Indigenous Nations of the PlainsIV - Why did white Americans Hate the Indigenous Peoples? [We Argue]
|
|
Source AExterminate the wild beasts, ... these red-jawed tigers, whose fangs are dripping with the blood of the innocents! ... shoot them and be sure they are shot dead, dead, dead, dead. If they have any souls, the Lord can have mercy on them if he pleases, but that is His business. Ours is to kill the lazy vermin and make sure of killing them. Jane Swisshelm, an abolitionist and an early feminist from
Minnesota, St Cloud Times (1862)
When you read Source A, it is difficult for us to understand the venom and hatred shown by a women who was an abolitionist and feminist. Behind the white American hatred of the Indigenous People undoubtedly lay the racism and supremacism of Manifest Destiny (see below), but layered on top of that were cultural and behavioural differences which made accommodation, as it turned out, impossible:
|
Going DeeperThe following links will help you widen your knowledge: BBC Bitesize on White Americans' attitudes towards the Indigenous Peoples Dr. Chris Mato Nunpa on Christianity and the Native American Genocide
Source BOne White American View of the Indigenous Peoples The Indians are children. Their wars, homes, crafts, comforts, all belong to the very lowest time of human existence. Horace Greeley, An Overland Journey (1859)
Source CAnother White American View of the Indigenous Peoples The Indians have very peculiar ideas about government . . . .The result, however, is fairly good, and seems to fit the nature, needs and difficulties of the life of the Plains Indians. Colonel Dodge, Hunting Grounds of the Great West (1877).
Source DAn Indigenous View of the Land I buried my father in this beautiful land. I love this land. A man who would not love his father's grave is worse than a wild animal. Joseph, Chief of the Nez Perce.
Source EA White American View of the Land As I passed these magnificent fields of Kansas - the very best cornlands on earth - and saw their owners sitting at the doors of their lodges during the planting season, I could not help saying: 'These people must die out. God has given this earth to those who will conquer and cultivate it.' Horace Greeley, An Overland Journey (1859).
Source FA White American View of the Indigenous Religion Believing all the wild and debasing superstitions which have come down to him, he has no practical views of a moral superintendence to protect or to punish him. Lewis Cass, ...the Emigration, Preservation, and
Improvement of the Aborigines of America (1830).
Source GAnother White American View I say that the Indian is a very good and religious being. I never saw any other people spend so much of their lives worshipping the Great Spirit. George Catlin, Letters and Notes (1832)
Consider:1. Consider Sources B and C. How and why do they differ? Which interpretation gives the more convincing opinion? 2. Repeat the exercise for Sources D and E; and then for Sources F and G. 3. Rank reasons 1-7 in order of importance, explaining your reasoning.
|
|