Indian Scalping Summary

The whites tried to colonize the Natives land, and they Natives didn’t know how to handle it. They also couldn’t handle all the diseases, and illnesses that the white people brought with them as said in the background “europeans brought with them measles and smallpox, against which natives americans were not immune”. This started to kill the Native Americans, but not all things that the white’s brought over to the new land, weren't so bad. The Native Americans started running out of food, this lead them to start relying on Europeans goods or food and other necessary items as stated in the background “The Cherokees were losing their self-sufficiency and becoming increasingly dependent on European goods”. In Document 5 it says “your mothers, your sisters ask and beg of you not to of our land, We say ours. You are our descendants; take pity on our request.” This quote emphasises how much the cherokee women didn't want the whites colonizing Their land anymore, because they wanted the land passed down to the next generation for them the thrive and live. This later took a turn when the Native americans and the white started to realize that they couldn't live with the whites anymore, The two different races were to different in culture as said in document 4 “Indians cannot flourish in the neighborhood of the white population”. This later became an issue with the whites and later became the Indian Removal

The money granted by the Indian Removal Act would not reach the amount needed to cover all costs. He expected it would take tens ofmillions of dollars, but the cost of Indian lives and suffering was priceless. The Indians begged for protection and to be left alone. They didn’t want to be crowded anymore. The Americans didn’t trust the Indians at all, but they thought that they could resolve the problem without conflicting with their conscience or moral sensibility.

In the book Indian Killer by Sherman Alexie the readers may have a difficult time identifying who the Indian killer was. The book creates a sense of desperation and peculiar self accomplishment by the killer, although falling short of their ambition. In everyone’s impermanence the killer did not last long after the chaos and sporadic murders in Seattle. In the Indian Killer by Sherman Alexie, John and Marie are both responsible for the killings because of their shared desire to kill a white man.

In the first text, he talks about how the Indians pretty much saved the colonist from death because they supplied the colonist with goods need for their first winter. They were then attacked in 1622 by the colonist for the land to declare the government. (Muzzey) Bailey doesn’t give praise to the Indian’s like Muzzey did for saving the colonist. He discusses how the settlers find the new land and push the Indians aside. The Spaniards were not as successful as the English settlers at killing off the Indians. Many Indians died from the Indian Massacre, diseases, and starvation. Due to Pocahontas marrying John Rolfe in 1613, the colonist started peace with the Indians. (Bailey) For the third text, the author was a little more specific with the Indian tribe name. The tribe was the Tsenacomoco, and their weroance was Powhatan. Powhatan brother watched the colonist try to expand and convert Indians to Christianity. The war leader set up attacks all along the James River leading to 347 colonist dead on March 22, 1622. (Norton)

The Pequot War is a classic example of the tension that existed between the Indians and the colonists in early America. Zinn chooses to illustrate the Indians as completely innocent and harmless, placing the blame on the Europeans, while Foner illustrates the Pequots as Indians capable of holding their own. According to Howard Zinn, the Pequot War was caused by the “murder of a white trader, Indian-kidnapper, and troublemaker became an excuse to make war” (Zinn 14). Zinn’s bias is clear when he claims that this murder was an excuse, which makes it seem as though the Puritans couldn’t wait to murder a bunch of Pequots. This contributes towards making the Puritans look greedy and selfish. Foner, on the other hand, claims that “the turning point came in 1637 when a fur trader was killed by Pequots- a powerful tribe who controlled southern New England’s fur trade and exacted tribute from other Indians” (Foner 78).

He also portrays the natives with lucid terms so as to shed an innocent light on them in an attempt to instill into his readers why it is so wrong for the Indians to be treated as they are by the Europeans.

Lived in the blazing heat, being chased by American soldiers. They were the only Native Americans fighting the U.S. soldiers and they ran constantly. They relied on their legs to run, raided villages for horses, clothing, and other goods, learned how to use a bow and arrow at a young age. For their scalps, the prices ranged. A child’s scalp was worth $25, A woman’s scalp was worth $50, and a warrior’s scalp was worth $100.

Andrew Jackson, The United States seventh president, was possibly one of the worst human beings to be president and treated the Native Indians horribly. He, was a bully and used his position to get acts and petitions like the Indian Removal Act passed, to help push Native Indians around so he could get his own way. The Indian Removal Act in and of itself seemingly doesn’t contain that much power, however it was all the power Jackson needed. The circumstances of Jackson’s character and the debates surrounding the Act also lend and interesting lens to examine what Jackson intentions were. When looking at Jackson and how he managed to relocate the Native it becomes substantially more integral to examine all the documents with a wide scope to see how he even managed the relocation of Natives.

In terms of the structure of argument Axtell first delves into the newer belief that the Native peoples were introduced to, and influenced into scalping by European settlers. To support this viewpoint he refers to a first-hand source from Allegany Seneca Chief named Cornplater in 1820 (the source that Axtell perhaps feels was the origin of the ‘new version’ of scalping), who states that before the arrival of these intruders they [the natives] “lived in peace and had no wars or fighting”, thus suggesting the view that the Native peoples were not involved in any acts of violence before the arrival of these settlers – which helps Axtell to develop the argument that it was indeed the arrival of the European settlers that had influenced them to uptake this violent and distasteful act of scalping. He then further supports this new viewpoint through stating that the arrival of the French and the English (who were

Before the Eastern World knew that the America’s were there, natives to the American lands were already here and thriving. As the land was discovered, more and more people from the European side of the Hemisphere traveled across the Atlantic Ocean to stake a claim for land in this newfound world. Throughout these Europeans settling in, and making new homes and lives for themselves these natives stayed to their own ways, and were slowly pushed westward. The problems between the Indians and now Americans were brought to the forefront as the population of the states grew, and there was a need for expansion. When the Louisiana Purchase was struck between the United States and France, the land previously inhabited by the natives were now under the control of the United States government. As the population continued to climb in numbers, individuals along with the United States government decided to take actions for the removal of these natives. Throughout the book, The Long, Bitter Trail, Andrew Jackson and the Indians by: Anthony F.C. Wallace, the events leading up to, during, and the effects of the Indian Removal Act of 1830. Individuals such as Andrew Jackson along with the government used different methods to remove these Indians from the southeastern lands of the United States. Starting in the beginning of the 1800’s,

These indians were doing horrific things to these people. They were doing things that only an evil person can think of. "Women were laid on the house floors and great stakes driven up through their bodies. Pregnant women had the unborn children ripped out and hung upon trees. "(historic bath)

The attacks on Indians by the whites could now be excused because the Indians had murdered family members. They could kill, scalp, and rob Indians without much fear of being caught or punished. A play based on real life, written by Indian fighter, Robert Rogers, showed how two hunters happened upon two Indians. As they talked, both told of how Indians had murdered some family members, so it was logical to them to kill the Indians, scalp them and robbed them of the guns, hatchets and furs. The “victims’ furs were a fantastic windfall”. (129)

In order for the author to write this book he must have had to do a lot of research before writing. As stated before, he has a lot of good sources. I thought the book was interesting but I wouldn’t recommend it to someone that has never heard of the Trail of Tears or the Cherokee removal.

The article that I read was about the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation. One of things that seem crazy to me was how much land the Native Americans actually gave up. According to the article, the size of the reservation went from around twelve million to roughly six hundred thousand. This seems crazy to me that they would give up that much land for not that much contribution. The article does talk about how the native Americans were given money for them moving the border lines in 1886. They were given $80,000 annually for ten years. One other thing that seems crazy to me is the loyalty of the tribe during this period. The article discusses that the Three Tribes might have been so loyal because they didn’t have the numbers to lash out against

Cultural differences between the English and Native Americans took a toll of the Native American population. Throughout the Northeast, making scalps out of the ‘redskins’ was very common during the war times. Colonists were paid for every Native they killed. for a scalp of a male adult it was fifty pounds, for a scalp of a