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Crosscurrents: The Romantic, The Real, and the American Indian Image Courtesy Library of Congress

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Crosscurrents: The Romantic, The Real, and the American Indian Image Courtesy Library of Congress

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    1. Crosscurrents: The Romantic, The Real, and the American Indian Image Courtesy Library of Congress Painting by Charles Bird King of Shaumonekusse (1821)Painting by Charles Bird King of Shaumonekusse (1821)

    2. Key Figures William Gilmore Simms Lydia Howard Huntley Sigourney

    3. Key Facts about the Period: “The Indian Problem” Though not as divisive as slavery, the “Indian problem” was still a major concern for the new republic. Statesmen and politicians struggled with a proper response. Since the land is necessary for progress, how can the Indians be removed or relocated? In 1845, editor John L. O’Sullivan coined the phrase “Manifest Destiny.” He proclaimed that it had become the United States’s “manifest destiny to overspread the continent allotted by Providence for the free development of our yearly multiplying millions.” Soon after, the phrase become a rally cry for an often cruel westward expansion. 1850s–1880s saw constant fighting between whites and Indians.

    4. Key Dates 1805 The Prophet, a Shawnee, leads an Indian spiritual revival, which advocates a rejection of white culture in favor of Indian traditions, establishes Prophetstown in Indiana as a headquarters for the revivalist movement. 1809 Tecumseh, brother of the Prophet, forms a confederacy of tribes to halt the steady advance of white civilization. 1812 Governor of Indiana and future President William Harrison, a veteran Indian fighter, camps near Prophetstown with 1,000 men and provokes a conflict; Prophetstown is destroyed. 1813 Tecumseh is killed in the Battle of the Thames in Canada. With his death, any hope of a Pan-Indian movement is lost.

    5. Key Dates 1835–1842 The Seminole War: A minority of Seminoles refused to relocate after they had agreed. The U.S. abandoned the war and relocation was never completed, but by 1842 many of the Seminoles had either been killed or forced westward. 1872–1874 The great buffalo slaughter: The slaughter of 9 million buffalo was devastating to Indian tribal life. 1876 The Battle of Little Big Horn or Custer’s Last Stand fought. 1876 Led by Chief Joseph, the Nez Percé evaded the U.S. army for 75 days, covering 1,321 miles, before they surrendered just short of the Canadian border.

    6. Key Dates 1890 Ghost Dances and Wounded Knee: In Nevada, a Paiute named Wovoka preached his vision that if Indians lived in harmony with one another that their dead ancestors would return to drive the whites from the continent. Frightened settlers referred to the Indian rituals as “Ghost Dances,” which spread to the plains. At Wounded Knee, South Dakota, white agents on a Sioux reservation thought the Ghost Dances would lead to renewed hostilities. On December 29, the Seventh Cavalry (Custer’s old regiment) tried to round up some 350 cold and starving, but resistant Sioux. Fighting broke out. About 40 white soldiers were killed and more than 300 Sioux died under the Cavalry’s new machine guns. Wounded Knee largely “resolved” the so-called Indian Problem.

    7. Key Facts about the Literature In their quest to produce a new, significant literature, Romantic authors distinguished between novels and romances. Novels represented everyday reality, while romances focused on the uncommon and the marvelous to express deeper realities. William Gilmore Simms argues for the superiority of the romance, which is “of loftier origin than the Novel. It approximates the poem” (p. 622).

    8. Key Facts about the Literature Representations of Indians in American Culture Throughout American culture, Indians tend to be depicted in one of three ways: The Bad Indian The Noble Savage The Good Indian

    9. Key Facts about the Literature Representations of Indians in American Culture The Bad Indian

    10. Key Facts about the Literature Representations of Indians in American Culture The Noble Savage The concept of the noble savage had been around since at least the sixteenth century with Montaigne’s essay, “Of Cannibals.” The noble savage began to appear in American literature in eighteenth-century periodicals. The application of the noble savage concept to the American Indian might have developed from guilt over destroying Indian populations and continued as an argument against further decimation.

    11. Key Facts about the Literature Representations of Indians in American Culture The Noble Savage The noble savage is consistent with Romanticism. Believers in the concept of the noble savage see the simplicity of Indian culture as enlightened living, free from society’s corrupting elements. They view the noble savage as closer to nature, and thus living with a dignity, sense of fairness, and peacefulness that is reflective of the innate goodness within the human spirit.

    12. Key Facts about the Literature Representations of Indians in American Culture In a satirical essay, Mark Twain mocked the concept of the noble savage by drawing on its stereotype: “He is noble. He is true and loyal; not even imminent death can shake his peerless faithfulness. His heart is a well-spring of truth, and of generous impulses, and of knightly magnanimity. With him gratitude is religion; do him a kindness, and at the end of a lifetime he has not forgotten it. Eat of his bread, or offer him yours, and the bond of hospitality is sealed—a bond which is forever inviolable with him.” —Mark Twain, “The Noble Red Man”

    13. Key Facts about the Literature Representations of Indians in American Culture The Good Indian Has usually converted to Christianity. Mary Rowlandson refers to two “good” Indians, whom she knows, as “praying Indians.” Serves whites as scouts, arbitrators, and local guides. Recognizes the superiority of white culture to Indian culture. They see “Indianness” through white eyes. Knows his/her place in white culture. Is more polished than his/her wild counterparts, less threatening and less proud; timid and grateful to the whites. Is often isolated within white culture.

    14. Key Questions Crosscurrents: The Romantic, The Real, and the American Indian Summarize Simms’s definition of Romance. How does he distinguish the Romance from the novel? Describe Lydia Sigourney’s depiction of Indians and Pilgrims in “The Indians Welcome to the Pilgrim Fathers”? How does the poet create sympathy for the Indians? Consider the drama of the poem and the emotions it evokes. In “Indian Names,” what does Sigourney find significant about Indian names? Does the poem suggest a threat in any way? Consider the depiction of the Indians in Sigourney’s poems. Are they Romantic according to Simms’s definition?

    15. Additional Reading Crosscurrents: The Romantic, the Real, and the American Indian (pp. 1209–20) Herman Melville Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Walt Whitman Mary Rowlandson James Fennimore Cooper Ralph Waldo Emerson Nathaniel Hawthorne

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