This is in regard to our discussion on Native Americans. I will be the first to say the mistreatment of Indians in American history has been nothing short of disgraceful and morally wrong. This is something that needs to be brought to attention especially in a classroom setting; however, I feel that we forget to try to understand the historical context to better understand why these events and acts occurred. We have to think that in some way, something as terrible as the Indian Removal Act was justified, and passed. Why? As a future educator I think this is a question we need to strive to answer, to try to better embody the mindset of the time (of both the minority and dominant group) to better understand how and why things happened the way they did, while at the same time pointed out the faults and mistakes that were made.
I just wrote a paper on Daniel Boone. He was an early American frontiersman who “discovered” Kentucky and was faced with numerous Indian attacks on his journey. In his account, the way he depicted Indians were savage aggressors who constantly attacked the white Americans for no reason at all. While we know now that Indians had every right to want to fight the whites in defense of their land and fear of their lives, we need to understand the idea that is the result of Boone’s account and others of that nature that helped to shape these hateful ideas in Americans’ minds. The truth is at the time of something like the Indian Removal Act, most people did not have contact with Native Americans, and they learned about the through skewed accounts from explorers who would make themselves out to be innocent. These accounts were then Romanticized to become mainstream and suddenly this idea of the brave white man venturing out into the unknown West, fighting Indians for the cause of Christianity and civilization became the noble thing for white men to do, and now it is our idea of the American West was. Arguably, it was this mindset that facilitated the passage of the Indian Removal Act in 1830 (about 70 years after Boone went out exploring). This is just one example of what I am talking about. Understanding something like the Daniel Boone Legend can give us an insight into why people were so prejudice against Indians, while at the same time acknowledging how awful it is and how such a skewed image of a particular group can infiltrate into mainstream culture. If students can understand this, I think that they would be able to identify and prevent this fault in our culture.
Meredith Cotter, Post #7
I understand why the Indian Removal act was passed but i cannot see how it was justified. I just dont get this notion. I understand seeing both sides of the argument but what about the side of the people who did nothing to harm the settlers and were still moved? What about the side of the young children and elderly that lay dead on the trail of tears? Would you see the views of the nazis on the reasons for the holocust?? COuld that be justified? No, there is no justification for the horrible treatment and slaughter of native americans
ReplyDeleteI am sorry if I was not clear enough. I don't mean that it actually was justified, but to see why people may have justified it in their minds at the time... no matter how messed up or flawed their rationale may have been, just to grasp a better understanding the time period and the mentality of certain people that shaped our history both negatively and positively. In this case it would be negatively so the stress would be put on ways to never let it happen again. I am saying that it would be more likely for something like that to happen again if there was no understanding of why/how it happened. I in no way mean to only show the rationale behind the Indian Removal Act and to hide what awful damage it had done and make it SEEM 'justified'. Especially as teachers we need to show BOTH why something so awful was put into practice to start, and then reveal the detrimental effects of such decisions and actions. My post was just stressing the why it started part of that. I hope this helps to clarify. I am sorry for the confusion.
ReplyDeleteWhat is seen at the time to be justified depends on the people and the thoughts present at that time in history. The removal act is no different in this aspect then the Holocaust, or the Armenians in WWI or the Muslims in the former Yugoslav, or the Atlantic slave trade. Not many people of the time saw anything wrong with this. Or did not know about it. How much do you know about the Human Sex Slave Trade? Did you know that it is worse now then it has been in the last 80 years? Just to prove a point about justification.
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