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Native American History. Siberian Land Bridge At certain periods during the Pleistocene Epoch, the temperatures turned cold enough to freeze much of the earth’s water into ice.
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Siberian Land Bridge • At certain periods during the Pleistocene Epoch, the temperatures turned cold enough to freeze much of the earth’s water into ice. • The sea level dropped as much as 90 m (300 ft) and the shallow Bering Strait between Alaska and Siberia became a natural land bridge on which grazing animals, and the humans who stalked them, passed. • Most archaeologists and anthropologists believe that Native Americans descend from Asian peoples who moved into North America by way of this land bridge.
A Clash of Cultures • European explorers came to what they perceived as a “new” world; in fact, the world they came to was a thriving, complex ancient civilization. • With the arrival of Columbus in 1492, two totally different but bustling worlds of rich, complex societies and advanced cultures collided, each with its own distinctive heritage and view of the universe.
Why did the Europeans Come? • European explorers came to the Americas for various reasons: • Gold: fabled riches such as the city of El Dorado or the Seven Cities of Cibola; later wealth was to be gained by farming, trade and export. • Glory: many early explorers hoped to further their name & reputation through their exploits in the New World • God: some groups such as the Pilgrims (separatists) sought freedom from religious persecution; later, missionaries came to convert the natives to Christianity
Religion in the New World • For both Catholics and Protestants, Christianity was the one true religion. • People who were not Christian had to converted by persuasion or by force • Those who rejected Christianity were considered enemies of God, suitable only for enslavement or death.
Eurocentrism • An ingrained conviction on the part of those who first came to the Americas from Europe, as well as by their American descendants, that their culture, values, religion, life ways, abilities and achievements were more advanced and of a superior order than those of the native peoples. • Therefore, they viewed the native peoples to be inferior and uncivilized, savage and subhuman – and their cultures irrelevant, barbaric and dangerous to civilized mankind.
Eurocentrism • The ignorance and arrogance of the Europeans is evident in the fact that they misnamed all the native peoples “Indians.” • Native American tribes differ from one another in language, political and economic organization, family structure and many other aspects; • To group them all together in a generic category such as “Indians” is to not appreciate the uniqueness and distinction between the various tribes in the Americas.
The etymology of 26 of the 50 United States can be traced to Native American languages: Alabama Alaska Arizona Arkansas Connecticut Delaware Idaho Iowa Native American Influence • North Dakota • Ohio • Oklahoma • Oregon • South Dakota • Tennessee • Texas • Utah • Wisconsin • Wyoming • Kansas • Kentucky • Massachusetts • Michigan • Minnesota • Mississippi • Missouri • Nebraska
Disease • Except for parasites, occasional malnutrition, and minor germs, the native population of the Americas was remarkably healthy. • The people lived an open, uncrowded life, knew a great deal about herbal remedies and medications, and practiced cleanliness in sweat baths.
Disease • This was sufficient to deal with most common illnesses. • But this way of life proved no match for the germs cradled and nurtured in the filth of European cities and ports. • Disease was the number one killer of native peoples in the Americas.
Disease • Native American peoples had no immunity to such horrific killers as smallpox, measles and cholera. • European diseases wiped out entire communities before most of their inhabitants had actually seen a European.
Disease • Whole regions were depopulated. • Estimates suggest that between the arrival of Columbus in 1492 and the 17th century (1600s), more than 50 million natives of North & South America perished as a result of disease, enslavement, war and the deliberate brutality of Europeans – history’s greatest holocaust by far.
The Exotic Other • The “other” is one who is different in appearance, dress, language and culture. • The “other” is viewed by Europeans as simple, childlike, innocent and exotic. • The view of the “other” is colored by Eurocentrism • The “other” is seen as a curiosity only, exotic but inferior.
The Noble Savage • The “noble savage” presented a one-dimensional, romanticized view of Native Americans • The “noble savage” was admired for living in unspoiled harmony with nature, without want, greed, or possessiveness, untainted by contact with civilization.
“Among these people every man is king unto himself and no man is above any other.” • “Intuitively the Indians knew how essential it was to live in a right relationship with the land and its resources. They lived in America for countless generations, in a state of balance, or as a Christian might say, in a state of grace. Indeed, one interpretation of the origin of the word Indian (from the Spanish ‘in Dios’) is that Columbus, observing natives he encountered “lived in such blessed harmony with their surroundings, “he called them “una gente in Dios” – “a people in God.”
The Noble Savage • “According to humane reason guided only by the light of nature, these people leade the more happy and freer life, being voyde of care which torments the minds of so many Christians…they may be accounted to live richly, wanting nothing that is needful and to be commended for leading a contented life.” – Thomas Morton, 1637
Savage or Noble Savage • Indians were often viewed as savages, terrorizing the innocent and destroying with a vicious “uncivilized” disregard for political or spiritual law.
Savage or Noble Savage • Indians by this view had no idea of “right” and “wrong” beyond an animal instinct for survival, and thus settlers and soldiers could justify the extinction of these “heathen” savages. • The only good Indian was a dead Indian.
Savage or Noble Savage • The Indian as “noble” savage is an equally sentimental and popular stereotype, though polar opposite the heathen, amoral redskin.
Savage or Noble Savage • Noble savages live much like Adam and Eve; innocent of their own nakedness, they commune in perfect harmony with all creatures and at times walk with the gods.
Savage or Noble Savage • They embody natural wisdom in a guru-like way, forever making speeches full of memorable aphorisms concerning eagles and bears, and they would much rather smoke a peace pipe than harm any animal or human “brother.”
Savage or Noble Savage • Both stereotypes, the heathen redskin and the noble savage, are false in that they portray humans as all “bad” or all “good,” when in reality each of us—of any race—is a complex mixture of both.
Savage or Noble Savage • Sometimes good and evil are not easily defined; persons on either side of an issue see themselves as on the “right” side, even “god’s” side, and in this way history is an intricate tale to tell because it must come to an understanding of both sides.
Christopher Columbus • October 1492: Columbus reaches the Bahamas, believing he has found the East Indies. • He calls the Taino people “Indians” • He names the island “San Salvador,” claiming it for the king & queen of Spain.
The Log of Christopher Columbus • “No sooner had we concluded the formalities of taking possession of the island than people began to come to the beach, as naked as their mothers bore them.” • “Their hair is not kinky, but straight, and coarse like horsehair.” • “I showed one my sword, and through ignorance he grabbed it by the blade and cut himself.”
“I know that they are a people who can be made free and converted to our Holy Faith more by love than by force.” • “They hung the beads around their necks, along with some other things of slight value that I gave them. And they took great pleasure in this and became so friendly that it was a marvel.” • “They ought to make good and skilled servants, for they repeat very quickly whatever we say to them.”
The Log of Christopher Columbus • “I think they can easily be made Christians, for they seem to have no religion.” • “If it pleases Our Lord, I will take six of them to Your Highnesses when I depart, in order that they may learn our language.”
The Log of Christopher Columbus October 14, 1492: “though I do not see that it would be necessary, for these people are very simple as regards the use of arms, as your Highnesses will see from the seven that I caused to be taken, to being home and learn our language and return; unless your Highnesses should order them all to be brought to Castile, or to be kept as captives on the same island; for with fifty men they can all be subjugated and made to do what is required of them.”
