As Schaefer explains, the U.S. government implemented forced removal policies, such as the Indian Removal Act of 1830, which led to the Trail of Tears—an example of ethnic cleansing. Later, assimilation efforts like the boarding school system aimed to erase Native identity. The image reflects how Indigenous people have been criminalized for resisting this oppression. Even today, Native communities face surveillance and militarized policing when they protest land exploitation, such as during the Standing Rock movement.

The term “internal colonialism” from the chapter also fits—describing how the U.S. continues to control and exploit Native lands and peoples within its borders. The image reframes the concept of "Homeland Security," reminding us that the original inhabitants of this land have long been defending their homelands—not threatening them. This historical and ongoing resistance is too often misrepresented in mainstream narratives.

After reading Chapter 6, I cannot lie, I'm irate to have seen this picture. I cannot believe they had the right to call these Americans "terrorists" when they were the ones doing the terrorizing. We know the history of Christopher Columbus and his misnaming of the Native Americans because he thought he was in India, but more than that, the disease and the conquest. 

I knew the Native Americans' land was taken and the atrocities they went through, but to be able to see how they did it, the systems and policies utilized against them, is shocking. To have a name for the things that were done to them, to see the structure of it, and to be able to correlate it to the things going on today is very eye-opening. Take the Indian Removal Act, they forced these tribes off their native ancestral lands to make room for colonization and settlement. But they came up with policies and forced these policies on a people who had no understanding of European ways, simply because Europeans were the dominant group. 

I mean, every law and policy they passed had the appearance of helping the Indians, the chapter said, but I can clearly see that that was not the case from an outside perspective. “The Indian Reorganization Act did facilitate tribal dealings with government agencies, but the dictation to Native Americans of certain procedures common to white society and alien to the tribes was another sign of forced assimilation.” (Schaefer, p. 137) 

First, they kicked them off the land using European laws, as if that meant anything to the Natives; and then they tried to have them assimilate. I also see a correlation between the laws passed against African Americans and the policies enacted against Native Americans. The thing that baffles me is that they're still fighting today for land and rights. Like, I read that many sports fans and college alumni find it difficult to understand why Native Americans take offense to the use of derogatory names, and I think, did you not go to college and read your history? And it brings me right back to that picture, and I’m irate and I'm amazed. 

This assignment and image hit a little close to home as my wife, and her family are Native American.  The Native people in this image show what real Niitsitapi (the real people) fighting for their home look like. The Native people being told to leave from Indian removal act and then being told to assimilate into White Society with false promises to share and equalize the land. It's no wonder why was see the Native people in the image using guns and not bows as they adapted their warfare to match the terroristic enemy that was the early settlers.  

I remember when I first went to see my wife before we got married on the reservation that she lived on I was treated with hostility among some members of the tribe. However, there are some that accepted me into their family. It almost felt like I was being watched with the same intention as the image. 

Melissa Hirst

The picture above, titled "Homeland Security: Fighting Terrorism since 1492", makes it seem like what Christopher Columbus did to the Native Americans is similar to what terrorists do today. Many Native Americans were removed from their homes and forced to move west. This was a part of the Indian Removal Act of 1830. Native Americans were forced during this time to abandon their lands that they had worked for many years and move. They were promised the opportunity to share the lands as long as they adopted white culture.

These many acts forced the first Natives to the land to very sections within the land. Many Native Americans were forced out of their culture and forced to practice white American culture. Many Native American tribes are still fighting to take back their land within the United States, as it has been a constant fight to take back what was rightfully theirs in the first place.

The image of "Homeland Security Fighting Terrorism Since 1492" relates to the themes in chapter 6 of the historical injustices and ongoing struggles faced by Native Americans, as well as the impact of colonization, cultural preservation, identity, socioeconomic status and political activism.

Homeland security, as a concept, often focuses on protecting the nation from threats, both foreign and domestic. However, for Native American communities, this can be this can be a sensitive issue due to the history of colonization, displacement, and broken treaties. Some Native Americans view the U.S government's actions, historically and currently, as a form of intrusion on their sovereignty and way of life. Additionally, many Native American reservations face unique security challenges, such as jurisdictional complexities, resource scarcity, and high rates of crime. These issues can be exacerbated by a lack of adequate resources and support from federal and state agencies, further complicating the relationship between Native American tribes and homeland security efforts.

The image, “Homeland Security: Fighting Terrorism Since 1492,” powerfully connects to Chapter 6’s discussion of Native American history. It highlights how European colonisers framed Native resistance as “savage” or threatening, even though Native Americans were defending their own homelands. Chapter 6 explains how policies such as the Indian Removal Act of 1830 and the Allotment Act of 1887 displaced tribes, destroyed cultures, and undermined sovereignty.

These forced removals and cultural suppression were justified by portraying Native peoples as obstacles to “progress,” similar to how the image ironically labels them as “terrorists.” The chapter also illustrates how this legacy persists today in systemic poverty, struggles for healthcare, and conflicts over land and environmental rights.

In this way, the image captures both past and present realities: Native Americans were criminalised for protecting their homes, and they continue to face discrimination while asserting sovereignty and identity. It challenges us to reconsider whose security was truly threatened.

Schaefer mentions the Indian Removal Act of 1830, which forced the displacement of Native nations and led to the Trail of Tears. Later, the boarding school system tried to erase indigenous identity by banning languages and cultural practices. The image highlights how Native peoples were often criminalized for resisting these injustices. This misrepresentation persists today, as seen during the Standing Rock protests, where the Indigenous are watched and face their own battles with police brutality. defending sacred land from exploitation.

As the United States continues to exert control over Native lands and peoples. The image reframes “Homeland Security” by emphasizing that Native communities have always defended their homelands, while dominant narratives have distorted their resistance.

The picture shows Native Americans with weapons under the words “Homeland Security: Fighting Terrorism Since 1492.” This connects to Chapter 6 because the chapter talks about how Native Americans were treated after Europeans arrived. Schaefer explains that colonization, westward expansion, and U.S. government policies forced Native people off their land, broke up their communities, and tried to erase their culture. For example, he describes how policies like the Indian Removal Act and the reservation system were designed to control Native peoples and take their land. What settlers called “progress” often meant violence and destruction for Native communities. Schaefer also notes how Native resistance was labeled as “savage” or “uncivilized,” even though they were simply defending their homelands and families. From the point of view of Native Americans, the Europeans were the real “terrorists” because they brought violence, disease, and destruction. The U.S. often labeled Native resistance as “savage” or dangerous, but in reality, they were just protecting their homes and families. By calling this “homeland security,” the image shows that Native people were the first defenders of the land we now call America. It reminds us that their fight was about survival and protecting their way of life.

Reading Schafer it explains that Native Americans encountered settlement in ways that were different from immigrant groups, because they were defeated as well as confined to doubt through strategy such as the Indian Removal Act and well later the adoption efforts. Even as far as today, Native populations systemic inequalities in legacies of the colonization within, health, economic opportunity and health. The image reframes "homeland security" not as a present-time agency but as the loss of self respect struggle to protect their sovereignty, culture against decades of oppression and land.

In summary this just shows how prior unfairness still connect to current treatment, still allowing is to remember that issues like inequalities and sovereignty continuously impact Native society today.

The image with the phrase “Homeland Security: Fighting Terrorism Since 1492” ties directly to the experiences of Native Americans described in Chapter 6. It reinterprets homeland security to show that Indigenous people have defended their land and communities since European colonization, resisting violence and forced removal.

For instance, the chapter covers the Indian Removal Act of 1830, which forced tribes like the Cherokee and Choctaw from their homelands, resulting in the Trail of Tears where thousands died. The image symbolizes Native resistance to such injustices. The 1890 Battle of Wounded Knee, where U.S. troops massacred hundreds of Lakota Sioux, further shows how Native resistance was met with violence, as reflected by Indigenous men holding rifles in the image.

The chapter also discusses ongoing struggles for tribal sovereignty and rights, emphasizing that Native nations continue to fight for control over their land, resources, and identity. Despite many challenges, including poverty and limited resources, Native Americans persist in organizing and advocating for justice—continuing the resistance shown since 1492.

Even today, these same ideas about security and control still affect Indigenous communities through land disputes, environmental injustice and underrepresentation in government decisions. The image is powerful because it exposes how the language of “protection” was used to excuse oppression. Chapter 6 made me realize that this pattern didn’t end in 1492 but it just changed form.

The first is not truthful as the American's would, in every case fit the role of the terrorist when referring to the land natives; the second option, sound more like it, as they have had to deal with so much oppression and inhumane action directed to their groups; such as the Indian Removal Act that was declared in 1830. This Act pushed the Natives further West on the opposite end of the Mississippi; taking their home land. The American Government attempted to rectify these actions in 1934, with the Indian Reorganization Act, which ended allotting tribal lands, and attempted to preserve what was left of Native Americans cultural reservations; but also required tribes to develop "election-based governments and leaders" (pg 136).

Though there are other policies that attempted to work in favor of the Native Americans, I think being able to self govern their own life's how the pleased before their land was invaded, would be how their favored approach. Either way the photo is meant to represent, its upsetting that anything initial event took place to begin with that would be the inspiration for photos like these to hold truth; but, we do not live in a perfect world.

Chapter 6 focuses on the history of colonization starting in 1492, when Columbus arrived and began centuries of genocide, forced relocation, broken treaties, and systemic oppression against Native nations. This chapter describes the concept of settler colonialism — a structure that not only aims to remove Indigenous people from their locations but eliminate their existence altogether. The photograph confronts this history head-on, invoking that Indigenous peoples have been resisting this erasure for over 500 years.

The chapter also explores how colonial violence is not only historical but ongoing, in the forms of militarized repression of Indigenous protests (e.g., Standing Rock in 2016). Indigenous peoples pushing back at water and sacred sites are met with police brutality, surveillance, and criminalization on a routine basis — tactics that are remarkably similar to those used by the Department of Homeland Security today. The photo calls out this hypocrisy and indicates that Indigenous resistance remains ongoing and necessary.

In short, this picture and Chapter 6 both point out that Native people have always fought to protect their homelands. What outside forces had labeled as "terrorism" was — and still is — a display of sovereignty and survival. It compels us to rethink whom we define as threats, and whom we embrace as heroes.

This was not just a thing of history. Chapter 6 goes on to suggest that to this day, many Native people suffer from higher rates of substance abuse, suicide and tendencies to shy away from governmental offerings out of distrust due to the actions that these people took against their people and all because they never thought someone else could be better at making the lives of Natives better than Natives themselves. The historical legacy is rampant in the present day as well with institutions like schools and health facilities ignoring Native point of views.