Perception And Actions Regarding American Indians

Narratives about captivity have often intrigued readers in Western culture. Mary Rowlandson and Olaudah Equiano’s stories helped pave the way for stereotypes within both European and white culture; teaching Europeans to see Native Americans as cruel and allowing whites to see the evil in the American slave market. In both “A Narrative of the Captivity” and “The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano,” Mary Rowlandson and Olaudah Equiano share their individual stories of being kidnapped and enslaved. Though the two narrators share similarities in their personal accounts of being held captive, either individual’s reaction sheds light on the true purpose of both Rowlandson and Equiano’s writing.

Colin Calloway carries out a captivating explanation to inform his audience that neither the Colonists of the New World nor the Native Americans were considered "monolithic." Instead, they were much more nuanced in their understanding of the multifaceted attributes of the cultural associations in the Colonial United States. Calloway surveys this intriguing story with illustrative and detailed ways that offer a pertinent starting point for any individual wanting to know more about how the European people and Native Americans cooperated or interacted with one another in America 's first years.

Indian Relations was one factor that caused the death of so many colonists in the early Jamestown. In early 15th century, Francis West and his group cruised up the Chesapeake harbor to attempt the exchange for grains with the Indians. They were capable to fill his trifling vessel with corns. This achievement would aid, but then it was not sufficient to last the settlers the wintertime. They finally took the corns back to England. The “Affiliation” of the Natives and settlers was apprehensive, at times unfriendly. The two philosophies were so diverse. The semantic, civilizations, and way of life, were so conflicting that none of them distinguished what to anticipate of the other. Mostly, English colonists saw the Inhabitants as uninformed heathens,

From the very first interaction, the social and political relations between the Native Americans and the Europeans had begun with much tension. Many Europeans came to the Americas with the intention of discovery. However, when it became apparent that these new lands were inhibited the motives changed, and then the natives were colonized, abused, and in many cases killed. From then and throughout the impending periods of time, the relations between the natives and the Europeans had a few points of mutual peacefulness, but were overall negative.

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

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.

The arrival of the ‘foreigners’, as referred to by the Native Americans, turned a new stone in Native American diplomacy. No longer did they have to only deal with neighboring tribes, as they were forced to endeavor into politics with strangers who were looking to take their land. The first relationship between the pilgrims and the Native Americans began with the Wampanoag tribe. The relations between the two groups paved the view that the pilgrims had towards the Indians. The decently friendly relationship that stood between the two groups was short lived as the pilgrims felt that the indians were getting in the way of their expansion; and shortly after the friendship ceased to exist (Bell, 37).

To better understand the conflict between the Europeans and the Native Americans, one must closely examine the state of Europe’s economy at the time. Europe struggled with difficult conditions. This included poverty, violence and diseases like typhus, smallpox, influenza and measles. There were widespread famines which caused the prices of products to vary and made life very difficult in Europe. Street crimes and violence were prevalent in cities: “Other eruption of bizarre torture, murder, and ritual cannibalism were not uncommon”.2 Europeans

Prior to the Revolutionary War, the Native Americans were considered to be an essential part to learning and living on the North American landscape. However, after the relationship between the Colonists and British tensed, the Native Americans found themselves in the middle of a war that would divide the Native American people. However, during the course of the war, the Native Americans had to consider who they should fight with/for. While both sides, the British and the Colonists, professed the benefits of fighting with/for them, the Native Americans’ decision would determine the fate of many Indian generations during the course of expansion in North America. On one side, the British offered diplomacy, land, and economic expansion; on the other, the Colonists promoted freedom, equality, and the promise of land. The struggle of the tribes to decide which side to fight for would prove to be the true battle that many of them would face. However, the relationships of the Native Americans and the English people did not start with the Revolution; it began almost two-hundred years prior in the settlement of Jamestown.

Looking throughout the overwhelming events the American Revolution had on everyone involved, allows us to examine how the governments’ policies toward the Indians changed over time. It shows how the policy changes effected the Indians as well as the Americans’, their attitudes toward each other as the American’s pushed westward and the Indians resisted. Then the actions on both sides which lead up to the final removal of all Indians to west of the Mississippi in 1830’s.

Since each chapter in this book is based upon a new era or new transformation of the Native culture, he tends to draw mini-conclusions at the end of most sections. For example, in Chapter 1, Richter discusses the Five Nations and its origin and most important principles. At the end of the chapter he states, “For the Five Nations, themes of reciprocity and exchange, war and peace, and alliance and spiritual power entwined to define most relationship among persons, kin groups, and villages” (29). He also illustrates the Indian’s later trials and tribulations with their European colonizers when he discusses when the Europeans began invading the Northeast in the 16th century. When discussing this time in history, he writes, “the Five Nations were being cut off from sources to materials they highly prized by hostile foes” (53).

Captivity narratives were popular with readers in both America and the European continent during the era of North and South American discovery and colonization. They related the experiences of whites being enslaved by Native Americans and of Africans being enslaved by whites. Two captivity narratives that were widely read during the time are A Narrative of the Capture and Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson by Mary Rowlandson and The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano by Olaudah Equiano. They relate the experiences of a married white Puritan woman captured by Native Americans and an African boy captured for the American slave trade at a young age respectively. They were often used as propaganda, Europeans during this time created stereotypes for Native Americans as being cruel and warlike and helped whites to start to see the slavery of African-Americans as wrong. The two narratives are similar in the use of diction to describe each author’s fear of their captors. Further examination reveals several other similarities and differences in the purposes of the narratives as well as in the experiences, reactions, comforts, and views about religion of these two captives.

In Richter's “Facing East from Indian Country” he changed the stare of early American past around and services the reader to reflect stories of North America during the period of European foundation rather than of the European establishment of North America. Well familiar to historians and early Americans for his significant study of the Iroquois, Richter has now wrote what might prove to be the final work in the effort to reintegrate Indians into the history of North America. Reviewers can’t visualize any historian or student dismissing the role of Native people in the history of colonial and early America after reading this book and learning about its many lessons. For this reason Facing East will enjoy a long shelf-life as one of the best

According to Going to the Source, in early America, Indian captivity narratives were one of the most powerful and preserved forms of literature (27). They emphasized the spiritual and physical trials of captivity. Indian captivity narratives were written by both men and women, but for American women they provided with an “acceptable avenue of literacy.” These narratives offer two major aspects. They offer a personal perspective of Indian cultures and the pressure and alteration of colonization. Furthermore, they provided a personal perspective into the captive’s cultures as well (28).

Talking Back to Civilization , edited by Frederick E. Hoxie, is a compilation of excerpts from speeches, articles, and texts written by various American Indian authors and scholars from the 1890s to the 1920s. As a whole, the pieces provide a rough testimony of the American Indian during a period when conflict over land and resources, cultural stereotypes, and national policies caused tensions between Native American Indians and Euro-American reformers. This paper will attempt to sum up the plight of the American Indian during this period in American history.