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In the article The Clash of Cultures, William Cronon and Richard White delve into “the interrelations between people and their environment,” (11) specifically, between the American Indians and the Europeans and the Americas. The reason Cronon and White wrote this article was, “In part, a result of our current concern with pollution and the exhaustion of valuable natural resources, but it has also proved to be a valuable way of learning more about how people of past generations and different cultures dealt with nature and with one another.” (11)
The thesis of this article is summed up very well in the quote that was just stated; but how does this thesis develop? It can be summarized in five different examples taken from the article:
The first is that from the unlearned ahistorical view, the Indians lived and moved around America without hardly leaving a trace, they left it “natural”, a very European way at looking at it. But William Cronon and Richard White pointed out how this, in a way, demeans the Indians and makes them seem more like an animal species and thus, deprives them of their culture. And this also makes it seem that changes to nature are negative, and the “ideal” world is to not look live we were even there. Again, this is and was a very European way at looking at it. But the Indians did in fact affect their
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surroundings, that they planted trees to make forests and burnt forests to create farmland. This is just one example of how the Indians affected their surroundings. The second is how the Indians and Europeans dealt with nature was why they kill animals. Europeans often slaughtered animals for monetary gain; but why Indians killed animals is a much more complex situation. “To kill an animal was to be involved in a social relationship with the animal. One thing that impressed me about Indians I’ve known is their realization that this is a harsh planet, that they survive by the deaths of other creatures . . . that those animals have somehow surrendered themselves to you . . . it seems to me hopeless to try to impose that attitude onto Western culture.” (12-13) The third, “The Europeans brought with them disease the Indians had never experienced. The resulting death rates are almost impossible to imagine: 90 to 95 percent in some places.” (14) this third point may be the most major way of how the Europeans very strongly and indirectly affected the Indians. The fourth is the classic example of the fur trade. The Europeans came with goods that the Indians didn’t have such as kettles, alcohol, and guns. The Indians wanted these goods so they traded for example fur, food, and land (fur being the most prevalent way). But as more Indians wanted the European goods, the more they hunted the beaver and other fur bearing animals. After a while, the numbers of these fur bearing animals dropped dramatically until there were nearly extinct. This is a great example of how the Europeans affected the Indians, which in turn, affected the Americas. The final example of how the thesis developed is that the trade between the Europeans and the Indians was very different from each of their points of view.
The Europeans saw it as we see it today. I have blankets, you have fur, I will give you x amount of blankets for y about of furs. The Indians saw it very differently, they saw it more like how we view Christmas. I give you a gift, you give me a gift of something near the same value, not because you have to, but because you valued the relationship that you have with the other person and that gave you an obligation to gift that person back with something that is reasonably the same
value. This article considerably contributes to my understanding of this time period in the Americas. It definitely gave me the knowledge that the Indians did in fact affect their surroundings, that they planted and burned trees to create farmland and forests, and how they over hunted many different animals. and almost all the examples were not in the textbook. It also showed that the Indians were not the “noble savage” that most people attribute to them, they were quite civilized people. It is important to read this article so that you may increase your knowledge in the US History field. Without this article I would have just kept thinking that the Indians hadn’t affected the US in any major way and would have thought them as the “noble savage”, rather than civilized people. In summary, there is hardly an article out there that doesn’t have at least a strength and weakness. The largest strength that this article has is that it gives a different perspective on the areas of Indian history that may not have been thought of otherwise. Possibly its greatest weakness is that it mostly focused on the New England Indians rather than all the Indians of the Americas. This gives facts on a specific area, and is not necessarily applicable to all of the Indians of the Americas. But all in all, this article is a ‘must’ read for anyone studying how Indians and Europeans of past generations and different cultures dealt with nature and with one another, in America.
The other author to provide readers with a different historical perspective is Daniel Richter. Richter’s book Facing East from Indian Country allows readers to see the story of coming to America from the Native American perspective. An interesting point that Richter makes in his book is “Perhaps the strangest lesson of all was that in the new nation whites were the ones entitled to be called “Americans” Indians bizarrely became something else” . In early America when the first Europeans arrived to America they mistakenly referred to the natives as “Indians”. Even people today use the term “Indian” when referring to the Native
It seems that in the 21st century and even during the colonizing of America, the interpretation of Native Americans is and had been that they were savages and live a barbaric lifestyle. That they had no order or way of life. When presented with the topic of Native Americans and Colonists in the New World, it is easy to assume warfare and bloodshed amongst the two parties. That the Colonists were constantly in mini battles with the Native Americans. It is also easy to assume that the land in the New World was unsettling to the eyes. This is due to records from the colonist times, calling the lands “wild” or “wildlands”. In Robbie Ethridge’s book Creek Country, she tries to debunk these interpretations mentioned above. She does so by using an
Pages one to sixty- nine in Indian From The Inside: Native American Philosophy and Cultural Renewal by Dennis McPherson and J. Douglas Rabb, provides the beginning of an in-depth analysis of Native American cultural philosophy. It also states the ways in which western perspective has played a role in our understanding of Native American culture and similarities between Western culture and Native American culture. The section of reading can be divided into three lenses. The first section focus is on the theoretical understanding of self in respect to the space around us. The second section provides a historical background into the relationship between Native Americans and British colonial power. The last section focus is on the affiliation of otherworldliness that exist between
Local histories written in the nineteenth century are often neglected today. Yet from these accounts, one can see a pattern develop: the myth of Indian extinction, the superiority of White colonists and also to understand how American attitudes and values evolved. The myths were put forth for a reason according to Jean O’Brien. O’Brien explains how the process came to fruition in Firsting and Lasting: Writing Indians Out of Existence in New England. In the majority of local town histories, Indians are mentioned in passing, as a past that will never return. Indians were ancient, whereas English colonists brought modernity to New England. Jean O’Brien argues that local histories were the primary means by which white European Americans asserted
Cronon raises the question of the belief or disbelief of the Indian’s rights to the land. The Europeans believed the way Indians used the land was unacceptable seeing as how the Indians wasted the natural resources the land had. However, Indians didn’t waste the natural resources and wealth of the land but instead used it differently, which the Europeans failed to see. The political and economical life of the Indians needed to be known to grasp the use of the land, “Personal good could be replaced, and their accumulation made little sense for ecological reasons of mobility,” (Cronon, 62).
In Thomas King’s novel, The Inconvenient Indian, the story of North America’s history is discussed from his original viewpoint and perspective. In his first chapter, “Forgetting Columbus,” he voices his opinion about how he feel towards the way white people have told America’s history and portraying it as an adventurous tale of triumph, strength and freedom. King hunts down the evidence needed to reveal more facts on the controversial relationship between the whites and natives and how it has affected the culture of Americans. Mainly untangling the confusion between the idea of Native Americans being savages and whites constantly reigning in glory. He exposes the truth about how Native Americans were treated and how their actual stories were
The article, “Native Reactions to the invasion of America”, is written by a well-known historian, James Axtell to inform the readers about the tragedy that took place in the Native American history. All through the article, Axtell summarizes the life of the Native Americans after Columbus acquainted America to the world. Axtell launches his essay by pointing out how Christopher Columbus’s image changed in the eyes of the public over the past century. In 1892, Columbus’s work and admirations overshadowed the tears and sorrows of the Native Americans. However, in 1992, Columbus’s undeserved limelight shifted to the Native Americans when the society rediscovered the history’s unheard voices and became much more evident about the horrific tragedy of the Natives Indians.
The Indians thought of land very differently to the white man. The land was sacred, there was no ownership, and it was created by the great spirit. They could not sell their land to others, whereas the white people could fence off the land which belonged to them, and sell it freely to whoever they wanted. The Europeans didn't think that the Indians were using the land properly, so in their eyes, they were doing a good favour to the earth. To the Indians, the land was more valuable than the money that the white man had brought with him, even though it didn't belong to them.
Many people are under a false impression that early Native Americans are the original environmentalists. This is an impression that many people share. The Abenaki tribes that resided in Maine from 3700 BP were not by our traditional definition, environmentalists. In fact they were far from ecologically sound. This paper is meant not to criticize the Native Americans of the age, but to clarify their roles in the environment. To better understand this subject some background is needed.
American Indians shaped their critique of modern America through their exposure to and experience with “civilized,” non-Indian American people. Because these Euro-Americans considered traditional Indian lifestyle savage, they sought to assimilate the Indians into their civilized culture. With the increase in industrialization, transportation systems, and the desire for valuable resources (such as coal, gold, etc.) on Indian-occupied land, modern Americans had an excuse for “the advancement of the human race” (9). Euro-Americans moved Indians onto reservations, controlled their education and practice of religion, depleted their land, and erased many of their freedoms. The national result of this “conquest of Indian communities” was a steady decrease of Indian populations and drastic increase in non-Indian populations during the nineteenth century (9). It is natural that many American Indians felt fearful that their culture and people were slowly vanishing. Modern America to American Indians meant the destruction of their cultural pride and demise of their way of life.
During the 16th and 17th centuries, when the Europeans started to come over to the new world, they discovered a society of Indians that was strikingly different to their own. To understand how different, one must first compare and contrast some of the very important differences between them, such as how the Europeans considered the Indians to be extremely primitive and basic, while, considering themselves civilized. The Europeans considered that they were model societies, and they thought that the Indians society and culture should be changed to be very similar to their own.
Native Americans lived on the land that is now called America, but when white settlers started to take over the land, many lives of Native Americans were lost. Today, many people believe that the things that have been done and are being done right now, is an honor or an insult to the Natives. The choices that were made and being made were an insult to the Native Americans that live and used to live on this land, by being insulted by land policies, boardings schools and modern issues, all in which contain mistreatment of the Natives. The power that the settlers and the people who governed them had, overcame the power of the Natives so the settlers took advantage and changed the Natives way of life to the
However the Native Americans strongly regarded their way of live. In their culture the order of nature, was vastly important. It was understood that there was an order to which nature worked and because of this they were tied to the land. They could not comprehend how the whites could “wander far from the graves of [their] ancestors and seemingly without regret” (Chief Joseph 2). The white settlers came to America and immediately started to conquer the land, without feeling any shame. To the Native Americans that was shocking, for they believed that “even the rocks, which seem to be dumb and dead...[had] memories of stirring events connected with the lives of [their] people” (Chief Joseph 3). They did not understand how someone could forget their ancestors, and fight nature in such a way that there is room for nobody but themselves. All the same though the white settlers could not see that what they were doing as wrong. They had come to the West to begin a new chapter in life, and if the Native Americans could not accept this, then they had to be dealt with.
In the article review “ How the West was Lost” the author, William T. Hagan explains that in a brief thirty-eight year period between 1848 and 1886, the Indians of the Western United States lost their fight with the United States to keep their lands. While nothing in the article tells us who Hagan is, or when the article was written, his central theme of the article is to inform us of how the Indians lost their lands to the white settlers. I found three main ideas in the article that I feel that Hagan was trying to get across to us. Hagan put these events geographically and chronologically in order first by Plains Indians, then by the Western Indians.
The Native Americans or American Indians, once occupied all of the entire region of the United States. They were composed of many different groups, who speaked hundreds of languages and dialects. The Indians from the Southwest used to live in large built terraced communities and their way of sustain was from the agriculture where they planted squash, pumpkins, beans and corn crops. Trades between neighboring tribes were common, this brought in additional goods and also some raw materials such as gems, cooper. seashells and soapstone.To this day, movies and television continue the stereotype of Indians wearing feathered headdresses killing innocent white settlers. As they encountered the Europeans, automatically their material world was changed. The American Indians were amazed by the physical looks of the white settlers, their way of dressing and also by their language. The first Indian-White encounter was very peaceful and trade was their principal interaction. Tension and disputes were sometimes resolved by force but more often by negotiation or treaties. On the other hand, the Natives were described as strong and very innocent creatures awaiting for the first opportunity to be christianized. The Indians were called the “Noble Savages” by the settlers because they were cooperative people but sometimes, after having a few conflicts with them, they seem to behaved like animals. We should apprehend that the encounter with the settlers really amazed the natives, they were only used to interact with people from their own race and surroundings and all of this was like a new discovery for them as well as for the white immigrants. The relations between the English and the Virginian Indians was somewhat strong in a few ways. They were having marriages among them. For example, when Pocahontas married John Rolfe, many said it has a political implication to unite more settlers with the Indians to have a better relation between both groups. As for the Indians, their attitude was always friendly and full of curiosity when they saw the strange and light-skinned creatures from beyond the ocean. The colonists only survived with the help of the Indians when they first settler in Jamestown and Plymouth. In this areas, the Indians showed the colonists how to cultivate crops and gather seafood.The Indians changed their attitude from welcome to hostility when the strangers increased and encroached more and more on hunting and planting in the Natives’ grounds.