Summary Of Daniel Richter's 'Facing East From Indian Country'

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Recommended: Native American relationships with colonists

It is a beautiful day in the area modernly known as southern Mississippi. The birds are chirping, the plants are growing, and the sun is shining. The day starts off like any other in this Native American community. The women began to tend the fields and the men are preparing for the next hunt. Suddenly, many strange figures appear at the entrance of the village. These figures appear to be men but these men are far different from any Native Americans they have seen. In the beginning, these men appear to be friendly and even exchange gifts with the local groups. Not for long these relationships began to change these white men began to disrespect the local chiefs and began to dominate the lands. Interaction of this kind was common along the Native Americans and the European settlers, however, it is not exact with every Native American group. Authors that offer a different perspective on Early …show more content…

All over the country Native Americans would use this practice to prepare their fields for planting or create areas for the local wildlife. Taylor succeeds in his message of reorienting his readers view. Contrary to common belief Native Americans suffered more from European diseases and affected their local environments with fires. 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

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