The Portrayals Of Native American Indians In Early American Literature

In her book American Indian Stories, Zitkala-Sa's central role as both an activist and writer surfaces, which uniquely combines autobiography and fiction and represents an attempt to merge cultural critique with aesthetic form, especially surrounding such fundamental matters as religion. In the tradition of sentimental, autobiographical fiction, this work addresses keen issues for American Indians' dilemmas with assimilation. In Parts IV and V of "School Days," for example, she vividly describes a little girl's nightmares of paleface devils and delineates her bitterness when her classmate died with an open Bible on her bed. In this groundbreaking scene, she inverts the allegation of Indian religion as superstition by labeling

When the first colonists landed in the territories of the new world, they encountered a people and a culture that no European before them had ever seen. As the first of the settlers attempted to survive in a truly foreign part of the world, their written accounts would soon become popular with those curious of this “new” world, and those who already lived and survived in this seemingly inhospitable environment, Native American Indian. Through these personal accounts, the Native Indian soon became cemented in the American narrative, playing an important role in much of the literature of the era. As one would expect though, the representation of the Native Americans and their relationship with European Americans varies in the written works of the people of the time, with the defining difference in these works being the motives behind the writing. These differences and similarities can be seen in two similar works from two rather different authors, John Smith, and Mary Rowlandson.

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.

As humans we always ask ourselves some three questions about us. Who are we? Why are we here? And why should we continue to live in this place? We come to these origin tales and myths for answers to these questions. In the Native American myths “The Walam Olum” and “The World on Turtles Back” it clearly shows just how the Native American tribes started there, and should continue to live at the places they started at.

The Englishman's encounters with the Native Americans were almost never mutual or positive. The first encounter with the people of the “new world” was a defeat at best, the Native Americans drove the Englishmen back upon the ships they had come from, but the English were determined that they would be here to stay. They moved farther down the James River and found a suitable location for settlement. Through poor leadership, however, brought the true demise of the possible friendly relations between the Natives and English unlike their French counterparts further north. Innocent Native Americans coming into Jamestown with food and gifts were often treated like spies and taken hostage by the colonists.This understandably gave the natives of the region a common goal, it was the English versus them. Though the first encounter

It's very often that the public has the impression that Native American cultures were inflexible, unchanging societies, with little or variation through the centuries. This is the central theme of this chapter I believe because throughout my days on this earth I have heard plenty of puts on the Native community. I believe the author was trying to address people with negative views on the Native community and open their eyes to the beauty, land, social classes, and development of the Native culture and this book counter acts the misconception of society. Throughout these chapters the dynamic culture of the Northwest Coast people are revealed. With a history that has many twist and turns just like in other civilization these 1400 miles called

Native Americans were seen as savage societies when it was newly "discovery" by the Europeans. European societies labeled people who were not only different in language, but also those who lived by the laws of nature, or without any laws, learning, religion or morals as “savage.” Not only did Europe’s discovery of the America’s opened a new source of prosperity to the commercial part of Europe, but the fall of the native when introduced to the violence and sickness brought over from the Old World.

When the colonists arrived to the new world, they were blind to the problems before them. They were in a time filled with thematic tribulations and conquest. They came across a group of people they never knew or seen before; they called them “Savages” or “Natives.” Various encounters with the Native Americans were documented with both negative and positive connotation. During this period of trial and error, time with the Natives seemed often terroristic and peaceful. In various colonial texts several authors have documented their experiences with the Native Americans, and gave their personal analysis of the Natives behavior, customs, and beliefs. Mary Rowlandson, for example, experienced terror from the Natives; she gave a chilling look

The different views could be read as this: “They [the native Americans] are inconstant in every thing, but what fear constrains them to keep. Crafty, timorous, quick of apprehension and very ingenuous. Some are of disposition of fearful, some bold most cautelous [wily], all Savage”.

Throughout much of the history of Native Americans we can see a pattern of times of intense hardship and adversity in many different forms. Likewise we can see hardship in the various Native American stories of Zitkala sa, Momaday, Alexie, and Silko. However adversity and hardship are not necessarily crippling or damning, in fact in this paper we will see how the various problems faced by these native americans, be it the fictional characters in the stories themselves or the authors of the story 's actually empowered them and often times made them stronger people as a whole be it as leaders of their community or simply people to look up too. In this paper we will attempt to answer the question. Is it possible that a good can come from

When some of the first settlements were created, such as Jamestown, the newcomers had little, to no concerns involving the Indians. Renowned historian, George Bancroft, nicknamed the “Father of American History”, has published many indexes and history books pertaining to the conflict between settlers and Natives. Bancroft states, “...And yet it is but little more than two centuries since the oldest of our states received its first permanent colony. Before that time the whole territory was an unproductive waste. Throughout its wide extent the arts had not erected a monument. Its only inhabitants were a few scattered tribes of feeble barbarians, destitute [poor, without] of commerce and of political connection”. At this time period, the Indians were clearly looked down upon (Document C). The Europeans began to take extreme advantage of them. Unfair trading, taking land, and even taking Native women to marry. The Native population soon began to decrease due to diseases from Europe. At this point in time, the Natives were considered incapable and were not thought highly

The stories Columbus, the Indians, and Human Progress and A Patriot’s History of the United States have a greater difference than they do similarities. Each story has a different tale of how Native Americans were treated by the Europeans. One story told of gallons of bloodshed, torture, enslavement, and overworked Indians, while the other one told of glorified Europeans here to help their fellow man. Even though, both stories had their differences; they did tell of a similar time in which explorers reach the New World to establish colonies, and to use and turn the native tribes against one another for the benefit of the European nation.

Hemingway portrays the Native Americans in his short story as a sort of foil to the protagonist and his father. The Native Americans are savages, primitive people who are unable to even assist a fellow tribe member with a birth. The white people are presented as saviors, people to look up to. This is shown quite clearly between Nick’s father and the father to be. Nick’s father, an accomplished medical professional is going to a remote location to help out a young woman in need. A noble endeavor that does not appear, or rather is not implicitly stated, is being compensated for. It could be argued that Nick’s father is doing this because he wants to, or to be more accurate, because he is generous. He remarks that “[this one’s] for the medical journal…doing a

Throughout history people have always been placed in different categories such as good versus evil, strong versus weak or civilized versus uncivilized. All of these names are based on some individual viewpoints and their perspective of how history unfolded. The occasions that occurred in New England amid the 17th century were of basic significance in the historical backdrop of the United States of America. It was the underlying time of the relations between the Native American and Anglo-Saxon human advancement and the result of the primary many years of shared contacts molded and changed the course of history for both societies. The underlying foundations of American national character

The English acted harsh towards the natives, lying, stealing and killing the natives. Firstly, the English gave the Indians a false gift with small pox killing many of the Indians. This was the first of many harsh acts twords the natives. At first the Indians attacked because the English were invading their land but eventually it became peaceful. Only when the English started to get greedy and lazy did the push the Indians inland and steal and ravage their community's. The Spanish intertwined themselves into the Indians community to remain peaceful, and allowed the Spaniards to spread Christianity throughout the Indian community. The English drove the Indians because they kept wanting more from the new land. They ravaged the Indians stealing