Indian Essays
...was biased, but at times it got hard to figure out which side was being supported. After reading William Byrd’s text, I saw that he had the same views on Indians as the essay writer, but he chose to be nice and describe a few admirable traits before abruptly attacking the Indians, calling them “indolent wretches”, and using a humorous tone to ridicule the Indians because they “depend entirely upon the English, not only for their trade but even for their subsistence” (Byrd). Byrd made sure that the Indians were educated and tweaked enough to be evolved into the depth of the European culture. While the tones of the essay and Byrd’s work might have been different, both texts wound down to the Indians, even as the only true Americans in the New World, as objects of conquer and civilization by the Europeans. More disturbing content relating to Native Americans in the colonies were images of how the Europeans actually saw these people. Based on what I saw, I concluded that the Europeans treated the Indians so harshly because the Indians intimidated them. The colonists didn’t like the strangers without clothes on who did war dances and ran around free. That’s exactly how the Indians were depicted in the images, such as “A young gentill woeman doughter of Secota”. The two females looked free with a certain beauty to them. This elegant beauty is what I think frightened the Europeans. In two of the other images the Indians are portrayed as large and mighty and wild savages. One of them looks like a savage because his body is all decorated with animals and there are Indian heads in his hand and at his feet. The image that I most easily responded to was “The Conjurer”. A conjurer is a magician, juggler, or other magic spiritual performer. I find magicians and jugglers and performers to be people I laugh at. I noticed that’s how it looked like the Europeans felt also. I think they showed this particular Indian not as devilish, but as silliness to assuage their fears. The colonists made him larger than life to give the message that the Indians daunted them, but then put him in a war dance pose or something to make him appear silly and laughable instead of frightening. In the text, “The Prophecy of Metacomet”, I was able to get an Indian’s perspective on everything previously mentioned. It all tied together so easily. All Metacomet said was that it was his people’s land, homes, food and customs, but “these people from the unknown world” were defeating the Native Americans in their own hometown and then selling them out of there. “Genocide had been deliberately accomplished by the Christian...