Analysis of Susan Orlean's 'The Orchid Thief'

The Apalachee were a group of farming Indians who inhabited Northwest Florida ever since around one thousand A.D. The Apalachee were concentrated around the present day city of Tallahassee, the capital of Florida. In this essay, the diet, traditions, family life, clothing, government, architecture and more about the Apalachee Indians will be explored. A precis of their timeline in the Florida panhandle will also be examined.

In The Orchid Thief, John Laroche is known to be a strange individual who is unwilling to assimilate into society due to his inconceivable actions that are initially not understandable to the narrator. From wishing to “collect one of every single turtle species known to mankind” to suddenly becoming preoccupied with “collecting and resilvering old mirrors” to having nearly “sixty fish tanks in his house”, Laroche’s extreme peculiarity completely isolates him from everyone else who have integrated into the mainstream society. However, Laroche was more than just the epitome of eccentricity. His unfamiliar actions have also deeply affected the issues of modern society that others are wishing to resolve. For instance, Laroche decides to develop a false guide as to how to supposedly grow marijuana in order to prevent children from associating with marijuana which will cause detrimental harm to their body. Another time, in order to preserve the endangered wildlife in a nearby wild swamp, Laroche decided to collect each of the various types of plants in order to use scientific development to replicate

The first argument Faragher presents in Sugar Creek: Life on the Illinois Prairie is the warring off of Native Americans with Anglo-Americans. The Kickapoo, an Indian tribe that settled in Sangamon Country, a county full of many resources that were vital for survival. The Kickapoo knew the land and hunting was their number one economic activity (Faragher 20). Fur trading became an important market between Native Americans and the

Have you ever heard of the Cherokee Indians? Sure you have! Just as a reminder, they are the biggest tribe, and most known of out of all the Indian tribes there has ever been in the southeast. They are very important to American History and helped shaped us to be the Americans we are today, which is clearly what I 'll be explaining in this paper. Throughout the paper, I 'll tell you everything you need to know about the Cherokee Indians and continue to relate to the thesis.

The long history between Native American and Europeans are a strained and bloody one. For the time of Columbus’s subsequent visits to the new world, native culture has

In American Indian life, they believe their life is interconnected with the world, nature, and other people. The idea of a peoplehood matrix runs deep in Indian culture, in this essay the Cherokee, which is the holistic view of sacred history, language, ceremony, and homeland together. This holistic model shapes the life of the American Indians and how their sense of being and relationship to their history is strong and extremely valuable to them. This essay will try to explain how each aspect of the peoplehood matrix is important and interconnected to each other and the life of the Native Americans.

Throughout the course of history there have been numerous accounts regarding Native American and European interaction. From first contact to Indian removal, the interaction was somewhat of a roller coaster ride, leading from times of peace to mini wars and rebellions staged by the Native American tribes. The first part of this essay will briefly discuss the pre-Columbian Indian civilizations in North America and provide simple awareness of their cultures, while the second part of this essay will explore all major Native American contact leading up to, and through, the American Revolution while emphasizing the impact of Spanish, French, and English explorers and colonies on Native American culture and vice versa. The third, and final, part of this essay will explore Native American interaction after the American Revolution with emphasis on westward expansion and the Jacksonian Era leading into Indian removal. Furthermore, this essay will attempt to provide insight into aspects of Native American/European interaction that are often ignored such as: gender relations between European men and Native American women, slavery and captivity of native peoples, trade between Native Americans and European colonists, and the effects of religion on Native American tribes.

The relationship between the English and the Native Americans in 1600 to 1700 is one of the most fluctuating and the most profound relationships in American history. On the one side of the picture, the harmony between Wampanoag and Puritans even inspires them to celebrate “first Thanksgiving”; while, by contrast, the conflicts between the Pequots and the English urge them to antagonize each other, and even wage a war. In addition, the mystery of why the European settlers, including English, become the dominant power in American world, instead of the indigenous people, or Indians, can be solved from the examination of the relationship. In a variety of ways, the relationship drastically alters how people think about and relate to the aborigines. Politically, the relationship changes to establish the supremacy of the English; the English intends to obtain the land and rules over it. Socially, the relationship changes to present the majority of the English settlers; the dominating population is mostly the English settlers. Economically, the relationship changes to obtain the benefit of the English settlers; they gain profit from the massive resource in America. Therefore, the relationship does, in fact, change to foreshadow the discordance of the two groups of people.

This very interesting and well written book is a successful effort to recover an unanachronistic view of interactions between native peoples and Europeans in the American Great Lakes region between the mid-17th century and the end of the War of 1812. White deals extensively with events usually described in terms of European conquest of native peoples or French-British imperial rivalry but White's perspective is both novel and insightful. The Middle Ground that White describes in not a geographic locale but a metaphor for an interesting type of cultural interaction and accommodation. In the mid-17th century, the powerful Iroquois confederation had fragemented many other tribal groupings and driven their remnants westwards. Some of these groups

The migration of European settlers and culture to North America is an often examined area. One aspect of this, however, is worthy of deeper analysis. The conquest of North America by Europeans and American settlers from the 16th to 19th centuries had a profound effect on the indigenous political landscape by defining a new relationship dynamic between natives and settlers, by upsetting existing native political, economic and military structures, and by establishing a paradigm where the indigenous peoples felt they had to resist the European and American incursions. The engaging and brilliant works of Andres Rensendez and Steve Inskeep, entitled respectively “A Land So Strange” and “Jacksonland”, provide excellent insights and aide to this analysis.

This paper tries to explain Jack Weatherford's Indian Givers by examining the history of the Native American connection to many agricultural products would not have been produced without the knowledge that Indians gave. Weatherford further stipulates that it is through these advances in agriculture that the United States has remained a strong contender in the global market, that without the influences of the Native Americans on the early settlers those early immigrants to America would not have survived. Through his work, "Indian Givers: How Indians of the Americas Transformed the World", Weatherford brings an insight to a people that most

The southeastern fringe of the United States was persistently turbulent amid the mid nineteenth century. There was tension brewing along the border of Florida and Georgia, which was brought on by the gathering of various opponents. Rebellious men from other states such as Georgia entered Florida with expectations of outright taking the Seminole stallions and cows, not caring and having little to no regret if an Indian was killed while trying to defend his property. The Seminole warriors, looking for requital, led attacks of retaliation against honest pilgrims in Georgia. Privateers and British go getters meandered the range, actuating the Indians against the Americans, whose eager for land expansionists pined for the domain south of the Georgia outskirt. Authorities of the disintegrating Spanish Empire, whose banner flew over the state, were feeble to control occasions or stop the viciousness.

Vires, a Latin term, on base represents strength; force; and power. However, through the realm of the Seminole Tribe of Florida, Vires epitomizes standing tall and remaining “Unconquered”. During the Seminole Wars many Seminoles were forced out of their homes and pushed into smaller groups around the state, notably around the Mississippi River. Though few Seminoles had still remained in Florida leading to the rich culture we have the privilege of seeing represented around the Florida State community. These Seminole Indians pushed on looking to the days ahead, knowing that they may very well not see the people who they began this journey with. Fostering a culture of staunch independence, creating a platform of self-government and understanding

In the early 1600’s, when the European settlers arrived in Jamestown, there were already around 15,000-25,000 Indians living around the area. The leader of the most prominent tribe in the area, Powhatan, stayed in a neutral relationship with the English in the area for the first couple of years after Jamestown following the start of the colony. During the time the Indians

Most of us have learnt about the Trail of Tears as an event in American history, but not many of us have ever explored why the removal of the Indians to the West was more than an issue of mere land ownership. Here, the meaning and importance of land to the original Cherokee Nation of the Southeastern United States is investigated. American land was seen as a way for white settlers to profit, but the Cherokee held the land within their hearts. Their removal meant much more to them than just the loss of a material world. Historical events, documentations by the Cherokee, and maps showing the loss of Cherokee land work together to give a true Cherokee