Native American History is a Real Thing

 

 I was enraged to read that Europeans thought of themselves as “civilized” while the original habitants of the America’s were “savage” heathen natives. As noted in the text, these differences that the Europeans suggested stemmed from various dissimilarities in moral, biological and cultural aspects of the different traditions. As a person of primarily European descent, I am bothered by the ignorance and unjustifiable assumptions that my ancestors made. Yes, there is a difference between the religions. Europeans practice Christianity which is a monotheistic religion while Native Americans practice a variety of religions that feature the worship of multiple gods. This is a difference. However, the worshiping of multiple gods does not make a people savage. Nor do the customs that come with their culture add to this notion of a heathen beast.  If the natives were to examine the European culture and religion, I’m sure they would find the Europeans to have absurd beliefs and practices. It is wrongful for the Europeans to have used the dehumanizing characterization to the Native Americans to justify the taking of their land and mass destruction of their culture and people. On an interesting side note, Hitler looked the genocide of the American Indians as inspiration for the Holocaust and decimation of millions of Jews and other “inferior” races. Although it can be argued that the genocide of millions of Native Americans through various battles and events like the Trail of Tears cause nowhere near the destruction that the Holocaust accounted for, it can be accounted for the destruction of the various distinct native cultures present in the United States.

            The author of the reading notes that many of the surviving Native Americans are deterred from acknowledging their cultural heritage, languages and practices because of the destruction that was thrust upon their ancestors. As a result, the rich cultural heritage of the Native Americans has dramatically disappeared since the era of Manifest Destiny and the desire for the European settlers to push westward. Fast forward one hundred years and the native population has become one of the poorest ethnic groups in American society. They also suffer from a high dropout rate in high school and many individuals have fallen victim to alcoholism and drug abuse. With the loss of their cultural identity, the Native Americans lack a universal purpose to survive and share their heritage.

            One of the most ignorant ideas I picked up in the reading was the idea of the Native Americans having no real history except for that which is intertwined with the Europeans. In other words, the Natives Americans were essentially non-existent except for the brief moments where they were wiped out by the Europeans- whether it be through disease or mass slaughtering of the people. However, the Europeans fail to share the brutality by which they took out the native population. Instead, they are seen as mere causalities that got in the way of the Europeans trying to expand into the “frontier land” by which they could create more necessary agriculture and industry.  The Europeans saw themselves helping the Native Americans when they set up “nations” that a particular tribe would live in and be given the opportunity to be westernized. Thus, it added to the taking away of the Native American culture and languages.

            Back to the idea of Native Americans not having a real history—this is based on an assumption. Many historians that wanted to push the idea that Natives have no history failed to put in the time and effort to dig up evidence proving that the Native Americans actual did have a history without the intervention of Europeans—a very rich history. The historians argued, for example, that a so called language barrier between the various tribes and the lack of interactions between them justified their viewpoint that the Natives did not have a history. However, these historians that have come to this conclusion have failed to take the time to examine the rich oral traditions, ethnographic and iconographic forms that contain the Indians history. How can one deny the Native Americans of a history? After all, they are the original settlers of the western hemisphere.

            According to an essay entitled “Americans Called Indians” by D’Arcy McNickle, the Native Americans went through five distinct phases of history based upon the relationship amongst these people with their environment and culture. From this stance, it is clear that the Native Americans do have a rich history that includes some complex and innovative technologies and political systems. Many Native American groups were able to improve their technology and establish equilibrium between subsistence and their environment without the help of the Europeans. Without European intervention, Native American tribes create complex political systems that were able to rule over their citizens effectively. That is not a feature that should be classified as savage. Also, the rich history of the Native Americans trails all the way back to the time of the Bering Land Bridge, which connection North America to Siberia. In this sense, the Native Americans have history that dates back all the way to the earliest people to settle in the Western Hemisphere. The Europeans cannot say this. They simply “discovered” America even though it was already populated with natives that had been there for thousands of years.

            Also, one of the criteria for assuming that the Native Americas are without a history entails that the Native Americans had a language barrier and did not have trade networks. Without a doubt, this can be proved false. The Iroquois Nation is a prime example of the extensive trade networks as well as a political alliance of the Native Americans. Both characteristics are far more advanced than savage people would be able to comprehend. The Iroquois Nation consisted of five (later six) nations that would trade with each other as well as negotiate with each other. In addition, the tribes of the Midwest would trade via the Mississippi River. Such examples prove that the historians were wrong to say that the Native Americans did not have a history.

            After reading this essay, it became clear that early historians were wrong to say that Native Americans did not have a history. The Native American history is rich with oral tradition and culture that is unlike any other. It is something that should have been preserved rather than taken away from its people through a decimation of people and sheer fear for being a part of a “savage” culture.