The Respect and Hate for the Iroquois

The Iroquois were the main military power of the Native Americans in North America during the 1700s. It was a loosely based confederacy that was formed from the combination of five separate nations. The Iroquois were greatly impacted by the settlement and expansion of the colonists in the 1700s, and were deeply impacted by the American Revolution. Before the Revolution the Iroquois were flourishing from trade with the English and the French. They seemed to be primed for expansion, which they did in 1713 when a sixth nation joined the Iroquois which allowed them to control a pivotal plot of land that separated the British from the French. This made the Iroquois an important ally for the settlers to win. It seemed as though everything was going perfectly for the Iroquois, but eventually the tides turned. They had everything going for them, power, land, and the desire of settlers to be their ally, which would generally mean they would be treated very well. This did occur as the Iroquois leaders and colonial leaders worked together in the middle of the 18th century. Leaders such s Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson saw "the Iroquois' lack of class stratification and their representational form of government" as "an inspiration" ("Iroquois Confederacy"). American leaders looked up to the Native American style of life at this point, but then it was strongly looked down upon. This shows that there was a time that the Native Americans were looked up to, but then they were looked down upon as inferior and as savages that the whites did not wish to mix with. So, there was hope that the two groups could live happily together and the segregation and oppression that occurred was not inevitable. There was peace at one time, which is widely highlighted in American elementary schools. I believe this is so in order to make it seem as though the Americans were not cruel to the Indians, but this is far from the truth. The American Revolution completely flipped the way that Americans looked at and treated the Native Americans. It also separated the Iroquois Confederacy as nations were split on who to support. Since there was widespread support of the British by the Iroquois, Americans had a lot of angst towards these people. It makes sense to me that Americans would not think highly of a people that widely fought against them in a war for Independence, but it does not seem like a proper excuse to treat them with hatred. However, it does make sense that it would be hard to bring the nations together after they fought a war and they lived so close, so conflict is something to be expected in this situation. However it amazed me how complete and swift the shift from respect to hate of the Iroquois was. Attacks were authorized on the Iroquois tribes as well as raids of their homes. The raids destroyed villages and made "Indian groups perpetual enemies of the new nation" (Iroquois Confederacy"). The leaders of America previously had the utmost respect for Native Americans, even using their way of living as a model for the Constitution, and yet by the end of the American Revolution a relationship of hate had a strong foundation.

"Iroquois Confederacy." American History. ABC-CLIO, 2010. Web. 31 Jan. 2010. .

Native Americans in the American Revolution: Side with Britain or the Colonies?

One of the events that set up the American view of the Native Americans was their role in the American Revolution. The Native Americans had to make a huge decision as to whether they would support the colonists or the British. They had already experienced some oppression, mainly on the East Coast, so they were aware that they there was a chance that they would be further oppressed if they supported the wrong side. While not all Native Americans sided with the British, many of them did. They chose to do this because "it appeared the British would win the war," "British trade routes and practices were more lucrative and widespread than those of the rebellious colonists," and "for the British, violent retaliation was a dangerous trend that they hoped to curb" ("Native Americans in the American Revolution"). The Native Americans wanted to side with who they felt would win the war, which was the British, many saw that trade with Britain was more beneficial to the Native Americans and they felt that the British would be less violent and oppressive to them. Due to these factors they chose to side with the British, which I do not blame them for at all. It simply made more sense as they would be safer, richer, and have more land if the British won, so they helped to try and make the British win. Despite the attraction of fighting with the British many Native Americans stayed neutral as long as possible, the Iroquois Confederacy was officially neutral as smaller tribes supported specific sides, and some tribes still joined the American side as soldiers.

When America won the war, the widespread support of Britain by Native Americans greatly backfired and set up years of racism and aggression towards Native Americans by the whites. While not all Native Americans supported the British, and some even supported America, "All Native Americans were considered traitors" and they were targeted "as enemies of the nascent republic" ("Native Americans in the Revolution"). The Americans grouped together all Native Americans as one and saw them as a threat, not caring about whether or not specific tribes or groups fought against them. This is a very typical act of racism, assuming that all people of one group acted the same way and have the same beliefs. We saw this a lot with African-Americans in history as the whites often just assumed that every black was dangerous, stupid, and mean. The white Americans assumed all Native Americans fought against them simply because the majority of Native Americans fought against them. American wanted to weaken the Native Americans because they felt that they were a threat to the new nation, and leaders such as Thomas Jefferson "called for Native American extermination" ("Native Americans in the Revolution"). This amazes me, as Thomas Jefferson is thought to be one of the greatest leaders of all time and yet he wanted to get rid of an entire group of people who frankly had been on the land before the whites took it from them. When I think of Thomas Jefferson I imagine a great man and a great leader and yet he was extremely racist towards the Native Americans. This shows another connection between Native Americans and blacks as many great leaders of America also owned slaves, which I also see as an awful attribute of some seemingly great men. The encouragement of leaders such as Jefferson to get rid of the Native Americans must have had a great impact on the nation's views of these people as the average white American looked up to Thomas Jefferson as a leader and they valued his opinion. So, from the start the Native Americans had the cards stacked against them because they supported the losers in the American Revolution causing them to have diminished trade and they had to live in a country in which the powerful looked at them as traitors.

Stockdale, Nancy L. "Native Americans in the American Revolution." American History. ABC-CLIO, 2010. Web. 31 Jan. 2010. .

How Whites Viewed Native Americans

The way whites viewed Native Americans is very similar to the way they viewed blacks, and it makes me understand the whites actions better. The whites viewed Native Americans as lower class people and as much less sophisticated than themselves. This is a common theme in American history as the whites pretty much felt that they were the best of any race and because of this they felt a sense of entitlement. With the blacks they felt a sense of entitlement to physically own the blacks and take them in as slaves. With the Native Americans they felt a sense of entitlement to take whatever they wanted from the Native Americans including their land. There were many cultural representations showing "Native Americans to be evil, redeemable only through the grace of whites and conversion to Christianity" ("Cultural Depictions of Native Americans"). This made the whites feel superior to the evil Native Americans and because they viewed them as evil, they felt it was okay to take away their land. The second part of the quote is extremely significant to the culture of the Native Americans as the Native Americans had "their political and social systems decimated by encroaching white settlers" ("Cultural Depictions of Native Americans"). The white settlers felt they should try and convert the Native Americans to christianity to save them and also tried to change their culture because they felt it was wrong. The whites felt superior to the Native Americans so they did not care if the Native Americans were happy or not, they just did whatever they thought was right without truly considering what was best for the Native Americans.

A large part of the Native Americans being viewed as lower class was the way the media depicted them. Some writers did show the Native Americans to be a kind and gentle race, but the majority of the media portrayed them as savages. One such example was the show "Buffalo Bill's Wild West" which "most often depicted "savage" Indians attacking "civilized" white Americans" ("Cultural Depictions of Native Americans"). This contributed to the average American looking at Native Americans as savages who were dangerous to whites who did not do anything, thus encouraging racism. This reminds me a lot of the Jim Crow shows in which blacks were shown to be stupid and inferior to whites, which contributed to this idea in white society. Most of the media made the Native Americans out to be savages, so that is the way they were seen by the whites.

"Cultural Depictions of Native Americans" American History. ABC-CLIO, 2010. Sun. 31 Jan. 2010 .

Opressed into a Corner

The Native Americans were forced by the whites to the West, until the whites realized that they wanted this land and they then forced the Native Americans into even smaller areas. The whites were continutously greedy as they wanted land as land represented power. This idea was completely foreign to the Native Americans as they believed that no one could own land. This could be a reason that they were initially forced so far West with little struggle, as the idea of losing land did not make sense to them. They never had to fight over land previously so this foreign concept of owning land could have been a great weakness for the Native Americans. However, Native Americans did begin to fight back because they had inhabited that land for hundreds of years and they did not want to move. The U.S. government's idea was "to confine the Native Americans to reservations in areas deemed unsuitable for white settlement" ("American Indians and Buffalo Soldiers"). It was not enough for the new Americans to force them all the way to the west and off of their homes, they had to further confine the Native Americans to reservations that had bad land. The Native Americans had enough and I believe that they should have began organized efforts to fight back sooner. They had shown some resistance, but they needed to come together to fight because the new Americans had experience with organized wars. When they did fight back, soldiers were put on the frontier of the Native Americans' land in order to keep them in place. They were treating these people like animals putting them in a cage. Granted the cage was a large area it was still nothing compared to the thousands of miles they had previously roamed over. They had roamed over great and fertile land, but they were then forced off of this land to small reservations of bad land. As soon as the whites found positive aspects in the land that the Native Americans occupied they used force to take away this land. The Native Americans had no rights and their only option was to fight back. Some organizations preached peace, but others realized that they were going to lose everything if they did not fight back. I believe in peace in most situations, but when someone is clearly dehumanizing you and taking everything that you own, you have to fight fire with fire. This idea was embraced by the Sioux leaders, and they chose to fight back but they failed as over 150 Sioux people were killed in the Wounded Knee Massacre. This brought about an unhappy ending for the Native Americans as this event "marked the end of Indian resistance to the white culture that had arrived in the New World hundreds of years before" ("American Indians and Buffalo Soldiers"). This is a truly sad result as the Native Americans basically had to accept that they had lost and there was nothing they could do in order to return to the style of life that they loved for so many years. I understand that this is a brief overview of what happened and there are many more specific details that I have yet to find out about, but it confirmed some of my conclusions that the whites used force against the Native Americans in order to get what they wanted. It seemed to me as thought they were gating off the Native Americans from all that was good in the world and all that they loved, which in a sense must have been torture to them. When you never have something in life you are not as upset about not having it because you do not know what you are missing; the Native Americans knew exactly what they were missing out on because they had previously roamed North America as free as could be. They probably would have been willing to share this land, but the whites didn't want to compromise and rather took anything that they wanted. Until next time, enjoy the gadgets.

Sincerely,

Matt Magill

"American Indians and Buffalo Soldiers, 1850-1900 (Overview)." American History. ABC-CLIO, 2010. Web. 28 Jan. 2010. .

Native Americans Initial Response

Dear Journal,

I know a little bit about the Native Americans and the mistreatment that they have received. This seems like a topic that has been glossed over a lot in the American school system because Americans don't like to face the realities of their dark past and instead prefer to focus on the lighter points. I have been taught since preschool that the pilgrims and the Native Americans had a wonderful Thanksgiving meal and all was happy between the two. However, as I got older I learned more and more that the new Americans forced the Native Americans off of their own land and quite frankly they used power and were not peaceful in stealing the land from the Native Americans. I would like to learn more about this part of the history of Native Americans because as I understand it they were a very peaceful people who meant no harm. They were the exact opposite of many of the new Americans as the Native Americans respected all facets of life and life forms while the new Americans only wanted power for themselves. I have heard that the new Americans took advantage of the Native Americans kindness and I want to learn more about this aspect. We have read some articles by Zinn talking about the other side of the stories that we as American students here their entire lives and this is why I am interested in the topic of Native Americans. I have briefly heard the story of the news Americans purposely giving Native Americans smallpox by giving them blankets infested with it. This is a truly terrible act if it occured and I would like to know the extent of the truth of this story and other stories about the Native Americans. Basically, I want to research Native Americans because I want to uncover the truth about Native Americans rather than the stories I have heard since I was a child. Until next time, enjoy the gadgets.

Sincerely,
Matt Magill

The State of the Union Address

The State of the Union Address became more of a statement of the hopeful future of America rather than explaining the actual current state of America. This was done by President Obama and his administration because quite frankly the current state of America is not what they would hope it is. So they rather focused on what they hoped the future would hold. What topic that President Obama talked about extensively was his approach to the job crisis in America. He admitted that currently there were millions more unemployed Americans than there have been in previous years as job growth has been down. He then stated, to a raucous ovation, that there needs to be change in the job market. When President Obama was broad in describing change during his speech he generally received applause from both Democrats and Republicans, but when he went into the specifics the applause from the Republicans often became quite faint and even nonexistent at times. His plan included expanding the small businesses of America, which is a plan that I believe holds huge merit. Smaller businesses employ about half of all Americans and larger companies have the ability to outsource work, so expanding and allowing for new small businesses to form would be hugely beneficial to Americans seeking employment. President Obama's plan involved giving more money to community banks and forcing larger banks to pay greater taxes to allow this to occur. Once the community banks had more money they would be able to give small businesses loans as they need to establish credit in order to be successful, expand, and give job opportunities to a great deal of people. President Obama referred to this as part of his Job Bill, which he challenged the Senate, more specifically the Republican Senators, to pass as quickly as possible so that it could be put into action. By putting these people on the spot in front of the entire nation President Obama was able to put pressure on them to pass the bill. He wants this to be passed as soon as possible, and I believe that it can be successful, so putting pressure on the Senate to pass it was a great strategy. It was also a risky one because perhaps the Republicans will feel a greater need to stand their ground on this issue. I do not see this being an issue as for the most part they seemed to have a fairly positive reaction to this plan to expand small businesses. They did not have a positive reaction to all of President Obama's proposed plans as the more specific he got it seemed the more disapproving the Republicans became. They would often applaud his broad views on change and the topics that needed to change but when he became more specific the Republicans held their applause and their silence was not golden for the Obama administration. To me it spelled out trouble because the more disapproving they are of his plans the harder it will be for them to pass in the House and Senate. It seemed as though there is going to have to be a great deal of sacrifice and compromises from both parties if they wish to get anything accomplished, and it seems as though they are both set on seeing change. For change to happen they must agree on certain issues and agree to disagree on others. Until next time, enjoy the gadgets.

Sincerely,

Matt Magill

Welcome to the blog

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