From “Noble Savage” to From “Noble Savage” to “Vanishing Indian”: “Vanishing Indian”:

Euro-American Perceptions of Euro-American Perceptions of Native AmericansNative Americans

English 441English 441

Dr. RoggenkampDr. Roggenkamp

Native-American Literature is a Post-Colonial Literature

Literature by a COLONIZING culture (e.g. people of European descent) usually distorts the experience and realities of the colonized people—creates a picture of innate inferiority in terms of the colonized people

Literature by the COLONIZED culture (e.g. Native Americans) attempts to regain the power to speak for themselves, rather than be spoken ABOUT by the colonizers

Native-American Literature is a Post-Colonial Literature

This literature articulates group identity, reclaims the past, writes their version of history—but also recognizes the influence of the colonizer

Colonizing countries often appropriate the languages, images, scenes, traditions, etc. of the colonized land—and vice versa

Colonial New England conceptions of indigenous peoples

View 1: Native Americans lost tribes of Israel, waiting for conversion

View 2: Native Americans as children of Satan – descendents of fallen angels

Either way, justification to eradicate people and culture

Image: The Death of Jane McCrea, John Vanderlyn, 1804

Southern colonial conceptions of indigenous peoples

“Noble Savage” “Savage” meaning “uncivilized” “Noble” meaning innocent, pure,

wise, childlike, connected to nature, spiritual—but uncultured

Merely inferior rather than the intrinsically evil “ignoble savage” of New England

Open to European guidance and deliverance

Totally romanticized view

Image: Baptism of Pocahontas, John G. Chapman, Capitol Rotunda, Washington D.C.

“Noble Savage”

“The Vanishing Indian” Pre-contact indigenous

population of North America: est. 10-15 million (about 2 million today)

Disease and warfare From 1840s : Native Americans

are “vanishing race” Vanishing in face of “superior”

Euro-American advance Justifies advance of non-Native

population and eradication of Native American cultures

Image: Last of Their Race, John Mix Stanley, 1857

“Civilization” of the Frontier: A “Manifest Destiny”

Image: American Progress, John Gast, 1872

““Indian Territory,” circa 1700Indian Territory,” circa 1700

Yellow=Spanish; green=French; blue=English British actively displaced natives with settlements Everything other than blue generally considered "Indian

Territory”

“Indian Territory,” 1763

1763, France cedes land east Mississippi River to England

King George III issues “Indian Proclamation Line,” creating first official “Indian Country”

“Indian Territory,” 1783

1783 Treaty of Paris revokes Indian Proclamation Line Line redrawn to reflect actual encroachment across

Appalachians and Ohio River Valley

“Indian Territory,” 1803

1803 Louisiana Purchase Made Mississippi River natural barrier between “Indian

Country” to west and “civilization” to east

“Indian Territory,” 1834

1834, Indian Trade and Intercourse Act

“Indian Territory,” 1854

“Indian Territory,” 1876

After Civil War, Five Nations of Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Creek, and Seminole forced to cede additional lands

Great Plains tribes relocated from Kansas and Nebraska, 1876

“Indian Territory,” 1889

1889 General Allotment Act and creation of Oklahoma 1889 General Allotment Act and creation of Oklahoma TerritoryTerritory

““Indian Territory” shrunk to final formIndian Territory” shrunk to final form

Indian Removal Act of 1830

President Andrew Jackson Force Native American

removal from East Guise of protecting and

preserving Indian cultures Move west or give up all

tribal rights Removal as only way to

“civilize” the “vanishing Indian”

The “Trail of Tears”