Kristen Davis

Mr. Thompson
English 1301, 27
November 15, 2016
Avatar Research Paper
The native tribes of the Navi were peaceful beings one with nature. They respected their
land and all other creatures as well as other tribes that inhabited it. The same could be said of the
Native Americans who were once the main inhabitants of America. They lived peacefully among
their tribe and held bonds with the Earth. The lifestyle and fate of the Navi create an allusion to
the Native Americans in three significant ways, unity and oneness with nature, invasion of a
foreign people into their land, and an unwilling exile from their homes.
The Navi exhibited a high regard as well as unfaltering respect for other animals or
creatures. At one point during the movie, Jake was separated from Grace and the others in the
group and left alone in the wilderness at night. He could hear the sounds of animals coming
closer and closer as he tried to light a makeshift torch; when it finally lit, the light revealed a
pack of Viperwolves. After attempting to fight the wolves off himself, Neytiri, a Navi, saved
Jakes life by killing the remaining Viperwolves. After ignoring Jakes thanks for her saving him,
Neytiri lashes out saying Dont thank! You dont thank for this! this is sad, very sad only. They
did not need to die. It is evident by her defensiveness of the vicious Viperwolves the respect that
she held for other living creatures. Native Americans also followed a standard of equality
between their lives and animals. While hunting, before killing the animal, they would first ask
permission of the animals spirit. Both the Navi and Native Americans believed they could, and
were successful in forming close bonds with animals, close enough for the person and animal to
understand the same language. When Jake made the bond with the Ikran, he was able to verbally
tell it what to do and it obeyed. The Lakota Indians also believed they were capable of such
bonds. They believed they could get so spiritually close to animals that both human and animal

were able to understand and speak the same language. Unfortunately, the spiritual, natural lives
of the two groups were interrupted by unwelcomed guests.
In Avatar, Pandora was invaded by people from Earth who were after a precious material
called Unobtanium, which sold for twenty grand a kilo. The land was rich in such material, but
especially rich in the ground under the home of the Omaticaya tribe. In an attempt to gain the
Navis trust, or rather control, the people from Earth offered education, medicine, and even the
building of new roads to the tribe. However, the Navi were not interested in the offers. This is
profoundly similar to the British settlers who came to the New World. Some settlers were in
search of gold, but all the Natives had to offer were the resources of the land. Settlers taught
Native Americans English, Christianity, and how to act what they believed was civilized. The
Native Americans taught the settlers how to grow different crops and hunt. Tobacco became the
cash crop and a successful profit. More settlers came to the New World, and land became as
precious or even more so than gold. As more and more came in, the Natives began to be forced
out, and just as the Natives faced the grievances of land lust, so did the Navi.
Colonel Miles Quaritch, Head of Security, led his soldiers in the destruction of the
Navis Home Tree. When the Omaticaya tribe realized it was useless to fight back, they
retreated, but not without casualties. The soldiers and aircrafts shot missiles and fire at the
colossal tree until it crashed down into the forest. The tribe climbed up a mountain away from
the blazing forest carrying what they had left. Cries and moans of despair erupted from the line
as they slowly moved up the mountain. This scene of devastation resembles that of the Trail of
Tears in 1838. Soldiers were sent to remove the Cherokee Indians from their homeland, forcing
them across the Mississippi River into Indian Territory where they were promised safety and
untouched land. The Cherokees marched by foot on the agonizingly long journey. The people

were ridden with sickness and suffering from starvation. For many, death was inevitable. Not
only was their land stolen, but so were the lives of more than five-thousand Cherokee Indians.
The Navi and Native Americans are undoubtedly alike. Both suffered from the lusts of
the greedy, selfish, and prideful. In 1607, the British wanted to escape the land they destroyed, so
they hopped over the creek to destroy another mans land. In 2154, the people on Earth had
destroyed their land, and were on the search to destroy another mans land. Their eyes were set
on Pandora, a place rich in resources. Forgotten history is bound to repeat itself, but luckily for
the Navi, the outcome was not bound to the same fate as the Native Americans.