The American Revolution found a common ground for the Indians and the American colonist. Both fought long and hard for their freedom. The colonist fought for their independence from the British crown and the Indians fought for their independence from foreign domination, which included the American colonist. From the beginning of this freedom seeking campaign, the Indians were depicted as "enemies of freedom" (Calloway, 2012, p. 223). The Declaration of Independence, penned by American colonist, portrayed the Indians as savages and enemies of liberty. The colonist believed the Indians were fighting the wrong battle and believed that the Indians should fight alongside them against the crown. According to Thomas Jefferson, a contributing author of the document, the Indians loyalty was misguided, which put them on the "wrong" side of the fence. The colonist fought against the crown for their freedom, and the Indians fought against the colonist for their freedoms.
This was a very confusing period for the native peoples. The message of this war was about independence from tyrannical and oppressive government. The colonist actions and treatment of the native peoples mirrored the exact treatment the colonist were now trying to unshackle themselves from, which was the oppressive chains of the British crown. The colonist believed they shared a common bond with the native people's plight. They were both fighting for liberty and freedom. They did not consider the fact that for hundreds of years people came to the Americas, stealing the land and imposing their ideals unto the Native Americans and shackled them with oppressive chains. They never considered that the Native Americans were here first and had never enlisted the help of Europeans ...
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...h force became what they despised. Somewhere along the line, they lost who they were. Their character was tarnished. The question for this essay was which war proved more pivotal for the Eastern Woodland Indians. In my opinion, the American Revolution finalized the enslavement and dispossessed the Indians of their land, but the Seven Years' war proved more momentous. To me, a person's character is more valuable than all the land they could ever possess. To lose who you are as a people because of the situation around you is true enslavement. All of the years building up to the end of the Seven Years' war slowly eroded the Indians character away, which in my opinion changed the results of how American's won their freedom.
Works Cited
Calloway, C. G. (2012). First peoples A documentary survey of American Indian history (4th ed.). Boston, MA: Bedford/St. Martin’s.
...y robbing the Indians of their land, the English upset and hurt many of the Native American tribes, which lead to many disputes over ownership of the land.
Shoemaker, Nancy. “ Native-American Women in History.” OAH Magazine of History , Vol. 9, No. 4, Native Americans (Summer, 1995), pp. 10-14. 17 Nov. 2013
The Seven Years War was the first international conflict dealing with all major world powers. The majority of the issue was due to “real estate” speculation and territories surrounding the Ohio Valley (Ohio Valley, 156). Native American’s used furs and traded goods to play each power against each other ultimately resulting in war. The powers that were involved in the war fought for the support of the Native Americans in order to gain favorable lands and goods and the upper hand above the other powers. Ultimately, Native Americans were the most influential power during the war, and the relations held with them not only had affect during the war, but also had influence and led to post war struggles.
The clash between the Native Americans and the colonists did not start off tumultuous. In the early days of the exploration and settlement of the New World they lived in peace. The Indians taught them how to farm and live off the land. In a strange land the colonists made an ally. However, the subsequent turn of events was inevitable. Perhaps the chaos that ensued could have been postponed but there was never going to be a peaceful cohabitation between the colonists and the indigenous people. There were so many vast differences between the religious views and ultimate goals of the two groups. The Native Americans had established trade relationships with various tribes, they had their own religions, and their way of life was a stark contrast to that of the colonists. The worldview of the respective peoples was foreign to the other and the idea of a holistic and unbiased approach to the life of others was foreign.
One of the greatest conflicts in the history of the United State of America, the Revolutionary War, was started when the colonies of North America declared themselves independent from British rule. A group of men known as the Founding Fathers, which included George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, John and Samuel Adams, Thomas Jefferson, and others, formed the Continental Congress to rule their new nation. They chose Thomas Jefferson to write the Declaration of Independence, which they would send to King George III to make their independence official. Jefferson knew that he needed to use strong language to make a solid agrument against British rule in the colonies and to convince the colonists that independence was the only choice to maintain their freedom as human beings. The powerful use of parallelism, ethos, pathos, and logos helpd Thomas Jefferson to convey his idea that all men are created equal with unalienable rights and that it is the duty of the government to protect those rights.
McClurken, J. M. (2009). Our people, our journey: the Little River Band of Ottawa Indians. East Lansing: Michigan State University Press.
In the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson appeals to patriotism. Jefferson ensures this by persuading the colonists to become self-governing. He tries to let all of the people of the New World understand that they have protested and defended themselves against the British for all of the corrupt acts the British have committed upon the colonists. Jefferson’s tone in the Declaration of Independence portrays how tiresome he has grown of the British rule after all of the deception towards Americans. Included within the idea of patriotism, is the idea of loyalty to the fundamental values and principles underlying American democracy. Thomas Paine also provides patriotism to get advocates for the movement to separate from the British forces. Correspondingly, Paine persuades Americans that they will prosper in numerous areas without the control of the British saying, “Is the power who is jealous of our prosperity, a proper power to govern us? Whoever says No to this question is an independent, for independency means no more, than, whether we shall make our own laws…” (Paine). Paine uses a demanding tone to convince Americans that if they should accept the ties with Britain, it will bring ruin and distress to the
Jacquelyin Kilpatrick , Celluloid Indians. Native Americans and Film. Lincoln and London: University of Nebraska Press, 1999
The removal of Indian tribes was one of the tragic times in America’s history. Native Americans endured hard times when immigrants came to the New World. Their land was stolen, people were treated poorly, tricked, harassed, bullied, and much more. The mistreatment was caused mostly by the white settlers, who wanted the Indians land. The Indians removal was pushed to benefit the settlers, which in turn, caused the Indians to be treated as less than a person and pushed off of their lands. MOREEE
...744,” in The World Turned Upside Down: Indian Voices from Early America, ed. Colin G. Calloway (Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 1994), 101
6. The Indians had been ignored in the Declaration of Independence, had not been considered equal, certainly not in choosing who would govern the American territories in which they lived, nor in being able to pursue happiness as they had before the Europeans arrived. But with the British no longer in charge, the Americans were free to push the Indians off their land and kill them if they resisted. Before the Revolution, the Indians had worked out co existence with the colonies but with the colonial population growing fast after the war, the pressure to move westward for new land was causing conflict with the Indians.
The Europeans invaded America with every intention of occupying the land, the bountiful natural resources as well as the complete domination of the native people. The Europeans desire for the land created an explosive situation for the native peoples as they witnessed their land and right to freedom being stripped from them. They often found themselves having to choose sides of which to pledge their allegiance to. The Europeans depended upon Indian allies to secure the land and their dominance as well as trade relations with the Indians. The Indians were in competition with one another for European trade causing conflict among the different tribes altering the relationships where friends became enemies and vice versa (Calloway, 2012, p. 163). These relationships often became embittered and broke into bloody brawls where it involved, "Indian warriors fighting on both sides, alongside the European forces as well as against European forces invad...
“Pontiac, chief of the Ottawa Indians, is trying to take Detroit, and the neighboring Indian groups join in and help. They have become disenchanted with the French, plus the French aren’t really there anymore. They hate the English. They want their land back. Starting to succeed and the British negotiate and reach a settlement. In order to keep Pontiac happy, no settlement allowed in the Frontier region. An imaginary line is drawn down the Appalachian Mountains, colonist cannot cross it. This doesn’t last long, in 1768 & 1770, Colonists work with the Iroquois and Cherokee and succeed in pushing back the line and send in surveyors. Colonists begin to settle. So, despite this line, colonists push west anyway” (Griffin, PP4, 9/16/15). During the Revolutionary War, “Native Americans fought for both sides, but mostly for the British, thought they stood to be treated more fairly by British than colonists. Those that fought against the colonists were specifically targeted to be destroyed during battles. There were no Native American representatives at the treaty meetings at the end of the war” (Griffin, PP8, 9/21/15). Even the Native American’s thought of their women, because they believed “an American victory would have tragic consequences: their social roles would be dramatically changed and their power within their communities diminished” (Berkin,
Sandefur, G. (n.d.). American Indian reservations: The first underclass areas? Retrieved April 28, 2014, from http://www.irp.wisc.edu/publications/focus/pdfs/foc121f.pdf
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.