History of American Indians - Essay Example

History of American Indians Adaptation During the eighteenth century, the Indians and the Europeans experienced a similar kind of individual enlightenment. They focused on highlighting physical attributes of different people to explain the notions of political, cultural and social differences. They combined traditional beliefs with divine concepts to understand the various allegiances of people. It has been assumed by scholars that race is a concept that has been originated by the Europeans. It was during the eighteenth century, that race became the principle determining factor, surpassing religious affiliations like Christianity, for land and labor usurpations. In the study of racism, the historians have studied non-Europeans like the American Indians and other non-whites from the perspectives of the Europeans. Therefore, according to Shoemaker (1997) the non-Europeans are categorized by the Europeans and any kind of differential attitude towards them has been set forth by the Europeans. The author Shoemaker has explored one significant example of the above theory which is the origin of Red Indians and their adaptation to their distinct title. The Red Indians got their name from the Europeans; they wore red paint therefore the Europeans named them so. However, the concept of calling themselves red has been in vogue with the American Indians since the early part of the eighteenth century. During this period, the Indians distinguished themselves as “Red” in the arena of Indian-European diplomacy. Shoemaker has provided an example narrated by a Taensas chief indicating how the “others” (non-whites) have become dependent on the whites for choosing the right path of life. According to a tale, a white man once left his cave to reach his destination of a good hunting ground. Next a Red Indian left his cave only to find himself reaching a country where hunting is less popular activity. Finally, a black man left his cave who ended up in a country with no facilities to earn a living. Therefore, from then on the Red Indians and the Blacks attempt to emulate the whites to find the correct path of righteousness. By the 1730s, the French population in Louisiana integrated the term “Red” Indians into the language of French-Indian diplomacy and the term was used to include all Indians. By the 1750s, the term became popular among the English although they used it only when establishing communication with the Indians. Shoemaker has illustrated two scenarios which embody the reasons why Indians adapted to be distinguished as Red. In the first scenario, the Indians responded as being Red when they saw the whites distinguishing themselves from the blacks based on their skin color. In the second scenario, the name was given to some Indians by the other Indians before the arrival of the Europeans (Shoemaker, 629). The term “Red” although may have been conjured by the Indians, it gradually became a derogatory term for the whites. By the nineteenth century, “Red” became an epithet for belittling races in many English novels and narratives. However, for the Indians “Red” was a term used by them to establish their separate entity in a positive manner. The concept of race is abstract, but using skin color to categorize certain races is cause of collective imaginations. Thus the Red Indians used this term so as to adapt themselves to a specific social and cultural framework. Resistance The emergence of Columbian River Indian Identity during the nineteenth century can be attributed to the Indians’ resistance to federal policy. During the Bannock War in 1878 which took place in eastern Oregon and Idaho, a small group of John Day Indians entered the Warm Springs in order to avoid the atrocities of war. However, these Indians were not warmly accepted in Warm Springs since they were regarded as separate class for whom additional provisions were needed. The Indians could stay in Warm Springs under the conditions that they would engage in farming and abide by the agency rules. The leader of this group of Indians, Hehaney resisted the practice of getting the Indians in his group from being identified as any single reservation or recognized tribe. During the period between 1860s and 1885, there were constant attempts from the white population to overthrow these so called “renegades”. However, the Indians refused to abandon the Middle Columbian River region. By the 1880s, this group settlement was titled by the government as “Columbia Red Indians” as an attempt to mark them as a potential tribal group (Fisher, 470). The emergence of Indians in the Columbia River region points towards two themes in the Native American History. First, the resistance of the Indian communities to settle in reservations areas limited specifically for them. By resisting “geographical confinement and political classification”, these Columbia River Indians “challenged federal authority, and altered the outcomes of national policy” (Fisher, 471). Second, the Columbia River Indians resisted the national policies that defined their place in America and after discussions with other Indians and the government they proceeded to emerge as a unique ethnicity. In 1855, federal laws divided the Columbia River Indians into different tribal groups for the purpose of forcing them to move towards reservation regions. Such policies were based more on political ambitions rather than tribal constitutions. However, the treaties were not rightly comprehended by the Mid-Columbia Indians who continued to remain as a single community. The Columbia River Indians also resisted geographical constraints and continued to dwell and earn their livelihood in the Columbian River region. It became even more convenient for maintaining such resistance by way of manipulation when turnover in OIA (Office of Indian Affairs) turned out to be high. Often the Indians made requests to be transferred to designated reserved regions but later failed to arrive at those destinations. For instance, Stock and Pascappa who were leaders of Columbian Indians made request to transfer their group to Fort Simcoe. After the Agent Cornoyer made all arrangements for them to arrive at their destination without any inconvenience, the group continued to remain in the Columbian River region (Fisher, 478). By the mid-twentieth century, the Columbia River Indians enjoyed their distinct ethnicity despite the constant provocation from federal agencies to become integrated into prevailing tribes, like John Culpus from Yakama Nation prided himself of being a Columbia River Indian although his parents had integrated into the Yakama reservation (Fisher, 492). Thus, Culpus and all the Columbia River Indians continue to sustain their identity by way of resisting the government and federal agencies. Revitalization For the purpose of challenging the imperialism of the Europeans, the Third World nativist revitalization movements regularly adopted ideas from the stronger power. In the eighteenth century, some scholars depict the Delaware prophets as traditionalists who combined foreign ideas into prevailing beliefs and practices. There were still others who viewed the prophets as fundamental innovators whose principle agenda was to promote the concepts of sin and redemption derived from Christian missionaries. Although it has been construed as true that the Delaware prophets have embraced the ideas of God and Grace, heaven and hell from Christianity, it nevertheless cannot be overlooked that their prophetic messages have certain cultural implications. The impact of Christian preaching on Delaware prophets is an undeniable fact, and it is a matter of how the conventional and borrowed ideas were combined. The Delaware prophetic messages were solely original and without any European afflictions. Cave (1999) has given the example of Neolin to study the impact of the “indigenous and borrowed concepts” on the teachings of the Delaware prophets. Neolin and his followers were greatly influenced by the Whites, and were more open about their beliefs than their predecessors. The Delaware prophets emerged as a result of century long mayhem. Although they were identified as a distinct group both by the Dutch and the English, they had two different dialects, Munsee and Unami (Cave, 267). Before the mid-eighteenth century, they were less cohesive as a tribal group and their basis was village life. It was during 1730s that the first Delaware prophets emerged. According to a “seer” at Otseningo on the Susquehanna River who preached his communities, starvation and misfortune were retributions for trading with the Europeans and indulging in European rum. In later years, two other prophets emerged in Susquehanna valley who preached against the Europeans values. One was Papoonan who was a Munsee Holy man who emphasized on voicing protests against the imperialism of the Europeans through non-violence means. He instructed the Indians to refrain from trading activities with the Europeans and thereby revitalize “the ancient customs & manners of Native Americans” (Cave, 268). Another Assinisink prophet, Wangomend preached contrasting views. He had encouraged his people to resist the Europeans by using their military strength and power in response to which his followers “assembled in emotionally charged mass meetings” believing that “Dreams and Revelations” gave them the energy for hysterical dances (Cave, 268). Wangomend was strongly against anything remotely associated with the Europeans and emphasized upon the Indians to forsake all European innovations. The prophet Neolin, according to legend, traveled to the Heaven to meet the creator of Life and returned with the creator’s message to be conveyed to the Indians. He then preached that only by complying with God’s commandments, they can be restored to their original lives that they enjoyed before the invasion of the Europeans. The messages of Neolin and the other prophets were the core of revitalization movement. Thus, these revitalization prophets modified the Christian doctrines to combine them with traditional Native American concepts. Change The impact of the American Revolution in the nation’s history is without a doubt a significant one. However, the contribution of all parties remains to be explored. The participation of the Indians has garnered more attention than the effect of the war on their domestic lives. The story of the Indians within the context of the revolution is relegated to one sentence which states that they have supported the wrong side and so were defeated. The Shawnees reflect the paucity of records about the experiences of the Indians in the revolution. The struggle of the Shawnees to attain freedom started much before Lexington, and with the beginning of the Resolution the Indian felt intensified pressure on their lands and culture. The revolutionary war of the Shawnees lasted for twenty years and ended with the Treaty of Greenville in 1795. Although the American Revolution was a period of “political fragmentation and burning villages in Shawnees country, it was also a story of change and endurance in Shawnee communities” (Calloway, 39). The fight of the Shawnees for their homeland became more focused after their land was annexed by the Treaty of Fort Stanwix in the year 1768. When the British Indian government alienated them, some of the Shawnees were forced to accept the fact that their land would never be returned to them. However, there were other Shawnees who refused to accept this situation and they continued to remain involved in wars. With the eruption of the American Revolution, the initial tendency of the Shawnees was to remain unbiased. However, with the continuous intrusion of the Americans in their lands, the Shawnee chiefs were forced to admit that the objective of the Americans was to drive the Shawnees totally outside the borders of the nation. The Shawnees then proceeded to affirm the Ohio River as the boundary that separated the Indians from the Americans, and for the next twenty years the Shawnees fought to maintain that boundary (Calloway, 40). The period of the American Revolution can be marked as the gloomiest period of the history of the Shawnees. During this period, the Shawnees experienced all kinds of disasters like their villages and crops were burnt, defectors in their own community, economic downfalls, division in the ruling bodies, migration and so on. From the American perspective, the atrocities inflicted on the Shawnees brought victories to the Americans. However, although the Shawnees were subjected to suffering but all these activities could not break the willpower of the Shawnees to fight for their independence. Often the Shawnees remained as silent spectators as the American armies burnt down their villages and crops, only to return later to rebuild their homes as way of reforming their energy to continue their fight. During the 1790s, supply of food by the British helped the Shawnees to sustain their fight. The failed results of fighting the Shawnees were soon comprehended by the Americans. For instance, George Rogers Clark recognized the senselessness in continuing to subject the Shawnees to disasters since they could “get four fold what they lose from the English” (Calloway, 47). Eventually, although the Shawnees were defeated, hopes remained in the hands of the Shawnees prophets who “preached moral and religious reform” (Calloway, 48). References Calloway, Colin G. ““We have always been the frontier”: The American Revolution in Shawnee Country”, American Indian Quarterly, 16.1 (1992) 39-52 Cave, Alfred A. “The Delaware Prophet Neolin: A Reapprisal”, Ethnohistory, 46.2 (1999) 265-90 Fisher, Andrew H. “They mean to be Indian always: the origins of Columbia River Indian Identity, 1860-1885”, Western Historical Quarterly, 32.4 (2001) 468-92 Shoemaker, Nancy “How Indians got to be Red”, The American Historical Review, 102.3 (1997) 625-44 Read More