English Views of the Native Americans
After reading chapter three of Unger's American Issues, I now have a better understanding of how English settlers looked upon the lifestyles of the Native Americans. Four key people that have led to this understanding are Hugh Jones, Hugh Henry Brackenridge, William Penn, and John Heckewelder. In their essay's they give accurate accounts of how the Native Americans lived, through their eyes. I also see how European beliefs reflected their views and how this set the stage for conflict among these groups.
In Hugh Jones' essay titled, "Characteristics of the Indians," he basically gives a factual account of how the Indians live their daily life. Although his account is mostly factual, his European biases do play a major role in his interpretation of Indian ways. In one instance, in describing the Indians rejoicing and war dances, Jones says that they used, "the most antick [sic] gestures, in the most frightful dress, with a hideous noise" (Unger, p. 43). To Jones and other Englishmen their dress may seem frightful and the noise may sound hideous, but that is his opinion. To the Indians this is normal and a way of life. This just shows the white man's ignorance to the culture of the Native Americans. In a second instance Jones's describes the Indians in their "finest dress." He states that the Indians believe they are looking their best when they are ridiculously dressed. Once again he is giving his opinion of the definition of what is considered ridiculous to the English. Jones also pokes fun at many of the traditions of the Indians, for example, the way they wear their hair or the painting on their faces. He notes this as being comical and also uses sarcasm in portraying these traditions. Jones' essay provides many useful facts about the Indian way of life, but his European biases prevent him from disclosing the actual truth.
Hugh Henry Brackenridge has a very opposing view towards the Indians. Jones never really gives his personal opinion on whether or not he liked the Indians, but Brackenridge make his view very clear. He makes this apparent in the title of his essay, "The Indians Have No Exclusive Claim to America." Brackenridge supports this notion with many references to the Bible. He states that "The whole of this earth was given to man, and all descendants of Adam have a right to share it equally" (Brackenridge, in Unger, p.
It seems that in the 21st century and even during the colonizing of America, the interpretation of Native Americans is and had been that they were savages and live a barbaric lifestyle. That they had no order or way of life. When presented with the topic of Native Americans and Colonists in the New World, it is easy to assume warfare and bloodshed amongst the two parties. That the Colonists were constantly in mini battles with the Native Americans. It is also easy to assume that the land in the New World was unsettling to the eyes. This is due to records from the colonist times, calling the lands “wild” or “wildlands”. In Robbie Ethridge’s book Creek Country, she tries to debunk these interpretations mentioned above. She does so by using an
In the fourth chapter titled “Native Reactions to the invasion of America” in the book, “Beyond 1492: Encounters in Colonial North America, the author James Axtell shares with us an essay he wrote and shared at a conference at Vanderbilt University. Historical accounts are followed beginning at the arrival of explorers and settlers until the 1700’s with various Native tribes in North America. Axtell’s goal is to educate us on the multitude of ways Native Americas reacted during various periods of colonization, and the various methods that the Native Americans perished. Axtell also educates us in his essay on the ways that Native Americans tried to ultimately prevent their extinction at any cost.
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.
In a lively account filled that is with personal accounts and the voices of people that were in the past left out of the historical armament, Ronald Takaki proffers us a new perspective of America’s envisioned past. Mr. Takaki confronts and disputes the Anglo-centric historical point of view. This dispute and confrontation is started in the within the seventeenth-century arrival of the colonists from England as witnessed by the Powhatan Indians of Virginia and the Wamapanoag Indians from the Massachusetts area. From there, Mr. Takaki turns our attention to several different cultures and how they had been affected by North America. The English colonists had brought the African people with force to the Atlantic coasts of America. The Irish women that sought to facilitate their need to work in factory settings and maids for our towns. The Chinese who migrated with ideas of a golden mountain and the Japanese who came and labored in the cane fields of Hawaii and on the farms of California. The Jewish people that fled from shtetls of Russia and created new urban communities here. The Latinos who crossed the border had come in search of the mythic and fabulous life El Norte.
The American institution has raised countless generations with misconceptions and lies regarding various foreign cultures. During the 1950’s the educational system in America was given the responsibility of teaching children the horrors and injustices they would suffer if the "evil" communist took over the world. Schools taught students that communist wanted to take away music, apple pie, baseball, and anything else that Americans cherished. Students learned that it was best to believe in the righteous of America. The preceding discussion has much in common with the treatment that Native Americans have received from picture books in America.
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.
Title IX was the stepping-stone for mergers and sports, but immediately after the merging took place, women were fully discriminated against. When men and women's sports combined, it opened new administrative positions for women, but what these women found were that they were constantly being pushed down to the bottom of the pile, to the least authoritative positions. Men were the head coaches, and the head of the physical education departments Men organized the teams schedule for the season and organized practice hours. Also, "male sexist attitudes ensured that male rather than female athletic directors and heads of physical education departments were almost automatically appointed to direct merged departments" (Hult p.96) This male over female preference continued right up to today. As of 1992 there are more men in administrative sports positions than women.
Considering historical evidence, the notion: Native –Americans was not the first inhabitant of America is a complete false. For centuries, history kept accurate and vivid accounts of the first set of people who domiciled the western hemisphere. Judging by those records, below are the first set of Native-American people who inhabited America before the arrival of another human race; the Iroquois: The Iroquois of Native Americans was one of the tribes that lived in America before other people came. Based on historical evidence, it is believed that the Native Americans came from Asia way back during the Ice Age through a land bridge of the Bering Strait. When the Europeans first set foot in America, there were about 10 million Native Americans
Mary Rowlandson’s “A Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson” and Benjamin Franklin’s “Remarks Concerning the Savages of North America” are two different perspectives based on unique experiences the narrators had with “savages.” Benjamin Franklin’s “Remarks Concerning the Savages…” is a comparison between the ways of the Indians and the ways of the Englishmen along with Franklin’s reason why the Indians should not be defined as savages. “A Narrative of the Captivity…” is a written test of faith about a brutally traumatic experience that a woman faced alone while being held captive by Indians. Mary Rowlandson views the Indians in a negative light due to the traumatizing and inhumane experiences she went through namely, their actions and the way in which they lived went against the religious code to which she is used; contrastingly, Benjamin Franklin sees the Indians as everything but savages-- he believes that they are perfect due to their educated ways and virtuous conduct.
To understand Jackson’s book and why it was written, however, one must first fully comprehend the context of the time period it was published in and understand what was being done to and about Native Americans in the 19th century. From the Native American point of view, the frontier, which settlers viewed as an economic opportunity, was nothin...
While researching the early relations between the American Indians, and the first European settlers, Jane Tompkins found that the way history was recorded seemed to mislead her. In her essay " ' Indians': Textualism, Morality, and the problem of History," Tompkins found that the historians put prejudice facts, and looked down upon Native Americans. Clearly it is seen that even through time, historians are still this way. This dilemma must be illuminated to find out who and why this has happened.
Scorpius Malfoy is not his father or his grandfather. That is the first thing you need to know about him. If you're lucky, you'll get to learn more about him than that, but most people aren't that lucky. Scorpius is an intensely private person. Most people take one look at his aristocratic features, or simply hear his last name, and write him off as the son of a Death Eater, a snob, a blood purist, a this or a that, and never bother to dig deeper. To be fair, all of those things are true in part, but these judgmental masses usually fail to notice that there is much more to him than that. Scorpius is an introvert, his emotions extremely self-contained, exploding and fading so deep within him that they never show outwardly unless he wills them to. His words are rehearsed, analyzed for consequences, and double-checked for accuracy and sting before they ever leave his mouth. Everything about the way he interacts with the external world is controlled to allow him to come across a certain way. He is observant, is more likely to hang back and judge the air in a room or the tone in a conversation before he inserts himself into it with an unnerving perceptiveness and the unspoken implication that he knows more than he will actually say. He is every inch the politician, the master of noncommittal answers, of thinking one thing and doing another, of smiling in a room full of enemies as though he’s in a room full of friends. The language he speaks best is body language and he can tell from the slightest twitch of a muscle or movement of a hand whether all the people in a room truly get along with one another or if they are all simply putting on a farce. On the other hand, his body language always aims for ambiguous unless he has a set goal i...
It appears that the majority of the actions of the Native Americans towards the new European colonists were in peace and acceptance. Unfortunately the colonists dreams conflicted with the views of the Native Americans. The ‘free living’ philosophy of the Native American’s left them open to an unexpected overtaking by the colonists. The Europeans believed in making a new world out of America while completely disregarding the fact that there was already an Old World.
Texting is a newer, shorter and very convenient method of sending messages back and forth between users on a cell phone. It is similar to email, but often using shorter messages to carry on a conversation between two or more people. Texting is fast and easy,
Both of the authors, Ralph Waldo Emerson and Emily Dickinson represent similar opinions through different types of writing. Emerson himself is more extrinsic while Dickinson represents herself motivated intrinsically. Moreover, both of the authors are inspired from different sources; Emerson finds himself inspired from the outside world, while Dickinson’s inspiration comes from an unknown force within her body. Emerson represents and shows masculinity in his writings while using fierce language, while on the other hand Dickinson represents a feminine side. Even though both of authors convince us in a way that they are very different from each other while we look at their theories and writings, but in the end we find their faith very similar. I will argue ambiguities that are found on their writings toward faith and their rejection of religious authority.