Summary Of The Cattle Thief Poem

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

Many of the Indians that left with the missionaries were gone for many years and did not know how much had changed back at home. In the story The Soft-Hearted Sioux a young man comes back home after receiving an education from the missionaries. He had left before he was taught how to survive out in the wild. He came back to dying and starving parents. He was brainwashed by the missionaries because he went against his family’s customs and told the medicine man never to come back and that God will save his father. He started preaching God’s words to his people and they left the community. His father was growing sicker and sicker and he needed food. His son went out everyday trying to get something but had no skills in hunting. His father had told him to go two hills over and he could find meat. With no concept of ownership, the son went and killed a cow that belonged to an American. Upon leaving with the meat he was chased down and attacked by the “owner” of the cattle. The son accidentally killed the man and fled back to his father’s teepee only to realize that he was too late and that his father had died. He was so conditioned by the white man that he had forgotten his ancestors’ ways of survival.

When the colonists first got there they had a pretty good bond with colonists. After some time the relationship went down. In the article it says “‘Some harsh and cruel dealing by cutting of towe [two] of the Salvages heads and other extremetyes”’(Doc D). This is showing how their relationship started to go down hill. Another reason why the natives and colonists had a bad relationship is because natives just purposely killing them. In document E it shows that one hundred and fourty-one colonists died. This was a little less than

The Europeans had became greedy and selfish. They had become reliant on the native Americans to do everything for them. They had made them do necessary tasks that they could have done themselves, but chose not too. They had made them carry them when they didn’t want to walk, feed them, fan them,carry their hammocks,etc. They had become conceited, thinking they were too “royal” to do anything for themselves. They had made the Native Americans slaves and servants to their every bidding no matter the circumstance. They had become puppets to the Europeans and they controlled the Natives and forced them to do whatever they wanted. They had made the Natives lose their dignity and sink so low by making them complete their every request. The Natives had been worn down and degraded to be known as nothing to the Europeans but servants and people who they could call to do something for them. Countless Natives had died because of what the Europeans had brought to them

Settlers move to innocence to demonstrate the consequences of the “metaphorization” of decolonization used by white settlers. The authors wrote,”

Europeans tore through America in the 1700s and destroyed the lives of Native Americans, and yet their culture remained principled with a high level of respect and honor. This is shown in a meeting that was held by the six nations of the Iroquois, where Chief Red Jacket gave a speech on the Native Americans view on missionary stations that the Europeans wanted to set up. Red Jacket explained their past with the first settlers, “We gave them corn and meat; they gave us poison in return” (1). These first Europeans set the tone for how these new colonist treated the natives. They took what they wanted and left a trail of death and destruction in their path. However, the natives acted in return with upstanding respect and treated these missionaries

This shows how little European settlers thought of Native Americans. Even their dead were given no consideration and they were stolen from even as they were being forced from their land. This was just adding to the numerous amounts of ways Native Americans were oppressed as they were stripped of even basic rights in death and their plight ignored due to greed.This making their already dangerous trip worse as they lost valuable sources of food and transportation without their cattle and horses.

Even though the U.S. got more land from the Indian Removal Act and gave the Indians a new home with covered expenses it was a downcast for many Native tribes and a miserable event throughout history. In the writing of John G. Burnett’s Story of the Cherokees, he discusses how terrible and sad the removal of the Indians were and how it negatively affected the Indians. Specifically, “Woman were dragged from their homes”(2),”Children were often separated from parents, with the sky for a blanket and the earth as a pillow.”(2) In general, all of the Indians and even the women and kids were treated horrible as if they were seen as savages, and as if they were animals. Although, when being treated like savages, were the Indians the true savages or

The poem, “The Theft Outright” by Heid E. Erdrich, a Native American poet, refutes claims made in another poem, “The Gift Outright” by Robert Frost, that America was empty before the colonists. In his poem, Frost claims that America was “unstoried, artless, [and] unenhanced,”(Frost 15) demonstrating blatant racism by erasing the entire Native American culture and race from American history. Erdrich counters his beliefs by citing the colorful, full lives of Indians in the past and now, directly juxtaposing his work by saying that the Americas are “still storied, art-filled, [and] fully enhanced”(Erdrich 30) from the Native Americans that lived there. Similarly, the book “The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian” by Sherman Alexie deals with racism. It tells the story of Arnold Spirit Jr, a Native American boy who wants a better life, so he switches schools from his poverty stricken school to an all white school in a small town called Reardan. Junior frequently faces challenges of racism; he is seen as less than his white peers at his new school because he is Indian, and he is constantly being shown by others’ words and actions that he does not deserve a quality education because of his heritage. Despite the novel’s humorous style, “The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian” provides accurate commentary on education and racism in recent times through Junior’s experiences at Reardan, with his developing friendship with Gordy, his views on the pedestals that white

"Their (Natives) present condition, contrasted with what they once were, makes a most powerful appeal to our sympathies…By persuasion and force they have been made to retire from river to river and from mountain to mountain, until some of the tribes have become extinct and others have left but remnants to preserve for a while their once terrible names. Surrounded by the whites with their arts of civilization, which by destroying the resources of the savage doom him to

As John Smith and the settlers had begun to create their colony, the Indians had other ideas, as they were hiding amongst the bushes and trees. They found their chance of ambush, set fire to their tents, and killed two of the English men. However, they didn’t stop from there. During mid June, at least three more had died in the ambushes (Document E). This contributed to deaths in Jamestown because, the Indians could not find it easy to live alongside with strangers on the Island, thus, lead to misunderstandings and blood. In 1609, a man named Francis West and several men sailed up the Chesapeake Bay to trad corn with the Indians. However, their trades became harsh if the Indians had not agreed to give anything. For example, Francis had two Indian heads cut off, because they wouldn’t take the grain he was trading with them (Document D). What’s important to realize about this was the fact that the english men had killed two Natives, and this alone could trigger any kind of mistrust and suspense. This was most likely one of the reasons why many colonist had died, because they depended on the Indians for food and trade. So when the Indians had stopped trading with them, it left the colonist to starve for the winter. Also known as the starving time, when man decided to eat each other for food. On November 1610, Powhatan, the leader of the nearby Indian tribe seized Jamestown and killed a

Beginning hundreds of years ago, Native Americans experienced an invasion. Perpetrated first by European explorers, then conquerors, and, finally, colonists, the first people to inhabit the Americas experienced a devastation of their land, culture, and dignity from people who hungered for their land and resources. Despite these tribulations, the Native American identity could never truly be destroyed. The novels Black Elk Speaks by John G. Neihardt and Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee by Dee Brown explore this truth by recounting the oppression of Native Americans and illustrating the incoming of the white man through the indigenous

In Lewis’ journal in Document B, R. Fields, one of the group members of Lewis and Clark’s expedition, stabbed an Indian in the heart with a knife because he took his gun. The Indian only took his gun out of curiosity, and didn’t have any intentions of hurting anyone in the group. Even though another party member asked to kill another Indian and Lewis refused, he burned the Indians’ bow and arrows and reclaimed the flag he had presented to the tribe before. “I also retook the flag but left the medal about the neck of the dead man that they might be informed who we were,” gives the chilling image of the white party triumphantly looking at the defeated and scared Indians, while leaving the medal on the dead Indian’s neck (which was used for trying to get respect and trust from them) to show the rest who is the boss around those areas. In Lewis’ speech in Document E, Lewis instructs the Otoe tribe to “do these things which your great father advises and be happy,” or else “you should bring upon your nation displeasure of your great father”. He lies to them without them knowing any better, and says that “he [the great chief] could at pleasure shut them [the mouths of all the rivers through which the traders bring goods to you] up and prevent his traders from coming among you.” If they tribe disobeys Lewis, then “the great chief” will stop providing traders with goods to trade with, and most tribes depended on those goods to

The poem, “The Theft Outright” by Heid E. Erdrich, a Native American poet, refutes claims made in another poem, “The Gift Outright” by Robert Frost, that America was empty before the colonists. In his poem, Frost claims that America was “unstoried, artless, [and] unenhanced,”(Frost 15) demonstrating blatant racism by erasing the entire Native American culture and race from American history. Erdrich counters his beliefs by citing the colorful, full lives of Indians in the past and now, directly juxtaposing his work by saying that the Americas are “still storied, art-filled, [and] fully enhanced”(Erdrich 30) because of the Native Americans that lived there then and now. Similarly, the book “The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian” by

When the Governor cannot make the trip to see them, the natives conclude that he must be dead. When this it is seen that this is not the case, the natives call the Governor 'a liar and guilty of that infamy'. On one level, this could be seen as 'native justice' as she calls it. However, it also implies that the natives are limited in their understanding, and possibly suggesting that colonisation is acceptable, moreover necessary for their development.