Two hundred years ago, a scientific study was conducted on the brain of Native Americans called Craniology and Phrenology. The Europeans only examined the heads of the natives and were forbidden to use the brains of any European. The Europeans did three experiments, such as decapitating the tops of their heads and filling them with sand to see if their brains were smaller than those of blacks. Europeans also looked at the bones and said that if the bones were a certain way (like the natives' cheekbones were higher) the person was considered stupid. The last experiment that the Europeans did on the American Indians was they had a little device that they would put on the head and it would open up the brain. There would be a prize for recovering a male's brain of five cents. Recovering a woman's brain would cost three cents, and finally a child's brain would cost two cents. This is when the term Redskin was invented (Poupart, 2014). While we often remember First Nations communities for their history of oppression by Europeans, as established above, current communities are defined very differently. The Anishinabeg are an independent, non-interfering sovereign nation and follow their own rules according to oral traditions. They are also a nation that has been oppressed, exploited, and even misunderstood by non-Native Americans. When asked about the definition of a sovereign nation, Selma Buckwheat (September 25, 2013), the oldest member of the Anishinabeg tribe, explains by stating, “We govern ourselves and we have our own laws” (personal communication). They have many meetings that help understand most sovereign nations. In other words, a sovereign nation is a power or territory that exists as an independent means… of paper… of government policies. The changes of the 1900s affected many people such as historians, writers, filmmakers, and other non-Native Americans, causing them to view Indians in an increasingly sympathetic way. Non-Native Americans perceived Indians as a historically oppressed minority, victimized by imperial conquests and ennobled as a peace-loving people in a sovereign nation. Works Cited Poupart, L. (2014, October 16). First Nations Studies: Social Justice. University of Wisconsin Green-Bay.Loew, P. (2001). Indian Nations of Wisconsin: Stories of Resistance and Renewal. Madison, WI: Wisconsin Historical Society Press.Mihesuah, D. (1996). Stereotypes and reality of American Indians. Atlanta: Clarity Press. Poupart, L. (2000). Ojibwe women of the Western Great Lakes. Excerpt from D2L. https://uwgb.courses.wisconsin.edu/d2l/