Early America

(50,000 B.C. to 1850 A.D.)Native American Literature

ANDEuro-American Perspectives of

the Indigenous Peoples

What do you already know about Native Americans?

1. What is oral tradition

and what made it so essential to

Native culture?

2. How did the inhabitants of

the “New World” explain

and understand their world?

3. How did the culture(s) of the Natives

make them appear

vulnerable?

How does the American Dream

motivate those who live in this country or

the world at large?How important is it to become

“truly American”?

NATIVE TERRITORIES PRIOR TO EUROPEAN ARRIVAL

Before the Ships Landed:

COMMON MISCONCEPTIONS

The Truth Beyond the Popular Beliefs:

Current Misconceptions

• Colonization quickly followed exploration–Nearly 100 years passed between 1st contact and attempted colonization

–By then, the damage was done

Current Misconceptions

• Native American Literature is a Post-Colonial Literature–It was only really examined AFTER Natives had been nearly eradicated (97% gone)

Current Misconceptions• Literature by a

COLONIZING culture (e.g. people of European descent) – usually distorts the

experience/realities of colonized people

– creates a picture of innate inferiority

• Literature by the COLONIZED culture (e.g. Native Americans) – attempts to regain the

power to speak for themselves

– rather than be spoken ABOUT by the colonizers

• This literature articulates group identity, reclaims the past, writes their version of history—but also recognizes the influence of the colonizer

• Colonizing countries often appropriate the languages, images, scenes, traditions, etc. of the colonized land—and vice versa

Current Misconceptions

In essence, it is IMPOSSIBLE to know exactly what Native culture was truly like before the European influence was present. The true and pure history of the indigenous people is a shadow of what once was.

Current Misconceptions

How Real/Accurate are the Following

Images?

How Real/Accurate are the Following

Images?

NOBLE AND IGNOBLE SAVAGE

Colonial Views of the Native Peoples

Conceptions of Indigenous Peoples in New England

• “IGNOBLE Savage”• Ignoble: immoral,

base, dastardly, contemptible

• “Savage” meaning “uncivilized”

• The Puritans and colonies in the north typically viewed the Natives as evil, lost, violent creatures with little redeeming quality

The Death of Jane McCrea, 1804

Conceptions of Indigenous Peoples in New England

• View 1: – Native Americans lost

tribes of Israel, waiting for conversion

• View 2: – Native Americans as

children of Satan – descendents of fallen angels

• Either way, justification to eradicate people and culture that was first here

The Death of Jane McCrea, 1804

“Ignoble Savages”

• “NOBLE Savage”• “Savage” meaning

“uncivilized”• “Noble” meaning:

– innocent, pure, wise, childlike, connected to NATURE, spiritual—but uncultured

• Merely inferior rather than the intrinsically evil, “ignoble savage” of New England

• Open to European guidance and deliverance

• Totally romanticized view

Conceptions of Indigenous Peoples in the South

Baptism of Pocahontas, Capital Rotunda, Washington D.C.

“Noble Savage”

“The Vanishing Indian”• Pre-contact indigenous

population of North America– est. 25-50 million (North

America)– Est. 100 million in Western

Hemisphere– about 500,000–2 million

today• Disease and warfare• From 1840s :

– Native Americans are “vanishing race”

• Vanishing in face of “superior” Euro-American advance

• Justifies advance of non-Native population and eradication of Native cultures

THE PIECEMEAL DISSECTION OF NATIVE LANDS

A Slow Start but a Rapid Decline:

“Civilization” of the Frontier: A “Manifest Destiny”

American Progress, John Gast, 1872

“Indian Territory” (1700)

• yellow = Spanish; green = French; blue = English

• British actively displaced natives with settlements

• Everything other than blue generally considered "Indian Territory”

“Indian Territory” (1763)

• In 1763, after their lose in the French and Indian War France cedes land east Mississippi River to England

• King George III issues “Indian Proclamation Line,” creating first official “Indian Country”

“Indian Territory” (1783)

• 1783 Treaty of Paris revokes “Indian Proclamation Line”

• Line redrawn to reflect actual encroachment across Appalachians and Ohio River Valley

“Indian Territory” (1803)

• 1803 Louisiana Purchase• Made Mississippi River natural barrier

between “Indian Country” to west and “civilization” to east

“Indian Territory” (1834)

• 1834 Indian Trade and Intercourse Act

“Indian Territory” (1854)

“Indian Territory” (1876)

• After Civil War, Five Nations of Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Creek, and Seminole forced to cede additional lands

• Great Plains tribes relocated from Kansas and Nebraska in 1876

“Indian Territory” (1889)

• 1889 General Allotment Act and creation of Oklahoma Territory

• “Indian Territory” shrunk to final form

Indian Removal Act of 1830

• President Andrew Jackson

• Force Native American removal from East

• Guise of protecting and preserving Indian cultures

• Move west or give up all tribal rights

• Removal as only way to “civilize” the “vanishing Indian”

The “Trail of Tears”

Reservations Today

ERADICATION OF LANGUAGE AND CULTURE

Nothing Left Untouched:

• Indian children sent to boarding schools away from reservations – The authority of their

parents/elders undermined

– Language and cultural identity was legally confiscated

– Children harshly punished for using their own language

– Separated tribally to immerse them in English

• Native Americans continue to struggle because of the events of the past.

Whitewashing

ORAL TRADITION OF A BYGONE CULTURE

The Stories Left Behind:

Storytelling and Oral Tradition• Long before European

explorers came to North America, Native Americans had a rich literary tradition of their own. Their stories, histories, and legends were shared and preserved through oral tradition (verbal passing down stories from generation to generation). The storyteller is one whose spirit is indispensable to the people.

• Native Americans spoke hundreds of languages and lived in incredibly diverse societies with varied mythological beliefs.

• Despite their differences, literary traditions had common elements: – lack of a written

language– believed in power of

words and relied on memory

– stories not defined by boundaries of written language; no ending not limited or concrete

Storytelling and Oral Tradition

• Stories chanted, spoken, sung and repeated over and over until embedded into the memories of the next generations.

• The Native American oral tradition was the only way to pass on tribal history, heritage, and cultural practices.

• In order to continue hundreds of years of a tribe’s history, the young must listen and remember the stories the elders tell and then pass them on.

Storytelling and Oral Tradition

Types of Stories:• creation stories/myths

• How something came into being

• origins of societies • beliefs about the nature

the world/how it began

• cultural information• beliefs about social

order and appropriate behavior

• historical accounts including migrations • how people got to

where they are• lessons to explain how

and why things are the way they are

Common Examples

Repeated Plot Cycles:• legends which include

exploits of their heroes• traditions, religious

beliefs, ceremonies, dream-songs, shamanic chants cultural information

• trickster tales• instructions from spirit

mentors• descriptions of natural

processes• oral maps for travel• magical tales of

transformation• adventures in love,

romance, and marriage

Common Themes

• universally understood symbol/term/pattern of behavior– SUPER SYMBOLS

• a prototype upon which others are copied, patterned, or emulated– Images:

• Water = source of life; cleansing and purification

• Green = fertility, growth

– Situations:• Journey = quest;

seeking of identity; maturation

– Characters:• Villain = evil in the

world

What are Archetypes?

• Fire– Gathering /community– Human knowledge

• Celestial Bodies– Sun: giver/destroyer of

life– Moon: passage of time;

controls course of events• The Outcast

– Separated from society; matures; hidden strengths

• Yin and Yang– Opposites that complete

each other; balance from chaos

• Mother goddess– Earth; regeneration;

birth

Common Archetypes

• Water– Life; purity and

renewal• Trickster

– Wise-fool; rascal; selfish but inventive; can benefit society

• Circle– Continuation;

certainty of life and death; “Circle of Life”

More Common Archetypes

While oral stories are meant to be passed down through generations verbally, it is important to remember that written transcripts are not exactly representative of the oral performance. A translation/ of the stories is the closest we can come to sharing the Native American culture and tradition.

IMPORTANT NOTE

Dominant Motifs:(Reoccurring Subject or Theme)

• relationships between humans and animals

• respect and reverence for mother earth and nature

• land as the strength of the people

• village/community/tribe as sovereign

• cyclical patterns: renewal and continuance

• importance of tribal traditions and history

Native Americans Today

For Further Reading and Study:

• The Way to Rainy Mountain and House Made of Dawn, by N. Scott Momaday

• The Surrounded, by D’Arcy McNickle• Reservation Blues and The Lone Ranger

and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven, by Sherman Alexie

• Storyteller and Ceremony, by Leslie Marmon Silko

• Neither Wolf Nor Dog, by Kent Nerburn• Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee, by

Dee Brown• Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee, HBO

film• Bless Me, Ultima by Rudolfo Anaya