American Indian Hist

The question of what motivates heap more than when they bring heathen priorities, such as holiness or tradition, or the so-cal guide rational motifs, such as economics and political sympathies has been i long weighd on. This debate has been quite fierce, members of or so(prenominal) sides providing valid and force proscribedful argu handsts to be contract their claims. unity of the focal points for this discussion argon the people known under the blanket term homegrown Americans. Where did their motivations stem from? Was it merely pragmatism, a wish to fragment the most out of any outsiders? Or was finishing and tradition vital to decision making?It is undoubtedly that some(prenominal) of these factors were present, how ever, the question is, which was the initial factor of work on, autocratic thought and action. Scholars have attempted to try on points both ways. I support the side which claims that culture was the uncomplicated factor. I shall first pro vide counter-arguments to the opposing side, thus provide supporting arguments for my own claim. firstly, however, it must be n iodined that indigen Americans is a very catchall term, which is employ for lack of a weaken one. As the website of the inborn American re search center states, It must be emphasized that no one person speaks for Indian People.There atomic number 18 intimately three hundred stubborn American Indian Nations in the present fall in States. Each has its own language and memoir, its own blessed places and rituals. Each is rooted in and part of the pull down out of which it grew. There be dozens of races, including some that are formally considered extinct now, that had quite varied customs. If we say that on that point were indigenous Americans and they had one pattern of culture and, as a consequence, had the same customs, we tweedthorn just as well say that on that point are Europeans and they have one culture, completely losing the ap parent distinctions betwixt different nations.The cultures of different tribes of inherent Americans are very different to deny this would be to unjustly diminish their heathenish value and yet there are cultural tendencies, and there are exceptions. I will attempt to prove that the tendency is to mapping tradition as a signpost, and the occasions where pragmatic reasons have been first are the exceptions verifying the rule. freshman I shall examine the political argument. It fulfilms very delicate to hypothesize that governance in the sense that we make them now had an captivate on the internal Americans.When we think of politics we think of diplomatic traditions, of treaties that are make to be wiped out(p), of backstabbing. This, however, was non the dominant case with endemic Americans. As Dee Brown wrote in his book soak up My Heart at injure Knee, So tractable, so peaceable, are these people, Columbus wrote to the King and faerie of Spain referring to th e Tainos on the island of San Salvador, so was named by Columbus, that I corroborate to your Majesties there is non in the world a better nation.They love their neighbors as themselves, and their discourse is ever sweet and gentle, and accompanied with a smile and though it is true that they are naked, yet their sorts are decorous and praiseworthy. This was verified a number of propagation by former(a) observations, Columbuss line being merely the most celebrated occasion. snip after time, the settlers used the same evasive action. While officially recognizing the natives as owners of the land, they used any tactic achievable to get them to sell the land, up to getting the nous of the tribe drunk.Then, once the treaty which usually went along the lines of There are sporty men on your lands now anyway, further give us a part of your land, and we will not go on your land without your permission. was signed, in a few days the expansion continued in the same manner, and new treaties were signed. Despite these circumstances, there have been virtually no instances of the treaties amidst the Indians and the Europeans being broken by the Indians however, Europeans were severance these treaties constantly, in 99% of the casesOne would think that if politics were the defining factor in the indigenous Americans way of dealing they would have changed their tactic after the first few times these treaties were broken they were not fools, and hundreds of age of such tactics would have destroyed yet the most saintly naivete. So the conclusion must be that there was something more than mere hope that the white men would see reason standing behind these promises that forced the indispensable Americans to keep them. The next common choice for primary motivation is economics.However, despite the fact that the Indians had private spot and were no strangers to championship, this could hardly be the dominating motivation. First of all, the Indians were co mpletely self-supporting. Even if they did require something essential they could not produce themselves which was fairly rare some other Native American tribes generally proved such(prenominal) better business partners, generally being more ingenuous than the Europeans. Consequentially, all the Europeans could offer them were luxuries. This, naturally, should not be underestimated as a lure in any way.However, a dish out which truly entails all luxuries is always weensy by necessity. In any case, consider relationships were not nearly so large-scale as in the Old World. They could not have been the driving motivation Also, we have many documents that detail the interaction between Native Americans and European settlers. The initial reply to the abovementioned land-selling treaties was nearly always quite similar. For instance, an excerpt from the 1752 Abenaki Conference between Captain Phineas Stevens and the St.Francis Indians shows the Indians attitude to these treaties 4 But we will not cede one single inch of the lands we stay beyond what has been decided formerly by our fathers. 5 You have the sea for your share from the place where you reside you can trade there but we expressly forbid you to murder a single Beaver, or to take a single stick of timber on the lands we inhabit if you want timber well sell you some, but you shall not take it without our permission. And there exists a number of other documents revealing a similar attitude.Could this, in truth, totally be showing that the Indians merely wanted a better deal? One could naturally profits a leeway in trade by keeping the land and selling its resources. However, it is a primary law of economics that one wishing to trade must meet the demand. Had this trade in itself been a factor of dire wideness to the Indians, they would have retch forth an effort to convince the Europeans that trading would prove profitable. However, the attitude that prevails in documents is one of indiff erence. It seems like the Indians did not care for the presence of Europeans.If the white men wished a trade, then they would get a trade. If they did not, the Indians seemed perfectly capacity to let them live without making any more contact than absolutely necessity. Trade was not of importance it influenced the relationship between the natives and settlers when it was present, but it was by no agent the most important factor. On the other hand, tradition and culture was of extreme importance, influencing entire tribes behaviors especially such a part of culture as organized devotion. For Native Americans religion was of extremity importance.Even the Canadian Jesuit missionaries remarked that the Native Americans were mellowly sacred and not in the Sunday Christian sense, either, but with deep roots and a great influence of all(prenominal) aspect of their lives. This is a characteristic indication of most tribal societies, where little distinction is do between the sac ral and the mundane. However, for Indians religion had special relevance, as it was one of the things that allowed them to cling on to their cultural identity, salve them from assimilation. Yet even out front this was a germane(predicate) factor, religion permeated nearly every aspect of Native American heart.Their religion was (and remains) one of pure personalized picture, not leaving any room for dogma. The Native American worldview is mythological. For all practical purposes, this means that spectral factors such as hunting rituals and their theoretical results are the perceived as being absolutely as physically real as an arrow shoot into an animal, having the same kind of cause-and-effect that a physical upshot might. A deal with a spirit, for instance, is treated as seriously as a treaty with a human. A spirits contendning was heeded as such(prenominal) as a humans would, with absolutely the same kind of discretion.And magical means of solving problems were taken a s absolutely valid. One of the most well known incidents was in 1876, before the battle at Little-Big-Horn when the famed Sitting cook performed a three-day shamanic ritual to decide what to do with the white men, staring at the sun and wounding himself until he fell unconscious. After he came to, he inform that the white men were there for the Indians to take, because he precept white men fall into the Indians camp headfirst, losing their hats, meaning they would be the killed by the Indians.Also he announced that They had no ears, i. e. they were deaf to reason, giving the Indians a moral right to attack. This is not the only relative incidence of religion influencing political exertion. The spook Dance religion can be cited as another famous example, showing how Native American religion changed with the times, how it commensurate to the flow of time and adopted alien cultural notions and yet survived without losing all of its cultural value, keeping the spirit, though chan ging the form.One might say that this lack of diffusion between regular life and religious life simply brings more factors into the political games. Religious leadership are used as figure heads for power play, and spirits are dealt with in the same manner humans are dealt with if, indeed, the shamans who contact the spirits even believe in them and not use them as a means of their own power and domination This is, however, hardly the case, as there are numerous arguments against this position in the study of tribal societies as a whole.Firstly, their religion was always very personal. every(prenominal) single Indian had their own religious experience and, as with any religion that requires its neophytes to work out their own niche clergy being needed only in extreme cases it is always very strong. The authorization of this experience makes it difficult to give anything that is lower than it is a higher priority. The Native Americans did not believe in their gods watching ov er them they knew the gods were there as much as they knew that their teepee was still standing.And while white men were considered a temporary nuisance, guests or invaders at best, and were treated that way, the gods were almost like family, and treated with necessary respect and given due priority. Second, as the phenomenon of the touching Dance shows, the acts done out of religion were not necessarily the wisest politically such as the send out of search parties to look for the Messiah verbalize to be an incarnation of Jesus, and this at the time when men were crucial to survival so faking divine zeal for political power is ruled out.So, if the leaders genuinely believed in what they saw, the fate of hundreds and thousands rested within religion more than enough to define it as one of the crucial influencing factors. It can be seen that politics and trade simply not as much of an influence on life, while religious and cultural activity was always extremely important, guid ing the life of every Indian to a certain extent. This was the source of much misunderstanding, since for Europeans politics often took the leading role when religion failed to provide the necessary support and guidance.This do both sides misinterpret the others actions, resulting in a long and bloody war that spanned generations. The Native Americans also had also led wars between each other in the old they were no strangers to military tactics. However, their wars had rules ones that the settlers naturally broke, thus spell defeat for the natives. This also shows just how big a role does tradition play in Native American society had they adapted to the way of war which the Europeans brought to them, they would have survived losing less than they did.In conclusion, it can be verbalise that, as we have seen, purely empirical usher proves that the Native Americans did not use either politics or economics as the prime guideline for building the relationships either among themse lves or between them and Europeans. These factors were not considered firsthand in any crisis situation, and even 370 years of war against the Europeans did not put them very high on the list of priorities. However, ethics and religion made quite an impact on the decisions made by the Native American people, and remain influential factors in their thinking to this day.This was the true motivation of most Native Americans, and remains so up to modern times. industrial plant cited. 1. American Indian Culture Research revolve around http//www. bluecloud. org/dakota. html 2. Dee Brown, Bury My Heart at wounded Knee An Indian memorial of the American air jacket, Henry Holt & Company Reprint edition (February 1, 1991) 3. terry cloth L. Anderson, Dances with myths truths about American Indians environmental ethics, Reason, February 1997. 4. Ghost Dance Religion http//www. bgsu. edu/departments/acs/1890s/woundedknee/WKghost. html 5.Cultures of marriage America http//www. mnsu. edu/emu seum/cultural/northamerica/index. shtml 6. Cultures of North America http//www. mnsu. edu/emuseum/cultural/northamerica/index. shtml 7. David Stannard, The American Holocaust, Oxford University Press, 1992. 8. The Massacre at Wounded Knee http//www. hanksville. org/daniel/lakota/Wounded_Knee. html 9. The Wampum Chronicles Mohawk rule on the Internet http//www. wampumchronicles. com/index. html 10. George E. Tinker, Religion http//college. hmco. com/history/readerscomp/naind/html/na_032600_religion.htm 11. NativeWeb http//www. nativeweb. org/ 12. Indian Affairs Laws and Treaties. Compiled and edited by Charles J. Kappler http//digital. library. okstate. edu/kappler/Vol1/HTML_files/toc. html 13. Abenaki Conference with Phineas Stevens. Documents Related to the Colonial History of the State of New York Vol. X. pg. 252-254. Donated by Jeffery Miller executive director of Fort 4. http//www. avcnet. org/ne-do-ba/doc_1752. html 14. The Manataka Oath, Creed and Code of preserve http//www . manataka. org/page182. html