When regarding the character Blackbird from the autobiographical book Blackbird by Andrew Blackbird, one can only describe his as contradictory. Throughout the story, he makes several statements that are antithetical to each other when addressing different topics. It is difficult to exactly ascertain Blackbird’s feelings on controversial subjects as often the answer is not always black and white, especially when analyzing his attitude towards the colonization of the states by white Europeans. In general, Blackbird’s views towards the new white settlers can be described as largely unsavory and critical. Blackbird begins his sorrowful story by regaling his audience with memories of better days before the white settlers made their first appearance …show more content…
in the tribal land of the Ottawas and Chippewas of Michigan. He describes a peaceful life where the tribe always had plenty of game to hunt and fish to catch, there was no adultery or murder, and perhaps, most importantly, alcohol was rarely ever consumed; After all, Blackbird does believe that “most of those cases of murders were brought on through the bad influence of white men, by introducing into the tribes this great destroyer of mankind, soul, and body, intoxicating liquors!” (9). Blackbird changes his tune when he reports tribal life after the arrival of white people, saying, “But now our living is altogether different, as we are continually suffering under great anxiety, and continually being robbed and cheated in various ways. Our houses have been forcibly entered for thieving purposes and murder, people have been knocked down and robbed…” (8). Blackbird clearly blames the white settlers for disrupting the harmony and tranquility of the tribe. Not only does Blackbird condemn the white people for disrupting the way of life of the Indians and bringing sin to the tribes, but also does he condemn them for the declining number and culture of Indians.
A significant portion of the Ottawa population was quite directly obliterated when they were sold a package in Montreal that was supposed to contain a great device that would make their lives better. Instead of a wonderful panacea that would alleviate their hardships, the package only exposed the tribe to smallpox and scores of Indians and their entire families were wiped out. Blackbird concludes this tragedy by telling his audience “It is generally believed among the Indians of Arbor Croche that this wholesale murder of the Ottawas by this terrible disease sent by the British people, was actuated through hatred, and expressly to kill of the Ottawas and Chippewas because they were friends of the French Government or French King, whom they called “Their Great Father”,” (6). Blackbird mentions the intermarriage with the white settlers and Indians and how the white men took off leaving their wives and half-breed children behind. Because of the integration between the two peoples, including furthering the populace with biracial children, most Indians also speak English and the profanity that comes with it, and some do not speak Indian languages at all. Upon this loss of culture, Blackbird remarks that “In a few more generations they will be so intermingled with the Caucasian …show more content…
race as to be hardly distinguishable from the Indian nations, and their language will be lost,” (17). Overall, Blackbird holds contempt for the loss of the culture and community as he knew it, a loss that can be only be ascribed to the direct, and indirect, hand of white settlers. The suffering for the Indians has no end in sight for Blackbird, who asserts that the white people are holding back the advancement of his people.
Though for a time there were missionaries who encamped in the tribal land, opening up schoolhouses and teaching the Indians proper education in hopes that they could one day succeed in finding a career, these schools were eventually closed. Blackbird clearly recognizes this inadequacy and seeks to rectify the situation by speaking out at the 1855 Council of Detroit. Afterwards, Blackbird recalls writing in an article about “how our educational fund, $8000 per annum had been handled and conducted for nearly twenty years, and yet not one Indian youth could spell the simplest word in the English language,” (44). Despite the fact that he should have had ample funds for college provided by the United States government and how he lived on the absolute bare minimum to get by, Blackbird can not finish his schooling for fear of starving death without enough money for both food and an education. The tribe had high hopes for Blackbird’s brother, William, an aspiring priest, but he was murdered before his ordination by men who were angered that an Indian was as esteemed as they were and because he had been counseling the tribes on their land treaties. Despite not believing this conspiracy at first, Blackbird comments that “Yet it may be possible, for we have learned that we cannot always trust the American people as to their integrity and
stability in well doing with us,” (30). After much strife, Blackbird himself is given a respectable position as postmaster and thinks things will finally be alright for him, but when powerful opponents of his covet his position they make up lies to have him fired. To keep his job after the false complaints, Blackbird spends his life savings on building a bigger office, only to be fired anyway. Blackbird laments, “This left me penniless in this cold world, to battle on and to struggle for my existence,” (50). Blackbird’s criticism on this matter is not without just cause, and his restraint in doing so is remarkable in itself as he only scratches the surface on a litany of wrongdoings. All in all, Blackbird is a complex man, whose criticisms could sometimes be seen as hypocritical in light of his own actions; but his words hold a certain truth to the cruelty that white settlers doled out upon the Indians to make way for their own dreams and aspirations, all the while stomping out the rich culture and vast population of a once proud people to create a country with no room for Indians in their own homeland.
Thomas King uses an oral story-telling style of writing mingled with western narrative in his article “You’re Not the Indian I Had in Mind” to explain that Indians are not on the brink of extinction. Through this article in the Racism, Colonialism, and Indigeneity in Canada textbook, King also brings some focus to the topic of what it means to be “Indian” through the eyes of an actual Aboriginal versus how Aboriginals are viewed by other races of people. With his unique style of writing, King is able to bring the reader into the situations he describes because he writes about it like a story he is telling.
A different perspective on a smallpox epidemic during the French and Indian War appears in Andrew J. Blackbird's History of the Ottawa and Chippewa Indians of Michigan. Blackbird, Chief Mack-e-te-be-nessy, was a member of a distinguished Ottawa family from the northwest shore of the Michigan lower peninsula. He wrote his History late in life, after a long career in education, politics, and public service.
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.
When it all comes down to it, one of the greatest intellectual battles U.S. history was the legendary disagreement between Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. DuBois. This intellectual debate sparked the interest of the Northerners as well as the racist whites that occupied the south. This debate was simply about how the blacks, who just gained freedom from slavery, should exist in America with the white majority. Even though Washington and DuBois stood on opposite sides of the fence they both agreed on one thing, that it was a time for a change in the treatment of African Americans. I chose his topic to write about because I strongly agree with both of the men’s ideas but there is some things about their views that I don’t agree with. Their ideas and views are the things that will be addressed in this essay.
...Walt Whitman’s Alabama birds, Harper Lee’s Alabama presents a bleak picture of a narrow world torn by hatred , injustice, violence and cruelty, and we lament to see ‘what man has made of man’. It brings out forcefully the condition of Negro subculture in the white world where a Negro, as dark as a mockingbird, is accepted largely as a servant or at best as an entertainer (Dave 245).
Jim had a rough childhood. His mother and father had 11 children, six of which died at an early age. He had a very close relationship with his brother; they did everything together. They hunted, fished, played sports, and rode horses, and when pneumonia took the life of young Charles; Jim was heartbroken. Due to his death, Jim fell into a depression. He lost interest in athletics and his schooling, and constantly ran away from school. In 1898, his father, who was of European descent, sent him to Haskell Indian Junior College; a government managed boarding school located about 300 miles away from home in Lawrence, Kansas. This school took in young Native Americans and tried to “civilize” them. Jim was not permitted to speak his native Sac and Fox language and was forced to let go of his Indian traditions. Jim still held dear to his heritage despite these circumstances. It was here where he first wa...
The Native American was offered less for his furs than before they went to church, which he thinks was unfair and a way to swindle the Native Americans. He mentions, “they pretended of meeting to learn good Things, the real purpose was to consult how to cheat Indians in the Price of Beaver” (Franklin 930). Franklin feels genuinely for the Native Americans for the inconsistencies with the colonials they habitually tolerate. In contrast, Rowlandson considers only the Native Americans’ hypocrisy at events such as they are grieving with their lost lives while joyfully celebrating the unjustified killings of the Englishmen. She says, “they mourned (with their black faces) for their own losses, yet triumphed and rejoiced in their inhumane, and many times devilish cruelty to the English” (Rowlandson
“Quantie’s weak body shuddered from a blast of cold wind. Still, the proud wife of the Cherokee chief John Ross wrapped a woolen blanket around her shoulders and grabbed the reins.” Leading the final group of Cherokee Indians from their home lands, Chief John Ross thought of an old story that was told by the chiefs before him, of a place where the earth and sky met in the west, this was the place where death awaits. He could not help but fear that this place of death was where his beloved people were being taken after years of persecution and injustice at the hands of white Americans, the proud Indian people were being forced to vacate their lands, leaving behind their homes, businesses and almost everything they owned while traveling to an unknown place and an uncertain future. The Cherokee Indians suffered terrible indignities, sickness and death while being removed to the Indian territories west of the Mississippi, even though they maintained their culture and traditions, rebuilt their numbers and improved their living conditions by developing their own government, economy and social structure, they were never able to return to their previous greatness or escape the injustices of the American people.
...placed in the Blackfoot that led to a social breakdown within the communities, such as alcoholism, depression, and violence, which further distanced many Blackfoot from their culture and language (Bastien, 2004). As much of what has been written here has been focused on the Blackfoot culture and the ways it has been impacted by settlers, language will now be discussed more in-depth to further illustrate how it has also been impacted.
Paton is able to convey the idea of racial injustice and tension thoroughly throughout the novel as he writes about the tragedy of “Christian reconciliation” of the races in the face of almost unforgivable sin in which the whites treat the blacks unjustly and in return the blacks create chaos leaving both sides uneasy with one another. The whites push the natives down because they do no want to pay or educate them, for they fear “ a better-paid labor will also read more, think more, ask more, and will not be conten...
At these boarding schools, Native American children were able to leave their Indian reservations to attend schools that were often run by wealthy white males. These individuals often did not create these schools with the purest of intentions for they often believed that land occupied by Native American Tribes should be taken from them and put to use; it is this belief that brought about the purpose of the boarding schools which was to attempt to bring the Native American community into mainstream society (Bloom, 1996). These boarding schools are described to have been similar to a military institution or a private religious school. The students were to wear uniforms and obey strict rules that included not speaking one’s native tongue but rather only speaking English. Punishments for not obeying such rules often included doing laborious chores or being physically reprimanded (Bloom, 1996). Even with hars...
“The history of the American Negro is the history of this strife, – this longing to attain self-consciousness, manhood, to merge his double self into a better and truer self. In this merging he wishes neither of the older selves to be lost. He would not Africanize America, for America has too much to teach the world and Africa. He would not bleach his Negro soul in a flood of white Americanism, for he knows that Negro blood has a message f...
To conclude, the criticisms of the book The New Negro are mostly distributed by the experience of the author who did not get exposed enough to understand his own race even though he seems to show his
Baldwin and his ancestors share this common rage because of the reflections their culture has had on the rest of society, a society consisting of white men who have thrived on using false impressions as a weapon throughout American history. Baldwin gives credit to the fact that no one can be held responsible for what history has unfolded, but he remains restless for an explanation about the perception of his ancestors as people. In Baldwin?s essay, his rage becomes more directed as the ?power of the white man? becomes relevant to the misfortune of the American Negro (Baldwin 131). This misfortune creates a fire of rage within Baldwin and the American Negro. As Baldwin?s American Negro continues to build the fire, the white man builds an invisible wall around himself to avoid confrontation about the actions of his ?forefathers? (Baldwin 131). Baldwin?s anger burns through his other emotions as he writes about the enslavement of his ancestors and gives the reader a shameful illusion of a Negro slave having to explai...