The Lenape Indians - Essay Example

The Lenape Indians who once sold Manhattan to the Dutch, and likewise, huge tracts of Southern New Jersey down as far as the Delaware which was a natural boundary of sorts, are tribe that can be said to be among the earliest impacted by colonization. As the progress of conquest occurred in North America, the further or more remote the settlement from the Eastern or Southern coasts, the higher the probability that culture would not be totally eradicated [Cronon 12]. At present, the Lenape are located in Oklahoma and on a Reserve in Ontario, Canada.

They are mentioned because the geographical dislocation of where their reserves are now over and against what land they inhabited, represents a solid case of what was called the 'Trail of Tears'. The 'trail of tears' is both the title of a book, but also the phenomenon of exile that happened among indigenous people due to colonization. What made that trail 'tearful', so to speak, were things like disease and according to Crosby the period of dislocation or migration of indigenous peoples in North America, was marked by an “avalanche of diseases” that included “small pox, measles, diphtheria, trachoma, whooping cough, chicken pox, bubonic plague, malaria, typhoid fever, cholera, yellow fever, dengue fever, scarlet fever, amoebic dysentery, influenza, and certain varieties of tuberculosis” [Crosby 123].

These diseases are itemized by Crosby because of the environmental markers or biological evidence that has been accumulated about the dissemination of diseases. What is revolutionary in the environmental approach, is the explanation about 'why' disease spread. One of the important historical interpretations that environmental approaches have challenged, is the idea that the colonists both knowingly and intentionally spread disease. While it is true that they understood the implications of spreading blankets with disease, Crosby argues that was really a more isolated dimension of the reality.

Rather, Crosby maintains that the original intentions of the Colonists was to maximize the potential of indigenous peoples. They did not want “them to die”, but instead, to help the economy by assuming a number of roles that would be to the advantage of the European overseer or over-lord: “The First European Colonists, the Portuguese as well as the Spanish, did not want the Amerindians to die . wanted them to be producers, customers, tribute payers, serfs, peasants, peons, and servants.

Columbus original plan . small colonies of merchants and their aides organized to carry on trade with the indigenous people [Crosby 122]. The evidence for Crosby's position is based on the “vacuum” [Crosby 127] that was created as a consequence of disease. The impact of the spread of various diseases had a negative impact on the economy created a crisis of sorts during the eighteenth century in particular [Cronon 17]. Over ninety percent [Crosby 127] of the indigenous population had disappeared by the time that Europeans resorted to African slavery to fill the vacuum.

What the environmental approach to history poses, is a challenge to many of the historical assumptions regarding the origins of slavery and also the systemic genocide of the First Nations or aboriginal peoples of North, Central and South America. At bottom, an environmental approach is going to place or posit an emphasis on the material conditions surrounding the circumstances or perceived causes for change in historical events. Moreover, what is telling is the evidence that Crosby and also Cronon (2005) provide.

As biologically based, it is difficult to refute in ways that other approaches to historical interpretation might be subjected to a different form of scrutiny. For instance, there is a well-worn expression that history is that which is written by the winners. This expression is itself also saying that 'interpretation' is one of the basic elements of history. An environmental approach, as both Crosby and also Croton (2005) exemplify demonstrates through the basic principles of supply and demand, but also the basic biological drive for self-preservation or self-interested behavior, that there was no reason that the colonizer's had to commit a systemic genocide against the indigenous populations.

They were viewed as critical in the basic economic supply chain, and when they disappeared or were driven to extinction, then, the African slave trade took root and expanded. Crosby and Croton both point to the settlements in Central America and the West Indies as places where there was such a significant labor shortage directly related to the disappearance of an indigenous population. In sum, when one considers the argument that Crosby and Cronon make that when we scan the environment and it is impact on history, it can be maintained with some confidence that there was little or no interest in expanding relations with aboriginal peoples in North America after a certain point in time.

That is, after the fur trade essentially went dry, and after they were no longer perceived as necessary allies for the European Wars that they were drawn into – such as the War between the French and the English which had a significant impact on, the indigenous population had essentially served its function in material or environmental terms. Likewise, while they were used by the British and the Americans during the Revolutionary period, their decline and dislocation happened directly after their basic usefulness had been exhausted.

Moreover, the environmental approach of Cronon and Crosby demonstrate very decisively that the eventual disappearance of the indigenous had a direct impact on the importation of slaves. Works cited: Cronon, William. 2003. Changes in the Land: Indian's Colonists and the Ecology of New England. New York: Hill and Wang. Crosby, Afred W. 1991. “Infectious Disease and the Demography of the Atlantic Peoples.” Journal of World History. Vol. 2., numb 2. (Fall): 119-133.