LITR 4232: American Renaissance
University of Houston-Clear Lake, spring 2002
Index to Student Research Projects

Terri St. John
Dr. Craig White
Literature 4232
April 18, 2002

Emerson and the Native Americans

                Ralph Waldo Emerson is considered a transcendentalist because his writings convey a spiritual belief beyond the Christian conception of salvation through dogmatic religious beliefs and practices. The Oxford Companion to American Literature identifies Immanuel Kant as Emerson’s major influence and defines transcendentalism as “ . . . a  philosophic and literary movement that flourished in New England, particularly at Concord (c. 1836-60), as a reaction against 18^th century rationalism . . .” (673).  Kant’s 1788 work, Critique of Practical Reason, is recognized as the origin of this philosophy, but was it in actuality? He may have been the first educated man to commit this belief to paper but he cannot go unchallenged as the originator of this philosophy because it had been a way of life for Native Americans hundreds, if not thousands, of years before it became conceptualized by Kant. In order to challenge Kant’s authority, the transcendental beliefs of Emerson and his most prominent follower, Henry David Thoreau, will be examined and compared to several texts containing Native American beliefs. Included in these texts is The Soul of an Indian, written by Ohiyesa, a Santee Sioux whose father encouraged him to learn the ways of the white man, including accepting the English name, Charles Alexander Eastman. However, before this comparison can be made, the credibility of available Native American texts must be established by acknowledging their oral traditions and the fact that while tribal beliefs may vary, transcendental themes found among various major tribes of North America remain constant. It is this unity of belief that will offer the most compelling argument supporting the existence of Native American transcendentalism that predates Kant.

               The ancestors of today’s Native Americans “ . . . came from North Asia at least 13,000 years ago” (Jencks 57). Unfortunately, this culture was still illiterate when first encountered by the Europeans thousands of years later; therefore, written texts documenting and explaining their religious philosophies were nonexistent at that time. Without the crutch of the written word for memory support, the cultural and religious traditions of the Native Americans were learned through storytelling and the repetition of religious rituals throughout the centuries. Just as children learned survival techniques from their elders, they also developed a respect for the Great Spirit and Mother Earth. Ohiyesa confirms this stating, “They [ancestral tales] furnish the best memory training, as the child is required to remember and repeat them, one by one” (102). As a result of these oral traditions, the texts available to us today are often transcripts of dictated information or written by English educated Amerinds, both subject to European influence and questioned authenticity. Ohiyesa’s unique position of being a first generation, educated Native American allowed him the opportunity to address this quandary firsthand. He responds:

No doubt many such stories were altered and shadowed after the fact, and unquestionably, false prophets and conjurers abounded during the times of tribulation when the white races overtook our people. But I know that our people possessed remarkable powers of concentration and abstraction, and I believe that such nearness to nature as I have described keeps the spirit sensitive to impressions not commonly felt, and in touch with the unseen powers. (121)

An example of doubted authenticity is John Neihardt’s Black Elk Speaks, because it is often regarded as a romanticized version of the actual story Black Elk told to Neihardt.  Certainly translations present the opportunity to alter information, either by embellishment or elimination, but this is a problem dealt with across all literary genres produced in a language other than that of the original source. Native Americans lived a romantic life by today’s literary definition of the word “romantic.” Therefore, romantic Native American literature seems inevitable. Before disregarding Native American folklore or literature, it must be acknowledged that Native Americans possessed an extraordinary capacity for passing oral traditions from one generation to the next and while translated works should be consciously read as translations, the validity of the text should not be dismissed solely on the premise that it is a translation.

               Transcendentalism denotes an abstract thought composed of several layers of meaning. The Oxford Companion to Philosophy states, “ . . .transcendentalism is belief in the existence of things that transcend sense-experience, or more reflectively, belief in the possibility of transcendent metaphysics . . .” (878).  In the religious sense, it can be defined as the quest for reality through spiritual intuition and/or those qualities unique to the creator of all natural things (God). Emerson attempts to teach his recipe for achieving this transcendental state through his writings, identifying civilization’s obstructions to and remedy for obtaining this natural state. In the essay, “Spiritual Laws,” he asserts:

The intellectual life may be kept clean and healthful, if man will live the

life of nature, and not import into his mind difficulties which are none of his. . . Our young people are diseased with the theological problems of original sin, origin of evil, predestination, and the like. These never presented a practical difficulty to any man, -- ever darkened any man’s road, who did not go out of his way to seek them. These are the soul’s mumps and measles and whooping coughs; and those who have not caught them cannot describe their health or prescribe the cure. A simple mind will not know these enemies.” (65)

A “simple mind” in this sense is hardly an inference to stupidity but rather a reference to that mental state unaffected by material clutter such as society’s expectations and religious dogmas. Who better fits this description than the indigenous people inhabiting America when the Europeans arrived? By Emerson’s own definition, they were blessed with the ignorance of  “theological problems” and an innate sense of “life in nature.”

               Although most available information is dated from the late 1800’s, there are a few documented texts prior to that time depicting transcendental traits in the Native American. For example, the sixteenth century explorer, Cabeza de Vaca encountered Native Americans when he arrived in America in 1527. From Florida to California to Mexico, he was confronted with people civilization declared savages; yet his diary documents his belief that “ . . . these people see and hear better and have keener senses in general than any in the world” (97). A keen sense implies the ability to be attuned to their natural environment (far exceeding that of the white man), in such a way that he possesses a form of wisdom unknown to civilization. Thoreau voices his agreement when describing George, an Indian who visited him on Walden Pond. He states, “When Nature made him she gave him a strong body and contentment for his portion . . . To a stranger he appeared to know nothing of things in general; yet I sometimes saw in him a man who I had not seen before, and I did not know whether he was as wise as Shakespeare or as simply ignorant as a child” (147-8). Interestingly, both authors recognized the Native Americans’ sensory abilities, abilities foreign to European knowledge, yet Cabeza de Vaca’s findings were written three hundred years before Thoreau’s.

               The first comparison of Native American philosophy with the transcendentalist views of Emerson is an excerpt of Chief Seattle’s (Suqwamish) 1853 speech to Isaac Stevens, the newly appointed governor of Washington. It reveals the Native American belief in the existence and influence of those who have passed on to the next life:

Our dead never forget the beautiful world that gave them being. They still love its verdant valleys, its murmuring rivers, its magnificent mountains, sequestered vales and verdant-lined lakes and bays, and ever yearn in tender, fond affection over the lonely hearted living, and often return from the Great Beyond to visit, guide, console and comfort them. (196)

In “The Over-Soul” Emerson states, “The soul’s advances are not made by graduation, such as can be represented by motion in a straight line; but rather by ascension of state, such as can be represented by metamorphosis . . .” (134). Emerson’s choice of the words “advances,” “ascension of state,” and “metamorphosis” serve as an implication that the human soul’s existence is not restricted to earthly life but progresses on a continuous cycle of growth and constant change. Obviously, the Suqwamish belief in a continuation of spirit (soul) after death, capable of experiencing feelings and communicating with those left behind, aligns with Emerson’s belief in the cycles of the soul.

               Another example of Native American transcendentalism is their perception of intuition. George Catlin, an artist that traveled extensively across America in the 1830’s studying Native American culture, made the following declaration, “I fearlessly assert to the world, (and I defy contradiction) that the North American Indian is . . .endowed by his Maker, with an intuitive knowledge of some great Author of his being, and the Universe . . .” (472). The following excerpt of Chief Seattle’s earlier mentioned speech reiterates the Suqwamish culture’s belief in their intuitive abilities:

Even the rocks, which seem to be dumb and dead as they swelter in the sun along the silent shore, thrill with memories of stirring events connected with the lives of my people. And the very dust upon which you now stand responds more lovingly to their footsteps than to yours, because it is rich with the blood of our ancestors and our bare feet are conscious of the sympathetic touch. (198)

In addition to the reference of the rocks’ spirit “. . .thrill[ing] with memories of stirring events,” this passage infers a spiritual connection between the Indian and the sand upon which he walks. Chief Seattle intuitively feels a connection between his generation and those of his ancestors, through nature, the rocks and sand, a connection the white man cannot understand because he lacks the appreciation necessary to relate to nature on such an intuitive level.

Emerson expresses his version of intuition in his essays, “Spiritual Laws” and “Nature.” “Spiritual Laws” states:

A little consideration of what takes place around us every day would shew us that a higher law than that of our will regulates events; that our painful labours are very unnecessary . . .There is a soul at the center of nature, and over the will of every man, so that none of us can wrong the universe. It has so infused its strong enchantment into nature, that we prosper when we accept its advice . . . (69)

In this passage, Emerson suggests a “higher law,” a superior spiritual consciousness, controlling our lives. This inevitable fate will prevail despite the greatest resistence, so by accepting it, inner peace can be found. He goes on to imply this “higher law” is infused with nature; therefore, relaxing and accepting nature’s desire for us (intuitively) will guarantee our prosperity, not in an economical, materialistic sense, but in an emotional, spiritual sense. Emerson’s “Nature” beautifully restates this same sentiment and addresses the perplexity confronted when trying to attain this intuitive state:

It is an odd jealousy: but the pot finds himself not near enough to his object. The pine-tree, the river, the bank of flowers before him, does not seem to be nature. Nature is elsewhere. . .To the intelligent, nature converts itself into a vast promise, and will not be rashly explained. . .We are escorted on every hand through life by spiritual agents, and a beneficent purpose lies in wait for us. . .But if, instead of identifying ourselves with the work [nature], we feel that the soul of the workman [Creator] streams through us, we shall find the peace of the morning dwelling first in our hearts, and the fathomless powers of gravity and chemistry, and, over them, of life, pre-existing within us in their highest form. (271-2)

Catlin believed God endowed the Native Americans with a sixth sense, one the people of his civilization did not possess; Chief Seattle believed the white man incapable of understanding the gift; and Emerson believed the gift is there for anyone willing to accept its existence.

                A third comparison is taken from William Apess’ (of Pequot descent) 1829 essay, “A Son of the Forest” where he confirms these beliefs saying, “I believe that it is assumed as a fact among divines that the Spirit of Divine Truth, in the boundless diversity of its operations, visits the mind of every intelligent being born into the world . . .” (24). Ohiyesa expresses virtually the same belief stating, “Our education begins in our mother’s womb. Her attitude and secret meditations are such as to instill into the receptive soul of the unborn child the love of the Great Mystery and a sense of kinship with all creation” (98). Here a Pequot and a Sioux agree on the existence of a pure form of being far superior to humans, irregardless of being called the “Spirit of Divine Truth” or the “Great Mystery,” that implants itself within each of us, granting us the ability to intuitively sense its existence and our connection with all natural things within its creation.

Emerson reiterates this concept in “The Over-Soul” stating, “Man is a stream whose source is hidden. Always our being is descending into us from we know not whence”  (131). Although Emerson’s theory of a “descending” source of our being conflicts with the Native American belief that the Great Mystery’s being is innately rooted within us, the end result is the same; the essence of our spiritual, emotional selves, and the wisdom to acknowledge it originates from a source other than ourselves. Emerson continues defining spiritual wisdom saying:

The learned and studious of thought have no monopoly of wisdom. . .We owe many valuable observations to people who are not very acute or profound, and who say the thing without effort, which we want and have long been hunting in vain. The action of the soul is oftener in that which is felt and left unsaid, than that which is said in any conversation. (135-6)

One cannot help but wonder if the “people who are not very acute or profound” is a reference to Native Americans since their intellectual abilities, in Emerson’s time, had not been acknowledged. Quite possibly, this was his way of acknowledging their spirituality while incorporating their philosophies into his own theories.

               Native Americans, across tribal boundaries, accepted this phenomenon, this intuitive gift, as naturally as we breathe the air. Their oneness with nature and sensory abilities undoubtedly evolved over time; however, it is apparent they possessed/practiced transcendental philosophy long before Kant coined the phrase. Emerson advanced Kant’s transcendental philosophy a step further, compounding the relevance of nature and spirituality into literature that became the popularly acclaimed New England Transcendentalism. Through his writing, Emerson became the voice of transcendental thought at a time when the general population would have never listened to such philosophies from Native Americans. Remarkably, he germinated a philosophy that is still being studied and responded to more than a century later and he deserves recognition for his efforts; however, his beliefs were part of Native American everyday life long before he was influenced by Kant. Unfortunately, language barriers and close-mindedness stifled any attempt they may have made to share their culture; but luckily Emerson got the word out.

Works Cited

 Apess, William. “A Son of the Forest.” Native American Literature Anthology. Berkeley, CA: Harper Collins, 1995.

Catlin, George. North American Indians. Ed. Peter Matthiessen. New York: Penguin Books, 1996.

Covey, Cyclone ed. Cabeza de Vaca’s Adventures in the Unknown Interior of America. Albuquerque:  University of New Mexico Press, 1998.

Emerson, Ralph Waldo. “Nature,” “The Over-Soul” and “Spiritual Laws.” Essays and Poems. Vermont: Everyman, 2001.

Hart, James D., ed. Oxford Companion to American Literature. 6^th Edition. New York: Oxford University Press, 1995.

Honderick, Ted, ed. Oxford Companion to Philosophy. New York: Oxford University Press, 1995.

Jencks, Christopher. “Who Should Get In?” New York Review of Books, 29 Nov. 2001: 57.

Nerburn, Kent, ed. The Wisdom of the Native Americans Including the Soul of an Indian and Other Writings of Ohiyesa and the Great Speeches of Chief Red Jacket, Chief Joseph, and Chief Seattle. Novato, CA: New World Library, 1999.

Thoreau, Henry D. The Writings of Henry D. Thoreau, Walden. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1989.