Wednesday, June 11, 2008

In this essay I will write about what is required of leadership to run a successful country and get through a revolution. I will do this using Joseph Ellis' book Founding Fathers. Knowing what is required of leadership puts a new perspective into your mind about what leadership is and how important it is to depend on others for support.

"Strong-minded, resolutely willed, you can create out of nothing a
great business, a huge empire, a
New World."

-Charles Bristol

The declaration of Independence was made from dedicated, honorable and wise men. The Revolutionary war was won by brave, strong and courageous gentlemen. The men who created our boundaries and laws, wrote the Constitution of the United States and made our country what it is today were honest, reliable, and inspiring men. Our founding fathers as a whole were the leaders of our country. There are many qualities of a leader, and separately the founding fathers did not have what it took to create a stable and running country. The work that was progressing in 1776 would never have been completed to make us a happy and free country as we are today without the collaboration of all the founding fathers. The fathers different personalities and qualities put together as a whole is what made a true leader. The fathers together defined the true meaning of leadership.

The word leadership can have many different meanings. Perseverance, strength, bravery, creativity, confidence, honesty and integrity are all qualities of a leader. The definition of leadership from dictionary.com is stated that leadership is "the capacity to establish direction and to influence and align others toward a common goal, motivating and committing them to action and making them responsible for their performance." This definition of leadership is true when it is put into perspective of the Revolutionary war. The leaders of the revolution did establish direction, they influenced, they aligned and motivated everyone towards a common goal and they also made everyone responsible for performance. Leadership also needs to have many qualities. Courage, strength, confidence, bravery, strong will, compassion, determination are just a few of all the qualities you need to be a successful leader of a huge country. However, not all of the revolutionary leaders had all the qualities of leadership. Some of the founding fathers showed more of one quality than another. They all had different styles of going about things, and they all had different qualities than the founding father sitting next to them. Even though the founding fathers had many differences, they all had the same goals, and they all achieved them.

To be a good leader you have to obtain qualities such as bravery, courage, strength, confidence and strong will. Some of the founding fathers who demonstrated these qualities everyday of their lives are George Washington, John Adams, and Aaron Burr. They were hard headed and they never gave up a fight. John Adams was committed to the revolution. Joseph Ellis wrote in his book "Adams was virtually unbeatable. His career, indeed his entire life, was made by the American Revolution"(1). John Adams was extremely aggressive and strong willed. With his wife Abigal on the side, her being very compassionate and intelligent, they made a great team. Them together almost would make a great leader, but not quite. George Washington is the brute of the group. He is very strong, brave and courageous. He isn't afraid to improvise and does well with whatever he chooses to do. To be a strong leader you have to have a title. It may be morally unfair, but it is surly justified. All the founding fathers were very important people in their day. Especially George Washington. He was the "man who unties all hearts. He was the American Zeus, Moses and Cincinnatus all rolled into one"(1).

Benjamin Franklin, James Madison, and Thomas Jefferson were passionate, determined and wise individuals. These are all qualities a good leader needs, but just as the other fathers, they fall short of all the dominate qualities that are needed to be a strong successful leader by themselves to run the United States of America. Benjamin Franklin, he was the guy to get stuff done. He was determined and hardworking and he would never let you down. He was a very intelligent man and very compassionate. Madison was a behind the scene man. He was very nice and modest. Although he could be very sneaky and manipulative without others even knowing it. He teamed up with Jefferson in a point in his life and as Jefferson glowed, Madison after doing all the work hung back. Later after the passing away of George Washington and Benjamin Franklin, Madison started to lead debates and in the 1980's helped the creation of the Constitutional Convention. He then got the title of "Father of the Constitution". He was a great speaker which helped in his leadership, and after Washington and Franklin's death, he was "generally regarded as the most influential political leader in the new nation"(1).

Strong leadership requires passion, perseverance, strength, integrity, creativity. You need to be confident, honest and brave. Aside from their ego, honor, genius level intelligence and their competitive nature with another, the founding fathers were intelligent men who all shared qualities of leadership. However to have a strong and unmoving backbone of leadership running the new nation, it took a collaborative effort between all of the founding fathers. John Adams, George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, and Thomas Jefferson were named the four major fathers of the American Revolution. John Adams and George Washington being hard, competitive and strong willed while Franklin and Jefferson were passionate, very wise and determined, together they made a leader. However great leadership came from Madison, Hamilton, Burr, Washington, Adams, Jefferson and Franklin; all of the founding fathers put together. But after the war and after George Washington and Benjamin Franklin were gone, the revolution was still in progress. John Adams took presidency, and the country still needed to be set up and they needed laws to follow. The constitution was a working progress with Madison as the leader. The other fathers, contributed to the continental congress. The American Revolution was a long process. Getting through the revolution, the war and writing the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution took the collaborative effort of all the founding fathers. It took great leadership and commitment from all the fathers. Leadership requires a lot of qualities that one person alone can not contain. However, all together the founding fathers gave us that leadership the country needed. Together, the founding fathers achieved their dreams.

Joseph Ellis, Founding Fathers (1)

Saturday, June 7, 2008

Franklin Letter

Sir,

The gentleman who has the honor and pride to deliver this message first hand to your Excellency I do assure you has the abilities and strength to fight as an officer in this war. I do only recruit the best for I believe that the best will win this war. This humble gentleman can speak German and Latin as well as our exquisite language. He has many dreams just as the rest of us, however I esteem that he, unlike many, will fulfill his dreams if you approve of him. I give this letter of recommendation to your Excellency for this person as a request to ask you of your precious time and look carefully at this kind and hardworking gentleman. I wish you the best in your health and prosperity. Your most obedient and humble servant,

B. Franklin

Sir,

I am sincerely disappointed in writing you your Excellency yet another letter which its contents within it state I have not yet retrieved what I set out to accomplish. I assure you your Excellency that I, your dear friend am doing everything in my power to encourage officers to your continental army and to discourage foreign officers from crossing the sea and standing by you in battle as traitors to your Excellency. I also write you this letter to you telling you of my struggles to convince the French in to fighting with us against the British. However, as much as I am wearing myself thin, I am a humble servant to you and do believe that the French will soon be with us. I hear good news of the Congress in the comings of the Declaration of Independence. I do hope and wish that you make humble yet courageous decisions regarding your life and the war. I look forward to the time where I can write to you and celebrate in high spirits the winnings of this war. I wish you the best in your health and prosperity. With the highest esteem and respect, I am dear sir, your most obedient and humble servant.

B. Franklin

Tuesday, May 13, 2008

Blow up the British

In this paper I will discuss how the message of the importance of war should be heard throughout America. I will use Founding Brothers written by Joseph Ellis and Wikipedia to write this essay. This message must be heard throughout America so that every American is striving for independence, and that is when we will become one nation rid of British rule.

There is an on going problem in our nation today. The British have taken our rights. They want to move westward with our land, they want us to house their soldiers in our homes, they wish to tax us, finally they want to take away our Independence and our honor. We as a nation have a question to consider. Do we fight the British for what is rightfully ours, or do we obied by their wishes and give up our Independence. Those who are loyal stay loyal to the British king may consider the second option. I however, and my fellow Patriots will not succumb to British rule. We will fight in this war, we will gain Independence, and we will then become a great and powerful nation.

This great nation deserves to be free, the colonists deserve their honor, our hard work in making a government and setting up a civilization deserves to be recognized and used among only Americans of the United States. The British don't belong in our nation and never will. They do not have right to tax us, take away our honor and pride, take control and seize what is rightfully ours. We are citizens of the United States of America and we shall fight them. When a soldier comes to our door we shall slam the door shut. We wrote a document stating our freedom and separation from any other country, and that document does indeed include Great Britain. We shall obied by this document and fight for our country. We shall take back our rights and our honor. If we do not fight, we will never obtain the freedom that we seek. If we are truly citizens of the United States of America, we will fight until the all the British are laying face down in the dust.

I am a citizen of the United States of America. I do not and will not take orders from Great Britain and pay taxes to their King, just as the rest of our country should not. They do not have the right to bring their soldiers over and enforce taxes and laws that we, citizens of the United States of America are not inclined to obey. My dear friend Benjamin Franklin as kind as he is was also smart, however we were wrong to barter with the British about the stamp act. He got Britain to repeal the taxes, but we should have known they would tax us on other things as well. What happened in the Boston Massacre, will happen all over the states eventually. We will rebel and fight until we have won. The Boston Tea Party is another incident of us not giving up. They want to take us over, so we shall fight them. However, I know their are still Americans loyal to the British King, but just as the Boston Massacre changed the minds of the Massachusetts colony, all people of America will also join to fight. We need all Americans to believe in Independence, when we do, that is when we have won. It will happen, and we will soon be a free country where are children and our children's children will not have to pay taxes to Britain and abide by their rule.

Every great nation will have a leader. Our leader will not be the King of Great Britain, it will be the President of the United States. Every great nation will also be independent. This war is truly inevitable. I believe that Patrick Henry says it best when he states why this war must happen. "The battle, Sir, is not to the strong alone; it is to the vigilant, the active, the brave. Besides, Sir, we have no election. If we were base enough to desire it, it is now too late to retire from the contest. There is no retreat but in submission and slavery! Our chains are forged! Their clanking may be heard on the plains of Boston! The war is inevitable; and let it come! I repeat, Sir, let it come!" This is the message that needs to be portrayed throughout the colonies. This is what every American mind needs to understand. I believe that this is the most important message at this time. The war must be fought, and we must gain Independence. I also do agree and encourage individual states declaring their Independence from Great Britain. However, we have to be one solid powerful nation. My fellow Patriots and I believe in complete separation from the British. Thomas Paine was correct when he said that the only way for Americans to live peacefully was "republicanism and independence from Great Britain". I encourage all American men to fight in this war. Also for American women and children to encourage our freedom. We should not be scared of what the British can do or what the outcome may bring. We are strong and we are brave. We will fight and we will win this war. We will be a free nation.

All in all, we need to continue fighting in this war against Great Britain. They do not belong in America among us. We shall not house British men, we shall not pay taxes to the British king, and we shall not listen to British soldiers. What we will do is penetrate and attack. We will be courageous and strong, and we will defeat the British until they all lay dead in the ground. We will seek revenge for what the British did to us, we will kill them as they killed us. We are Americans and we will fight until we win, and then we will be known forever as "the land of the free".

Thursday, April 3, 2008

In this paper I will describe how the contact between Native Americans and Europeans between the founding of Jamestown and the outbreak of the American revolution constituted a continuous cultural revolution for Native Americans. I will support my thesis with the book The Earth Shall Weep by James Wilson, and other Internet sources sited below. It is important to understand how the impact of the Europeans changed the lives of Native Americans so we can understand their past, and what became of the victims of a terrible invasion.

The contact between Native Americans and Europeans between the founding of Jamestown and the outbreak of the American revolution constituted a continuous cultural revolution for Native Americans. The invasion of the Europeans had a great impact on Native American life. The Europeans impacted Indian religion and how they felt about their religion after the Beaver Wars. The Europeans impacted the way they farmed, their trade, their tools and the way they lived from then on. They also impacted they way they thought about themselves as individuals, their religion, and the way they thought of their tribes. The changes made by the Europeans ethier ended up in war, death, or changing the Indian culture to be more like their own. The only thing the English could not change was the Native American traditions. However the European impact changed their lives a great deal more than it stayed the same.

Every Indian tribe has a different creation story. All of them are very similar, they start out the same way and have the same idea and have the same outcome. Indian creation stories are similar to the Catholic creation story as well. One man creating others to live on earth. Indians live in cyclical time. They go from season to season living their lives in a pattern. "You have noticed that everything as Indian does is in a circle, and that is because the Power of the World always works in circles, and everything tries to be round...The Sky is round, and I have heard that the earth is round like a ball, and so are all the stars. The wind, in its greatest power, whirls. Birds make their nest in circles, for theirs is the same religion as ours.... Even the seasons form a great circle in their changing, and always come back again to where they were. The life of a man is a circle from childhood to childhood, and so it is in everything where power moves." Black Elk Oglala Sioux Holy Man 1863-1950. That is how the Indians lived their everyday lives, in a cycle. They believe in connecting and interacting with the environment. They respect the Earth and cherish its beauty. The Eagle is a creature that "flies the highest"(2) to them. It holds prayers on it's wings carrying them up to the almighty, or God. They hold the Eagle up high just like any Christian would hold a Bible. Indians believe in spirits, that everything has a spirit, trees, themselves, animals. They believe that the spirit never dies, it lives on forever. Stories and religion are passed on from generation to generation, cherishing their ancestors, environment, tradition and their culture.

"Rather than going to church, I attend a sweat lodge; rather than accepting bread and toast [sic] from the Holy Priest, I smoke a ceremonial pipe to come into Communion with the Great Spirit; and rather than kneeling with my hands placed together in prayer, I let sweet grass be feathered over my entire being for spiritual cleansing and allow the smoke to carry my prayers into the heavens. I am a Mi'kmaq, and this is how we pray." Noah Augustine, from his article "Grandfather was a knowing Christian."

When the Europeans came and invaded the Indians they changed their culture forever. When Europeans came they destroyed their culture, brought diseases, caused conflict and violence, removed the Native Americans from their lands, took their food and eventually defeated them all. When the Europeans settlers first arrived they did not know how to live on their own. They depended on the Native Americans to survive. In Plymouth, unlike Jamestown, the settlers knew how to survive on their own. They didn't disrupt them much, let them practice religion and hold their rituals. However eventually the only way the Indians could survive was to fall under European economy and to make their own products to trade and sell. They Europeans started taking more land and their food and the Indians were having trouble surviving. When another epidemic hit, the disease of smallpox, it killed off nearly 90% of the Native Americans and wiped out a lot of the Europeans as well. The settlers didn't know how to bounce back from the disease and needed to rely on the Native Americans to recover. This made the Indians question their religion. They couldn't understand why Europeans were surviving while their tribes were dwindling away. They started to lose confidence and some thought it would be safer to convert religions. After the wars between the Native Americans and the Europeans, most Indians were forced to convert to Christianity, some did it on their own. They were forced to live on reservations, where they were still allowed to practice their traditional dances, ceremonies and rituals. Europeans had a major impact on Native American religion, they nearly destroyed it but because of oral tradition and their tradition it was never forgotten.

Native American tribes never farmed for money or traded goods to form an economy. They farmed for their families and would only grow enough to survive. They believed in preserving the natural land and only using what they needed. The very first crop Indians started to grow was squash. From their they started growing cotton, tobacco, goosefoot, sump weed, sunflower, watermelon, pumpkins, and the most important was maize. Maize was very important because they lived off of it, and after it was eaten the husks would be made into arts and crafts. Native Americans cherish every part of the environment and they didn't believe in wasting it. So they put every part to good use, the husk of the corn being used for arts and crafts and the cob being used for fuel. They way of life for the Native Americans was women were in-charge of planting, weeding and harvesting the crops, while men were in-charge of clearing the land. Men would also hunt and fish for food. Tools that were used by Native Americans were the hoe, maul and dibber. The dibber is used for digging and planting the seeds. The hoe was used for clearing land, cultivating and harvesting. The maul was used to grind the corn so it could be made into mush and bread. When the Europeans came the way the Native Americans lived changed, and just like their religion they held on for as long as possible. When they settlers saw how much land was untouched by the Indians they invaded and took over all the land. They brought in new tools and new technology to plant more food than what the Indians did to make a profit. Europeans depended on the Indians to survive. The settlers didn't know how to grow crops in this new territory, the land was different. So they forced the Native Americans to continue to grow crops but instead of feeding their families what they grew would be exported and sold. They forced to Indians to work with the tools that they brought so the work would be done faster and their would be twice as much. Europeans were gaining profits while the Indians starved. After the Europeans came Indian agriculture and way of life was never the same. The Indians had to abandon their own tools so they could survive. They had to pick up on European trade and were forced to become apart of their economy. "When all the trees have been cut down, when all the animals have been hunted, when all the waters are polluted, when all the air is unsafe to breathe, only then will you discover you cannot eat money." Cree Prophecy (4) When epidemic hit and massive amounts of Native Americans died, they had no choice but to surrender to European way of life. After the wars and after the Indians were defeated by the Europeans they were forced to live on reservations where they lived like the Europeans. The English coming to America and invading Native Americans destroyed their way of life and destroyed their future.

Before the Europeans arrived its safe to say that Indian tribes were separated. Their were the tribes who lived in Plymouth, there tribes that lived in Jamestown and there were a hundred other tribes that lived up and down the coast. There are Alaskan tribes, Hawaiian tribes, Eskimos, and many more categorized by where they live or what they practice.(1) Indians rarely ever came into contact with each other outside of their tribes. Every tribe has their own rules, their own creation story, their own myths, their own chiefs and their own way of life. Although all of these things may be very similar within a tribe, they are also different and practiced separate from other tribes. When the English invaded America the major tribes they invaded were the Pequouts, the Powhatans, and the Wampanoag. When the Europeans arrived the Indians had to stop them. They were taking over the land and their culture. One thing all Native American tribes have in common is they are pacifists. They don't believe in fighting, violence or wars. Another thing they all had in common was they needed to stop the English. When the English invaded Plymouth it created Indian unity. It changed the way Native Americans interacted with each other. The war turned into the English versus all the Native American tribes. Even though the Native Americans were defeated in the end, it changed the way they thought of themselves and the Native American culture in general. They didn't just see their tribe, they saw other tribes as one of them. Once the wars were all over, the Iroquois Confederacy was created. It is a nation of six tribes brought together to work as one. It consisted of the Mohawk tribe, the Oneida, the Onondaga, the Cayuga, the Seneca and the Tuscarora tribe. They were known as the "league of peace and power".Iroquois in Buffalo, New York, 1914. The Europeans bringing unity within the Native American culture may have been a good thing, but it wasn't the only thing they influenced. Not only did the effect of the European invasion change the way the Indians saw themselves as a whole, but it changed the way they thought as themselves as an individual. When epidemic hit hard on the English and the Native Americans, the Indians started to question themselves. They started questioning their courage, their confidence, and their religion. They took away their land, they took away their rights and their way of life and then they took away their spirits and their hope. After the European invasion, their was peace and unity within the Native American world, and their also was a wide-spread destruction of confidence, hope and pride.

Iroquois Tribe

The Europeans may have taken their culture, there way of life, they might have tried to change their religion and their beliefs, but they couldn't take away their tradition. After the Europeans forced the Native Americans onto reservations they were still allowed to practice rituals and ceremonies. All the way up to today Indians still practice their traditions. Art and music is very important to the Indians. The drum is a tool that was said to be brought to them by the "Almighty". Native Americans practice rituals for healing, marriages, spirituality, and to stay in touch with mother Earth and their Almighty. They pray before a ceremony or ritual and pray after. Ways of healing today in America have been adopted by the tradition ways of healing by the Native Americans that they still practice today. Andrew thomas, flute player by acvb – experience about native american culture and heritage in albuquerque Animal totems are used for ceremonies and rituals and are still seen today.(5) Tradition is very important to the Native Americans, and that was one thing that the Europeans could not change. Today we know the stories of the Indians from oral tradition. Ever since their ancestors Native Americans have been using the form of oral tradition to pass on stories and legends. This is how they passed on their religion, stories of their very beginnings and their memories. The reservations and the invasion couldn't change those special parts of their life.

Watch a 2008 Native American ceremony

http://www.religioustolerance.org/nataspir.htm (1)

http://www.pbs.org/wnet/religionandethics/week707/belief.html (2)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Native_Americans_in_the_United_States (3)

http://www.sapphyr.net/natam/quotes-nativeamerican.htm (4)

http://healing.about.com/od/tools/a/nativetools.htm (5)

Wednesday, March 26, 2008

Tuesday, March 4, 2008

Jamestown and Plymouth, two very different colonies.

In this paper I will show the differences and similarities between the Jamestown and Plymouth colonies. I will use the book The Earth Shall Weep by James Wilson(1) to support my thesis. It is important to know why the colonies were different so people have an idea of how Native Americans were treated in different places during the discovery of America.

The events between the Europeans and the Indians in Jamestown and the events between the Pilgrims and the Indians were very similar, however very different. What happened in Jamestown was almost like a sight into the future of what was going to happen in Plymouth. Religion, disease, interactions between the Natives and the English and the results in both the colonies were similar but very different from each other. Due to different reactions and different scenarios by the Indians and the Pilgrams in Plymouth, it caused Plymouth to be way more extreme than Jamestown.

When the Europeans and the Pilgrims landed in America they came to find already cultivated land. They found a civilization already established. However the English and the Pilgrims saw this civilization and clamied it disorganized and inefficient. Even though the Indians had established a whole way of life there, it was described as chaos(1). They appreciated the land that they saw, but they never really saw the Indians who put it there. Captain John Smith described the land as "well inhabited with a goodly, strong and well proportioned people"(1). He also said "that out of everywhere he has traveled he would rather live there than anywhere else"(1). When the Europeans and the Pilgrims arrived and took a look around they felt like the Indians weren't using their land because they were not farming properly on it. So they moved in and tried to force their way of life upon the Native Americans. This is was the major conflict starter in both the colonies. Indians farmed for survival, not to make economical success. Just like the Pilgrims in Plymouth, the Europeans of Jamestown wanted the land for trade and money.

However in Jamestown, just as soon as the Europeans discovered the land, they realized that they didn't know how to use it. They couldn't farm anywhere like the Indians could. So the Europeans needed Indian help to survive. At first they were trading and buying food off of the Indians to stay alive. Then they started claiming food and only leaving small payments behind and eventually they were leaving nothing at all behind for payment. The Indians in Jamestown started to starve because they didn't have enough food and seeds to feed themselves. The English only planned on living off of the Natives for a year, but they still could not create their own food. The Indians offered to help the Europeans, they would have taught them how to make their own food, but the Europeans hated and resented the Indians for helping them. They hated them for supplying them with food, and being so generous towards them. So they refused the offer. Europeans liked things the way they were between them and the Indians. They were making money exporting tobacco to England and wanted to keep things the same; taking everything from the Indians. In Plymouth things were similar but also very different. Unlike the Europeans at Jamestown the Pilgrims didn't need to depend on the Indians to survive. The Pilgrims were obsessed with killing the Indians and using their land and crops for trade. They wanted power just like the English in Jamestown. Unlike Jamestown, disease hit hard at Plymouth. First hitting the Native Americans. They ended up missing planting and harvesting cycles and they were missing their hunting seasons. This resulted in starvation for the Native Americans. The epidemics wiped out a lot of the Native Americans causing the Pilgrims to come in and take over the land that the Indians cleared. Unlike the English the Pilgrims fell sick with disease also, but just like the English they had to rely on Indian help as well. However they didn't rely for long. The Pilgrims knew how to grow crops on there own, so they didn't need to be dependent on them. This allowed them to be able to use the Indians land to make money and not have to trade or negotiate with them.

Indians and the English in both Jamestown and Plymouth followed the same religion. The Indians believed in living in the same area their ancestors lived in because their religion was based on place. "Place" meaning they felt like they could not leave the land that they came from. It has certian meaning being in the same location, the same moment as their ancestors. Europeans had a type of space religion, they could worship no matter where they were located. It didn't matter who lived their before, as long as your body is their, you are able to pray and practice religion. The conflicts between the two religions played a huge role in Jamestown and Plymouth. It caused the Indians to not surrender their land, and to stay basically under English control. They would not change their way of life, and in both places they had to be fought or forced into changing their life styles and they were eventually defeated. In both Jamestown and Plymouth the Indians eventually had to adapt European way of life due to disease and starvation. When disease fell over both of the colonies the Europeans and the Pilgrims both felt protected by God. They saw a lot of Native Americans dying and only few amounts from themselves. In result of feeling protected from God, they felt like the belonged there, and it boasted their confidence. Religion had a bad effect on both of the Native American cultures. They didn't want to stop practicing their way of life, they couldn't without almost falling under the English way of life.

Although religion had more of an impact in Plymouth than it did Jamestown. In Plymouth, once disease fell over the Indians, they became confused and unsure of why it was happening to them and not the Pilgrims. The epidemic of pox wiped out ninety percent of their population. In Plymouth there whole religion went crashing down. Ceremonies stopped, rituals, dances, celebrations. It crushed their spirit and lowered their confidence. This did not happen in Jamestown, and it had major effect on the Native Americans of Plymouth. The Indians saw that there were no Pilgrims dying of epidemic. They saw it as some sort of punishment from God. They considered switching religions, and most did. They felt like the Europeans had "greater spiritual power"(1). The deaths of so many Native Americans caused setback for the Indians. The Pilgrims moved in and claimed the land that was cleared by the Indians but wasn't being used due to death. This opened up opportunity and basically lead the Europeans to American success. As the Pilgrim confidence and success grew, in Jamestown it was the opposite. The psychological religious effects on the Jamestown Europeans may have boasted their confidence, but the way they lived off of the Natives lowered it. They started to question there superiority(1). They didn't feel like their way of life was good enough if they had to depend on the Native Americans to survive. They still however called them savages and said they were chaotic and inefficient. So even though the religions of both of the Native Americans in both colonies were the same, and both religions of the Europeans were the same, it had different physiological effects of both of them. This made them react to different situations and problems differently. Different thinking by Jamestown and Plymouth was one of the reasons that each of them resulted differently.

"Why should you take by force that from us which you can have by love? Why should you destroy us, who have provided you with food? What can you get by war? We can hide our provisions, and fly into the woods; and then you must consequently famish by wronging your friends. What is the cause of your jealousy? You see us unarmed, and willing to supply your wants, if you will come in a friendly manner, and not with swords and guns, as to invade an enemy."(1) This was said by Wahunsonacock, the sachem, or better known as chief of the Powhatan tribe. In Jamestown and likewise Plymouth the Indians believed in peace. They had the same way of life and all the same beliefs. They both were also brutally invaded, and had both their land and their pride taken from them. The Native Americans believed that if the Europeans came in peace and understand their culture, they could share a world together. When both the English and the Pilgrims needed food to survive, the Native Americans were willing to give it. Both worlds never appreciated the Indians. They just hated the Indians for their generosity towards them as they were taking over Native American land. The Indians of both places were willing to help them and live among them. They just didn't want the Europeans to come and invade them and to take by force what was theirs. The Native Americans were being reasonable. They couldn't understand why these new people wanted to destroy them when they were supplying them with food. They couldn't understand why the new comers had to force what they needed out of them, because if they came in peace, they would have gotten what they wanted. Jamestown and Plymouth were the same when it came to getting what they wanted out of the Indians. Jamestown and Plymouth were also turned out the same in the end. Both places ended up in Native American defeat. What was different was how the Indian defeat came about.

In Jamestown when the Europeans arrived and disrupted Indian life, the Europeans forced their way of life upon the Indians. They took all of the Natives food and when disease fell over the Indians it resulted in starvation. The Native Americans of Jamestown had no choice but to fall under the same way of life as the English to survive. Disease was wiping everyone out and the Native American culture was dying. In order for survival they had to do more than just grow crops, so they started living economically like the English. They made cooking pots and furs and grew crops to trade and sell. It was the only way to survive. In Jamestown unlike Plymouth there were never serious blood battles between the two groups. There was a conflict however between them, it was called in history the uprising of the Pawhatan tribe. The Pawhatans fought the English but the small conflict ended up in Indians defeat. In Plymouth when the Pilgrims arrived and disrupted Indian life just like the Europeans had in Jamestown the Pilgrims didn't necessarily force their way of life onto the Indians. The Pilgrims could live without Indian help and they did for a short time, and then they just left the Native Americans alone. However after epidemic hit the Pilgrims they relied on Native American help to survive. This was the huge difference between Jamestown and Plymouth. The Pilgrims could live without Native American support; they didn't need the Indians. Jamestown however couldn't, they needed the Indians to survive. This in the end helped the Pilgrims. They used the Native American products like fur to make money in trade with England, and the whole time knowing that they could destroy them and still survive. After the epidemic, the Pilgrims decided to make a treaty agreement. In this treaty there was a misunderstanding by the Native Americans and it gave domination to the English instead of equilibrium like the Indians thought. The treaty also states that each party would help each other if there was ever an attack by a third party, and that each of them would disarm when they met(1). The treaty agreement wasn't followed well. In Plymouth the Indians ended up rebelling against the Pilgrims. The Pequot tribe and the English went through attacks and war. It ended up in every Indian tribe across New England was against the Europeans. It was King James' war and it was much bigger than the war in Jamestown. Also in unlikeness to Jamestown the Indians ended up in defeat and extinction.

The Jamestown Virginia and Plymouth Massachusetts colonies were very similar but they were also very different. The major causes that put the Indians and the English into conflict were things that were very different between the colonies. Religion, how the English interacted with the Native Americans, psychological aspects; how they thought of themselves, and the English's first impression of the Native Americans were conflict causes factors in the two colonies. Jamestown and Plymouth had more significant differences than they did similarites. The significant differences between the two are why Plymouth came out more suscessful in European eyes, or more disastorous to the Native Americans than Jamestown.

Friday, February 15, 2008

Abstract:

This paper will talk about how the Europeans went into conflict with the Native Americans because of conflicting myths that each one has. I will support this thesis with James Wilson's book The Earth Shall Weep and Joseph Campbell's discussion over myth functions. It is important to know what caused the Europeans into conflict with Native Americans because it gives us an idea of their different lifestyles and a sense of what happened between the Europeans and the Native Americans.

Myth narratives give us an idea of lifestyle and culture. Every society has a different myth narrative. Some societies more similar than others, but others being very different. Myths are made up of four basic functions. The metaphysical function which is seeing the world and universe as a wonderful place. The cosmological function which is uncovering and discovering the mysteries of the universe which then lead to more questions that need to be answered. The sociological function which explains a cultures social order, and how they live by it. The last function is the pedagogical function. This is how the society lives their human life, and how they react to any given situation in their lives. The Europeans and the Native Americans had very different myth narratives that determined how they lived their lives and how they react to certain situations. Due to different myth narratives this is why the Europeans became in conflict with the Native Americans.

The first function of myth is the metaphysical or mystical function. It's seeing the world as a wonderful place. The Indians cherished ever single aspect of the world. They created stories about the mysteries of the universe. They saw every little thing and thought it was beautiful. The Europeans saw the world as a wonderful place as well. They wanted to discover it and uncover it's mysteries. Both Europeans and Native Americans have creation stories. Each one cherishing the world and bringing there own kind into the world. The creation stories are very similar. A man arriving to earth, and using parts of his body to create another person. There is no conflict between the Europeans and Native Americans in this function of myth because they both saw the world for what it was; a beautiful place.

The second function of myth is the cosmological dimension. This function simply means according to Campbell "the dimension with which science is concerned-showing you what the shape of the universe is, but showing it in such a way that the mystery again comes through." It means discovering every aspect of the world. Seeing every rock every flower and every frog and uncovering it's meaning. The Indians and the Europeans both thought the world was a wonderful place but the way they interacted with the world was completely different. The Europeans were in the age of the scientific revolution. They wanted to discover; to dissect every frog to examine every flower and every rock to see what its made of and what it can do. The Indians saw everything as apart of their lives. They had stories about the rocks and the flowers, they didn't want to disturb them or hurt them or any part of their environment. When the Europeans found them this would of course arise conflict. The Europeans have been discovering new ways to live, new technologies and discoveries. The Indians were happy with the way they were living. They didn't want to progress and further. They lived on necessities and worked for their families. The Indians looked to the Europeans six thousand years behind them. This made the Europeans angry because the Indians were not living their way of life.

The third function of myth is the sociological function. It means having a social order and living by it. Having a social order means having a hierarchy, having rules to follow, people having their place in their society and not being able to change it. The Indians had a chief. However the role of a chief is to be a leader, be the medicine man, and assist to those who need them. The chiefs were chosen because of their strength and bravery. Their goal was not to have power, it was to just keep peace. However the role of a chief is to just be a leader and keep peace. He is equal to everyone else around him. They had a type of true democracy. In Indian tribes men and women were equal, everyone was considered equal. They farmed for their families. The tribes didn't work together to make money like the Europeans. They didn't make money at all. They were all separate, interacting with each other and their environment. Their jobs were to feed and take care of their families. The men hunted and the women farmed and took care of the children. Europeans had a hierarchy. They had a king, queen, nobles, merchants and peasants. Everyone knew their place and followed the rules of their place in society. Women were below the men. Nobles had dominion over the merchants and peasants, even though the merchants supplied the necessary needs to live, they were considered low in the feudalism way of life. The European world was about power. They had a working economy, and they had people to run the economy. Europeans had a working trade and bartering system. They could import and export goods. They had a whole economical way of life. When they found the Indians they saw them as disorganized and inefficient. What they saw was no progress and no growth. They didn't know how to accept a world unlike their own. They lived in discovery and improvements. They lived in a world where people had power over others. That's all they could accept. Both the European and Indian way of life worked. They each ran their societies different, but each one was successful. However that didn't matter. What Europeans saw was no money, no rules that everyone in there society followed, and no progress. All they saw was a world unlike their own that they didn't accept. The Indians were happy and comfortable with their way of life, so in the end this lead to conflict.

The fourth function of myth is the pedagogical function. The pedagogical function according to Campbell means "how to live a human lifetime under any circumstances." People live their human lives under any circumstances in different ways. They come into the situation different, they react different, they deal with the aftermath different. Human lifetime is differs from society to society, however, people who live in the same societies are similar. Everyone lives a human lifetime in a pattern. From birth, to being raised and maturing, then to raising your own in the same ways you were raised, to old age and then to eventually to our deaths. This cycle in every society starts a culture. Having a certain culture means that you are going to react to situations in a different way than another society. The Europeans have grown up in wealth, and power. They are schooled and educated in things so when they grow up they can contribute to their type of world. As they go through the stages of their lives the way they will react to different things will compliment the type of culture they live in. Indians grew up respecting their environment. Living in peace and as equals. As they grew up and lived their human lifetime they were taught the basic needs of life. How to plant, cook, harvest. They were taught of their ancestors, stories of how they got to where they are now. Then those were taught by there parents and tribe, will grow up to teach their children and others children. The structure of the two societies is the same, however what the structure of their life consists of, is what causes conflict. How their cultures effect how they act and respond to certain circumstances in life is what drove the Europeans into conflict with the Native Americans and what drove the Native Americans to respond to the situation they were put into the way they did.


Out of these four functions the two that lead the Europeans into conflict with the Indians are the sociological function and the cosmological function. The function of myth that lead them into conflict the most was the sociological function. The two worlds were set up and run completely different. Europeans were all about making money. They saw the Native American culture as unproductive and behind them. This in itself leads to the conflict the Europeans had with the Indians. They saw the fertile soil that the Native Americans had and saw economical success. Europeans wanted them to adopt their way of life. The Europeans thought that the Native Americans needed someone in charge, someone to uphold the luxury jobs like banking and taking care of the economy. They thought there should be people farming, selling goods, loading ships with goods like the merchants did in their society. The wanted people to have the dirty jobs, the jobs that peasants had in their culture. They thought they needed more of an economical based society. However how do these things happen without invocation. The European culture feeds on wealth, inventions, high buildings, furnished country styled homes. They wanted to put the picture of their culture in the Native American world. This is the second function of myth. While the Europeans were in the scientific revolution, inventing new ways to power machines and inventing new ways to farm and make money, the Indians lived in cyclical time. They didn't progress industrially, they would live the same way and never change. The men had their jobs, hunting and fishing. While the women had theirs, they took care of the children and worked outside taking care of the crops. The Europeans didn't want that. They at first though it was unfair for the men to hunt and fish. They saw it as a luxury not a job. They saw the women as slaves. However the women were not forced to do those jobs, they liked them. When they found America, they saw money and they wanted the Native Americans to change the way they have always lived and to use these high tech machines to plow their fields. Native Americas were leaving huge amounts of fertile soil untouched. So the Europeans didn't consider them doing anything, and they wanted it changed. This is why the Europeans and the Native Americans were in conflict. They had different social orders and different ways of living. This is why America is the way it is today; a progressing economical success.

In the 16th 17th and 18th century every society had a different myth narrative. Like the Europeans and the Native Americans each myth narrative would be different. These myths reflected how each societies culture was lived, and how every human within that culture lived thier everyday lives and how they reacted to different situations. It was okay for each society to have a different narrative. The world was in seperate pieces. However the world is coming together. Technology and globalization is bringing the world together. We are evolving into one unit. We share economies, jobs, and we all interact with each other. Ever country is envolved with another. So if the world starts to work together, and isn't divided like the world was when the Europeans came into conflict with the Native Americans, should we create one myth narrative? The answer is yes, because if every society keeps thier own myths, and stays within their own culture, then we will never truly unite. We all live together, we have mixed cultures in every country. We need to create one myth that would fit everyone. That will lead to us falling under one economy. It would create a type of world peace. We wouldn't conflict in the ways we do because of myth narratives. The world would become an easier place if we created one myth narrative, and we all lived by it.