American Literature Before 1865

While the land issue is a great deal invoked as the reason behind the extermination of indigenous Americans by European settlers, the real issue was a clash of cultures that held incompatible world views. Among Native Americans (hereafter referred to as Indians for convenience and because this is actually Native peoples preferred assignment according to Coeur dAlene writer Sherman Alexie), monastic order was usually very egalitarian, and regular democratic. Europeans on the other egest believed in top-down, societal structures with rigid orders and classes.Most Indians were hunters and gatherers this is how they survived, acknowledging game and wild edible plants as gifts of nature. In light of the harsh, tight-laced Yahwist world view of the Europeans, it is significant that those in a hunting-gathering society rarely have to work much(prenominal) than five or six hours per week in order to satisfy their basic needs Euro-Christians were children of a vengeful, patriarchal g od who demanded that they earn their bread by the sweat of their brow (unless of course, one was a lucky capitalist, in which lower classes would do it on ones behalf).Their warped article of faith system demanded that they bowl the earth hunting was for sport. Many ( non all) Indians found the thought of agriculture as an affront to the earth if the spacious Spirit had provided berries, roots and game animals, why would they scratch open the Great Mother seeking more?Sexuality was some other issue while most Indians embraced it as any commonplace, healthy life course of study and exhibited great tolerance for homosexuality and trans-gendered people (some of whom had high status, as was the case of the Cherokee Two Spirit), Europeans were as numerous Americans are now embarrassed, ashamed, intolerant and repressive when it came to sexual matters. Women among many Indian tribes also had a huge degree of freedom and equality with men, which was rigidly denied to European wom en. Different European groups had very diametrical experiences and problems in encountering and interacting with Indians.In A Briefe and True Report of the New Found Land of Virgina, written in 1587 antecedent to the mysterious disappearance of the Roanoke Colony, the explorer Harriot a product of the Elizabethan England of Shakespeare wrote to a lower place the heading Of The Nature and politeness of the People that the Indians are not to be feared, but warning that they shall have cause to feare and love us, that shall inhabite with them (241). Harriot goes on the describe them in some detail as to their animal-skin clothing, their lack of edged in like mannerls and their style of warfare.He writes, In complaisance of us, they are a people poore, and for want of skill and judgement in the knowledge and use of our things, vitality esteeme our trifles toys, coins and cooking tools before things of greater value (242). This statement is significant, particularly in light of later experiences of the position in Virginia experiences that involved great suffering, death and privation. Here, Harriot indulges in representative side of meat chauvinism, judging Indian society and culture by the standards of his own.It should have become obvious over the ensuing twenty years that a lack of technology did not necessarily make for an inferior culture masters of their environment, the Indians were well capable to survive and even so thrive in a place where the first English settlers starved, existed in need and frequently died. Even Harriots statement that should they desire our friendship and love, they will have the greater respect for winsome and obeying us a clear declaration of intentions to enslave Indians proved to be based on this incorrect logic as future English settlers discovered when they attempted to do just that.Harriots rendering of the local Indians religion indicates there were some traits shared with their own Christianity immortalit y of the soul, analogues to Heaven and Hell, and even formal worship rituals held in houses appropriate or temples (243). While by no means typical of all Indian spirituality or religion, it was these kinds of similarities that some Catholic missionaries were able to use in their triple-crown conversions elsewhere.With similarities such as described by Harriot, one wonders if some elements of Christianity had not filtered north from Spanish claims in Florida. Alternatively, given the chauvinistic tendencies of Europeans in general and the English in particular that led to so many misunderstandings, it is sooner possible that Harriot may have been simply seeing what he expected and/or want to see. In any event, the English did not hesitate to use the Indians own normal fears of the unknown against them for their own advantage.During a drought, local Indians (some of the few who did engage in agriculture, probablely) came to believe their problems had been brought on by their own a ctions, and send offered to play to the God of England, that he would preserve their Corne, offering the English a portion when the harvest-feast came in. Later, when maladys carried by the English were spread to those Indians who had no natural immunity, the English were all too happy to judge the plague to their vengeful God for their wicked practises (245).In the case of Indians to whom such things had never happened and had no concept of how disease spread through bacteria and viruses, this self-serving explanation on the part of the English was all too acceptable. The Spaniards experiences with Indians were as varied as the Indian cultures they encountered. For example, with complex urban societies such as the Aztecs and Incas, the Spaniards were forced to chew with powers that were nearly equal to their own in terms of technology and organization only through collaborators deep down these civilizations were leaders like Cortez and Pizzaro able to succeed in their conques ts.Further north, the Dine (Navajo) and Zuni presented somewhat less of a challenge. inappropriate the English who came for land, the Spaniards main objective was plunder gold, silver, slaves and souls. Unlike the primarily secular English expeditions, the Spaniards operated under the blessings of an aggressive Roman Catholic church, whose tool was the Holy Inquisition (rather different from the kinder, gentler brand of Catholicism brought by French missionaries to Indians further north).The Zuni linguistically related to the Nez Perce, Yakama, Klamath and Modoc peoples of the Pacific Northwest, yet living in New Mexico embraced a kind of spirituality that was completely unlike Christianity. There religion was organized into different societies, each of which governed a specific aspect of the community (22). In many ways, Zuni religion resembled that of the ancient Mayans a sun priest known as a Pekwin kept a calendar there was also a belief in Hero Twins, hearkening back to the Mayan legends of Hunahpu and Xibalanque.The Hero Twins also appear in the mythology of other southwestern United States peoples, including the Navajo (34). This and many other aspects of Zuni culture are revealed in their own creation myth, whose relationship with the Spaniards was hostile practically from the beginning taken as one of the Seven Cities of Cibola, this sedentary, semi-urbanized, agricultural people successful drove off the initial Spaniard invasion in 1540. A Catholic mission was eventually established some xc years later, but in 1680, the Zuni were in rebellion once again, joining other Pueblo Indians against the Spaniards.Zuni attitudes toward the Spaniards are apparent in a later version on the Zuni creation story, in which the trickster, or mischief-maker, is associated with Mexicans, or Spaniards. The Trickster is a common figure in nearly all myths in all cultures on the artificial satellite the late Joseph Campbell considered the Trickster as an integral part of the archetype mythic journey, or Heros Quest. The purpose of a Trickster was to lead the Hero astray, or attempt to delay or even foil the Quest.Among American Indian cultures, the Trickster could take many forms, but most frequently appeared as a coyote. While he could be a teacher and frequently force one to salute that which they office not otherwise wish to deal with, Coyote could also be a mischief-maker. Associated Coyote with Mexicans/Spaniards had a negative connotation. In this version of the creation story, Mexicans also emerge later than the Zuni. This is yet another point of significance like many tribal peoples, their name for themselves translates as The People, with the implication that others are not people. The name Halona-Iriwana, the Zuni pueblo, means The Middle Ant Hill of the World, suggesting that chauvinistic self-centeredness was not unique to the English and Spaniards. It has been suggested that this type of mentality was what allowed the Europea ns to decimate the Indian populations had all Indian peoples been able to unite against the invaders, European settlers might not have been quite as successful. The problem with this idea is in the sheer diversity of Indian peoples, not only in terms of language, but culture and even physical traits.While warfare among American Indian tribes never reached the kind of wholesale slaughter that it did among Europeans, conflict and competition for resources and prestige was still quite common. Cultural diversity may be something to treasure today, but in American history, it has had great and often tragic consequences. Works Cited Baird, Forrest E. and Walter Kaufman, eds. From Plato to Derrida, 4th Ed. (Upper Saddle River Prentice Hall, 1997).