Examples Of Dualism In The Amerindians

At any rate, the Europeans felt the best way to make the Natives “civilized” was to convert them to christianity, Columbus even brought 10 natives beach with him to help them “adapt to their ways.” Unfortunately, they only survived long enough to become baptized. Ultimately, It was your classic case of European colonialism.

Tradition is the customs or beliefs that has been pass on to generation to generation. Native American have their own tradition such as when they trade, it meant a welcome gift or a way to gain relationship. However, the European trade and their material goods had a negative impact on their lives because they slowly lost their identity. While Native Americans was adapting to the Europeans’ homes, they did not noticed that they are started to becoming them. For example, in chapter 3, All Stuff of Life, Calloway stated that; “Archaeologists excavating eighteenth-century sites in the eastern united states often find it difficult to determine whether a settlement was Indian or European on the basis of the material unearthed.”

While making this gruesome travel more than 4,000 Indians died from disease, starvation and treacherous conditions. This travel became known as the “trails of tears”. These Native Americans were not how white settlement described them. Many of the tribes adopted Euro-american practices and created their own communities with schools and churches, even developed their own languages and created bilingual newspapers.

Zumarraga’s and other activists actions, over time, pushed for the removal of such practice except for northern parts of Mexico, after all, the lands were not going to work itself to produce the wealth the Spaniards required. The newly acquired lands needed to produce profits sans high cost of production, resulted in the most logical alternative: free labor, and who better than the native Indians and in the later later years, Africans, who were eventually imported by the masses, to carry out these functions? The Spaniards undoubtedly enjoyed the authority they were granted providing their share of profits be made to the crown. They felt a sense of entitlement and invisibility, as they were men, part of a society of conquerors, and in some ways regarded themselves as “owners of the known world”.

Starting with the Spanish who forced the Native Americans to convert to Christianity and kept them as slaves living in horrid conditions in the Missions. in contrast the French treated the Native Americans as equals by encouraging a peaceful coexistence with the tribes and giving natural citizenship to Native Americans who were baptized as Catholics. in addition the French often adopted Native American culture while living among the tribes and by learning the Native American languages. First the Spanish. Spain established Missions in New Spain, now the Western United States, with a stated goal of converting Native Americans to Christianity.

“But stories were already gaining ground that the white man had not only brought a religion but also a government.” (Achebe 155). In the novel, Things Fall Apart, by Chinua Achebe the main character Okonkwo lives in Nigeria, Africa where a group of white missionaries come to convert the Nigerians to Christianity. The Christian Missionaries believed that their set of beliefs were superior to other beliefs and that they were the only ones who should be followed. They pushed their religion upon other people in the Nigerian tribes, and they successfully converted a few.

The British Colonists arrived in America after spending all of their lives under the rule of king. This life was very restricted for most of the colonists, as they had to succumb to the laws, rules, and national religion stated by the aristocrat rulers. When they saw and heard about how the Natives were worshipping which ever religion they wished and how they were not burdened by the rules of faraway leaders, they were inspired by their freedom and opportunities . Additionally, there was a clear divide between gender and class in English society at this time.

Las Casas was a historian who later became a Bishop. He believed that the Indians shouldn't just be conquered but should have a chance of fighting the Europeans first. He traveled to North America in 1550. When Las Casas first came to the New World, he noticed that even though the Indians lacked art and writing, they had the the capacity to rule(pg.9). The Indians had kingdoms, cities and communities that were governed well and wisely because they followed the laws and customs of the Indians(pg.9).

Their treatment of the native people is something that cannot be overlooked, no matter how beneficial exploration was. The New World was not a great place to be when the start of exploration began. The Native people living there in the late 1400s and 1500s were more mistreated by European explorers than most people care to know. As Christopher Columbus mentions in his letter to the treasurer of the King of Spain, the Natives were ready to be converted to Christianity.

The relationship between Settlers and the Native Americans was complicated and varied between tribes and settlements. I think perhaps the Natives knew some of the Europeans intentions, but could not see how dangerous the Europeans were, and how much they would change the native lands. Thinking about the two cultures historically, we assume, were vastly different, and they were, but they did share a few similarities. Both societies were deeply religious, but both had very different views about the world around them. The difference ultimately proved great, and both societies experienced great difficulties.

Second, Spanish missionaries wanted to convert the Native Americans into Christians. Since many Native Americans were polytheistic, they believed in many gods.

Europeans had travelled to the Americas with intentions of finding gold as well as convert the inhabitants to Christianity. Many Native Americans were not given a choice and were forced to convert to the new religion and give up their traditional beliefs which created many tensions between the Old and New World. John Mair“argued that some people were by nature slaves, and some by nature free (Watson 446).” Because the Native Americans were a less developed civilization, they lacked the power to protest the European invasion and were forced into slavery which further weakened their already existing society as they had to focus on simply surviving against the foreign invaders. But not all shared the view of Native Americans as backwards and uncivilized.

As time moved forward, the relationship between Europeans and Natives started to change, and with this change came forced assimilation. For the Natives, the Europeans saw the forced assimilation as there way of civilizing them (Lahlum, 22 Feb 2017). One of the main features of forced assimilation was Indian Boarding schools. In these schools, they teach the Native children English and Christianity (Laliberte, Natives, Neighbors, and the National Game, 2010). On the other hand, the immigrants from Germany and Scandinavia willingly adapted there culture to include aspects of Minnesota/ American Culture.

The Europeans believed that it was their job to convert the indigenous peoples to Christianity. They decided that the way to do this was to force them

Although the Native Americans had a strong adaption to the environment, they did not adapt well when different settlers started to explore America. They had to learn how to deal with the French, Spanish and English settlers on their land. The French relations with the Natives didn’t have much conflict although, the French caused some arguments in between different tribes. They settled in Louisiana in the 1670’s.