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History of native american art
History of native american art
Native american artwork influenced by europeans
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In the document “Doomed to Perish”: George Catlin’s Depictions of the Mandan by Katheryn S. Hight, she analyzes the work of George Catlin while he traveled to the Mandan colony west of the Missouri River. Hight identifies that Catlin created a false and imaginative depiction of the Mandan Indians based on his social and political ideas which ended up creating an entertainment enterprise rather than reporting history. Catlin’s extravagant depictions of the Indians, which did have an impact on the Indian Policy in America, seemingly motivates Hight to write on this subject. Hight begins this paper by giving a background on Catlin and his work. By giving the reader and overview of some of his work and his influence it sets up for a good transition into his position and the importance of Indian Policy. Her entire argument examines Catlin’s paintings and their influence on the Indian Policy and the Indian Removal. She identifies …show more content…
She identifies that Caitlin saw it as an opportunity to show the audience the entertaining Wild West but also to assure people of the vanishing Indian threat. Some of the main work in the gallery (Portraits of Black Hawk and Osceola) were of leaders that lived east of the Mississippi, not in fact western like the Mandan’s. They were also imprisoned and not the free and wild men that Catlin was expressing. As Hight identifies the portrait of Osceola had a large impact in how his Indian paintings and gallery influenced the Indian Policy. Osceola died shortly after the portrait was drawn and was very sick while it was done. The portrait of him was depicted as a strong and healthy man when in fact he was the opposite. This supported that idea of the Vanishing Race Theory Through this observation Hight identifies that this was seen as entertainment and could make a large
In 1893, Simon Pokagon spoke at the Chicago World’s Columbian Exposition. He was a prominent tribal leader who was known for this speech. So much so, it was printed and turned into an informative pamphlet. The speech encompassed American history and it’s push Westward, detailing the destruction of the Native lands and culture forever. He begins by telling the crowd about how he cannot celebrate with them in this great big new city, because it reminds him of all that was lost. Pokagon states, “where stands this “Queen City of the West” once stood the red man’s wigwams;” (Page 32). A bold statement follows about how nature was plentiful, until pale face came with their
In The White Man’s Indian, Robert Berkhoffer analyzes how Native Americans have maintained a negative stereotype because of Whites. As a matter of fact, this book examines the evolution of Native Americans throughout American history by explaining the origin of the Indian stereotype, the change from religious justification to scientific racism to a modern anthropological viewpoint of Native Americans, the White portrayal of Native Americans through art, and the policies enacted to keep Native Americans as Whites perceive them to be. In the hope that Native Americans will be able to overcome how Whites have portrayed them, Berkhoffer is presenting
When the Europeans first migrated to America, they didn’t know much about the ancestral background of the different types of the Indian tribes that were settled in Virginia and along the East Coast. Many of the Indian tribes became hostile towards the colonist because the colonists were interfering with their way of life. This lead the natives to attempt to destroy the frontier settlements. Many forts in this area were erected to protect the settlers and their families. One the historical land...
In the introduction, Hämäläinen introduces how Plains Indians horse culture is so often romanticized in the image of the “mounted warrior,” and how this romanticized image is frequently juxtaposed with the hardships of disease, death, and destruction brought on by the Europeans. It is also mentioned that many historians depict Plains Indians equestrianism as a typical success story, usually because such a depiction is an appealing story to use in textbooks. However, Plains Indians equestrianism is far from a basic story of success. Plains equestrianism was a double-edged sword: it both helped tribes complete their quotidian tasks more efficiently, but also gave rise to social issues, weakened the customary political system, created problems between other tribes, and was detrimental to the environment.
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
Native American’s place in United States history is not as simple as the story of innocent peace loving people forced off their lands by racist white Americans in a never-ending quest to quench their thirst for more land. Accordingly, attempts to simplify the indigenous experience to nothing more than victims of white aggression during the colonial period, and beyond, does an injustice to Native American history. As a result, historians hoping to shed light on the true history of native people during this period have brought new perceptive to the role Indians played in their own history. Consequently, the theme of power and whom controlled it over the course of Native American/European contact is being presented in new ways. Examining the evolving
Author and Indian Activist, Vine Deloria makes compelling statements in chapters 1 and 5 of his Indiana Manifesto, “Custer Died For Your Sins.” Although published in 1969 this work lays important historical ground work for understanding the plight of the Indian. Written during the turbulent civil rights movement, Deloria makes many comparisons to the Black plight in the United States. He condemns the contemporary views toward Indians widely help by Whites. He argues that Indians are wrongly seen through the historical lens of a pipe smoking, bow and arrow wielding savage. Deloria views the oppressors and conquerors of the Indian mainly in the form of the United States federal government and Christian missionaries. The author’s overall thesis is that whites view Indians the way they want to see them which is not based in reality. The behavior of whites towards Indians reflects this false perception in law, culture and public awareness.
Smith, Paul Chaat. 2009. Everything You Know about Indian Is Wrong. Minneapolis: Unviersity of Minnesota Press. Print.
Bibliography: Bibliography 1. John Majewski, History of the American Peoples: 1840-1920 (Dubuque: Kent/Hunt Publishing, 2001). 2.
Patricia K. Ouranda published a manuscript in 1926 entitled The Menominee Indians: A History. This book covers the innumerable conflicts between the Menominee tribe and the federal government, other tribes, and itself, and invariably references the grandson of the Great Chief, Reginald Oshkosh. While the text refers to Chief Oshkosh the Brave with active language, such as stating he “ascended” to his position, “earned his title”, and “gained prestige within the tribe”, the language used to describe Reginald Oshkosh starkly contrasts the spirited language. The only characterization attributed to Reginald is his “quiet ability to confound those who asked him foolish questions”, and twice more is his “quiet” and “unassuming” nature commented upon.
He argues that modern white men see Native American culture as a novelty that they can steal as easily as they stole the land from the Indians in the first place. Alexie writes that this stolen culture stretches across many mediums, from movies to lectures to fake Indian artifacts. He writes, “The Men’s movement seems designed to appropriate and mutate so many aspects of Native American traditions” (155). The article centers on this point, that the culture of Native Americans is being used in a novelty-type way. The author’s specific use of tone is again apparent when he refers to this commercialization as “Indians “R” Us” (155), the use of this colloquialism is a perfect example of how the authors tone conveys his attitude. However, it is important to be honest and straightforward about the impact of this “men’s movement” on the culture and the feelings of the Indian people, who have already suffered extensively. The author uses certain words to make sure that like in many objective history books the exploitation of his culture is not quickly brushed
Utley, Robert M. The Indian Frontier of the American West 1846-1890. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1984.
One of the most famous tragedies in United States history, the battle on the banks of the Greasy Grass River is better known as “Custer’s Last Stand” or the “Battle of the Little Bighorn”. The event has undergone copious scrutinization for many years by historians, but it is seldom that anyone addresses it from the Native American standpoint. Books, essays and journal articles can be found that discuss Custer’s faulty strategies from a military standpoint and his arrogance. There are even songs that have been written about the fear of his soldiers as the followed him into battle. All of this study and documentation is from the United States standpoint, however; studies from the Native American viewpoint are sparse and hard to find.
A reader of Sherman Alexie’s novel Reservation Blues enters the text with similar assumptions of Native American life, unless of course, he or she is of that particular community. If he or she is not, however, there is the likelihood that the ‘typical’ reader has images of Native Americans based upon long-held social stereotypes of the Lone Ranger’s Tonto and Kevin Costner’s “Dances With Wolves,” possibly chastened with some positive, homey images of the First Thanksgiving as well. However, Alexie’s prose forces one to apprehend Native American life anew, and to see Native Americans as fully-fledged individual characters, with wants and needs and desires, not as those who are simply stoic and ‘other.’
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.