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LITR 4332 American Minority Literature Model Assignments Research Project Submissions 2013 research post 1 |
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Ryan Harold
The Treatment of Indians by Westerners
In most curriculums today, we are taught of how cruel
Westerners treated Native Americans and how inhuman we were.
Looking back, was how they were treated really out of the ordinary for
the time period? By today’s
standards what we did to the Native Americans sounds outrageous and uncalled for
but during the time period such practice was commonplace.
Obviously what they did to the Native Americans was cruel but should
Indian cruelty be as magnified as it is today in course curriculums?
You really have to think about how the world was back then.
It is not as simple as one might realize.
We have to keep in mind that many Indians
were very violent and engaged each other in war on a constant basis.
Some tribe’s sole purpose was to win battles.
There were peaceful tribes out there, but many more warlike tribes.
Westerners did horrendous acts to Indians but Indians also did the same.
One article on the Canada Free Press explains how the term noble savage
has been humanized even to today.
It hides some of the true characteristics of Indians in history.
“The
“noble savage” is a product of imaginative writers with humanistic leanings.
Many of the Indians were brutal savages, even cannibals! The New Columbia
Encyclopedia reported on some Northwest tribes such as the Kwakiutl: “They had a
highly classified society with chiefs, nobles, commoners, and slaves….This
distinctive culture, which included cannibalistic rituals, was not greatly
affected by European influences until after the late 18th century….”
The Aztecs also sacrificed thousands of young virgins each
year to the gods. Some
Northern American Indians brutally scalped colonists as well.
These are only a few examples of Indian savagery that colonists had to
come in contact with in the New World.
I wonder why we weren’t taught about some of these details in public
schools.
In history class, dealings with Indians
always make the Europeans the only ones who look bad.
It is almost assumed that you are supposed to feel guilty for being
white, middle class, and/or Protestant especially relating to what we have done
to the land since taking it from the noble savage.
Many Indians did not have a concept of land ownership.
Many of the tribes were nomadic and always moving around.
The situation is a lot more complicated than Westerners just coming in
and being cruel to the “peaceful” Indians.
I am not saying that what the Westerners did
to the Indians was right or justified. I just think it is important to think
about the time period and open our mind to more reasons on why westerners
treated Indians the way they did.
What we can do is to do more research outside of just textbooks to find out more
information and come to a better understanding of the time period
Boys, Don. "Were the Indians Noble Savages?." Canada Free Press 04 Feb
2008, n. pag. Print. <http://canadafreepress.com/index.php/article/1711>.
Dippie, Brian. "American Indians: The Image of the Indian." TeacherServe.
N.p.. Web. 31 Mar 2013.
<http://nationalhumanitiescenter.org/tserve/nattrans/ntecoindian/essays/indimage.htm>.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scalping
"Top 10 Worst Moments in Human History." ListVerse. N.p., 02 Mar 2012.
Web. 31 Mar 2013.
<http://listverse.com/2012/03/02/top-10-worst-moments-in-human-history/>.
