and coerced into signing their land over through the use of unfair treaties.
The Europeans exploited this cultural helplessness. In exchange for items such as firs and beaver pelts to dress the upper-class of settling Europeans, the white people gave the Indian nomads small amounts of land to settle on, called reserves, and useless amounts of paper money that the Indians had no use for. A planned assimilation had already started, causing a growing strife between the white man and the natives. The outburst of society driven stereotyping and racism appeared in no time, and is still prominent in Canada and Saskatchewan.
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As children, most of us were given a playground definition of racism. Racism meant assuming bad things about someone just because of the color of his/her skin, and it is the main ingredient in cultural disunity. Think about this: Its definition actually contains three separate components. First, a racist has "bad intent." Second, a racist makes prejudiced assumptions. And third, a racist targets an unchangeable characteristic about a culture or race.
Let's begin with the notion of race as an unchangeable characteristic. Race is in our genetic makeup. We did not choose our ancestors, and the Native's did not choose theirs.
