Fray Junipero Serra's Suppression Of The Military During The California Mission

Colonialism is the domination by a foreign entity for a variety of reasons including natural resources, agricultural production, and protection. In this case, the main purpose was the transmission of ideas. In the 19th century, British missionaries arrived in the Trobriand Islands. They brought with them cricket, one of England’s greatest displays of pride and culture. As time passed, the Trobriand people adjusted the game to satisfy the tribe’s own needs (Trobriand Cricket: An Ingenious Response to Colonialism).

This section highlights that history has created a false narrative depicting the natives as a victimized people, which they were to some extent but only in the fashion that they did not possess the same technology for warfare, immunity of communal diseases transmitted, and they were not anticipating combat. All other factors considered, the natives stood to be a potential threat. In regards to knowledge obtained by Spaniards prior to arrival and knowledge gained from observation, it would be remiss had they not prepared for battle. This argument is not to be misconstrued in approving their actions; I do recognize colonization as an evil for both the reasons employed and its damaging effects, but rather to change the narrative surrounding that of the native people. While they did experience a tragedy, I feel that it is erroneous to write them into history as being incompetent resulting from their

Popular culture has shaped our understanding and perception of Native American culture. From Disney to literature has given the picture of the “blood thirsty savage” of the beginning colonialism in the new world to the “Noble Savage,” a trait painted by non-native the West (Landsman and Lewis 184) and this has influenced many non native perceptions. What many outsiders do not see is the struggle Native American have on day to day bases. Each generation of Native American is on a struggle to keep their traditions alive, but to function in school and ultimately graduate.

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.

In 1800’s following the American Revolution, the new American Government and the indigenous Native American people had to learn how to coexist. In order to successful work with together, there was a need for translators and mediators. One of these mediators was named Red Jacket, a chief and orator for the Seneca Tribe in New York. For his leadership and efforts in maintaining peace, Red Jacket was recognized by President George Washington. In 1805, the U.S government sought to proselytize, convert the Native Americans to Christianity, the Seneca tribe which was met by opposition from Red Jacket and his people. In the speech, Red Jacket Defends Native American Religion, 1805, Red Jacket builds an argument to persuade his

In dealing with America’s indigenous people, the dominant strategy among white settlers, was, in the best of cases, to ignore the Native Americans until they pass away and, in the worst of cases, to actively contribute to their demise. In John Okinson’s short story, “The Problem of Old Harjo,” the former approach towards dealing with the Indian population is presented. Unable to change old Harjo’s ways, and frankly, unwilling to, Miss Evans knows that she will continue to be haunted by the fact that Harjo was prohibited from joining the church until “death—the great solvent which is not always solvent—came to one of them.” The death of old Harjo is one of the two solutions suggested by Okinson (and the only viable option since Harjo is much older than Miss Evans and, as a women of the clergy, Miss Evans will surely not

As all authors are undeniably guilty of, James Axtell has a bias, and not one shamefully swept underneath the rug. The enlightening article Axtell has published remains not only as informational; it stands convicting in a sense. Unfortunately, the reader may find themselves lumped into the assemblage of Americans that regard the Native Americans as “pathetic footnotes to the main course of American History” (Axtell 981). Establishing his thesis, Axtell offers plentiful examples of how Native Americans contributed to Colonial America,

In her novel, Bad Indians: A Tribal Memoir, Deborah A. Miranda theorizes that the underlying patronage of her father’s violent behavior arises from the original acts of violence carried out by the Spanish Catholic Church during the era of missionization in California. The structure of her novel plays an essential role in the development of her theory, and allows her to further generalize it to encompass the entire human population. “In this beautiful and devastating book, part tribal history, part lyric and intimate memoir, Deborah A. Miranda tells stories of her Ohlone Costanoan Esselen family as well as the experience of California Indians as a whole through oral histories, newspaper clippings, anthropological recordings, personal reflections, and poems.” Patching together every individual source to create the story of a culture as a whole, Miranda facilitates the task of conceptualizing how Societal Process Theory could play into the domestic violence she experiences growing up as the daughter of a California Indian.

In Seneca Chief Red Jacket’s Address to White Missionaries and Iroquois Six Nations, Red Jacket delivers a speed in Buffalo Grove, New York in 1805, regarding his tribe’s view on religion. For instance, when giving an anecdote on the history of his ancestors, he states, “Our seats were once large, and yours very small. You have now become a great people, and we have scarcely a place left to spread our blankets, You have got our country, but you are not satisfied; you want to force your religion upon us.” which evokes pity to listeners by telling how the Christian whites stole the land from the Native Americans who had fed them and clothed them only to be returned with nothing but the loss of their homeland (Red Jacket 2). Expressing a contradiction of the treatments, Red Jacket conveys the moral question of whether it was right of Europeans to treat their Native hosts in such a tactless manner. There is no greater sorrow on earth than the loss of one’s native land and Red Jacket expresses that emotion of sorrow by claiming that his people could not even find a place to put their blankets as their land was not in their possession anymore. In addition, whites felt entitled to convert the native americans to the ways of Christ by

Colonialism has a historical context that has long obscured and distorted the experiences of indigenous people, particularly those who endured the brutalities of the California Missions. Although indigenous people are portrayed in history as docile people, who openly embraced invasion, Deborah Miranda dismantles this depiction in her memoir, Bad Indians: A Tribal Memoir, through two stories called “Dear Vicenta” and “Novena to Bad Indians”. Throughout the stories run various narratives of survival and resistance, which form new understandings of colonization and missionization. Miranda practices decolonization through oral history in order to form new and ongoing indigenous identities. Evidently, through decolonial practice and deconstructing dominant narratives about “colonized” peoples and replacing them with stories that use traditional memory and practice, Miranda disrupts the commonly accepted narrative of indigenous peoples by reconstructing the dichotomy between good and bad Indians through acts of resistance and survival.

For more than 300 years, since the days of Christopher Columbus and the Spanish Government, an attempt of genocide of the Native American Indian has existed. From mass brutal murders and destruction by Spanish and American armies, to self-annihilation through suicide, homicide, and alcohol induced deaths brought about because of failed internal colonialism and white racial framing. Early Explores used Indigenous inhabitants upon first arriving to the America’s to survive the New World and once they adapted, internal colonialism began with attempts to convert the Indians to Christianity, repressing their values and way of life, forcing them into slavery, and nearly exterminating an entire culture from existence.

“My people are few. They resemble the scattering trees of a storm-swept plain...There was a time when our people covered the land as the waves of a wind-ruffled sea cover its shell-paved floor, but that time long since passed away with the greatness of tribes that are now but a mournful memory.,” Chief Seattle Speech of 1854. The culture of the Native American people has been deteriorating ever since the Europeans arrived in the Americas. The impactful and immense loss of lifestyle that they faced is one that can never be recovered, what the United States has given them are generations of trauma and blatant suffering. However, the U.S. did not stop there, a multitude of cultures have been broken to help keep America pure. For instance, one of the most significant cultures that have been dismantled by the U.S. other than the Natives and their music were the languages and music of the African slaves. The apparent likeness of these two cultures in the ways in which their deconstruction impacted them is in more of an abundance, such as the dominating influence of the Christian religion and the gravely vital role of maintaining what little heritage they could through language. In contrast to this, the two groups had an opposing difference pertaining to how the Natives and slaves tried to compensate the immense loss of their culture through the generations.

Red Jacket’s speech that is found on pages 259-262 serves as criticism towards the Christian practice of educating Native Americans as well functioning as a plea for them to leave the Natives be. As examined by Red Jacket, Christians of the New World were adamant about educating natives, with the hopes of “civilizing” them, by teaching them the Christian ways of life. However, the results of these endeavors often did more harm than good, as seen when Red jacket states, “They [the educated natives] become discouraged and dissipated—Despised by the Indians, neglected by the whites, and without value to either,” showing that once natives were educated by Christians, they did not have a place within either group. Furthermore, Red Jacket points

These point of views include how the explorers and missionaries feel in this new and strange world, and how they felt about the Native Americans, who they referred to as ‘savages’. Due to this sort of one-sided point of view, the reader misses out on how the Natives felt during these times. We read only what the Europeans thought, which would include only what they wanted others to read, and not necessarily include the full facts and events that occurred at the time. Our perception of the interactions will tend to be more on the side of the Europeans, and against the Natives, as they are described to be unreasonable, cruel, and hostile in later passages in The Jesuit Relations. Although, at the same time in earlier passages of The Jesuit Relations, there is mention of how polite and willing the Native Americans are when they are sick and in hospitals.

Junipero Serra was born on November 24, 1713 at Petra, Majorca, Spain. Serra was not the biggest guy in the world as he stood five feet two inches in height and certainly acted much bigger than he really was. Junipero is looked at as a role model because this man fought for the freedom of the Church against royal infringement. On the other hand, he though of by some to be too aggressive and demanding at certain times. Though he defended the Indians, he believed in and practiced corporal punishment.