Indian Treatment in Early American Society Essay

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Savage, merciless, killers, these word have been used synonymously with the early American s for generations. These words however are not accurate and depict these native people in a light that could be further from the truth. The early Americans, or rather the natives that were here before America were a people that were destroyed by the arrival of Europeans in more ways than one. The predated American people were a resourceful, peace loving, thankful, coexisting people that were symbiotic to the land and favored a life style of existence and freedom, as opposed to oppression and destruction. The arrival of the Europeans led to the destruction of the Native Americans lands, ways of life, and character through a force of cultural exploitation, greed, technology, and deceit.
Prior to the arrival of the Europeans the native people lived off of the lands in both hunting and gathering aspects as well as farming. The native peoples viewed the lands, which they inhabited, differently than the Europeans that would eventually force them from them did. The native people considered themselves to be belong to the land they lived, as opposed to the European way of thinking, in which the land belonged to them. This ideology shows a respect of the land, and a mutual bond with the land. The natives treated the land as a source of life and a means to survive. The native tribes that were nomadic would move around with the migrating animals, or as the seasons changed and the primary food source needed to be altered.
During the times before the Europeans arrival what is present day New England was populated by a collective group of tribes that called themselves the Iroquois nation. This nation was a mutually inclusive group of tribes that provided protection to one another and benefited off of each other in multiple ways. The early depictions of these tribes paints them in a light that does not coincide with their acceptance of one another.
The farming practices of these early natives is a very well thought, practical, and beneficial form of growing crops. These natives were able to plant crops with each other for benefits of both the crop and the yield. These natives planted beans, corn, and squash together, and is the root of the dish succotash. The benefits of planting these three crops together makes more sense than planting them separately. The corn benefits from the nitrogen that the beans put in to the soil, the beans benefit from the corn stalks and can use them to grow upon, and the squash grows in the shade of the corn and helps to prevent weeds from forming. This practice mirrors the symbiotic relationship that the native people themselves shared with the land they called their home.
Recollections of a white Indian seemed that it could have done so much had it been more readily available knowledge in the day that it was written. The European fears of the native people as savages may have been drastically altered had they known the true nature of the people they were judging. The visions of cruelty and mercilessness could have been dramatically altered had they known that their encroachment on their lands was the reason for their push back. This article raises questions about how the country would have been formed had the first
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