We are nearly finished with the first unit of U.S. History – often called the Colonial Period. We went from a land bridge across the Bering Sea to the takeover of New Netherlands by the English. I’d like you to ponder what we learned about the first peoples (Native Americans) of this land. Were we fair in our study? (Do we need to be?) Were we accurate? What really is the most valuable thing to study from this time period? Is it better to understand who did the conquering or should we re-evaluate how we learn the colonial period to better understand the relationships among Indian nations and between Indians and Europeans?
I have included some quotes that I’d like you to consider as you explore this issue. Do you agree with any of them? Disagree? Who should we believe?
“What we committed in the Indies stands out among the most unpardonable offenses ever committed against God and mankind and this trade [in American Indian slaves] as one of the most unjust, evil, and cruel among them.” Bartolome De Las Casas
“Considering that virtually none of the standard fare surrounding Thanksgiving contains an ounce of authenticity, historical accuracy, or cross-cultural perception, why is it so apparently ingrained? Is it necessary to the American psyche to perpetually exploit and debase its victims in order to justify its history?" Michael Dorris
“The invaders also anticipated, correctly, that other Europeans would question the morality of their enterprise. They therefore [prepared] quantities of propaganda to overpower their own countrymen’s scruples. The propaganda gradually took standard form as an ideology with conventional assumptions and semantics. We live with it still.” Francis Jennings
“There is not one Indian in the whole of this country who does not cringe in anguish and frustration because of these textbooks. There is not one Indian child who has not come home in shame and tears.” Rupert Costo
“God has not been preparing the English speaking and Teutonic peoples for a thousand years for nothing….He has given us the spirit of progress to overwhelm the forces of reaction throughout the earth. He has made us adept in government that we may administer government among savage and senile people…..And of all our race He has marked the American people as His chosen nation to finally lead in the redemption of the world.” Senator Albert Beveridge, 1900
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In a situation as controversial as how the Indians were, and some might argue still are, treated it is only fair to learn the facts from both sides. Just because our history may have been better recorded, it was also written from our prospective, making it more biased. We made what we did to the Indians appear like it wasn't a big deal. In reality though, the facts and the numbers had been disclosed. There were so many more deaths than we every would have guessed at first. The killing of the Arawaks by Columbus is considered one of the first genocides in history, yet that part of the deified Columbus' story was never taught to us in grade school. Just because kids are young, doesn't mean it's okay for them to be lied to. In history class this year I believe we tried to take as least a biased approach as possible. In my previous studies though, the opposite is more the case. Not only were the Indians often portrayed in an unfair way, but also Columbus was made out to be a hero of some sorts.
ReplyDeleteJust as learning the relationship between any peoples being studied, the relationship between those settling in the New World and the Native Americans is important. This relationship is the most important thing to be studying because unlike the facts, which are still important, the relationship is what determines the effect us Americans had on the Native Americans. Our relationship with them can depict how we treated them, how they felt about us, and how we have changed them as a people. For instance, the one quote that Rupert Costo says, "There is not one Indian in the whole of this country who does not cringe in anguish and frustration because of these textbooks. There is not one Indian child who has not come home in shame and tears." The effects of our relationship with the Indians are still apparent today. If young boys and girls are coming home crying and being ashamed of their background, we have certainly not done our job of portraying the Indians in a fair light. And by the attacking Europeans using propaganda, as Francis Jennings has shared, to convince the other Europeans that their "enterprise" was justified is not only atrocious, but morally wrong. The fact that the majority of America has done little to change is even more so though.
Haley Lucitt
"History is written by the victors" -Winston Churchill
ReplyDeleteThere is no question who the victors were in the case of the Native American people against the settling colonists. American history should not only be told from the colonists' point of view, but i believe that it should even begin with an account of the Native American point of view. In the quote above by Rupert Custo, it says that native american children come home crying because of the way that the text books portray the colonization. Texts make them look to be savage and merely touch on them as a means of survival for the colonists who abused them and then proceeded to claim occupied lands as their own. Can you imagine being a native at this time? To have a group of strange looking men and women come to your country, disrupt your lives and then steal the very lands that you have occupied for thousands of years, all in the name of some "king" who you know not of, nor associate any sort of authority with. It is impossible to comprehend.
Just as we learned about the persecution of the protestants in the 1600's, the holocaust and the Jews last year, or the slave trade, so too we should look at the Native americans from their point of view. When we watched "The Middle Passage", we prayed for a sort of rebellion and would have cheered had they been successful, to this day we recount holocaust survivor stories and relish in their triumph of thwarting the Nazis, but in our book, there is a section entitled "the Massacre of 1622". This seciton refers to the Powhatans feud with the virginians at the time. To quote the text the founding colonists of our country carried out a genocide: "a perpetuall warre without peace or truce to roote out from being any longer a people, so cursed a nation, ungratefull to all benefitte, and incapable of all goodnesse." Why is it then that we do not applaud the indians for stricking back against our forefathers oppresion? Why have we done so little in this modern day to make up for the mistakes of our ancestors, and WHY do we not do justice to those who we massacred, by teaching our children about the truth of how our nation was founded?
In regards to David's post,
ReplyDeleteThat is so eloquently written that it makes me want to take a stand right now. Your words are empowering and compelling. You pose even more questions for our society to ponder. The way you put yourself in the places of the Native Americans proves the point that we had no right going in there and disrupting the lives of these innocent people. And the way you compared the blatant disregard and even negatative portrayal of the Indians to the utter guilt we feel towards slavery and the Holocaust, shows our selective blindness towards the issues surrounding our treatment of the Indians. It seems as though in the past when the United States has down something wrong, sometimes they will own up to it and admit they were wrong. This is one issue where we either truly don't feel we are responsible, which is pretty unlikely considering it would be hard to prove we weren't responsible, or we choose to ignore what has been done. People continue printing these text books, even after the effect of the negative portrayal of the Indians was known. That is the real problem. People say hindsight is 20/20, meaning that looking back you can see clearly what you should have done given the circumstance. In America, some still can't see that we even did anything wrong.
Haley Lucitt
I do not believe that we were nearly fair to the Native Americans when it comes to our studies of them. We studied only some of their culture, and not because we were truly interested in it, but because it was very contradictory to the English way of life. Not only did we not study the Native Americans much, but we did not study them justly. We allowed ourselves to just skip over them, almost justifying that they were an obstacle that it was neccessary to eliminate. They were only spoken about when they were of use to the English, trading wise, or a hinderance. Our history is biased because we have come out on top and we proved to ourselves that the elimination of the Native Americans was absolutely neccessary in our success. True, the Native Americans had a harder time recording history, but it was not in their interest to record history. This eliminates their perspective almost completely, making the English view, the only view.
ReplyDelete“There is not one Indian in the whole of this country who does not cringe in anguish and frustration because of these textbooks. There is not one Indian child who has not come home in shame and tears.” Rupert Costo
This quote really shows the suppression of the Indians as a people. They have, even now, not had the ability to be heard and listened to. They have struggled to deal with the natural bias that is placed on history because, being the minority, their voice is easily suppressed when what they have to say is controvercial. This leaves entire groups of people literally "cringing" at the way they have been treated. They cringe not only because of what happened, but they also cringe at the fact that we are still unable to honestly own up to our actions. This leaves disappointment and even hatred towards the "victors" that wrote history and teach it today, and that doesn't bode well for the unification of all people our country.
The relationship between those of the New World and Native Americans has not changed much since the initial acts of animosity imposed on them. Being the native settlers of this once non-colonized country, the Native Americans were rightful owners of their property. Once their inherent rights as owners of their land was violated by colonists the entire nature of the situation changed. As Bartolome De Las Casas put it, the scenario became "the most unpardonable offenses ever committed against God and mankind." The nature of this situation only led to an even more botched version of its facts. From the massacring of Arawaks, to the genocide of Pawhatans, to the Pequot War, all of these killings are symbolic of the pure injustice exhibited by the colonists. Having annihilated so many tribes, there is little chance that over time the facts had not been changed. This manipulation over time only leads to the currently biased version we have in our history books. As best as we can, i believe, we attempted to eliminate this bias, however with the little factually based information we have it is impossible to get the story entirely correct. I believe it is most valuable to understand and study both sides of the conflict, however the propaganda brought on by the colonial settlers renders this nearly impossible. It is troubling to see how the conditions of that time period have strained the relationship to this day. The inability to put this conflict into our past and do the best to compensate the Native Americans for what they went through is shocking considering how long discord between the two sides has existed.
ReplyDeleteI feel that we are really unfair to our native American people who discovered such great lands in the colonial period and in return we massacre them. We discussed that we celebrate Columbus day, but why? He was the one that killed the Arawaks and created one of the biggest genocide in Native American History. I also think we only see situations from our perspective and not try to step in the moccasins of the Native Americans. One of the most valuable things to study from this time period is that we were selfish and we to this day are not doing the native Americans ANY justice by telling such lies repetitively to our next generation. And Michael Dorris makes an excellent point saying that just in order to justify our history….we “perpetually exploit and debase its victims…” We need to re-evaulate how we learn the colonial period and teach exactly what happened with no bias. Also if we have Indian kids coming home crying in shame and tears its clear that we have done nothing in our power to represent the Native Americans in a prideful way but merely in a shameful way. We should never believe people and their accounts but believe in the facts with no prejudice.
ReplyDeleteEsther LEe
in response to haley's post.
ReplyDeletei agree 100% . the fact that indians come home in shame crying in tears has to make us realize and know that we should be embarssed of ourselves. also as haley says just because kids our young and naive doesn't mean we lie to them and only tell them all the "good stuff" . Kids should still be notified from what was wrong and what is right and if something was wrong what we could have done to help. If we were willing to help these native americans instead of making them extinct our nation today wouldn't have so much problems and segregation between native american tribes and americans. Also, elementary schools celebrate columbus day but as haley said he's done nothing but create one of the worlds biggest genocide. We celebrate someone for killing a WHOLE TRIBE? We definetly have some re-thinking to do.
In our studies we were slightly biased in our views towards the colonists who settled America because of how the author of our text is biased and because of how history is written by the victors. The author of our text may lead us to believe the views that he does, and may have omitted certain things that he deems not important, but could possibly be of importance to the reader. The history that is written by the victors is not going to reflect the viewpoints of the Indians they conquered, and I think that this leads people to believe that they didn’t treat the Indians as badly as they actually did. It is important to be fair in our studies because one of the main reasons I believe people should take history is to learn from our past mistakes; if the past is made to look prettier than it is, then the past’s brutality will repeat itself since people will not have learned from their ancestor’s mistakes. We were probably not totally accurate in our studies because of the previously mentioned bias of our text’s author and the bias created by the victors, but I believe that a lot of what we have studied is true. The most valuable thing to study from this time period is the treatment of others of a different race, and the tolerance that will help us reach peace with others. The treatment of the slaves and Indians was unacceptable, and the history recorded from this time period has helped people realize just how brutally they were treated (especially the slaves from Africa). From studying this history people can learn from the mistakes of the colonists and not treat other humans in such an inhuman way. In my opinion, it is important to understand the views of the conquerors and the conquered. It is good that we studied a lot of the views of the conquerors, but it is important that we also look into what happened with those who were conquered. We could re-evaluate how we learn the colonial period by studying more of the views held by the Indians about the relationships they had with Europeans and other Indian nations. From there we can then compare the two views and see what the Indians had to say versus the Europeans, like how much the Europeans left out and what the Indians thought about the European colonists’s actions. This could give us more insight into this time period and help us create a more specific theory about the Indians and Europeans.
ReplyDelete“There is not one Indian in the whole of this country who does not cringe in anguish and frustration because of these textbooks. There is not one Indian child who has not come home in shame and tears.” -Rupert Costo
This quote shows that history really is written by the victors, and those who were conquered had no input into what was recorded and the information that people learn even today. If history was studied differently, and the point of views of the minorities and losers shown, people may develop different opinions of their own regarding past. This could lead to different decisions and events in the future because of the difference in thoughts formed from studying the history of both sides, and mistakes made by those before us.
-Kirstin Cook
period 3
(comment continued below)
“God has not been preparing the English speaking and Teutonic peoples for a thousand years for nothing….He has given us the spirit of progress to overwhelm the forces of reaction throughout the earth. He has made us adept in government that we may administer government among savage and senile people…..And of all our race He has marked the American people as His chosen nation to finally lead in the redemption of the world.” -Senator Albert Beveridge, 1900
ReplyDeleteI disagree with what Senator Beveridge stated here, mostly because of the bias towards the “English speaking and Teutonic peoples”. By believing that whites were superior to others, Beveridge displays racism that he justifies by saying that he is trying to save and “progress” people that did not need progressing. In thinking that whites were better than these people, he encouraged what eventually led to the destruction of Indian cultures and customs. These customs were not “savage” or “senile”, but just different than what the “superior” white was used to.
-Kirstin Cook
period 3
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteIn agreement with Kirstin, i think that despite the fact that extracting a solid truth from the history provided would be impossible, i believe that the single most important thing to emphasize is the moral insight on the situation. The one thing that remains unchanged from either side of the story is that there existed mistreatment and racism manifested in numerous differing ways throughout the span of the Colonial Period. This is useful due to the fact that history's primary goal is to teach the past to avoid similar mistakes in the future. For this reason learning about the injustice of this select group of people and analyzing its interminably negative effects would be a main focus when speaking of the colonial settlers.
ReplyDelete“It is troubling to see how the conditions of that time period have strained the relationship to this day.”
ReplyDeleteI agree with what Adel said about the actions of the colonists still affecting the United States today. I think that if the views and struggles of the Indians of that time were more widely known, they would be treated better, and by this time they would have been able to mend this relationship. But even though Indians today do have special privileges (like being able to gamble on their land), I don’t know if America could ever give Indians enough privileges to make up for the horrible treatment they experienced.
-Kirstin Cook
period 3
When thinking about America it is known that many groups of people were treated with oppression, however it is true that we oftenly disregard the suppressed Indians during the time of colonization. In this chapter we familiarize ourselves with the way in which the Indians were treated by the colonists. However, it can be seen that the book shows favoritism towards the colonists. This favoritism is probably shown because the colonists were the one's to write down history, changing the story so that it makes them look good. Therefore, we can not always get the true story of how the Indians were badly treated, which is unfair to the Indians because we will never fully comprehend their sufferings. A common theme in United States History is not to just to learn the material about the past, but learn the past pertaining to the future. Therefore, when we study the wrong treatment of the Indians, it helps us think of possible ways to prevent the same situation from happening in the future. We should re-evaluate the colonial period to make it more fair and profitable by studying the few views or sides of the Indians, instead of just the sides of the colonists.
ReplyDelete“There is not one Indian in the whole of this country who does not cringe in anguish and frustration because of these textbooks. There is not one Indian child who has not come home in shame and tears.” Rupert Costo
Considering the way that history is written, by the victors, this quote seems convincing. Even now the Indians show their frustration because of the textbooks. This displays the Indians frustration not only because of the inaccuracy of the history textbooks also although we now know of how they were treated we still show an inability to put these in the textbooks, and confess the cruelty that had been portrayed in the colonies.
In response to David's post,
ReplyDeleteI totally agree, when thinking about being an Indian with these strange men coming in your land just picturing that image is horrid. This also emphasizes the brutality against the Indians. Also, I agree with David in asking why we haven't done anything to make up for our cruelty toward our ancestor? We have as Rupert Costo said made the children come home in shame and tears instead of avoiding this from happening. Even if Indians were given advantages in order to pay back for the damages, there is probably nothing that can compensate for the terrible colonists the Indians had to face in the past.
Compared to most history discussions, our class did attempt to be fair in studying the time in which the Europeans dominated America, mistreating the natives. We took the time to stop and ponder about the validity of our textbooks and the information provided in front of us. While it might be immoral, it is partially justified why the United States would promote a certain positive image of this time period. Who would feel comfortable, proud and patriotic of a country created on the backs of slaves and deportation? I, for one, wouldn't. If a way to detract or sway public opinion away from a new, and at that time developing, country was available, via suppressing information would better the validity of the government itself.
ReplyDeleteIn addition, let it be clear that it is unknown that the government is not withholding information from its people. Today, it is rather publishers' and writers' decisions to continue a biassed evaluation of colonialism, or not.
Michael Dorris once questioned if "
it necessary to the American psyche to perpetually exploit and debase its victims in order to justify its history?"
Exploitation might not have been necessary, but during the founding of our new country, which was new, insecure, and diverse, it was easiest and most convenient to advertise a America with an ultimate, positive background.
Just as with all eras, the knowledge whether history was biassed or not is difficult to assess. But as historians, we can (and definately did) question its accuracy and validity.
Jason M.
LIke most of my classmates, I completely agree with Haley's assessment of Rupert Costo quote:
ReplyDelete"There is not one Indian in the whole of this country who does not cringe in anguish and frustration because of these textbooks. There is not one Indian child who has not come home in shame and tears."
It was beyond immoral for a country to selfishly provide biassed information to its citizens, especially since it pertains to the history and threatens the well being of a minority of its own citizens! It was selfish, small minded, irresponsible, and downright wrong for a government to insult its own people, even causing some to "come home in shame in tears." A country is a home, and all who belong to it should feel comfortable and proud.
Jason M.
I think that some history text books play off the real facts about the colonial relationship with the Indians. Especially in elementary school where we were all taught about the discoveries and great things Christopher Columbus accomplished, but they decide to leave out the true and horrible parts of that time period. I think our discussions did about as fair of justice as it could to that period in time. Even though it is sad to think that our country was started on such a violent basis and also a greedy one (including the tobacco trade), it is completely necessary to discover those "hidden" things to clarify the fact that America hasn't had a perfect past whatsoever and is currently not having a great time. Though it is sad to think of such horrible people starting our country, it is more than necessary, almost required to discover the truth to keep history moving.
ReplyDeleteI agree with the quote from Bartolome de Las Casas in that it really was the worst offense of all and also because of that, it led to an unpleasant future with the Native Americans and the United States government. It's a shame that the colonists weren't as accepting as, let's say the French because I think history would have turned out much differently.
I'm gonna go ahead and disagree with Jason on this one in that I don't think anyone can justify leaving that part of history out. To me, it's one of the most interesting and messed up things about this whole time aside from slavery. I know no one wants to believe the facts but it's the truth and our country is surely not perfect; just look at what we've done in the past 8 years. Even though it is the founding of the country we live in, and that part is a good thing, there were far too many bad things about the preceding period to our independence that can't just be overlooked. Analysis of poor judgment and immoral acts is what helps us to prevent such things in the future.
ReplyDeleteIn response to Adelles post, I completely agree that the way we have continued to treat Indians is unfair. We have forced them to bottle up their feelings because we don't accept their version of the story. We have almost completely weeded out Indian perspectives in history that don't favor whatever the power at the time was trying to accomplish. Even when the conquering people at the time realized what they were doing was unfair, they just used more force to make it seem like it was a neccessary action in the creation and stabilization of the colonies.
ReplyDeleteIn response to what Jason said about, "Who would feel comfortable, proud and patriotic of a country created on the backs of slaves and deportation?" he replied that he wouldn't be. Would rather be proud of a history that presents skewed facts, as you acknowledge later on? As for the "advertising" of a possitive america in its early years, i am ok with, but at this day and age with the progress we have made in moral and social standings, i disagree completely with Jason that anything but the facts are ok to teach elementary and high school students alike. Children should learn the truth about our nation that it was founded on the backbone of stealing, genocide, slavery, and tobacco. Whether put so bluntly, is up to interpreation. I do agree with Jason however that our class did a fairly good job in presenting a balanced history. Dr. Rockenbach did point out that our country was founded by slavery and tobacco, but this moral issue goes hand in hand with the celebration of a man every october who was a mass murderer of native americans.
ReplyDeleteTo close on Jason's post, i would like to say that i cannot feel patriotic of a country created on the backs of slavery and deportation, but i can feel patriotic for a country who has admitted its faults, taken steps to make previous mistakes right, and is a leader of equal social standing.
David
I think that we were fair in or discussions about the Native Americans. While the book seemed to be more pro-colonist, I feel we covered both sides of the spectrum equally. While it was a little unsettling to fully understand how our country was created from such violence and greed, it did shed some light on what it took for our country to become what it is today. Other than the war and violence, I think the most important thing that we talked about were the difference in cultures and how they led to conflicts between the colonists and the Natives. It would be very interesting if we could find some 1st person accounts of what it was like to be a Native American at this period. Our textbooks in school today seemed very biased when covering this topic, because it is a pretty touchy subject and one that is uncomfortable to explain especially to children. But its because of this almost inability to cover this period in full gruesome detail that Native Americans today must feel cheated in a way. I agree completely with Rupert Costo's quote,
ReplyDelete“There is not one Indian in the whole of this country who does not cringe in anguish and frustration because of these textbooks. There is not one Indian child who has not come home in shame and tears.”
I can only imagine how frustrating it must be for the Native American community to not have the story of their ancestors be undermined in modern day culture.
-Justin Montgomery Bretter
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteAccounts of Native Americans really seem to be lesser than what they really should be. They were a calm, loving people forcibly sent to near extinction by the careless English colonists; any crime to that degree should never be forgiven. Quite frankly, despite the truth being really depressing, why weren't we told about these horrific accounts to the Native Americans earlier in life? For a much longer time, we could've have had more curious thoughts towards Native Americans' lifestyle than what we were simply fed. From the moment that the Native Americans crossed the Bering strait almost 15,000 years ago, everything in between till 1492, has been ignored. Well, maybe not ignored but deliberately skipped. Maybe not even that. But it does seem as if we're not seeing the whole picture. 15,000 years is an incredibly long time for history. If accounts of Europe of about 900 years takes a year to study, imagine the stories the Native Americans had been hiding from the world. It seems unfair that just from one sight of their naked shadow being reflected upon the 'gold-filled' floors, that they were named savages and uneducated. Native Americans may've had Einsteins of their own, but we'll never know.
ReplyDeleteArlill Rodriguez
I agree with Maguire. It is necessary to tell the whole story about our country's past and what we did to the Native American people in our attempts to colonize. It's by knowing all of the facts of our past that we can learn from our mistakes and hopefully become a stronger nation that makes better choices.
ReplyDeletethe situation does have its pitfalls for both sides. On the side defending the english, there is the fact that they had no idea how to survive on the land they had just landed on. They were desperate and needed to find a way to survive. In there eyes the Indians were what they had to copy and then minimize to survive on the foreign land. Desperate times calls for desperate measures, but I still believe that the english could have done what the french did with the indians, which was to live with them instead of committing genocide. I believe it was completely unjust of the english to kill off the native americans but most people will not think that way because history is won by the victorious often leaving out the horrors of how the winners became winners.
ReplyDeletein response to Jason's comment, I think that it is unfair to slay the whole foundation of our country just because of the dirty work that had to be done to establish it. Every country had to start somewhere and even though i am not for genocide or taking advantage of groups of people it never comes to mind when I think of how great our country is. I think that children shouldn't be burdened with the gory details of our countries founding until they are old enough to understand it in context and from both sides. I think of it almost as the idea's of Santa Claus or the Easter Bunny. You want to let the children have their fun until they are ready to hear the truth. I think the way our class covered the subject was very well balanced, covering both sides of the situation from the fact that natives were not barbarians or savages and that not all settlers were blood thirsty murderers. I think that is important when talking about colonization because the natives and the settlers traded with each other and such.
ReplyDelete-Michael Williams
I also agree with davidl when he says that we are biased in how we pass on our stories for later generations. If us the victors win something we will make it seem as if we were not in the wrong and only in the right whereas the Indians that were massacred were all in the wrong. We only portray the supposed "bad" information of the opponents in this case the Native Americans. We only talk about all the BAD things they did such as rebel, try to hurt us, take our food supply. Some things are just bizarre and come from nowhere it is difficult to figure out if we even won anything but humiliation and conceitedness. David also states great points relating it to other events such as the holocaust. This is a reoccuring pattern that "facts" are told by victors and almost never the other side.
ReplyDelete-Esther Lee
Although he did not go very deep, I think Joseph Conlin explained more than the usual historian would on Indians. He explained a few different tribes and their cultures in the chapter Other Americans (Pgs. 71-80) from our book, giving us much more information about Indians than we have in most all of our previous history courses. Also throughout our more recent chapters, he will insert something about the Indians effect, or the other way around. He did not seem biased in any of his writings about Indians either. The most important thing to take away from learning about Indians and their growth before and after colonists arrived, in my opinion, is always remembering that America’s beginning started with a great race’s ending. Through religious changes, wars, and oppression, the Indians have barely endured, and all for the sake of a new nation’s development. I think that we should learn Native American history from both view points, because just learning about settlers and explorers conquering these nations does not give us insight to what actually happened, and how it truly effected the Indians.
ReplyDeleteI agree with De Las Casas statement, the slave trade was immoral and barbaric in the treating of the slaves. I disagree with Dorris’ statement though, because in elementary school we are not taught of the oppression of the Indians, but we are taught that Thanksgiving is a day when we celebrate the coming together of two nations: the pilgrims and the Indians. Thanksgiving is a misunderstanding, but the misunderstanding is with good intentions. I’m sure that Costo’s statement is very true in some cases, but I think in most cases Indian families have learned to roll with the punches. Also, many things written about Indians are just facts about wars and cultures, there is nothing horrible said in school textbooks about the race. Beveridge’s statement is ignorant in my opinion, because there are many other very strong nations, plus we are not God’s chosen ones, and he is wrong that we can set up government amidst chaos; for example, we have not been able to administer a stable government in Iraq for many, many years. Overall, I disagree with most of what is said in these statements.
-Julia Wald
I agree with Justin's post about the quote by Rupert Costo on the side that indian people and families who are effected by slander in books of Indians must be ashamed to be living in a country who has opressed their forefathers to and far past an unfair level. These people definitely feel undermind. But on the other hand, Indians who live in maybe more accepting states probably have an easier time coping with this past.
ReplyDeleteIn our study of American history, both our textbooks/class discussions had a balance of facts, prejudices and now common misconceptions in learning about the relationships between the Indians and the colonials. We realized that Columbus was not the true hero like everyone else had thought. We questioned why we celebrate Columbus day in the first place. We avoided saying that the Indians were brutish and savage, although the French previously referred to the Native Americans as les savauges. Even before learning about the colonial Indians, no one assumed that the Aztec and Mayan were bloodthirsty beasts like a lot of sources tell us. I agree with Michael Dorris’ quote. The questions that he asks- like why do we celebrate events that actually have no historical accuracy are questions that our class tried to answer ourselves? Even though days like Columbus Day and Thanksgiving have been ingrained in our culture for so long it is impossible to fully change/get rid of them completely, the best we can do is realize the mistake, and know the real history behind it. I believe that we, as a class, were fair in our study of Indians, but most people just believe common misconceptions, and do not dig deeper into whether or not these beliefs are justified. The most valuable thing to study from the 17th century is that the growth and expansion of the Western European countries into the new world was probably inevitable. If it had not been England to first expand and push the Indians further west, it would’ve been another country. That is the key thing to remember in studying the colonies and Indians in general.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Arlill, but on the other hand, there were no written records of these people, so it is very difficult to study them and give them justice to their history. As the book has said, linguistics, archeologists, historians and many other people have tried, and sometimes succeeded in digging deeper into the Paleo-Indians and Native American's history. On the other hand, Europeans did have a written language and wrote much more about their experiences, so it is easier to learn about them, even though it might not be fair to the Indians.
ReplyDeleteI very much appreciated your interactions with each other here. I read some very powerful and persuasive opinions!
ReplyDeleteDr. Rockenbach
In terms of what happened so many years ago in between the colonials and the natives, I could not agree more with Rupert Costo. What we did to the native people of this country is sad and in some cases despicable, and even more sad is the fact that none of this is referred to in our history. Mostly this is due to the fact that much of the history we learn is from the point of view of those who were able to write down their thoughts and effectively communicate them, which would be the Europeans. Not only is it important that they were able to write down their thoughts, but another important fact is that the Europeans were not able to understand the way of life the natives lived. As a result of these things, many of the records that we have of the Europeans’ interactions with the natives are very biased and we only get part of the story. In my opinion in order to get a more complete study of what happened in the colonial period, we have to be able to understand both opinions, and until we get these two sides of history we will not be able to fully understand what happened. It is important to understand both sides because from what records we do have, we know that there was conflict amongst both the Europeans and the natives; however, conflict always has a reason behind it and two sides of a story. So if we only have the records of one side, how do we know the real reason for why something happened? The answer is we don’t, which is why it is crucial for us to try to understand both sides of the story.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Arlill on the fact that it is really unjust for us not to study history with an unbaised point of view, and to not give a voice to the natives. On the other hand, I agree with Liz on the fact that it is really hard to give a voice to people who have lost their native form of communication throughout time.
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