The Way West: Part 2: The Approach of Civilization
Infinite possibilities and space for white Americans
Native Americans wanted to preserve west as it was. Different ideas of west.
West as they knew it did not go on in time for Native Americans. Whites learned West was not infinite in land and space.
#of white Americans west of Mississippi increased 40 fold and had multiplied to nearly a million whites
Telegraph lines, railroads, and immigrant roads had reached out across the continent cutting the Indian domain in two.
Greater numbers moved west in order to conquer the continent. Railroad leads the way.
Mines opened in Mountain areas. Trans-continental railroad and more railroads.
Happened in only 2 decades. White people are like locusts, keep coming and coming and eating and destroying everything in their wake.
Native Americans had fallen back for over 3 centuries, and for the first time there was no where for them to fall back so they were all warring against the whites.
Determined to defend their hunting buffalo ranges. Whites were determined to build and keep their railroad.
April 9, 1865 Robert E. Lee surrendered to Ulysses S. Grant in Virginia. Civil War was over.
George Armstrong Custer, 25, out of Westpoint, General.
Officers who won the war turned west. North and South had reunited under the Union.
July 20, 1865 first locomotive for Union Pacific Line major general Sherman arrived in Omaha, NE.
Named after red haired officer who had been instrumental in winning the war for the Union.
His new job was defense of West against the Indians. Sherman insisted the Indians should be relocated to two reservations.
Most agreed the answer to Indian problem was war.
John Pope launched largest military campaign against the Plains Indians.
Pope’s armys moved thru Dakota territory and Wyoming.
Gold was discovered in Montana. The Bozeman trail was the quickest way to Montana. Thru territories of the Cheyenne, the Arapahos, and the Lakota Sioux. The trail went thru the land Buffalo range of the Indians.
Determined to subdue the hostile Sioux and to open the Bozeman trail, Pope ordered construction of Ft. Reno on the Powder River, ordered an attack to kill every Indian over 12 years old. Campaign was disaster from start to finish. Low morale and bad weather made the soldiers easy targets for the Lakota Sioux. Many soldiers deserted the area.
Burning Sky or Red Cloud, prestige amongst warriors. Lakota warrior. Armies tried bribing the Sioux next. Talks began promisingly, govt promised $75,000 a year and promises that their land would never be taken by force. He was about to sign when he learned the whites were building two more forts in the Lakota Sioux area.
The struggle for the Bozeman trail came to climax in Dec. 1866. Red Cloud and Crazy Horse. Dec 21. Crazy Horse and more warriors swooped down on wood cutters and 80 men burst out from fort. Trap worked perfectly for the Indians. Fedderman’s command followed decoy fleeing Indians. Red Cloud and Crazy Horse were waiting for them with over 100 Indians on the other side of mountain. By the time reinforcements reached the battle ground, no one was left alive. Fedderman and another officer named Brown had shot each other in the head to avoid capture. Body parts were strewn for half a mile across the country side.
While Sherman’s forces struggled across the northern plains, railroads were being built steadily to the south.
Paid for by lavish land grants and builders themselves. By 1866 the Union Pacific was blasting thru Nebraska at more than a mile a day. Mainly done by Irish workers at first.
By 1866, the majority of the workers were Chinese. Gamblers and prostitutes were popular around tent towns along the railroads. Saying “there was not a virtuous woman west of Omaha” mostly true.
Most outposts collapsed as soon as the railroads moved on. Some survived and began to attract a constant population. Built real buildings and towns became cities, etc.
Nov. 17, 1866 Sioux and Cheyenne upset because the railroad was running thru their hunting grounds.
Despite Indian attacks, disease, exhaustion, by 1868 more than 800 miles of track had been laid in just 3 years.
Railroad stretched from Omaha to Sacramento. Seen as great work and progress. Astonishing how quickly the work was done.
Something about railroad gave Native Americans the sense of ending for them. Railroad would scare animals and they would not be able to hunt. Indians did not want railroads thru their lands.
75 million buffalo roaming the Great Plains when the Lakota Sioux originated in the area.
Immigrant trails had already cut the buffalo trails in half. Buffalo hunters among the whites killed more buffalo in order to supply more people with food.
Ex pony express rider 1867 William F. Cody got a job supplying meat for Pacific Express. He killed over 4,000 buffalo in less than 8 months. He earned the name Buffalo Bill. He brought in over 19 buffalo in one day.
Many buffalo were killed and left and were not even eaten by white hunters.
Aug 6, 1867 telegraph wire in Plum Creek, NE went dead. Party to find problem were attacked by Cheyenne warriors. Thompson was scalped, but not killed. Caught train back to Omaha and tried to have it sewed back on but to no avail.
Sherman turned attention to central and southern plains in 1867. Determined to protect the railroads in Nebraska and Kansas. He called on 2 celebrated field officers Winfield Hancock and George Armstrong Custer.
Convinced force would show the Cheyennes who’s boss. Unable to catch up with the Cheyenne’s, Sherman burned villages along the way.
George Custer conducted strange cavalry campaigns. Issued brutal punishments for small offenses. Ignored orders of Sherman. Went buffalo hunting whenever he pleased. Accidentally shot his own horse during a buffalo hunt. Many of his exhausted officers deserted him and his campaign. He ordered any man who left to be shot dead.
Custer and a few others went and reunited with his wife Libby. Once there, he was arrested and charged with abandoning his command, shooting deserters without trial, and inhumane treatment of his troops.
He was suspended for a year.
June 26, 1867 300 warriors descended on Ft. Wallace in Kansas where company of 7th Cavalry were stationed. 7 soldiers killed including Frederick Williams. No one in the 7th Cavalry ever forgot what had happened to Williams because of a photograph taken by Bell. Killed by Cheyennes, Lakota, and Arapahos. Purposefully mutilated Williams’ body.
Military was not seen as helping the problem and officials decided reservations would be the only way to control the Indians. Most were forced to sign treaties and move onto Reservations.
The Lakota Sioux, however, did not sign. Red Cloud meant to keep his people’s lands. Sherman came to Ft. Laramie himself and offered for the Sioux to keep their lands and no whites would be able to enter their territory without the permission of the Sioux. With so many broken promises and broken treaties, Red Cloud would not sign until all the Forts along the Bozeman trail were closed.
Crazy Horse and other warriors swooped down from the mountains and burned the forts to the ground. Still he refused to sign the treaties. Finally he returned to sign the treaty in 1868. He was able to close the Bozeman trail and secure permanent Indian land.
Now armies were drawn out of Wyoming, Sherman was able to focus on the Southern tribes in the Central Plains.
All thru summer of 1868, warriors of Cheyennes terrorized Kansas and Colorado killing 124 people. No one could stop them. As winter approached, they went back to Indian territory to rest up for the winter.
Sherman replaced Hancock with General Sheridan. Ruthless leader like Sherman. Fall of 1868, called Custer back into 7th Cavalry in Kansas. He and his men he trained marched south into Indian territory with a mission to reclaim his tarnished reputation. No distractions or delays.
Nov 23. Scouts of the 7th picked up a trail of Indians thru the snow. Midnight almost stumbled into Black Kettle’s village. No idea who or how many Indians were there. They didn’t know whether these Indians were friendly or violent. It was too dark to see the white peace flag in the center of the village. Custer attacked the village at first light. Black Kettle and his wife were shot in the backs as they tried to flee. The bloodshed was coming to an end when reinforcements arrived from more Cheyennes and Arapahos. Custer ordered the slaughter of 800 ponies they had captured. A reporter from New York Tribune described the scene as a slaughter yard and a massacre.
Custer described the battle as killing 103 warriors, had 53 prisoners. In fact only 11 fighting men had been killed. The rest were women, children, and old men. Washita was not a battle, it was a massacre.
Custer’s triumph at Washita released a storm of protest in the east. Grant accepted advice of policy makers and wanted peace for the Indians. No longer wanted to settle the problems thru military force.
They wanted to settle all the Indians on reservations to Christianize them.
May 8, 1869 two ends of the Continental railroad met. Celebrations for the Railroad accomplishment. Railroads led to the conquest of the American Indians. Cut the buffalo herds in two and started the process of extermination.
It was an ending and a beginning. Four more transcontinental railways were built a few decades later. Where railroads went up, towns sprung up.
Native Americans were on the run, in 1869 there were few places for the Indians to run and very few buffalo left for the Indians to hunt. Even the last refuge of buffalo was under attack as manifest destiny pushed west.
In the decades to come, a dwindling group of Native Americans would fight to preserve their way of life. It would come to its final climax in the Black Hills of Dakota, along the Little Big Horn River in Montana, and along a tiny creek in South Dakota called Wounded Knee.
Wednesday, July 14, 2010
Assignment 9
Assignment 9
The paleo-indians were dependent on hunting megafauna along with gathering from local plant sources. It was around the time of the paleo-indians that more sophisticated arts were being taken up such as making grinding stones and bowls, simple pottery, stone and wood pipes, and fishing hooks. Their way of life was evolving and would soon transition. As new developments and innovations took place their way of life was changing. They began to cultivate food and plants by using simple tools and were more or less semi-nomadic and didn’t pick up and move as much. These evolving Native Americans were known as Archaic Indians “the three sisters.” With the simple tools they developed they were able to create a sense of horticulture. This new identity or cultivation of the land was spreading across the Americas from around 4,000 BC to AD1. Communities were taking shape around rivers and bodies of water. One of the most important advances these early Native Americans made was in producing corn “maize.” Corn was originally a wild grass that was cross-pollinated with other grasses /grains and evolved into what it is today. The Archaic Indians used maize as their main food source along with hunting buffalo and other game and still gathering local plant life.
When Christopher Columbus landed in San Salvador in 1492 he called the natives the name Indios. There were several different pronunciations that later became Indian or redskin. He wrote in letters to the King and Queen of Spain that the natives were so tractable and peaceful and there was not a better nation. However, because they were naked and so nice, they were thought to be weak and heathen. This ethnocentric view would be adhered about the Native Americans until their almost complete extermination. Over the next four centuries, Europeans took it upon themselves to enforce their ways and culture on the natives of the New World.
Beginning in San Salvador Columbus kidnapped ten of the friendly Taino people and sent them over to Spain, and the rest of the people were forced to give up their land and adopt the European’s religion as well as many villages being burned and looted. In 1607 the English came to Jamestown, VA. The English were a bit more civilized than the Spaniards, however, after Wahunsonacook of the Powhatans died, the Pothatans rose up in revenge and were reduced from 8,000 to 1,000 people. When the Pilgrims landed in Plymouth, the Wampnoags saw them as helpless children and brought them food and helped them through the first winter. Things continued for them fairly peacefully until more and more shiploads of white people began pouring on shore. Eventually the Indians were pushed farther into the wilderness by the encroachment of more invaders, and fought back only to be defeated in the long run by white man’s weapons.
The first 200 years of the Indian wars were fought in the eastern part of the United States. However, by 1840 all of the eastern Native American tribes were either wiped out by disease or forced to move westward by incoming settlers. These eastern and coastal tribes moved further inland at the expense of their westward neighboring tribes setting the scene for a whole series of conflicts. Tribes such as the Cherokee from North Carolina moved as far west as Oklahoma. Another example is the Delaware Indians who moved across the country as far as Minnesota. Many tribes were exterminated completely while others were displaced in order to provide more land for the whites.
The Great Plains Indians used the buffalo in every aspect of their lives. It was said that a buffalo could provide everything an Indian needed with the exceptions of drinking water and the poles for their tepees. A calf’s hide could be used as swaddling clothes for a baby, and the adults hides used for tepee covers, inner curtains, drums, rattles, and shields. Each buffalo would be harvested all the way down to the bone. Skins would make shirts, leggings, dresses, gloves, or moccasins. While the winter skins could be used as blankets, robes, and raw hide could be cut into pieces to make lassos. Buffalo hair could be woven for strong ropes, or it could be used loose as stuffing for cradleboards, gloves, moccasins, saddle bags, and pillows. Their horns were made into spoons or drinking containers and the small bones made for knives and awls. Even the ribs of the animal were put to use by tying them together and covering them raw hide to make a sled. On the other hand, the hooves, scrotum, and the skull were often used to religious ceremonies. The buffalo were greatly revered by the people and tribal leaders often took names associated with the buffalo to show honor and respect. When the Native Americans were later forced to live on reservations and when their lands were being taken by the whites it is easy to see why they could no longer feed their families and clothe them since they were no longer able to hunt the buffalo.
Horses created a new way of life for the Plains Indians. Dogs had previously been the only domesticated animal; however, they were prone to fight and could not carry much on a travois. So when the Europeans introduced horses to the Indians, the horse replaced the dog in importance. They called the horse “spirit dog,” “holy dog”, and “medicine dog.” The southwest Indians were in constant contact with the Spaniards and were the first to own horses. By the early 17th century many Plains tribesmen were beginning to own their own herds. Their Indian bred horses tended to be smaller than European horses and therefore better for battle and buffalo hunts.
In 1829 Andrew Jackson, aka Sharp Knife to the Indians, was elected President of the United States. He had seen many battles throughout his frontier days and believed white people and Indians could not coexist in the same area. Again, this is another example of ethnocentrism through an authority figure. Thus, he stipulated a law that was later passed that guaranteed Indians land west of the Mississippi. With this new law there were to be no Indians east of the Mississippi so they had to be on reservation land or they had to be moved west of the Mississippi. However, before these new laws were put into effect, waves of white settlers moved westward and formed territories of Wisconsin and Iowa. Since the guidelines had changed, this forced lawmakers to change the “permanent Indian frontier” from the Mississippi River to the 95th meridian (Minnesota-Canada border going south through Minnesota and Iowa, and then along the western borders of Missouri, Arkansas, Louisiana, and Galveston Bay, Texas).
After the establishment of the “permanent Indian frontier” there were hard times for the eastern tribes, especially the Cherokee. Because their numbers were in the thousands, the idea was to move them westward gradually, unfortunately, that was quickly sped up because gold had been discovered in the Appalachian Mountains. From the prison camps, they were marched along the “trail of tears” where many died from the cold, hunger, and disease. Many other southern tribes also gave up their homelands and were forced west.
Early on in the western movement there was actually open trade between the whites and the Indians. The Mandan Indians were the first Plains Indians to be in frequent contact with French traders. They were also one of the tribes that got taken out by disease. By the 1830’s, they had all died of small pox. The book Fool’s Crow shows the struggle between the Napikwans (whites) and the Pikunis Indians when many perish because of the white scabs disease (small pox).
In 1847 the war between Mexico and the U.S. had ended and left the United States with possession of territory between Texas and California. All of this land was west of the Indian frontier, but in 1848 gold was discovered in California. Shortly thereafter, fortune seekers started making their way through Indian Territory which had once been reserved for only licensed traders, trappers, and missionaries. In order to justify this breach of treaty, lawmakers in Washington invented Manifest Destiny. After this, more territories were becoming states with Minnesota becoming a state in 1858. It wasn’t long after Sharp Knife Andrew Jackson’s Indian Trade and Intercourse Act that white settlers had driven north, south, and west of Indian Territory while miners and traders had entered directly into it. In the beginning of 1860 the Civil War began and there were still about 300,000 Indians living in the United States and its territories.
Manifest destiny became the common ethnocentric idea and Americans believed it was their duty to spread and populate the rest of the continent. Excitement and fantasies of fortune fueled the western movement for gold. By 1850 the whites moving west had created a crisis for Native Americans in the Great Plains. They brought diseases, scared the buffalo, and used up valuable resources. As tensions rose, attacks became more frequent. The Native Americans were being forced from their lands in order to provide trails for immigrants making their way west.
In 1851 the United States government called the tribes to a fort along the Oregon Trail for a treaty. For these Native Americans to give up their land meant they would have to break the balance between themselves and the Great Spirit. Native American culture was purely overlooked in order to satisfy the needs of the white Americans. No Indian chief could speak for all of his people and enforce all of the treaty’s laws, and therefore they knew it would be near impossible to uphold it. By the late 1850s Native Americans across the west could see the great change coming upon them and soon the whites would not just be passing through, but would be coming to settle their lands. As attacks grew, the whites were willing to use whatever means necessary to eradicate the Indians. Native Americans were being forced from their lands and onto reservations and many more were killed because of various disputes. Thousands were bullied from their land and forced onto reservations. In theory, reservations were supposed to keep Indians and whites safe by keeping them in a controlled environment. Instead, the Native Americans’ freedom was taken from them, their culture, and they lived in inhumane conditions and were brought rotten food. This in turn led to more attacks, massacres, famine, and the near extermination of the Native American race. Of the nearly ten million Native Americans living on the continent when the whites arrived, only 10% survived past the 19th century. Many of their ancestors have now been assimilated into the mainstream culture of the Americans.
The paleo-indians were dependent on hunting megafauna along with gathering from local plant sources. It was around the time of the paleo-indians that more sophisticated arts were being taken up such as making grinding stones and bowls, simple pottery, stone and wood pipes, and fishing hooks. Their way of life was evolving and would soon transition. As new developments and innovations took place their way of life was changing. They began to cultivate food and plants by using simple tools and were more or less semi-nomadic and didn’t pick up and move as much. These evolving Native Americans were known as Archaic Indians “the three sisters.” With the simple tools they developed they were able to create a sense of horticulture. This new identity or cultivation of the land was spreading across the Americas from around 4,000 BC to AD1. Communities were taking shape around rivers and bodies of water. One of the most important advances these early Native Americans made was in producing corn “maize.” Corn was originally a wild grass that was cross-pollinated with other grasses /grains and evolved into what it is today. The Archaic Indians used maize as their main food source along with hunting buffalo and other game and still gathering local plant life.
When Christopher Columbus landed in San Salvador in 1492 he called the natives the name Indios. There were several different pronunciations that later became Indian or redskin. He wrote in letters to the King and Queen of Spain that the natives were so tractable and peaceful and there was not a better nation. However, because they were naked and so nice, they were thought to be weak and heathen. This ethnocentric view would be adhered about the Native Americans until their almost complete extermination. Over the next four centuries, Europeans took it upon themselves to enforce their ways and culture on the natives of the New World.
Beginning in San Salvador Columbus kidnapped ten of the friendly Taino people and sent them over to Spain, and the rest of the people were forced to give up their land and adopt the European’s religion as well as many villages being burned and looted. In 1607 the English came to Jamestown, VA. The English were a bit more civilized than the Spaniards, however, after Wahunsonacook of the Powhatans died, the Pothatans rose up in revenge and were reduced from 8,000 to 1,000 people. When the Pilgrims landed in Plymouth, the Wampnoags saw them as helpless children and brought them food and helped them through the first winter. Things continued for them fairly peacefully until more and more shiploads of white people began pouring on shore. Eventually the Indians were pushed farther into the wilderness by the encroachment of more invaders, and fought back only to be defeated in the long run by white man’s weapons.
The first 200 years of the Indian wars were fought in the eastern part of the United States. However, by 1840 all of the eastern Native American tribes were either wiped out by disease or forced to move westward by incoming settlers. These eastern and coastal tribes moved further inland at the expense of their westward neighboring tribes setting the scene for a whole series of conflicts. Tribes such as the Cherokee from North Carolina moved as far west as Oklahoma. Another example is the Delaware Indians who moved across the country as far as Minnesota. Many tribes were exterminated completely while others were displaced in order to provide more land for the whites.
The Great Plains Indians used the buffalo in every aspect of their lives. It was said that a buffalo could provide everything an Indian needed with the exceptions of drinking water and the poles for their tepees. A calf’s hide could be used as swaddling clothes for a baby, and the adults hides used for tepee covers, inner curtains, drums, rattles, and shields. Each buffalo would be harvested all the way down to the bone. Skins would make shirts, leggings, dresses, gloves, or moccasins. While the winter skins could be used as blankets, robes, and raw hide could be cut into pieces to make lassos. Buffalo hair could be woven for strong ropes, or it could be used loose as stuffing for cradleboards, gloves, moccasins, saddle bags, and pillows. Their horns were made into spoons or drinking containers and the small bones made for knives and awls. Even the ribs of the animal were put to use by tying them together and covering them raw hide to make a sled. On the other hand, the hooves, scrotum, and the skull were often used to religious ceremonies. The buffalo were greatly revered by the people and tribal leaders often took names associated with the buffalo to show honor and respect. When the Native Americans were later forced to live on reservations and when their lands were being taken by the whites it is easy to see why they could no longer feed their families and clothe them since they were no longer able to hunt the buffalo.
Horses created a new way of life for the Plains Indians. Dogs had previously been the only domesticated animal; however, they were prone to fight and could not carry much on a travois. So when the Europeans introduced horses to the Indians, the horse replaced the dog in importance. They called the horse “spirit dog,” “holy dog”, and “medicine dog.” The southwest Indians were in constant contact with the Spaniards and were the first to own horses. By the early 17th century many Plains tribesmen were beginning to own their own herds. Their Indian bred horses tended to be smaller than European horses and therefore better for battle and buffalo hunts.
In 1829 Andrew Jackson, aka Sharp Knife to the Indians, was elected President of the United States. He had seen many battles throughout his frontier days and believed white people and Indians could not coexist in the same area. Again, this is another example of ethnocentrism through an authority figure. Thus, he stipulated a law that was later passed that guaranteed Indians land west of the Mississippi. With this new law there were to be no Indians east of the Mississippi so they had to be on reservation land or they had to be moved west of the Mississippi. However, before these new laws were put into effect, waves of white settlers moved westward and formed territories of Wisconsin and Iowa. Since the guidelines had changed, this forced lawmakers to change the “permanent Indian frontier” from the Mississippi River to the 95th meridian (Minnesota-Canada border going south through Minnesota and Iowa, and then along the western borders of Missouri, Arkansas, Louisiana, and Galveston Bay, Texas).
After the establishment of the “permanent Indian frontier” there were hard times for the eastern tribes, especially the Cherokee. Because their numbers were in the thousands, the idea was to move them westward gradually, unfortunately, that was quickly sped up because gold had been discovered in the Appalachian Mountains. From the prison camps, they were marched along the “trail of tears” where many died from the cold, hunger, and disease. Many other southern tribes also gave up their homelands and were forced west.
Early on in the western movement there was actually open trade between the whites and the Indians. The Mandan Indians were the first Plains Indians to be in frequent contact with French traders. They were also one of the tribes that got taken out by disease. By the 1830’s, they had all died of small pox. The book Fool’s Crow shows the struggle between the Napikwans (whites) and the Pikunis Indians when many perish because of the white scabs disease (small pox).
In 1847 the war between Mexico and the U.S. had ended and left the United States with possession of territory between Texas and California. All of this land was west of the Indian frontier, but in 1848 gold was discovered in California. Shortly thereafter, fortune seekers started making their way through Indian Territory which had once been reserved for only licensed traders, trappers, and missionaries. In order to justify this breach of treaty, lawmakers in Washington invented Manifest Destiny. After this, more territories were becoming states with Minnesota becoming a state in 1858. It wasn’t long after Sharp Knife Andrew Jackson’s Indian Trade and Intercourse Act that white settlers had driven north, south, and west of Indian Territory while miners and traders had entered directly into it. In the beginning of 1860 the Civil War began and there were still about 300,000 Indians living in the United States and its territories.
Manifest destiny became the common ethnocentric idea and Americans believed it was their duty to spread and populate the rest of the continent. Excitement and fantasies of fortune fueled the western movement for gold. By 1850 the whites moving west had created a crisis for Native Americans in the Great Plains. They brought diseases, scared the buffalo, and used up valuable resources. As tensions rose, attacks became more frequent. The Native Americans were being forced from their lands in order to provide trails for immigrants making their way west.
In 1851 the United States government called the tribes to a fort along the Oregon Trail for a treaty. For these Native Americans to give up their land meant they would have to break the balance between themselves and the Great Spirit. Native American culture was purely overlooked in order to satisfy the needs of the white Americans. No Indian chief could speak for all of his people and enforce all of the treaty’s laws, and therefore they knew it would be near impossible to uphold it. By the late 1850s Native Americans across the west could see the great change coming upon them and soon the whites would not just be passing through, but would be coming to settle their lands. As attacks grew, the whites were willing to use whatever means necessary to eradicate the Indians. Native Americans were being forced from their lands and onto reservations and many more were killed because of various disputes. Thousands were bullied from their land and forced onto reservations. In theory, reservations were supposed to keep Indians and whites safe by keeping them in a controlled environment. Instead, the Native Americans’ freedom was taken from them, their culture, and they lived in inhumane conditions and were brought rotten food. This in turn led to more attacks, massacres, famine, and the near extermination of the Native American race. Of the nearly ten million Native Americans living on the continent when the whites arrived, only 10% survived past the 19th century. Many of their ancestors have now been assimilated into the mainstream culture of the Americans.
Tuesday, July 13, 2010
Assignment 8
Assignment 8
Part 1
Civilizations vary drastically when we examine the fundamental differences between tribes and states. John Bodley’s book Victim’s of Progress introduces a new look at tribal cultures and how they are affected by outside change. Tribes in general are small sef-sustainable groups that use the local ecosystems for their long term survival. In contrast, industrial states are consumption based economies that must be ever expanded with centralized systems that extract resources for the short-term profit of special interest groups. Since the industrial revolution, rapid change has caused the disappearance of many self-reliant tribal communities as well as led to resource shortages and environmental disasters.
Anthropologists’ studies show that tribal communities grow slowly and use their natural resources conservatively and their economies are geared towards satisfaction of basic subsidence needs. With resource consumptions low, these cultures tend to be highly stable and can function and support themselves off their own environments. Conversely, industrial societies tend to use more than their fair share of energy consisting of food, fuel, and other natural resources. It is no surprise with this rate of consumption that tribal peoples are often encroached upon by outside sources to be up heaved in order to promote progress and appropriate use of their land and their abundant untouched resources.
Along with resource appropriation, acculturation takes place for these tribal peoples. It is often an ethnocentric view from the outside industrial society that forces change on the native tribes. Ethnocentrism is the belief in the superiority in one’s own culture. This belief is a common misconception of many anthropologists and industrial nations that suggest the superior industrial culture will cause the tribal people to voluntarily reject their own culture and beliefs in order to obtain a better life. Many times this idea of superiority heightened the demolition of tribal cultures because they were thought to be culturally or racially inferior. Accordingly, most tribal units have been considered primitive, backward, or heathen and in many circumstances have been thought of as sick, abnormal, or mentally retarded. Thus the industrial societies have used ethnocentrism against the tribal peoples as a legal reform to give the “advanced nation” responsibility for “peoples not yet able to stand by themselves under strenuous conditions of the modern world.” (Bodley, 15) Contradictorily, tribal systems have managed to survive half a million years supplying ample energy flow, having reliable food sources, and more ecologically sustainable environments. However, with their welfare thrust in the hands of outside interests, acculturation happens quicker and more effectively.
Many times this ethnocentric view of superiority allows people to assume those in other cultures realize their own inferiority and will make them eager to drop their culture and progress toward a better standard of living. On the other hand, there is the debate of free and informed choice. Bodley suggests that even if the tribes were given the freedom to make the choice to avoid acculturation, there would be no clear picture of the outcome or consequences of their choice. Instead, Bodley advises that tribal peoples should be left alone. Evidence implies that when civilizations encroach on tribes, they tend to ignore it, avoid it, or respond with defiant arrogance. This tendency to ignore/ avoid is part of their own ethnocentric attitude towards their own culture indicating they think it to be superior to the outside. Another tendency of tribal people is to run away from intruding civilizations. Obviously these people do not wish to be bothered and simply don’t want to reject their own cultural integrity and autonomy.
Part 2
In 1845 there were fewer than 20,000 white Americans living beyond the Mississippi River and the western third of the North American continent was wilderness. Although there were few whites, there were hundreds of thousands of Native Americans living in the Great Plains. By 1840 all of the eastern tribes had been wiped out by disease, warfare, or removal to the west. These Native Americans were promised a permanent Indian territory in the Great Desert where no whites were allowed. However, that changed in 1848 when the war ended between Mexico and the U.S. The territories between Texas and California were declared for the United States and in January of 1848, James Marshall discovered gold in the San Francisco area.
With the discovery of gold came an excitement for the white Americans. There was opportunity out west for fortune seekers. This meant more Americans were heading west and moving through Indian Territory. Before the discovery of gold, only trappers and traders ever ventured through Indian frontier. Manifest destiny became the common ethnocentric idea and Americans believed it was their duty to spread and populate the rest of the continent. Excitement and fantasies of fortune fueled the western movement for gold. By 1850 the whites moving west had created a crisis for Native Americans in the Great Plains. They brought diseases, scared the buffalo, and used up valuable resources. As tensions rose, attacks became more frequent. The Native Americans were being forced from their lands in order to provide trails for immigrants making their way west.
In 1851 the United States government called the tribes to a fort along the Oregon Trail for a treaty. The treaty would give the Indians $50,000 and guns for staying away from immigrant trails. For these Native Americans to give up their land meant they would have to break the balance between themselves and the Great Spirit. Native American culture was purely overlooked in order to satisfy the needs of the white Americans. No Indian chief could speak for all of his people and enforce all of the treaty’s laws, and therefore they knew it would be near impossible to uphold it. By the late 1850s Native Americans across the west could see the great change coming upon them and soon the whites would not just be passing through, but would be coming to settle their lands. As attacks grew, the whites were willing to use whatever means necessary to eradicate the Indians. Native Americans were being forced from their lands and onto reservations and many more were killed because of various disputes.
The ethnocentric attitudes of the white Americans had clearly reached a climax around this time. Thousands were bullied from their land and forced onto reservations. In theory, reservations were supposed to keep Indians and whites safe by keeping them in a controlled environment. Instead, the Native Americans’ freedom was taken from them, their culture, and they lived in inhumane conditions and were brought rotten food. In August of 1862, the 12,000 Indians crowded onto the Santi Sioux reservation had had enough. They were starving because of a devastated corn crop and had asked for food allotments and were denied. Despite warnings from their leader Little Crow, the whites paid no attention. In 1862 four Santi men went on a rampage killing several white men and women. Six weeks later the U.S. army arrived and another six weeks passed until the remaining tribe had been eradicated or surrendered. Ethnocide had been decided as the only alternative for the white Americans. In the same year as the uprising, the Santi Indians were herded to a different reservation and in the first winter four hundred people died of hunger and disease. Many other massacres followed with more violence and upheaval until 90% of the Native American population was wiped out by disease, famine, and warfare. Of the remaining 10%, they remained on reservations and/or assimilated into the mainstream culture.
Part 1
Civilizations vary drastically when we examine the fundamental differences between tribes and states. John Bodley’s book Victim’s of Progress introduces a new look at tribal cultures and how they are affected by outside change. Tribes in general are small sef-sustainable groups that use the local ecosystems for their long term survival. In contrast, industrial states are consumption based economies that must be ever expanded with centralized systems that extract resources for the short-term profit of special interest groups. Since the industrial revolution, rapid change has caused the disappearance of many self-reliant tribal communities as well as led to resource shortages and environmental disasters.
Anthropologists’ studies show that tribal communities grow slowly and use their natural resources conservatively and their economies are geared towards satisfaction of basic subsidence needs. With resource consumptions low, these cultures tend to be highly stable and can function and support themselves off their own environments. Conversely, industrial societies tend to use more than their fair share of energy consisting of food, fuel, and other natural resources. It is no surprise with this rate of consumption that tribal peoples are often encroached upon by outside sources to be up heaved in order to promote progress and appropriate use of their land and their abundant untouched resources.
Along with resource appropriation, acculturation takes place for these tribal peoples. It is often an ethnocentric view from the outside industrial society that forces change on the native tribes. Ethnocentrism is the belief in the superiority in one’s own culture. This belief is a common misconception of many anthropologists and industrial nations that suggest the superior industrial culture will cause the tribal people to voluntarily reject their own culture and beliefs in order to obtain a better life. Many times this idea of superiority heightened the demolition of tribal cultures because they were thought to be culturally or racially inferior. Accordingly, most tribal units have been considered primitive, backward, or heathen and in many circumstances have been thought of as sick, abnormal, or mentally retarded. Thus the industrial societies have used ethnocentrism against the tribal peoples as a legal reform to give the “advanced nation” responsibility for “peoples not yet able to stand by themselves under strenuous conditions of the modern world.” (Bodley, 15) Contradictorily, tribal systems have managed to survive half a million years supplying ample energy flow, having reliable food sources, and more ecologically sustainable environments. However, with their welfare thrust in the hands of outside interests, acculturation happens quicker and more effectively.
Many times this ethnocentric view of superiority allows people to assume those in other cultures realize their own inferiority and will make them eager to drop their culture and progress toward a better standard of living. On the other hand, there is the debate of free and informed choice. Bodley suggests that even if the tribes were given the freedom to make the choice to avoid acculturation, there would be no clear picture of the outcome or consequences of their choice. Instead, Bodley advises that tribal peoples should be left alone. Evidence implies that when civilizations encroach on tribes, they tend to ignore it, avoid it, or respond with defiant arrogance. This tendency to ignore/ avoid is part of their own ethnocentric attitude towards their own culture indicating they think it to be superior to the outside. Another tendency of tribal people is to run away from intruding civilizations. Obviously these people do not wish to be bothered and simply don’t want to reject their own cultural integrity and autonomy.
Part 2
In 1845 there were fewer than 20,000 white Americans living beyond the Mississippi River and the western third of the North American continent was wilderness. Although there were few whites, there were hundreds of thousands of Native Americans living in the Great Plains. By 1840 all of the eastern tribes had been wiped out by disease, warfare, or removal to the west. These Native Americans were promised a permanent Indian territory in the Great Desert where no whites were allowed. However, that changed in 1848 when the war ended between Mexico and the U.S. The territories between Texas and California were declared for the United States and in January of 1848, James Marshall discovered gold in the San Francisco area.
With the discovery of gold came an excitement for the white Americans. There was opportunity out west for fortune seekers. This meant more Americans were heading west and moving through Indian Territory. Before the discovery of gold, only trappers and traders ever ventured through Indian frontier. Manifest destiny became the common ethnocentric idea and Americans believed it was their duty to spread and populate the rest of the continent. Excitement and fantasies of fortune fueled the western movement for gold. By 1850 the whites moving west had created a crisis for Native Americans in the Great Plains. They brought diseases, scared the buffalo, and used up valuable resources. As tensions rose, attacks became more frequent. The Native Americans were being forced from their lands in order to provide trails for immigrants making their way west.
In 1851 the United States government called the tribes to a fort along the Oregon Trail for a treaty. The treaty would give the Indians $50,000 and guns for staying away from immigrant trails. For these Native Americans to give up their land meant they would have to break the balance between themselves and the Great Spirit. Native American culture was purely overlooked in order to satisfy the needs of the white Americans. No Indian chief could speak for all of his people and enforce all of the treaty’s laws, and therefore they knew it would be near impossible to uphold it. By the late 1850s Native Americans across the west could see the great change coming upon them and soon the whites would not just be passing through, but would be coming to settle their lands. As attacks grew, the whites were willing to use whatever means necessary to eradicate the Indians. Native Americans were being forced from their lands and onto reservations and many more were killed because of various disputes.
The ethnocentric attitudes of the white Americans had clearly reached a climax around this time. Thousands were bullied from their land and forced onto reservations. In theory, reservations were supposed to keep Indians and whites safe by keeping them in a controlled environment. Instead, the Native Americans’ freedom was taken from them, their culture, and they lived in inhumane conditions and were brought rotten food. In August of 1862, the 12,000 Indians crowded onto the Santi Sioux reservation had had enough. They were starving because of a devastated corn crop and had asked for food allotments and were denied. Despite warnings from their leader Little Crow, the whites paid no attention. In 1862 four Santi men went on a rampage killing several white men and women. Six weeks later the U.S. army arrived and another six weeks passed until the remaining tribe had been eradicated or surrendered. Ethnocide had been decided as the only alternative for the white Americans. In the same year as the uprising, the Santi Indians were herded to a different reservation and in the first winter four hundred people died of hunger and disease. Many other massacres followed with more violence and upheaval until 90% of the Native American population was wiped out by disease, famine, and warfare. Of the remaining 10%, they remained on reservations and/or assimilated into the mainstream culture.
Friday, July 9, 2010
Assignment 7
The Way West
Mark Twain –envied his brother- the appeal was irresistible to head west
Feeling of freedom for Americans
What about the other people already there? American Triumph and American Tragedy
Fewer than 20,000 white Americans lived west of Mississippi in 1845
Western third of continent was wilderness
100s of thousands of Native Americans made their homes in the Great Plains
1845 All changed- Millions marched west seeking their fortunes
Manifest Destiny to spread and populate the rest of the continent
Between 1845 and 1893 American West was lost and won
Thomas Jefferson thought it would take over 1,000 years, but it only took a few years for Americans to move in and inevitably wipe out the Native Americans
The west was a battle ground. The handy work of man met the handy work of nature.
The struggle between Native Americans and whites came to a climax on the Great Plains.
Incompatible ideas of the land between natives and whites.
There were 10 million Native Americans on the continent when the first whites arrived.
Next 3 centuries 90% of population wiped out by disease, famine, and warfare.
1840 Eastern tribes were all gone because of disease, warfare, or being removed westward
Andrew Jackson believed Indians must yield
Most made their homes in Great Plains-permanent Indian domain
Great American dessert was the Great Plains, was suppose to remain forever Indian territory
Few besides traders and trappers would risk going into Indian country
Great migration through the west fueled by fantasies about fulfillment and manifest destiny.
By 1848 war was over between Mexico and America and new land declared for America
No one was prepared for what was about to happen with new land.
Jan 24 1848 James Marshall was inspecting a saw mill when he saw gold in a spring in Salt Lake area
Excitement fueled western movement for gold.
Thousands of men headed west for gold in California. Said that men made up to $1,000 a day. Gold Rush of 1849 changed the destiny of the American west. Catalyst for all change of the American west
California gold rush changed destiny of continent
Less than a year, population in San Francisco jumped from 429 to more than 25,0000
Just two years after gold discovery, California entered Union as 31st state
Native Americans contemplated moving eastward because they believed all the whites had moved west and there couldn’t be any more whites left east.
Native Americans moved with the seasons and with the game. Seven divisions of the Sioux were the most powerful. Their allies were the Cheyennes and the Arapahos.]
Many tribes spoke different languages and had different customs and thought different things, but what united them was the way they viewed the land.
By 1850 the whites moving west had created a crisis for the Native Americans in the Great Plains. They brought diseases, scared buffalo, brought down timber, and tensions rose.
1851 Govt called tribes to Fort along Oregon Trail for treaty. $50,000 and guns for staying away from immigrant trails.
To give up their land meant they would have to break balance between themselves and the Great Spirit
No Indian chief could speak for all of his people and enforce the laws of the treaty
Some leaders signed the treaty, but most knew it would be impossible to uphold it.
Numbers grew, attacks grew, and more soldiers were sent west to deal with Indians.
The whites were willing to use whatever methods in order to drive the Indians out.
A dispute over a cow, an Indian warrior stole a lame cow from a Mormon wagon group. High forehead (warrior). 1854. Conquering Bear offered to replace animal with two of his own. Officers demanded High Foreheads surrender. They sent soldiers into Conquering Bear’s camp, he refused to surrender High Forehead, and commander ordered soldiers to fire into the tribe’s camp. They killed conquering bear and Indians then swarmed them and killed all the soldiers.
One year later, the US army headed west to punish the Sioux.
Sept 1855 600 soldiers stormed into Nebraska. Killed 86 men and captured 70 women and children and burned the village to the ground. The Lacota’s were stunned by complete annihilation of village.
A boy named Curly watched the massacre take place from a nearby hill top. He went to the Sand Hills of Nebraska to fast and dream. His dream was later to be interpreted by his father that he would never die in battle. He received a new name Crazy Horse.
Lacota people own their name while they live.
Late 1850s Native Americans across the west could see a great change was coming upon them. They knew whites would soon be coming to settle on their lands.
Men and women who settled the west went for many different reasons. Mainly for bettering their conditions. Utopian dreams. Ordinary people looking to make something extraordinary.
1860s spiked a gold rush to Colorado Mountains. Denver was born. Started a metropolis through fortune seekers.
April 3, 1860 Pony express rider. 19 months later Pony Express was rendered obsolete by telegraph messages.
10 years after the gold rush, half a million Americans flooded the west.
Debate over slavery erupted in bloodshed. By 1861 expanding nation had torn itself apart. Civil war had broken out.
More soldiers due to volunteers for the war. Ever since the collapse of the permanent Indian frontier whites had wondered what to do about Indians. In exchange for their land, Indians would be a reservation and give them a stipend of money to make them dependent on the US government. In theory, reservations were supposed to keep the Indians safe and in a controlled environment as opposed to extermination. However, it ended up bringing rancid food and inhumane conditions. Freedom was taken from them.
Across the west, thousands were bullied into giving up their land. The Apaches, the Navahos, the Arapahos, the Cheyennes, the Crows, the Sioux, the Commanches.
Civil war in the east, 1862 relations between Indians and whites got worse.
August 1862, 12,000 people crowded onto Santi Sioux had enough. 1861 cutworms devastated their corn crops and no annual allotments. By Aug Santi’s were starving to death. Little Crow tried to warn the whites what was coming. Asked to make some arrangement for food with the whites. 1862 four Santi men went on a rampage killing several white men and women. Little Crow (72 year old leader) led a later party to kill all the whites.
6 weeks for Army to arrive, and 6 more weeks to eradicate tribe or for the rest to surrender.
38 men were condemned to death because of raid. 3 innocent men were accidently put to death because their names were confused with others. Pres Lincoln pardoned many others because not enough against them. Little Crow had escaped, only to be shot and killed by a farmer. His scalp was displayed in the town.
In the year of the uprising, the Santi Indians were herded to a different reservation. First winter 400 ppl died of hunger and disease.
Sitting Bull drew a large following in coming against the whites. Whites debated his origins because he was fearless in battle and so intelligent. He had myths surrounding him because the whites had never been defeated so many times by an Indian
Sitting Bull rallied his people to strike down against the whites. Gov. John Evans took the refusal of the Cheyenne’s to give up their hunting grounds as an enactment of war. Raged war against the Indians. Sept 28 Black Kettle rode into Denver and asked for the end of the war. Wanted peace with the whites. He ordered the Cheyenne to surrender to Sand Creek. 1864 raided Black Kettle’s camp with Cheyenne’s and Arapahos. Troops opened fire and shot them all. Some soldiers refused to join in because the others wanted peace. The camp displayed a white flag or peace as well as an American flag.
28 men and 105 women and children lay dead at Sand Creek. The papers said as many as 400 or 500 people were killed while many escaped.
1865 Lacotas, Cheyennes, and Arapahos launched a rampage against whites among the immigrant trails. Despite everything Black Kettle continued to strive for peace with the whites until all of his people were destroyed.
People in the east were enraged by all the violence against the Indians and pushed for the Indian reform act. While those in the west thought extermination was the only way to help the Indian problem.
1862 Homestead act. Free land to anyone willing to go out and work it. More Americans branched out to the Midwest.
Pacific Railroad also started. The engine that changed the west forever. In a decade and a half, hundreds of miles had been carved out of the Indian domain. Railroad drove through plains and buffalo ranges. Branching east to west.
Mark Twain –envied his brother- the appeal was irresistible to head west
Feeling of freedom for Americans
What about the other people already there? American Triumph and American Tragedy
Fewer than 20,000 white Americans lived west of Mississippi in 1845
Western third of continent was wilderness
100s of thousands of Native Americans made their homes in the Great Plains
1845 All changed- Millions marched west seeking their fortunes
Manifest Destiny to spread and populate the rest of the continent
Between 1845 and 1893 American West was lost and won
Thomas Jefferson thought it would take over 1,000 years, but it only took a few years for Americans to move in and inevitably wipe out the Native Americans
The west was a battle ground. The handy work of man met the handy work of nature.
The struggle between Native Americans and whites came to a climax on the Great Plains.
Incompatible ideas of the land between natives and whites.
There were 10 million Native Americans on the continent when the first whites arrived.
Next 3 centuries 90% of population wiped out by disease, famine, and warfare.
1840 Eastern tribes were all gone because of disease, warfare, or being removed westward
Andrew Jackson believed Indians must yield
Most made their homes in Great Plains-permanent Indian domain
Great American dessert was the Great Plains, was suppose to remain forever Indian territory
Few besides traders and trappers would risk going into Indian country
Great migration through the west fueled by fantasies about fulfillment and manifest destiny.
By 1848 war was over between Mexico and America and new land declared for America
No one was prepared for what was about to happen with new land.
Jan 24 1848 James Marshall was inspecting a saw mill when he saw gold in a spring in Salt Lake area
Excitement fueled western movement for gold.
Thousands of men headed west for gold in California. Said that men made up to $1,000 a day. Gold Rush of 1849 changed the destiny of the American west. Catalyst for all change of the American west
California gold rush changed destiny of continent
Less than a year, population in San Francisco jumped from 429 to more than 25,0000
Just two years after gold discovery, California entered Union as 31st state
Native Americans contemplated moving eastward because they believed all the whites had moved west and there couldn’t be any more whites left east.
Native Americans moved with the seasons and with the game. Seven divisions of the Sioux were the most powerful. Their allies were the Cheyennes and the Arapahos.]
Many tribes spoke different languages and had different customs and thought different things, but what united them was the way they viewed the land.
By 1850 the whites moving west had created a crisis for the Native Americans in the Great Plains. They brought diseases, scared buffalo, brought down timber, and tensions rose.
1851 Govt called tribes to Fort along Oregon Trail for treaty. $50,000 and guns for staying away from immigrant trails.
To give up their land meant they would have to break balance between themselves and the Great Spirit
No Indian chief could speak for all of his people and enforce the laws of the treaty
Some leaders signed the treaty, but most knew it would be impossible to uphold it.
Numbers grew, attacks grew, and more soldiers were sent west to deal with Indians.
The whites were willing to use whatever methods in order to drive the Indians out.
A dispute over a cow, an Indian warrior stole a lame cow from a Mormon wagon group. High forehead (warrior). 1854. Conquering Bear offered to replace animal with two of his own. Officers demanded High Foreheads surrender. They sent soldiers into Conquering Bear’s camp, he refused to surrender High Forehead, and commander ordered soldiers to fire into the tribe’s camp. They killed conquering bear and Indians then swarmed them and killed all the soldiers.
One year later, the US army headed west to punish the Sioux.
Sept 1855 600 soldiers stormed into Nebraska. Killed 86 men and captured 70 women and children and burned the village to the ground. The Lacota’s were stunned by complete annihilation of village.
A boy named Curly watched the massacre take place from a nearby hill top. He went to the Sand Hills of Nebraska to fast and dream. His dream was later to be interpreted by his father that he would never die in battle. He received a new name Crazy Horse.
Lacota people own their name while they live.
Late 1850s Native Americans across the west could see a great change was coming upon them. They knew whites would soon be coming to settle on their lands.
Men and women who settled the west went for many different reasons. Mainly for bettering their conditions. Utopian dreams. Ordinary people looking to make something extraordinary.
1860s spiked a gold rush to Colorado Mountains. Denver was born. Started a metropolis through fortune seekers.
April 3, 1860 Pony express rider. 19 months later Pony Express was rendered obsolete by telegraph messages.
10 years after the gold rush, half a million Americans flooded the west.
Debate over slavery erupted in bloodshed. By 1861 expanding nation had torn itself apart. Civil war had broken out.
More soldiers due to volunteers for the war. Ever since the collapse of the permanent Indian frontier whites had wondered what to do about Indians. In exchange for their land, Indians would be a reservation and give them a stipend of money to make them dependent on the US government. In theory, reservations were supposed to keep the Indians safe and in a controlled environment as opposed to extermination. However, it ended up bringing rancid food and inhumane conditions. Freedom was taken from them.
Across the west, thousands were bullied into giving up their land. The Apaches, the Navahos, the Arapahos, the Cheyennes, the Crows, the Sioux, the Commanches.
Civil war in the east, 1862 relations between Indians and whites got worse.
August 1862, 12,000 people crowded onto Santi Sioux had enough. 1861 cutworms devastated their corn crops and no annual allotments. By Aug Santi’s were starving to death. Little Crow tried to warn the whites what was coming. Asked to make some arrangement for food with the whites. 1862 four Santi men went on a rampage killing several white men and women. Little Crow (72 year old leader) led a later party to kill all the whites.
6 weeks for Army to arrive, and 6 more weeks to eradicate tribe or for the rest to surrender.
38 men were condemned to death because of raid. 3 innocent men were accidently put to death because their names were confused with others. Pres Lincoln pardoned many others because not enough against them. Little Crow had escaped, only to be shot and killed by a farmer. His scalp was displayed in the town.
In the year of the uprising, the Santi Indians were herded to a different reservation. First winter 400 ppl died of hunger and disease.
Sitting Bull drew a large following in coming against the whites. Whites debated his origins because he was fearless in battle and so intelligent. He had myths surrounding him because the whites had never been defeated so many times by an Indian
Sitting Bull rallied his people to strike down against the whites. Gov. John Evans took the refusal of the Cheyenne’s to give up their hunting grounds as an enactment of war. Raged war against the Indians. Sept 28 Black Kettle rode into Denver and asked for the end of the war. Wanted peace with the whites. He ordered the Cheyenne to surrender to Sand Creek. 1864 raided Black Kettle’s camp with Cheyenne’s and Arapahos. Troops opened fire and shot them all. Some soldiers refused to join in because the others wanted peace. The camp displayed a white flag or peace as well as an American flag.
28 men and 105 women and children lay dead at Sand Creek. The papers said as many as 400 or 500 people were killed while many escaped.
1865 Lacotas, Cheyennes, and Arapahos launched a rampage against whites among the immigrant trails. Despite everything Black Kettle continued to strive for peace with the whites until all of his people were destroyed.
People in the east were enraged by all the violence against the Indians and pushed for the Indian reform act. While those in the west thought extermination was the only way to help the Indian problem.
1862 Homestead act. Free land to anyone willing to go out and work it. More Americans branched out to the Midwest.
Pacific Railroad also started. The engine that changed the west forever. In a decade and a half, hundreds of miles had been carved out of the Indian domain. Railroad drove through plains and buffalo ranges. Branching east to west.
Thursday, July 8, 2010
Assignment 6
“Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee” deals with the time period between 1860 and 1890, however the introduction and chapter one give us a brief highlight into history and the Native Americans living during that time. It is an era where we get our cowboys, schoolmarms, homesteaders, gold miners, gunmen, and Indian stories. However, it is a bit more difficult for us to completely understand the Indian perspective because many Indians did not know English and even if they had, they would not have had a publisher or printer. Since much of oral history is lost with its people, this book takes reliable statements from treaty councils and other formal meetings in order to write a history of the conquest of American West as the Native Americans experienced it.
When Christopher Columbus landed in San Salvador in 1492 he called the natives the name Indios. There were several different pronunciations that later became Indian or redskin. He wrote in letters to the King and Queen of Spain that the natives were so tractable and peaceful and there was not a better nation. However, because they were naked and so nice, they were thought to be weak and heathen. Over the next four centuries, Europeans took it upon themselves to enforce their ways and culture on the natives of the New World.
Beginning in San Salvador Columbus kidnapped ten of the friendly Taino people and sent them over to Spain, and the rest of the people were forced to give up their land and adopt the European’s religion as well as many villages being burned and looted. In 1607 the English came to Jamestown, VA. The English were a bit more civilized than the Spaniards, however, after Wahunsonacook of the Powhatans died, the Pothatans rose up in revenge and were reduced from 8,000 to 1,000 people. When the Pilgrims landed in Plymouth, the Wampnoags saw them as helpless children and brought them food and helped them through the first winter. Things continued for them fairly peacefully until more and more shiploads of white people began pouring on shore. Eventually the Indians were pushed farther into the wilderness by the encroachment of more invaders, and fought back only to be defeated in the long run by white man’s weapons.
This continued for many years until many Native Americans were driven completely out of their home regions. In 1829 Andrew Jackson was elected President of the United States. He had seen many battles throughout his frontier days and believed white people and Indians could not coexist in the same area. Thus, he stipulated a law that was later passed that guaranteed Indians land west of the Mississippi. With this new law there were to be no Indians east of the Mississippi so they had to be on reservation land or they had to be moved west of the Mississippi. However, before these new laws were put into effect, waves of white settlers moved westward and formed territories of Wisconsin and Iowa. Since the guidelines had changed, this forced lawmakers to change the “permanent Indian frontier” from the Mississippi River to the 95th meridian (Minnesota-Canada border going south through Minnesota and Iowa, and then along the western borders of Missouri, Arkansas, Louisiana, and Galveston Bay, Texas).
After the establishment of the “permanent Indian frontier” there were hard times for the eastern tribes, especially the Cherokee. Because their numbers were in the thousands, the idea was to move them westward gradually, unfortunately, that was quickly sped up because gold had been discovered in the Appalachian Mountains. From the prison camps, they were marched along the “trail of tears” where many died from the cold, hunger, and disease. Many other southern tribes also gave up their homelands and were forced west.
In 1847 the war between Mexico and the U.S. had ended and left the United States with possession of territory between Texas and California. All of this land was west of the Indian frontier, but in 1848 gold was discovered in California. Shortly thereafter, fortune seekers started making their way through Indian Territory which had once been reserved for only licensed traders, trappers, and missionaries. In order to justify this breach of treaty, lawmakers in Washington invented Manifest Destiny. After this, more territories were becoming states with Minnesota becoming a state in 1858. It wasn’t long after Sharp Knife Andrew Jackson’s Indian Trade and Intercourse Act that white settlers had driven north, south, and west of Indian Territory while miners and traders had entered directly into it. In the beginning of 1860 the Civil War began and there were still about 300,000 Indians living in the United States and its territories. This is where we begin our story with a little history of the Indian tribes living at this particular time.
When Christopher Columbus landed in San Salvador in 1492 he called the natives the name Indios. There were several different pronunciations that later became Indian or redskin. He wrote in letters to the King and Queen of Spain that the natives were so tractable and peaceful and there was not a better nation. However, because they were naked and so nice, they were thought to be weak and heathen. Over the next four centuries, Europeans took it upon themselves to enforce their ways and culture on the natives of the New World.
Beginning in San Salvador Columbus kidnapped ten of the friendly Taino people and sent them over to Spain, and the rest of the people were forced to give up their land and adopt the European’s religion as well as many villages being burned and looted. In 1607 the English came to Jamestown, VA. The English were a bit more civilized than the Spaniards, however, after Wahunsonacook of the Powhatans died, the Pothatans rose up in revenge and were reduced from 8,000 to 1,000 people. When the Pilgrims landed in Plymouth, the Wampnoags saw them as helpless children and brought them food and helped them through the first winter. Things continued for them fairly peacefully until more and more shiploads of white people began pouring on shore. Eventually the Indians were pushed farther into the wilderness by the encroachment of more invaders, and fought back only to be defeated in the long run by white man’s weapons.
This continued for many years until many Native Americans were driven completely out of their home regions. In 1829 Andrew Jackson was elected President of the United States. He had seen many battles throughout his frontier days and believed white people and Indians could not coexist in the same area. Thus, he stipulated a law that was later passed that guaranteed Indians land west of the Mississippi. With this new law there were to be no Indians east of the Mississippi so they had to be on reservation land or they had to be moved west of the Mississippi. However, before these new laws were put into effect, waves of white settlers moved westward and formed territories of Wisconsin and Iowa. Since the guidelines had changed, this forced lawmakers to change the “permanent Indian frontier” from the Mississippi River to the 95th meridian (Minnesota-Canada border going south through Minnesota and Iowa, and then along the western borders of Missouri, Arkansas, Louisiana, and Galveston Bay, Texas).
After the establishment of the “permanent Indian frontier” there were hard times for the eastern tribes, especially the Cherokee. Because their numbers were in the thousands, the idea was to move them westward gradually, unfortunately, that was quickly sped up because gold had been discovered in the Appalachian Mountains. From the prison camps, they were marched along the “trail of tears” where many died from the cold, hunger, and disease. Many other southern tribes also gave up their homelands and were forced west.
In 1847 the war between Mexico and the U.S. had ended and left the United States with possession of territory between Texas and California. All of this land was west of the Indian frontier, but in 1848 gold was discovered in California. Shortly thereafter, fortune seekers started making their way through Indian Territory which had once been reserved for only licensed traders, trappers, and missionaries. In order to justify this breach of treaty, lawmakers in Washington invented Manifest Destiny. After this, more territories were becoming states with Minnesota becoming a state in 1858. It wasn’t long after Sharp Knife Andrew Jackson’s Indian Trade and Intercourse Act that white settlers had driven north, south, and west of Indian Territory while miners and traders had entered directly into it. In the beginning of 1860 the Civil War began and there were still about 300,000 Indians living in the United States and its territories. This is where we begin our story with a little history of the Indian tribes living at this particular time.
Assignment 5
Assignment 5
Cultural adaptation is an important understanding in the field of anthropology. It is of the understanding that culture enables human societies to grow and survive in a given natural and social environment. Norms develop amongst different groups and because they suit the group, there is no need to change or disrupt the status quo. This idea of stability under the status quo is considered a common place in pre-modern cultures. An example of an unchanging society can be seen in Medieval Europe with the feudal system. There was no real change in living conditions for many people for long periods of time. Generations of people could live under the same circumstances as their predecessors. It is wild to think that a person who lived two or three hundred years apart could be living nearly identical lives in terms of standards of living. These basic elements of culture tended to last centuries and sometimes even thousands of years. Ideas of slow or non-disturbed change don’t apply the same to modern societies. Part of the reason societies tended to remain the same was because they were left alone or isolated from other outside cultures. The idea of modern societies, however, is more of a global intertwined network. Each society is in closer contact than ever before and tends to change more rapidly because of it.
Change happens many times through innovation. This is when a new invention or discovery leads to a profound difference for the society. One such innovation was the invention of pottery. Women probably invented pottery since they would have been the ones using them to cook, transport, and store things. However, it appears to be more out of necessity that societies used these heavy clay pots. For hunter/ gatherer societies, it would have been more of a burden to carry and transport these particular items, but it doesn’t mean they didn’t know how to make them. Meanwhile, horticultural societies may have had more of a need and use for pottery because of their sedentary lifestyle. In turn, they probably developed pottery to further their needs.
When innovations take off from one society to another, this external process is known as diffusion. One culture develops the innovation and it spreads to others. An example of diffusion can be seen in the diffusion of metal tools especially knives and axes. Cultures would have seen the advantages of these instruments in comparison to their simpler stone tools. Guns could also be seen as a prime example of diffusion. Europeans brought guns with them to the New World and Native Americans saw the advantages of these contraptions in aspects of hunting and protection. Therefore, guns were in high demand and adopted by the Native American societies. Another prime example of diffusion is through the development of maize. Because maize was developed by humans, it is easier to follow its journey through the world. Its beginnings were in Mexico and through cross pollination, wild grasses transformed into a main staple of indigenous peoples’ diets.
Interestingly enough, there are debates amongst anthropologists between the ideas of internal innovation and external diffusion. Their resolution to this debate is called parallel cultural evolution. This idea suggests similar societies with similar needs come up with similar inventions. For instance, societies in Egypt, Mexico, and the Eastern U.S. all formed pyramids at one point. Each of these societies may have had something in common because they individually invented similar things in order to meet their society’s needs.
There is also a third type of change called Acculturation. This external type of change happens when there is a massive disruptive change forced upon a society from an outside more powerful society. History has shown us this type of change time and time again. A prime example could be seen with the westward movement of the Americans across North America into Native American lands. There are four ways acculturation takes place: extermination; displacement; conquest; and commercialization. Normally there are components of one of more of these processes taking place at the same time.
Extermination or genocide is the reference to killing off great quantities of natives until the extinction or near extinction of that civilization. For example, scholars attribute as many as 80 to 90% of the native peoples in the Americas to have died because of disease and violence during the first few centuries of Columbus and other Europeans entering North America. Displacement, however, is the removal of the native people to another location. This movement allows the more dominant society room to take over the existing land. Many times this takes place by voluntary retreat like the Sioux who started out in Minnesota and eventually ended up in the Great Plains of Wyoming and South Dakota because of the westward encroachment of white settlers. On the other hand, conquest occurs when an outside society dominates another through violence and intimidation. There are several different versions of this through history, one being the British dominance over India beginning in the 1600s. By the late 1700s England had control over India through the East India Trading Company, but there was neither a massive extermination nor massive displacement. However, the same cannot be said for the British dominance of the US, which did involve extermination and displacement. Commercialization is the last form of acculturation, in which the needs and desires of the native people change as they become plugged into a new economy or buying, selling, and accumulating possessions. The Mundurucu people of the Amazon region, for example, had been in contact with Europeans since the late 1700s and had no significant change in culture until the 1860s when the world wide demand for rubber grew. A new demand for rubber meant more pressure for the people to be away from their villages as well as economic privileges and power to those who participated in the collection of rubber. This made the people want to provide more rubber and thus provided them with more modern amenities, but inevitably increased their dependence on the outside world.
As subordinate societies are being overtaken by more advanced/ more dominant cultures, there are many responses to this acculturation like assimilation. This is when the subordinate society gives in and accepts the dominant culture. Many times the subordinate societies don’t go out without a fight; however, they eventually melt into the dominant society. An example of this would be with Geronimo, who fought and was imprisoned several times for raiding white settlements, but by the end of his days he had converted to Christianity, farmed, and took the “white man’s road.” On the other hand, syncretism is like assimilation, only it is accepting the dominant culture and blending it with one’s own. For example, Santeria is a common religion in Cuba is a combination of Yoruba (West African tribe) religion and Roman Catholicism. Religious revitalization is another common response to acculturation. With the disruptive domination by the dominant society, the weaker one responds by creating new religious beliefs to help the people cope with the pressures. The Melanesian Cargo cults, for instance, blended aboriginal and Christian beliefs. Their infatuation with cargo goes back to big-man systems of their society in which the people worked for the big man and helped him achieve wealth and eventually he gave a feast and gave away all his wealth. The people were eventually very disappointed after working for many years and attending Christian missions, and the Europeans refused to distribute the wealth or to let them know the secrets of its production and distribution. Lastly, violent resistance is the most easily recognized and is usually met with the death and defeat of the pre-modern society. There are many examples of violent resistance including The Battle of Rosebud, The Sand Creek Massacre, and many more.
Cultural adaptation is an important understanding in the field of anthropology. It is of the understanding that culture enables human societies to grow and survive in a given natural and social environment. Norms develop amongst different groups and because they suit the group, there is no need to change or disrupt the status quo. This idea of stability under the status quo is considered a common place in pre-modern cultures. An example of an unchanging society can be seen in Medieval Europe with the feudal system. There was no real change in living conditions for many people for long periods of time. Generations of people could live under the same circumstances as their predecessors. It is wild to think that a person who lived two or three hundred years apart could be living nearly identical lives in terms of standards of living. These basic elements of culture tended to last centuries and sometimes even thousands of years. Ideas of slow or non-disturbed change don’t apply the same to modern societies. Part of the reason societies tended to remain the same was because they were left alone or isolated from other outside cultures. The idea of modern societies, however, is more of a global intertwined network. Each society is in closer contact than ever before and tends to change more rapidly because of it.
Change happens many times through innovation. This is when a new invention or discovery leads to a profound difference for the society. One such innovation was the invention of pottery. Women probably invented pottery since they would have been the ones using them to cook, transport, and store things. However, it appears to be more out of necessity that societies used these heavy clay pots. For hunter/ gatherer societies, it would have been more of a burden to carry and transport these particular items, but it doesn’t mean they didn’t know how to make them. Meanwhile, horticultural societies may have had more of a need and use for pottery because of their sedentary lifestyle. In turn, they probably developed pottery to further their needs.
When innovations take off from one society to another, this external process is known as diffusion. One culture develops the innovation and it spreads to others. An example of diffusion can be seen in the diffusion of metal tools especially knives and axes. Cultures would have seen the advantages of these instruments in comparison to their simpler stone tools. Guns could also be seen as a prime example of diffusion. Europeans brought guns with them to the New World and Native Americans saw the advantages of these contraptions in aspects of hunting and protection. Therefore, guns were in high demand and adopted by the Native American societies. Another prime example of diffusion is through the development of maize. Because maize was developed by humans, it is easier to follow its journey through the world. Its beginnings were in Mexico and through cross pollination, wild grasses transformed into a main staple of indigenous peoples’ diets.
Interestingly enough, there are debates amongst anthropologists between the ideas of internal innovation and external diffusion. Their resolution to this debate is called parallel cultural evolution. This idea suggests similar societies with similar needs come up with similar inventions. For instance, societies in Egypt, Mexico, and the Eastern U.S. all formed pyramids at one point. Each of these societies may have had something in common because they individually invented similar things in order to meet their society’s needs.
There is also a third type of change called Acculturation. This external type of change happens when there is a massive disruptive change forced upon a society from an outside more powerful society. History has shown us this type of change time and time again. A prime example could be seen with the westward movement of the Americans across North America into Native American lands. There are four ways acculturation takes place: extermination; displacement; conquest; and commercialization. Normally there are components of one of more of these processes taking place at the same time.
Extermination or genocide is the reference to killing off great quantities of natives until the extinction or near extinction of that civilization. For example, scholars attribute as many as 80 to 90% of the native peoples in the Americas to have died because of disease and violence during the first few centuries of Columbus and other Europeans entering North America. Displacement, however, is the removal of the native people to another location. This movement allows the more dominant society room to take over the existing land. Many times this takes place by voluntary retreat like the Sioux who started out in Minnesota and eventually ended up in the Great Plains of Wyoming and South Dakota because of the westward encroachment of white settlers. On the other hand, conquest occurs when an outside society dominates another through violence and intimidation. There are several different versions of this through history, one being the British dominance over India beginning in the 1600s. By the late 1700s England had control over India through the East India Trading Company, but there was neither a massive extermination nor massive displacement. However, the same cannot be said for the British dominance of the US, which did involve extermination and displacement. Commercialization is the last form of acculturation, in which the needs and desires of the native people change as they become plugged into a new economy or buying, selling, and accumulating possessions. The Mundurucu people of the Amazon region, for example, had been in contact with Europeans since the late 1700s and had no significant change in culture until the 1860s when the world wide demand for rubber grew. A new demand for rubber meant more pressure for the people to be away from their villages as well as economic privileges and power to those who participated in the collection of rubber. This made the people want to provide more rubber and thus provided them with more modern amenities, but inevitably increased their dependence on the outside world.
As subordinate societies are being overtaken by more advanced/ more dominant cultures, there are many responses to this acculturation like assimilation. This is when the subordinate society gives in and accepts the dominant culture. Many times the subordinate societies don’t go out without a fight; however, they eventually melt into the dominant society. An example of this would be with Geronimo, who fought and was imprisoned several times for raiding white settlements, but by the end of his days he had converted to Christianity, farmed, and took the “white man’s road.” On the other hand, syncretism is like assimilation, only it is accepting the dominant culture and blending it with one’s own. For example, Santeria is a common religion in Cuba is a combination of Yoruba (West African tribe) religion and Roman Catholicism. Religious revitalization is another common response to acculturation. With the disruptive domination by the dominant society, the weaker one responds by creating new religious beliefs to help the people cope with the pressures. The Melanesian Cargo cults, for instance, blended aboriginal and Christian beliefs. Their infatuation with cargo goes back to big-man systems of their society in which the people worked for the big man and helped him achieve wealth and eventually he gave a feast and gave away all his wealth. The people were eventually very disappointed after working for many years and attending Christian missions, and the Europeans refused to distribute the wealth or to let them know the secrets of its production and distribution. Lastly, violent resistance is the most easily recognized and is usually met with the death and defeat of the pre-modern society. There are many examples of violent resistance including The Battle of Rosebud, The Sand Creek Massacre, and many more.
Monday, July 5, 2010
Assignment 4
Fool’s Crow is the main character of the book. In the beginning of the book he is known as White Man’s Dog. It isn’t until after his Crow raid that he becomes the self-assured man who later is known as Fool’s Crow. Initially he is seen as a self-conscious unlucky youth. He is the oldest son of Rides at the Door and Double Strike Woman, all members of the Lone Eaters band of Pikunis Indians. Rides at the Door is a steady wise man. He is respected among his people and is the war leader for the Lone Eaters. Fast Horse starts out as one of White-Man’s-Dog’s good friends, however, their journey as friends comes to a halt because of Fast Horse’s prideful behavior. He is boastful, proud, ambitious, and in many ways arrogant. His father, Boss Ribs is greatly respected among all of the Pikunis people because he is considered a healer and keeper of the beaver medicine bundle. The bundle itself is greatly revered by the people because it contains healing properties and has been passed down over many generations. Fast Horse was supposed to inherit the beaver medicine bundle, but that never comes to pass. Yellow Kidney is a strong warrior among the Lone Eaters and even though he is 38, he is valued and greatly respected by his people. After the Crow raid, Yellow Kidney is never the same. His fingers were chopped off and he endured the white scabs disease and never fully recovered physically or emotionally even though he eventually returned to his home. His marriage to Heavy Shield Woman was compromised due to the events of the Crow raid. She is prompted by a dream to become a sacred vow woman for the Sun Dance festival. She is a virtuous woman and fulfills her duties well at the Sundance. Their children Red Paint, Good Young Man, and One Spot are all interconnected with Fool’s Crow by the end of the novel. Red Paint becomes Fool’s Crow’s wife and bears their son. She is a talented and intelligent young woman. Good Young Man and One Spot are both afflicted by the white scabs disease, but only One Spot survives. One Spot survived the white scabs disease and rabies during the course of the novel. Fool’s Crow also had a brother, Running Fisher, who is a good young man in the beginning, however, turns prideful and boastful towards the middle because he is envious of Fool’s Crow’s accomplishments. He is eventually banished from the Lone Eaters by his father because he has dishonored his whole family by bedding his father’s youngest wife Kills Close to the Lake. She is a sad, young woman who was taken as a wife by Rides at the Door as a favor to her father since he had no dowry to give a man. Fool’s Crow had often fantasized about Kills Close to the Lake before he had taken Red Paint as his wife. Fool’s Crow grows throughout the novel to be a brilliant young warrior, horse thief, leader, and husband. Because of his accomplishments with the Crow raid and his later kill of Bull Shield (Crow leader), he becomes a respected member of the Lone Eaters. He is calm, collected, intelligent, and believes strongly in the traditions of his people. He later learns the ways of the medicine man Mik-Api, who is greatly respected and revered. Owl Child becomes an important figure throughout the course because he believes in fighting the white people and making them suffer. He is the antagonist for both the Pikunis and the Napikwans. His forceful behavior brings great sorrow for the Pikunis. Each member of the Lone Eaters with the exception of Fast Horse, Owl Child, and his gang are deeply rooted in traditions that have been passed down from generation to generation.
The novel Fool’s Crow is set in the year 1870 following the Lone Eaters band of the Pikunis Indians. Their settlement was nestled between the Two Medicine and Bear rivers in northwestern Montana. The main character of the book is known as White Man’s Dog in the beginning and later became Fool’s Crow. White Man’s Dog is seen as an unlucky young man, however he is asked by a friend (Fast Horse) to accompany him and a few other warriors in a count coup and raid against one of the enemy tribes known as the Crows. Along the way, WMD meets Yellow Kidney and Eagle Ribs. Yellow Kidney notices a calmness in WMD that he likes. He also recognizes a foolish arrogance in Fast Horse and starts to wonder if he should have asked the young man to come with them even though he greatly respects Boss Ribs, Fast Horse’s father. Yellow Kidney is the leader of the party and when they get closer to the Crow’s camp he decides to make WMD leader of the young warriors and to have Eagle Ribs, Fast Horse, and himself the buffalo runner thieves. WMD and the young warriors do everything according to plan and he steals an entire herd of horses almost unnoticed. He is forced to kill a youth so he would not run and alert the whole camp about the raid. It is WMD’s first person he’s ever killed. Fast Horse, Eagle Ribs, and Yellow Kidney take the second task of stealing the buffalo runners. Meanwhile, WMD and the other youths return to their designated meeting place along Woman Don’t Walk Butte, but only Eagle Ribs returns. A few days later, Fast Horse finally turns up, but he is haggard and puny from a winter storm he was caught in. He blames the storm on a dream he had and hadn’t fulfilled to Cold Maker. Yellow Kidney doesn’t show up, and the others fear the worst has happened so they return to the Lone Eaters’ camp. Eagle Ribs distributes the horses to each man with Yellow Kidney’s wife getting the most because he was believed to be dead, then Eagles Ribs with second most, and Fast Horse and WMD getting twenty five horses each, and so on.
Once their return, Eagle Ribs breaks the news to Heavy Shield Woman, Yellow Kidney’s only wife. She is heartbroken, but after a dream decides her husband is still alive. Her dream reveals to her that she must become a sacred vow woman in order for her husband to ever return to her. Fast Horse, turns from all his prior ambitions and becomes a self-critical unlucky man yet still prideful. However, White Man’s Dog learned a lot from his trip about himself and his capabilities. His life is given a purpose and realizes his place within his tribe. He becomes an apprentice under the medicine man Mik-Api and learns his healing ways. Fast Horse changes more and withdraws from the community, and White Man’s Dog suspects it has something to do with Yellow Kidney.
In the Spring Yellow Kidney returns to the Lone Eaters. He tells how the Crow raid went bad because of Fast Crow. It was Fast Crow who shouted out with boastful pride during the raid and caused Yellow Kidney to be captured and tortured. He also tells of his own mistake of essentially raping a young girl with the white scabs disease and how he too became infected. After all of this, he is welcomed back into camp, but he is never viewed the same way. He is looked down upon because he has lost all of his ability to provide for his family and is looked upon in a pitiful way. WMD is chosen by the chief to make an important journey to all the other tribes and get the approval for Heavy Shield Woman to be sacred vow woman in the Sundance festival. He returns and brings good news and the Sundance goes well and the Pikunis should be smiled upon by Sunchief. It is about this time that WMD has noticed Red Paint, Yellow Kidney and Heavy Shield Woman’s daughter and asks her to marry him.
After the Sundance, the war parties decide to make the Crow’s pay for Yellow Kidney’s humiliation. Red Paint realizes she is pregnant and tries to convince WMD not to go, but as he is young, he must. Fast Horse, however, has disappeared from camp and decides he will go and join Owl Child’s gang and make the Napikwans cry. WMD leads a war party to the Crows camp and they steal more horses and kill Bull Shield, the Crow’s leader. It is here that WMD achieves his great victory by accident and earns his name of Fool’s Crow. He is shot by Bull Shield and falls to the ground, and Bull Shield thinking WMD is dead comes closer and WMD realizes he is not dead and leans up and shoots and kills Bull Shield. Once WMD returns to camp, the story gets a little misconstrued and everyone believes WMD fooled Bull Shield into thinking he was dead and then killed him.
The novel takes a different turn after this and the main focus is on the struggle between the Pikunis and the Napikwans. White settlers were moving into the area and bringing disease and heart ache. Many of the tribes were struck by the white scabs disease and many were forced to abandon their lands. Owl Child’s gang creates more havoc amongst the Pikunis since they are killing many white settlers and stealing their horses. It is this turn of events that forces the Lone Eaters to abandon their lands and move across the Medicine Line. Rides at the Door becomes the new chief of the Lone Eaters because Three Bears, the original chief, dies of the white scabs disease.
There are many beliefs and customs throughout the novel that are strange to an outsider like me. For instance, Striped Face Woman recounted several attempted rapes and at least one successful one and she didn’t seem upset about it. Rape seemed to be a prevalent action by many of the warriors. Another important theme throughout the novel was the idea of a spiritual leader in the form of an animal. Fool’s Crow’s spirit brother was the wolverine and he had many dreams about this animal and lived his life according to what this spirit told him. As for customs, one of the strangest was after the Lone Eaters defeated the Crows and had killed Bull Shield. They removed their dead from the enemy camp and buried them along the road home. For each of their dead warriors, they shot a Crow horse in the head so each man had a horse to ride in the other world.
The novel Fool’s Crow is set in the year 1870 following the Lone Eaters band of the Pikunis Indians. Their settlement was nestled between the Two Medicine and Bear rivers in northwestern Montana. The main character of the book is known as White Man’s Dog in the beginning and later became Fool’s Crow. White Man’s Dog is seen as an unlucky young man, however he is asked by a friend (Fast Horse) to accompany him and a few other warriors in a count coup and raid against one of the enemy tribes known as the Crows. Along the way, WMD meets Yellow Kidney and Eagle Ribs. Yellow Kidney notices a calmness in WMD that he likes. He also recognizes a foolish arrogance in Fast Horse and starts to wonder if he should have asked the young man to come with them even though he greatly respects Boss Ribs, Fast Horse’s father. Yellow Kidney is the leader of the party and when they get closer to the Crow’s camp he decides to make WMD leader of the young warriors and to have Eagle Ribs, Fast Horse, and himself the buffalo runner thieves. WMD and the young warriors do everything according to plan and he steals an entire herd of horses almost unnoticed. He is forced to kill a youth so he would not run and alert the whole camp about the raid. It is WMD’s first person he’s ever killed. Fast Horse, Eagle Ribs, and Yellow Kidney take the second task of stealing the buffalo runners. Meanwhile, WMD and the other youths return to their designated meeting place along Woman Don’t Walk Butte, but only Eagle Ribs returns. A few days later, Fast Horse finally turns up, but he is haggard and puny from a winter storm he was caught in. He blames the storm on a dream he had and hadn’t fulfilled to Cold Maker. Yellow Kidney doesn’t show up, and the others fear the worst has happened so they return to the Lone Eaters’ camp. Eagle Ribs distributes the horses to each man with Yellow Kidney’s wife getting the most because he was believed to be dead, then Eagles Ribs with second most, and Fast Horse and WMD getting twenty five horses each, and so on.
Once their return, Eagle Ribs breaks the news to Heavy Shield Woman, Yellow Kidney’s only wife. She is heartbroken, but after a dream decides her husband is still alive. Her dream reveals to her that she must become a sacred vow woman in order for her husband to ever return to her. Fast Horse, turns from all his prior ambitions and becomes a self-critical unlucky man yet still prideful. However, White Man’s Dog learned a lot from his trip about himself and his capabilities. His life is given a purpose and realizes his place within his tribe. He becomes an apprentice under the medicine man Mik-Api and learns his healing ways. Fast Horse changes more and withdraws from the community, and White Man’s Dog suspects it has something to do with Yellow Kidney.
In the Spring Yellow Kidney returns to the Lone Eaters. He tells how the Crow raid went bad because of Fast Crow. It was Fast Crow who shouted out with boastful pride during the raid and caused Yellow Kidney to be captured and tortured. He also tells of his own mistake of essentially raping a young girl with the white scabs disease and how he too became infected. After all of this, he is welcomed back into camp, but he is never viewed the same way. He is looked down upon because he has lost all of his ability to provide for his family and is looked upon in a pitiful way. WMD is chosen by the chief to make an important journey to all the other tribes and get the approval for Heavy Shield Woman to be sacred vow woman in the Sundance festival. He returns and brings good news and the Sundance goes well and the Pikunis should be smiled upon by Sunchief. It is about this time that WMD has noticed Red Paint, Yellow Kidney and Heavy Shield Woman’s daughter and asks her to marry him.
After the Sundance, the war parties decide to make the Crow’s pay for Yellow Kidney’s humiliation. Red Paint realizes she is pregnant and tries to convince WMD not to go, but as he is young, he must. Fast Horse, however, has disappeared from camp and decides he will go and join Owl Child’s gang and make the Napikwans cry. WMD leads a war party to the Crows camp and they steal more horses and kill Bull Shield, the Crow’s leader. It is here that WMD achieves his great victory by accident and earns his name of Fool’s Crow. He is shot by Bull Shield and falls to the ground, and Bull Shield thinking WMD is dead comes closer and WMD realizes he is not dead and leans up and shoots and kills Bull Shield. Once WMD returns to camp, the story gets a little misconstrued and everyone believes WMD fooled Bull Shield into thinking he was dead and then killed him.
The novel takes a different turn after this and the main focus is on the struggle between the Pikunis and the Napikwans. White settlers were moving into the area and bringing disease and heart ache. Many of the tribes were struck by the white scabs disease and many were forced to abandon their lands. Owl Child’s gang creates more havoc amongst the Pikunis since they are killing many white settlers and stealing their horses. It is this turn of events that forces the Lone Eaters to abandon their lands and move across the Medicine Line. Rides at the Door becomes the new chief of the Lone Eaters because Three Bears, the original chief, dies of the white scabs disease.
There are many beliefs and customs throughout the novel that are strange to an outsider like me. For instance, Striped Face Woman recounted several attempted rapes and at least one successful one and she didn’t seem upset about it. Rape seemed to be a prevalent action by many of the warriors. Another important theme throughout the novel was the idea of a spiritual leader in the form of an animal. Fool’s Crow’s spirit brother was the wolverine and he had many dreams about this animal and lived his life according to what this spirit told him. As for customs, one of the strangest was after the Lone Eaters defeated the Crows and had killed Bull Shield. They removed their dead from the enemy camp and buried them along the road home. For each of their dead warriors, they shot a Crow horse in the head so each man had a horse to ride in the other world.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)