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The Confiscation of Cultural Identity The intermingling of contradictory cultures is perhaps nowhere more identifiable to Americans than the encounter between Native North Americans and the European settlers. Within this encounter there exists a close first-hand glimpse of how these indigenous people lived. These accounts are filled with personal feelings and biases toward the native groups. However, within these biases there arises an interesting incite into not only the manner by which Native Americans lived, but also how the European outsiders viewed their way of life. The preconceptions based upon existing accounts of Native American contact were a considerable factor in the belief systems maintained by Europeans before direct contact had ever taken place. The result is a cycle of cultural identification that displaced a native culture into a position of resentment among the European settlers.
These captivity narratives were more than simply descriptions of an unfamiliar culture; captivity narratives were political and socializing tools used to promote the Native Americans in a certain identity based upon much more than personal experience. The initial reports of captivity were not met with the same slants that the eventual accounts would render. They were done to put Indians into a social context. Stereotypes of the Indian emerged when colonization of the New World succeeded exploration and it became necessary to have fixed views so that the Indians could be dealt with.
These stereotypes varied with the aims of the colonizing nations and were based on preconceptions and in turn were used as evidence to confirm and hence to perpetuate. Placing Indians in a context was part of the infestation of European culture. The European stereotyping had many consequences toward the eventual take over of the continent. The creation of an Indian identity served to promote the European way-of-life as the morally correct model, made legitimate actions and intentions of colonial and American policy toward Native American groups, created a social fear of Native Americans and Native American interaction, and enraged a cultural divide to unite against the native culture to which the Native Americans could not withstand. The movement toward creating a Native American identity through captivity narratives holds many conscious and subconscious backings from a colonial point of view. Captivity represents an ultimate boundary situation where human existence, identity, and ultimate meaning are called into question as the captives world is turned topsy-turvy and his freedom and autonomy are stripped from him, along with his social status, clothes, and other cultural accouterments and markers.
When investigating these narratives one must consider not only at the setting of the captivity, but also the situation in which captivity was present. Each individual taken into captivity brought with them their personal identity. This identity was based upon many factors concerning Native American existence. When being forcibly entered into a condition of captivity it is important to realize the clashing of not only personal identities, but also cultural identities. Captives taken brought with them preexisting sentiments toward Native Americans that gave a slant to the perspective by which they witnessed Native American life. In considering the narration offered by an individual captive to the Native Americans one must look at the circumstances by which they were taken captive.
Often time captives are taken to alleviate the mourning of a lost relative. When a prisoner is brought before the mourning party it is their option either to satiate their vengeance by taking his life in the most cruel manner they can conceive of; or, to receive and adopt him into the family, in the place of him whom they have lost. A violent or vicious overtaking would obviously strain the individual to feel any sort of connection to their captures simply based upon the manner whereby they were taken. Conversely, a European settler taken under without violent confrontation would therefore exhibit more open and accepting tendencies toward the native way-of-life. For instance an early assimilation into Native American culture would not allow the captive to retain their identity outside of the Indian culture.
Mary Jemison was twelve years old when her parents were exterminated at the hands of a Shawnee war party. Mary was taken prisoner and was soon adopted by a family of Seneca. Despite Marys loss of blood family, her youth combined with the kind nature of the adopting Indian family made it easier to assimilate toward Native American culture without the conflict of an existing colonial identity. It was my happy lot to be accepted for adoption; and at the time of the ceremony I was received by two squaws, to supply the place of their brother in the family; and I was considered and treated by them as a real sister, the same as though I had been born of their mother.
Mary had to deal with a distinctive conflict of identities. Her conflict led her to be a ardent supporter of native and European coexistence. Mary crossed the lines of identification that for most were too darkly drawn to be crossed. Her relation between cultures was the model for a peaceful interaction between warring cultures. Yet Marys case was all too rare to erase the hatred that manifested itself in the European conquest of North America. Despite the clashing of identities there did exist the instances of White Indians.
The concept of the White Indian holds major significance when investigating identities in North America. The White Indian completely lost connection with their European identity for absolute assimilation into the Native American culture. The process complete acceptance into native culture is recognized as Indianization. Through the narratives of the White Indian we see an interesting aspect when comparing white and Indian cultures.
Benjamin Franklin wrote of the cultural comparison: When an Indian Child has been brought up among us, taught our language and habituated to our Customs, yet if he goes to see his relations and make one Indian Ramble with them, there is no persuading him ever to return. When white persons of either sex have been taken prisoners young by the Indians, and lived a while among them, tho ransomed by their Friends, and treated with all imaginable tenderness to prevail with them to stay among the English, yet in a short Time they become disgusted with our manner of life, and the care and pains that are necessary to support it, and take the first good Opportunity of escaping again into the Woods, from whence there is no reclaiming them. This calls into question the identities being considered. There remained a far greater number of Europeans who sought the lifestyle of the Native Americans than is true of the opposite. This situation prompted many of the cultural identification that occurred during this time period. The threat of this cultural assimilation is the backbone of European character...
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Research essay sample on Native American Culture Native Americans
