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Compare and contrast the views towards nature that were held by Native Americans and Europeans
Native american world enviroment and culture
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Recommended: Compare and contrast the views towards nature that were held by Native Americans and Europeans
In Luther Standing Bear’s “Nature” and Louis Owens’s “The American Indian Wilderness”, the authors dictate differences in Indian and white relationships with nature. They stress how Indians see nature, their balanced relationship with it, and how they know wilderness is just a European idea. While agreeing here, Standing Bear focuses on the Lakota view of how Indians truly lived while Owens reveals both sides and thinks white views can shift with time. Standing Bear thinks the difference in how whites and Indians see nature stems from childhood. He believes Indian children are aware of nature and by seeing the world this way their love and respect for it flourishes (10). This appreciation sharply contrasts to ignorant whites who do not see the knowledge nature gives and views it only as something to use. He says whites are bored with nature because they do not have the “Indian point of view” (11). This distance whites have from nature harms their relationship with the land and others, making them less compassionate when they do not see that “man’s heart, away from nature, becomes hard” (12). Owens also says whites see nature differently because of their childhood experiences. Instead of growing up living in nature daily, white children go on sporadic vacations camping. He states Indians embrace nature because to them it has family meaning. They call the Cascades the “Great Mother” because of stories they have heard growing up, and things like this cause them to appreciate their surroundings more than whites (1). Standing Bear realizes whites do not have a relationship with nature or see everything connecting. While Indians only use what they need from nature, whites sacrifice this balance and try to control instead (12). H... ... middle of paper ... ...ch other” (12). On the other hand, Owens has hope for whites because he did not grow up with Indian traditions. Since he has seen whites trying to preserve nature even if they do not understand it, he has hope that one day they can truly appreciate it for more than what it does for them. The Indians appreciate and acknowledge nature more than white people and Standing Bear and Owens understand that. They believe the trouble with white attitudes is they do not truly see nature or form a harmonious relationship with it, and they think there is an idea of wilderness that can be separated from them. Although Standing Bear is critical of whites and believes they will never change, Owens thinks they will if they continue to redefine how they view nature. Overall, both authors want white people to respect the Indian view of nature and aspire to see it that way also.
From the Deep Woods to Civilization should be an intriguing read for anybody interested in Native American history. It gives an introspective look into the adjustments to society many had to make at that time. Eastman's own identity follows a parabolic curve from the beginning to the end. He rediscovers his Sioux identity after questioning it. The book implores us to consider the tactics, struggles, and other problems that Indian people have had to go through to achieve success despite the odds being stacked against
Talking Back to Civilization , edited by Frederick E. Hoxie, is a compilation of excerpts from speeches, articles, and texts written by various American Indian authors and scholars from the 1890s to the 1920s. As a whole, the pieces provide a rough testimony of the American Indian during a period when conflict over land and resources, cultural stereotypes, and national policies caused tensions between Native American Indians and Euro-American reformers. This paper will attempt to sum up the plight of the American Indian during this period in American history.
Duane Champagne in Social Change and Cultural Continuity Among Native Nations explains that there has never been one definitive world view that comprises any one Native American culture, as there is no such thing as one “Native community” (2007:10). However, there are certain commonalities in the ways of seeing and experiencing the world that many Native communities and their religions seem to share.
Native Americans have always been interpreted as “savage beast”. We are told the stories of the Europeans coming to America and their encounter with the Native by teachers, movies, and history books. When looking at the art of people “interpreting” the Native American the idea is still quite similar. Horatio Greenough work, Rescue, shows the common idea seen by most.
Bearcroft, BW. The Last Fighting Indians of the American West. 1 ed. Harlow: aaaaaLongman Group Ltd, 1976.
Smith, Paul Chaat. 2009. Everything You Know about Indian Is Wrong. Minneapolis: Unviersity of Minnesota Press. Print.
The novel “Indian Horse” by Richard Wagamese demonstrates the many conflicts that indigenous people encounter on a daily basis. This includes things such as, the dangers they face and how they feel the need to flee to nature, where they feel the most safe. Another major issue they face is being stripped of their culture, and forcibly made to believe their culture is wrong and they are less of a human for being brought up that way, it makes them feel unworthy. Finally, when one is being criticised for a hobby they enjoy due to their indigenous upbringing, they make himself lose interest and stop the hobby as it makes them different and provokes torment. People who are trying
Grinde, Donald, and Bruce Johansen. Ecocide of Native America: Environmental Destruction of Indian Lands and Peoples. Santa Fe, NM: Clear Light Publishers, 1995. Print.
Growing up on a reservation where failing was welcomed and even somewhat encouraged, Alexie was pressured to conform to the stereotype and be just another average Indian. Instead, he refused to listen to anyone telling him how to act, and pursued his own interests in reading and writing at a young age. He looks back on his childhood, explaining about himself, “If he'd been anything but an Indian boy living on the reservation, he might have been called a prodigy. But he is an Indian boy living on the reservation and is simply an oddity” (17). Alexie compares the life and treatment of an Indian to life as a more privileged child. This side-by-side comparison furthers his point that
The Native American Indians are a vital piece of the society of the United States. While their kin have existed on this land for many years, today their numbers are reducing. Once, the Native Americans lived on this continent with little discourse and disturbance. They were overall nourished, content, and established. Truth be told, the men and women generally were set in regular parts. The men were seekers, warriors, and defenders, while the women watched out for the youngsters, their homes, and cultivated. It relied on upon the tribe when it came to craftsmanship. In a few tribes, the men would really weave baskets and blankets. Common nourishments were expended and chased. Deer, wild ox, fish, and different feathered birds were the wildlife of decision. Corn, beans, squash, berries, nuts, and melons were the leafy foods that were expended. Berries were additionally frequently utilized as a characteristic color for fabrics. While the late 1800’s into the 1900’s and past started to bring battle to the Native American Indians, they battled an intense...
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
In American Indian Stories, University of Nebraska Press Lincoln and London edition, the author, Zitkala-Sa, tries to tell stories that depicted life growing up on a reservation. Her stories showed how Native Americans reacted to the white man’s ways of running the land and changing the life of Indians. “Zitkala-Sa was one of the early Indian writers to record tribal legends and tales from oral tradition” (back cover) is a great way to show that the author’s stories were based upon actual events in her life as a Dakota Sioux Indian. This essay will describe and analyze Native American life as described by Zitkala-Sa’s American Indian Stories, it will relate to Native Americans and their interactions with American societies, it will discuss the major themes of the book and why the author wrote it, it will describe Native American society, its values and its beliefs and how they changed and it will show how Native Americans views other non-Natives.
Growing up Black Elk and his friends were already playing the games of killing the whites and they waited impatiently to kill and scalp the first Wasichu, and bring the scalp to the village showing how strong and brave they were. One could only imagine what were the reasons that Indians were bloody-minded and brutal to the whites. After seeing their own villages, where...
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
Both “The Clan of One-Breasted Women” and “An Entrance to the Woods,” gives a viewpoint on the human relationship with nature. Terry Tempest Williams critizes man for being ruthless when it comes to nature and other humans. Wendell Berry believes similarly the same thing. He believes that man needs nature just as much as they need civilization. However, regardless of the differences, both writers offer an insightful perspective on the forever changing relationship between man and nature. And this relationship is, and always will be, changing.