LITR 4328 American Renaissance Research Posts 2015 (research post assignment) Research Post 2

Elizabeth Myers

Why were the Native Americans Classified as Noble or Ignoble Savages?

After completing my first research post on when the noble and ignoble savage characterization for Native Americans first originated, I decided to continue my examination of this topic in my next research post. For my second research post, I wanted to discover the reasons behind these early representations. Before I began my research, I was already aware of one motive behind the stereotyping of Native Americans’ identities. Dr. White’s discussion about James Fenimore Cooper’s The Last of the Mohicans touched upon my question because he explained that the colonists’ desires for Native Americans’ lands were a motive for classifying Native Americans as ignoble savages. However, I was sure that there were additional motivations for the noble and ignoble savage characterizations, so I utilized the University of Houston-Clear Lake library in finding resources to answer my question.

To begin, Philip J. Deloria’s book, Playing Indian, discusses a significant cause behind Native Americans’ classifications as either noble or ignoble savages. Deloria contends that the colonists’ European customs influenced their characterizations of Native Americans (20). The colonists’ beliefs and perceptions of “religion, gender relations, subsistence, [and] technology” are all ways in which they judged and viewed Native Americans (20). Thus, the Native Americans’ own unique beliefs and traditions could end up influencing their placements as “good” or “bad” savages in the colonists’ minds. In the end, the colonists end up in a similar position as Christopher Columbus did during his voyages. Both the colonists’ and Columbus’ ethnocentrism prevents them from gaining a true unbiased understanding of the native inhabitants of the new world (Todorov 42-50).   

In addition to the colonists’ cultures, the early explorers’ descriptions of the Indians also affected colonists’ opinions of the Native Americans (Nash 131-132). Colonists who read and/or discussed the explorer’s stories of “beastlike” or “winsome” Native Americans would naturally come to America with preconceived notions of its native residents (Nash 131-132). Moreover, the colonists’ preconception of the Native Americans also aligned with how they viewed the “new world.” America was viewed as an exotic land similar to the “Garden of Eden” and a land filled with hidden dangers (Nash, “Origins of Racism” 132).    

Besides the colonists’ preconceptions of the Native Americans and the new world, the explorers’ and settlers’ intentions had a direct affect in how Native Americans were viewed by them. For example, Gary B. Nash notes in the fourth edition of his work Red, White, and Black: The Peoples of Early North America that the first English voyages to America were interested in trading with the Native Americans (Nash, Peoples of Early 49). As Nash recognizes, the English promoters of “overseas development” opportunities needed to see the Native Americans in a positive light and not a negative one, because “only a friendly Indian could be a trading Indian” (The Peoples of Early 49). In contrast to trade engendering a favorable opinion of Native Americans, the English colonists’ later beliefs that their colonization efforts would be met with extreme force caused them to alter how they saw Native Americans (Nash, “Origins of Racism” 134). Native Americans were now “hostile savages,” and this “. . . helped assuage a sense of guilt which inevitably arose when men whose culture was based on the concept of private property embarked on a program to dispossess another people of their land” (Nash, “Origins of Racism” 134).

My research has answered my question of why the Native Americans were classified as noble and ignoble savages. As my research demonstrates, there were several reasons behind these early Native American stereotypes. Ethnocentric attitudes toward a differing culture, preconceived notions of Native Americans, desiring trade, and colonists’ fears and guilt over colonizing the natives’ lands influenced how early explorers and settlers viewed Native Americans. These differing motives all demonstrate the complex nature inherent in the Native American noble and ignoble identities. In the end, it is quite possible that individuals may have had different or a combination of reasons behind their opinions of Native Americans.  

Works Cited

Deloria, Philip J. Playing Indian. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1998. Print.

Nash, Gary B. “Red, White and Black: The Origins of Racism in Colonial America.” The Origins of American Slavery and Racism. Ed. Donald L. Noel. Columbus: Charles E. Merrill Publishing, 1972. 131-152. Print.

Nash, Gary B. Red, White, and Black: The Peoples of Early North America. 4^th ed. Upper Saddle     River: Prentice Hall, 2000. Print.

Todorov, Tzvetan. The Conquest of America. Trans. Richard Howard. New York: Harper & Row, 1984. Print.