Stage 1: Classification
Classification is when people establish a difference between two groups such as German and Jew. Many white Americans called the Native Americans Indians. This fits the Classification step because it is making a difference between white Americans and Native Americans. It is making it sound like they are not “true Americans”.
Stage 2: Symbolization
Symbolization is when we give names or other symbols to the classification. An example of this is when the white Americans went further to call the Natives “Redskins”. This fits symbolization because it adds a more hateful name when talking about the Native Americans.
Stage 3: Discrimination
This is where a dominant group uses the law, custom, or political power to deny the rights of the other group. One example of this is the Northwest Ordinance where the governor of Indiana purposely threatened, bribed, and intoxicated Native Americans to get them off their land.
Stage 4: Dehumanization
Dehumanization is when one group denies the humanity of the other. For instance, the white Americans called the Native Americans savages. This made them think of the Natives as things that live in the middle of nowhere.
Stage 5: Organization
Organization is when the government uses different groups to strike out against a group. This would be when people put out bounties on the Natives in order to start wiping them out.
Stage 6: Polarization
Polarization is when extremists start driving the groups apart with propaganda and more restrictions. An example of this is when Andrew Jackson signed the Indian Removal acts which gave the president the power to move any Indian Tribe off their land. This fits polarization because Andrew Jackson used his political power to do this while keeping the Native Americans silenced.
Stage 7: Preparation
Preparation is when the leaders plan the final solution to wipe out another group. They usually use euphemisms to to hide their intentions as well. This would be when the idea of a Manifest Destiny came out to the public to get them to feel like it’s their destiny to make a large great country when the government was just greedy for more land.
Stage 8: Persecution
This is when victims are identified and separated out because of their ethnic identity. This happened when white Americans moved the Natives out of their lands due to the finding of some valuable resource. This was the case with the Trail of Tears.
Stage 9: Extermination
This is when the mass killings start. This happened when the U.S. army went on their many different skirmishes against the Native Americans. They used excuses such as “making it safer for the miners to work.”
Stage 10: Denial
This happens after the genocide has died down. Americans still practice denial because all of the wars against the Natives are never taught nor is the fact that Native American children went to school so they would lose their culture. Instead we create kid stories about the Natives and none of the atrocities committed against the Natives.
