The making of a nation:

1
The making of a nation 3. The Indian question
behind the myth. To what extent does the Indian
question both enlight and contradict the
American myths?
2
A- Indians were partners and supporters of the
making of the nation

• The natives played an important role in
• the establishment of the Europeans
• then in the conquest of the West.

Capacity to survive to hard conditions
Knowledge of the geography (mountains...), of
the wild life (animals, dangerous or useful,
all the plants)...
3
The Lewis and Clark expedition started 1804.
Ordered by President Jefferson. Aims - to
widen the knowledge (flora and fauna ), - to
extend the US territory - to exploit the
resources Lewis and Clark took about 12 men
with them to begin, among whom Indians.
4
The expedition used the know-how of the
natives, especially Sacagaweas, a Shoshone
guide. Their work consisted in mapping the
rivers, and make a count of the different species
of animals they would find during their trip.
As well, they met local Amerindians, and
started creating links with them. Lewis and Clark
were one of the first to trade with the Natives
of the West. They exchanged goods, and tools
which were necessary to the survival of the
expedition in its everyday life. They were really
interested in the manners and the cultures of the
different tribes.
5
B- The European impact
In some ways, the European coming had a good
influence...
Allowed the Indians to extend their territories
Introduction of horses (which escaped from the
settlers and became wild)
Facilitated hunting
Widened the possibilities of social games thanks
to their rapidity and obedience
Links and exhanges
Contacts between tribes
Trade and discoveries
6
But tensions soon prevailed
The first mortal action of the settlers was
heavily violent, even though not planned. They
brought new diseases (smallpox, flu) from their
countries into America. The natives were not
protected from these simple but very dangerous
diseases.
Europeans also brought firearms, which were used
by the American Indians to hunt, but also to
fight between them. They changed the relations
to nature too
7
Indians were often used as scapegoats and
warriors to satisfy the ambitions of the colonial
leaders
Two examples The Mystic Massacre (1637) in
eastern Connecticut, lived the Pequot (allied to
the Dutch), the Mohegan and the Narragansett
(allies to the English). On May 26th 1637, the
English and 200 natives from the Narragansett
tribe attacked a village of Pequot. The aim was
to kill the more people as possible, so as to
reduce the Dutch power in the region. The
Schenectady Massacre (1690) once again the
Amerindians fell in a war where they did not have
a real interest in. The French took a group of
Algonquins to attack the English village of
Schenectady. They killed 60 settlers, with 10
women and 12 children. Many other massacres
happened from 1600 to 1900, killing so many
Indians that today, they are less than 2.5 M in
the United States.
8
A people to be evangelized
The British started to christianize. e.g. in
1641 John Eliot, a Presbyterian pastor, undertook
to convert the more Amerindians as possible. He
gathered all the believers in prayer-villages
where he translated the Bible in Mohacan and
Algonquin. In the villages the church is built
first - this is a very important mark for the
population. Then he raised Amerindian pastors,
to teach other tribes. He also created christian
schools.
9
C- Indians were an obstacle to progress and
civilization
The priority in the 19th c became to deprive the
Natives of their lands. How did the American
government justify it?
10
Indians were enemies of the making of the nation
the revolutionary war (1776-1784).
The Natives played a consequent role in the War
of Independence. Some stayed neutral or joined
the American side, but 13,000 warriors were with
the English. They wanted to defend their lands
from a further expansion of the US territory
which would encroach on their lands, and then,
reduce it. The non-combatant were the most
touched. Entire Amerindian villages were
destroyed, causing thousands of indigenous
losses.
11
What ideological construction was made to deprive
them of their lands? ? Not Christian (enough),
too wild... ? Unfit to business development
(Railway Cies needed profit, esp. after the 1873
Krach, by which they lost many sotcks) ?
Disturbing the needs to feed the growing demand
for land (an increasing immigrants nation that
the former colonies could not satisfy)
12
The near-extinction (1880s) of the Bisons (or
Buffalos) was planned by the WASPs to downturn
the Prairie economy of the Natives.
13
Slaughtered buffaloes lying dead in the snow in
1872 US National Archives.
14
The myth of the scalp?  Pale faces  scalped by
brutal  Red Skins 
Historians confirm Indians were as much victims
as perpetrators. e.g. British colonial
authorities offered a bounty (reward) on Indian
scalps In 18th c. Salem, scalps were hung along
the walls of the town courthouse
"First Scalp for Custer," image from a 1903
brochure for Buffalo Bill's Wild West.
Why to practise body mutilation acc. to you ?
15
For Indians, scalps were not mere trophies of war
 Male scalp decorated with jewelry, paint, and
feathers, represented the person's soul' or
living spirit. To lose that hair to an enemy was
to lose control over one's life, to become
socially and spiritually dead', whether
biological death resulted or not . James Axtell,
historian.
16
(No Transcript)
17
The Removal Act (1830) ? the Trail of Tears
(1838) the forced relocation of the Cherokees
from their lands to the  Indian Territory  (
Oklahoma) Resulted in the death of approximately
4,000 Cherokees. In the Cherokee language, it is
called Nunna daul Isunyithe Trail Where They
Cried.
18
Indian reservations In 1851, Congress passed the
Indian Appropriations Act creation of the first
Native American reservations ( modern day
Oklahoma)... Presented like a Peace Policy by
president Grant, it aimed to stop the strained
and bloody relations the white settlers had with
the Natives... It also targeted the
civilization of the Natives (future
citizens...). The condition was to be taught
christianity and to convert. The Quakers were
especially active. ? Wasnt it forced
amalgamation?
19
General organization of the Indians
Appropriation Act
Federal Indian Agency
Indian Agencies on Reservations
Protects the land rights of the white settlers
Indian houselholds and lands
Quaker representatives
LAND
20
A government picture of an Indian household,
South Dakota, 1877.
The Lakota family lived at South Dakota's Rose
Bud Agency. It had both a teepee and log
cabins...
21
Facts impacts Most of the appropriations were
determined by executive orders, not negotiated,
and located sometimes in arid regions unsuitable
for agriculture. Risks of starvation became
actual for many. It led to the last
American-indian wars
22
The battle of Little Big Horn 1876 - Custers
Last Stand
23
Death of Custer - A dramatic portrayal of Sitting
Bull stabbing Custer, with dead Native Americans
lying on ground, in scene by Pawnee Bill's Wild
West Show performers. c.1905
24
The Wounded Knee Massacre (1890) 153 killed - 50
wounded - 150 missing among the Natives. It
happened in the context of the Ghost Dance
religion, a messianic movement that since 1889
had caused great excitement among Indians in the
area and that was interpreted by whites as a
general call to war.
25
Mass grave for the dead Lakota after massacre of
Wounded Knee.
26

• Casualties
• 250,000 native Americans remained alive at the
  end of the 19th century.
• Before the Europeans colonized North America
  numbers vary from 10M to 18M.
• Not only the spread of Western highly contagious
  diseases (to which the Natives had no immunity,
  esp. smallpox) is at stake...
• Conquest? Ethnocide? Genocide?

27
The discovery of gold in California in 1848, the
railway challenges etc. brought about a
fundamental change in Indian-white relations. By
the early 1850's, whites in California
outnumbered Indians by about two to one, and the
lot of the natives, gradually forced into the
least fertile parts of the territory, began to
deteriorate rapidly. Many succumbed to
starvation others, desperate for food, went on
the attack, stealing and killing livestock.
Indian women who prostituted themselves to feed
their families contributed to the demographic
decline by removing themselves from the
reproductive cycle. As a solution to the growing
problem, the federal government sought to confine
the Indians to reservations, but this was opposed
both by the Indians themselves and by white
ranchers fearing the loss of labor. Meanwhile,
clashes multiplied...
28
Epilogue Indians were still needed as Americans.
All along the American history, the American
Indians have contributed to the development and
the life of the country. During WWI, the
Amerindians fought with the American troops. They
were 12,000.
The Indian Citizenship Act of 1924 gave United
States citizenship to Native Americans, to see
them merged with the American mainstream, and
also because of the heroic service in World War I.
29
The Indian Reorganization Act of 1934, also known
as the Howard-Wheeler Act, was sometimes called
the Indian New Deal. It laid out new rights for
Native Americans, reversed some of the earlier
privatization of their common holdings, and
encouraged self-government and land management by
tribes. For the following twenty years, the
U.S. government invested in infrastructure,
health care, and education on the reservations,
and over two million acres (8,000 km²) of land
were returned to various tribes. The Indian
Reorganization Act also provided for termination
and relocation of certain tribes. This eventually
resulted in the legal dismantling of 61 tribal
nations.
30
The Navajos in particular were involved as their
language was impossible for the Japanese to
translate.
During WWII, more than 44,000 Native Americans
struggled all over the world against the Nazis.
31
Many Natives today have mingled their religion to
the new one. They believe in a mix of the
indigenous believes and Christianity. This the
Native American Church. The picture to the left
represents the Amerindian Virgin, and the one to
the right shows the Amerindian Jesus Christ.
The whole Bible has been presented to the Natives
with Amerindian personalities, in order to make
them project themselves into the religion and
also to identify themselves to the characters
shown. Some rites are accompanied with
traditional indigenous music i.e. drums and
vocalizations.
32
The Native Americans have now a place in the US
society. Their culture is now recognized, even
though they have been persecuted by the European
Christians.