Common Themes In Chief Red Jacket's Speech

Document C Chief Luther Standing Bear, My People, the Sioux Source: Chief Luther Standing Bear, My People, the Sioux (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1929). “It did not occur to me at the time that I was going away to learn the ways of the white man. My idea was that I was leaving the reservation and going to stay away long enough to do some brave deed, and then come home again alive. If I could just do that, then I knew my father would be so proud of me.” 1. What does this statement infer about what the Native Americans felt was occurring?

Thus, he is convinced “passing” for a member of the white society would safeguard him from a life of uncertainty and violence. He is ashamed to be “indentified with a people [the black race] that would with impunity be treated worse than animals,” affirming his want to be treated as a white person to omit any violence being inflicted onto himself (Johnson 101). This observation coerces the narrator to ultimately decide to “pass” to the white society. While he declares he will neither “disclaim the black race nor claim the white race” but he would change (Johnson 101). He will “let the world take [him] for what it would,” because he refuses to go about life amidst a “label of inferiority pasted across [his] forehead,” which would occur should he claim the black race (Johnson 101). He recognizes that by intentionally “passing” he will keep himself out of harm’s way and safe from having such treatment being inflicted upon himself.

Pathos, or appealing to the emotions is the greatest part of this speech. Douglas appealed to people’s emotions by talking about the fore fathers and all of their accomplishments. This really seems to bring out the nationalism in people. He also appeals to pathos when he talks about how the Fourth of July is theirs, and not his; and the fact they are having him speak there is just ridiculous. Another way Douglas appeals to pathos is he recites a powerful poem. This poem illustrates how slaves feel and they so desperately wish to be free. This really resonates with black people and makes white people really think about how not everyone is equal. Also the poem infers that it is God’s will that all men be equal and so it shall be that way. Using words like God really gets people emotional and gets them to listen.

A leader has many responsibilities as a role model and caretaker for their people. Facing hard challenges and knowing how to deal with them is a part of being a great leader all of which are Chief Powhatan showed. Chief Powhatan whose proper name was Wahunsenacawh, was the superior chief of Tsenacommacah, an alliance of Algonquian-speaking Virginia Indians in the Tidewater region of Virginia at the time English settlers landed at Jamestown in 1607. In his address to Captain John Smith Chief Powhatan expresses how he desires peace between the settlers and the Tsenacommacah. He utilizes distinct rhetorical elements such as rhetorical questions, diction and argumentation to further support his view on what he desired to occur between his people and the English settlers.

“A great wave of humiliation and shame swept over me. Shame that I belonged to a race that could be so dealt with; and shame for my country, that it, the great example of democracy to the world, should be the only civilized, if not the only state on earth, where a human being would be burned alive.”(137) Because of that day, the narrator made a decision that he felt was best for him at the time, which was to let the world make their own perception of him. “I argued that to forsake one’s race to better one’s condition was no less worthy an action than to forsake one’s country for the same purpose. I finally made up my mind that I would neither disclaim the black race nor claim the white race; but that I would change my name, raise a mustache, and let the world take me for what it would; that it was not necessary for me to go about with the label of inferiority pasted across my forehead.” (139)

Under the will of the law, people should live in unity for a common good. He suggested that everybody in America should contain that sacred principle of unity and should consider being reasonable rather than being rightful. The minority has equal rights just like everybody else and going against it is oppression. He talked of those individuals who would have bad intentions of ruining the unity of people of America, people should persevere and never allow giving chances. The unity in the country is promising which is evidenced by the prevailing peace in the country. Although the diverse types of the people living in the states have different origin, they live in unity without discrimination. Out of this unity, America seems to be the most powerful state in the

Chief Joseph's speech "An Indian view of Indian affairs" is a transcription of the speech of the great Indian warrior, based upon his alleged statements about the state of Indian-white relations. It is thus a second-hand source to some degree, because Chief Joseph never learned to speak English, and his speech is only transmitted through a translation. Joseph mourns the duplicity of the white man, defends his tribe's actions, and mourns the death of his people. He portrays his people as a people of peace who, after they realized that resistance against the white man was futile, chose to give up their guns. However, they were displaced, time and time again, after the white man grew greedier and desired the profit and gold that could be gained from the territories where his people lived.

In order for Tecumseh to make his speech persuasive and influencing he puts together his speech and construct it like a typical Indian speech. First, he lectures his audience by producing a testimonial to the Great Spirit (l. 1-3). During the following part of Tecumseh's talk he states the big issue of the assembly and calls on the Osages to join up with his own tribe in order to outlast the hostility of the Americans (l. 4-7). He goes into detail on the historical facts and produces a short profile of the connection between the Natives and the Europeans, focusing on the dismissive development of the white's disrespect to the aboriginals (l. 8-21). Beside these historical interpretations Tecumseh gives a mythical approach when he refers to the Great Spirit and his backstory of creation (l. 22-25). The ensuing

The story begins with background of John Ridge and how he came to be a factor in the Cherokee nation. The upbringing of Ridge was an important aspect and where he went to school also played a role. Ridge’s life was assimilated to the white American culture; he even married a white woman from New England. It’s important to know this when you try to understand why he would sign the treaty. The book focuses on major events happening at the time and how it will affect the Cherokees and then switches to what will John Ridge do with his own home, like accepting many white ways, but not accepting Christianity. It also mentions the actions of other nations like the Creek and Choctaw, and how they reacted to the whites. During the reading, you begin to see that the Cherokees

Many were driven from their homes to reservations, or forced to bend a knee to the "white man 's" ways. One tribe, the Cherokee, was compelled to leave their lands in Oklahoma by the United States Government. Compelled to march with the provisions and belongings they could carry upon their back or horse, many died of exposure, starvation, or disease. (Trail) This event came to be known as “The Trail of Tears”. These people were forced from their lands, homes, worship sites, and ancestral burial grounds in the name of progress. Foreign progress, to them, if I may add. They, at their core, did not care that Continental America was flourishing. They only wanted to be left alone in their ancestral homeland. Now, in their eyes, they were being persecuted for their faith and culture. One group of Sioux stood up against the tide of imperialism. They were victorious at the Battle of Little Bighorn, but were defeated at the massacre of Wounded Knee. Wounded Knee was the final major conflict that put the majority of the Native Americans in their “place”. The Sioux under Big Foot were ordered to give up their fire arms. They responded with a reply, saying they had none. The medicine man began to dance the “Ghost Dance” frantically, while wearing paint. The soldiers, fearing an outbreak of violence was about to occur, opened fire. When the haze of smoke had cleared, the bodies of men,

One thing that it looks at is land allotments that the Indians would receive for moving west. Many of the Indians would receive “320 acres if it was a single family selling or 640 acres to ninety chiefs in the Creek nation” . Many Native Americans took the agreement for these lands that were west of the Mississippi. But soon trouble started. Some of the land companies forced Indians to sell their land even if the Indians didn’t want to move west. Other companies would pay Indians to pretend they were someone else so the companies could claim the land of an Indian who didn’t want to move. Sometimes white settlers would come onto the land they had bought before the actually time they were allotted. During this process many people were cheated out of their land and received very little compensation for their moving west

In Trail of Tears, John Ehle introduces the people and events that led to the Trail of Tears, and the removal of the Cherokee Nation to Indian Territory. In the “Indian Territory” the Indians were promised that whites

The movie, filmed in 2007, depicts the lives of the Sioux Indians as if they were not a people that mattered. In the movie, they say, “the Indians lived like the poorest of whites.” They were pushed around and told repeatedly they could not stay on their own land. This was due to the Westward Expansion in the United States at the time. By 1876, most of the American Indians had already been forcibly relocated to reservation land. Red Cloud, a Sioux leader, settled with some of his tribe on the Sioux Reservation of the Dakota Territory and took the aid of the US government. When this happened, other Sioux leaders, such as Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse, saw it as a surrender. These leaders refused to assimilate and went on to live life in their traditional way. Unfortunately, this all changed when the US found gold on Sioux land in the Black Hills. The movie tells the story of the Sioux Indians fight to try to remain in control of their own lives and stay on their own land. Then when they no longer can, the movie shows their path to surrendering to the whites and assimilating into the American culture.

“I have no race prejudice,” he would say, “but we people of mixed blood are ground between the upper and the nether millstone. Our fate lies between absorption by the white race and extinction in the black. The one doesn’t want us yet, but may take us in time. The other would welcome us but it would be for us a backward step" (467).

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