Submergence and Exclusion of Native Americans by the Spaniards and the Puritans

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Submergence and Exclusion of Native Americans by the Spaniards and the Puritans I have chosen to compare the Native Americans to both the Spaniards and the Puritans. I will do so on three levels: culture, religion, and literature. I will show how both the Spaniards and the Puritans wanted to impose their traditions upon the Native American; however, the Spaniards did so by merging with the Indians and the Puritans did so by oppressing the Indian. To begin the comparison, I will explore the American Indians and their culture, religion, and literature. Culturally speaking the Indians were "well adapted to their environment" (Lauter, 5). In the Indians environment, their land was their culture which gave them a sense of a fixed place in the world. The Indians primary goal was to survive on their land which had survived throughout many ancestral generations. The Indians could "retain their culture if their land remained in their possession" (Utley, 23). Another important part of the Indians culture, which was also a part of their environment, was nature. The Indians existence was nature-based and everything from nature was to be noted and respected. The Native Americans began to supplement and replace their own tools and other objects by the Europeans . However, this process reflected "merely a substitution not an alteration of their basic culture pattern" (Utley, 38). Life for the Indians remained essentially the same. There were "no changes in settlement patterns, warfare practices, means of subsistence, social or ceremonial activities" (Weber, 241). The Native Americans religion "reflected their cultural practices" (Lauter, 5). The Indians religious practices were associated with their me... ... middle of paper ... ...llowed for the Spaniards to get down on the same level as the Indians. The questions to justify the toleration set forth by the Spaniards to the Indians could go on; but, one thing is for sure, the Puritans must have known what they were doing because even though their influence was last, it still impacts what is now called the United States. Works Cited Lauter, Paul, vol. 1, 3rd ed. The Heath Anthology of American Literature. Pub: by Houghton Mifflin, 19 Segal, Charles M. and David C. Stineback, Foreword by Sacvan Barcovitch, Puritans, Indians and Manifest Destiny. Pub: by Putnam, 1977 Utley, Robert M., The Indian Frontier of the American West 1846-1890. Pub: by University of New mexico Press, 1984 Weber, David J., New Spain's Far Frontier: Essays on Spain in the American West, 1540-1821. Pub: by University of New Mexico Press, 1979.

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