McGowan: Like It or Not, Savages Are Savage
by Richard McGowan
Colleges and universities often appear to work on knowledge elimination. For instance, Critical Race Theory is usually taught with no mention of the ubiquitous presence of slavery through time and across cultures. Students would have a better grasp of history if they knew that Muslims had a thriving slave trade in Africa over 1,500 years ago or that indigenous populations in America practiced slavery. Were that sort of knowledge made more readily available to students, they would likely think in terms of the greater humanity and not in racially or ethnically charged pieces of humanity.
Knowledge elimination of America’s indigenous populations is obvious, at least as their history is handled by Indiana University and its administration. As IU put the matter: “The First Nations Educational & Cultural Center and the Office of the Vice President for Diversity, Equity and Multicultural Affairs are proud to support Native students in their pursuit of community and success at Indiana University. One way that campus partners can help promote a welcoming and informed community is by offering a land acknowledgement statement as part of an official welcome at the beginning of public meetings, presentations and gatherings.”
The Cultural Center and Office of Diversity, Equity, and Multicultural Affairs provided a model for recitation before events or classes:
“We wish to acknowledge and honor the Indigenous communities native to this region, and recognize that Indiana University Bloomington is built on Indigenous homelands and resources. We recognize the Miami, Delaware, Potawatomi and Shawnee people as past, present, and future caretakers of this land.”
The land acknowledgement, as written, suggests that European settlers took land from pacifistic and peaceful indigenous populations; it does not address the state of affairs before European settlers “took over” the land; nor does it address the U.S. government’s reneging on contracts.
An article in Scientific American stated “prominent scientists now deride depictions of pre-state people as peaceful.” The article quoted Harvard’s renowned Steven Pinker: “Quantitative body counts — such as the proportion of prehistoric skeletons with ax marks and embedded arrowheads or the proportion of men in a contemporary foraging tribe who die at the hands of other men — suggest that pre-state societies were far more violent than our own.”
The Canadian Government said in its article, “Warfare in PreColumbian North America”: “Despite the myth that Aboriginals lived in happy harmony before the arrival of Europeans, war was central to the way of life of many First Nation cultures. Indeed, war was a persistent reality in all regions though, as Tom Holm has argued, it waxed in intensity, frequency and decisiveness.”
Nebraskastudies.org repeated the statement by Canadian government and Scientific American: “There were many Native American tribes living on the Great Plains, competing for scarce resources. Of course, the various tribes came into conflict with each other.” The article discussed the “Conflicts Among the Tribes & Settlers,” but the first two sentences declare that tribes fought each other long before settlers arrived.
In fact, warfare among indigenous populations has been well documented for decades. Douglas B. Bamforth in the British journal, MAN, observed in 1994 that “archaeological data suggest that high casualty warfare was endemic in at least some parts of the Great Plains for hundreds of years prior to Western contact.”
The University of Nebraska-Lincoln’s “Encyclopedia of the Great Plains” had this to say:
“Intertribal warfare was intense throughout the Great Plains during the 1700s and 1800s, and archaeological data indicate that warfare was present prior to this time. Human skeletons from as early as the Woodland Period (250 B.C. to A.D. 900) show occasional marks of violence, but conflict intensified during and after the thirteenth century . . . villages were often destroyed by fire and human skeletons show marks of violence, scalping and other mutilations.”
Tribes didn’t fight each other merely to fight. Scientific America noted that “Some conflicts were waged for economic and political goals, such as gaining access to resources or territory, exacting tribute from another nation or controlling trade routes.” Tribes fought for territory and control of the land. As thisisindiana.com said, “Many different Native American tribes have inhabited present-day Indiana over the span of thousands of years.”
Oxford Reference’s “Native American Wars” notes that “On the Western Plains, pre‐Columbian warfare — before the introduction of horses and guns — pitted tribes against one another for control of territory and its resources, as well as for captives and honor. Indian forces marched on foot to attack rival tribes who sometimes resided in palisaded villages. Before the arrival of the horse and gun, battles could last days, and casualties could number in the hundreds.”
Prior to the arrival of Columbus, Native Americans warred on one another — without the help or encouragement of “outsiders” — and a big reason was for territory, property, land. For centuries, different tribes inhabited Indiana until they were driven out by other tribes or by choice.A thorough ‘land acknowledgement” would recognize that taking land from others is a human problem, not just a European-settler problem. And for many indigenous populations, the U.S. government’s reneging on contracts is the issue.
Richard McGowan, Ph.D., an adjunct scholar of the Indiana Policy Review Foundation, has taught philosophy and ethics cores for more than 40 years, most recently at Butler University.
RESOURCES
https://thisisindiana.angelfire.com/history.htm
Many different Native American tribes have inhabited present-day Indiana over the span of thousands of years.
https://firstnations.indiana.edu/land-acknowledgement/index.html
Indigenize Indiana!
Indigenize Indiana is a call to action! Indigenization promotes an active Native presence and engages contemporary Indigenous leadership and communities. Beyond amplifying the voices of Indigenous people and social movements, Indigenization works to restructure the systems that do not listen to these voices, or that have been designed to exclude them. Indigenize Indiana reminds the non-Native community of the ways they need to work to improve representation of and support for Native and Indigenous communities at IU Bloomington. Centering the Federally Recognized Tribal communities who are the descendants of the original inhabitants of this land is an important first step in helping to correct the colonial narrative that has resulted in the erasure of Native peoples in Indiana and across this country. As more offices and individuals acknowledge Native space and presence, we hope that all of campus becomes a more welcoming and inclusive environment for Native American faculty, staff, and students. Offering a land acknowledgment serves as a call to action for everyone at Indiana University. We encourage individuals, offices, and departments to engage with these words and use these statements in meaningful ways. A land acknowledgment statement should be used to educate and reflect a genuine commitment to equitable and inclusive behaviors, as well as systematic changes.
Acknowledging Native Space
The First Nations Educational & Cultural Center and the Office of the Vice President for Diversity, Equity, and Multicultural Affairs are proud to support Native students in their pursuit of community and success at Indiana University. One way that campus partners can help promote a welcoming and informed community is by offering a land acknowledgement statement as part of an official welcome at the beginning of public meetings, presentations, and gatherings.
While many universities have adopted a campus-wide land acknowledgement statement, the FNECC encourages offices and individuals to create one that connects yourself and your work to the communities you are acknowledging. These statements should serve as a point of departure from which future collaborations and relationships will be built. The statement used at the First Nations Educational & Cultural Center was developed with campus partners and in consultation with IU’s First Nations Leadership Ambassadors Council. In this case, the Treaty of St. Mary’s (1818) served as our guiding document. Additionally, Land Cession #71 can be looked at when learning about the ways Native inhabitants were forcibly removed from the land on which Indiana University is built. FNECC’s acknowledgement is continually revisited and revised, and serves as a statement of purpose to frame our programming and relationships with these Native communities. The statement is provided below using tribal names in both their Indigenous languages, as well as their Anglicized forms.
We wish to acknowledge and honor the Indigenous communities native to this region, and recognize that Indiana University Bloomington is built on Indigenous homelands and resources. We recognize the Miami, Delaware, Potawatomi, and Shawnee people as past, present, and future caretakers of this land.
We are dedicated to centering Indigenous voices & perspectives, improving community relationships, correcting the narrative, and making the IUB campus a more supportive and inclusive place for Native and Indigenous students, faculty & staff. We encourage everyone to engage with contemporary communities, to learn the histories of this land, to look at who has and does not have access to its resources, and to examine your own place, abilities, and obligations within this process of reparative work that is necessary to promote a more equitable and socially just Indiana University Bloomington.
Despite the myth that Aboriginals lived in happy harmony before the arrival of Europeans, war was central to the way of life of many First Nation cultures. Indeed, war was a persistent reality in all regions though, as Tom Holm has argued, it waxed in intensity, frequency and decisiveness. The causes were complex and often interrelated, springing from both individual and collective motivations and needs. At a personal level, young males often had strong incentives to participate in military operations, as brave exploits were a source of great prestige in most Aboriginal cultures. According to one Jesuit account from the 18th Century, ‘The only way to attract respect and public veneration among the Illinois is, as among the other Savages, to acquire a reputation as a skillful hunter, and particularly as a good warrior . . . it is what they call being a true man.’ Among west coast societies, the material goods and slaves acquired through raiding were important avenues to build up sufficient wealth to host potlatches and other give-away ceremonies. At a community level, warfare played a multifaceted role, and was waged for different reasons. Some conflicts were waged for economic and political goals, such as gaining access to resources or territory, exacting tribute from another nation or controlling trade routes.
https://nebraskastudies.org/en/1850-1874/native-american-settlers/conflict-among-the-tribes/
There were many Native American tribes living on the Great Plains, competing for scarce resources. Of course, the various tribes came into conflict with each other.
As I’ve pointed out previously, prominent scientists now deride depictions of pre-state people as peaceful. “Contra leftist anthropologists who celebrate the noble savage,” the Harvard psychologist Steven Pinker wrote in 2007, “quantitative body counts — such as the proportion of prehistoric skeletons with ax marks and embedded arrowheads or the proportion of men in a contemporary foraging tribe who die at the hands of other men — suggest that pre-state societies were far more violent than our own.” According to Pinker, the 17th-century philosopher Thomas Hobbes “got it right” when he called pre-state life a “war of all against all.”
Native Americans definitely waged war long before Europeans showed up. The evidence is especially strong in the American Southwest, where archaeologists have found numerous skeletons with projectile points embedded in them and other marks of violence; war seems to have surged during periods of drought. But scientists such as Pinker, Keeley and LeBlanc have replaced the myth of the noble savage with the myth of the savage savage.
Despite evidence of warfare and violent conflict in pre-Columbian North America, scholars argue that the scale and scope of Native American violence is exaggerated. They contend that scholarly misrepresentation has denigrated indigenous peoples when in fact they lived together in peace and harmony. In rebutting that contention, this groundbreaking book presents clear evidence—from multiple academic disciplines—that indigenous populations engaged in warfare and ritual violence long before European contact.
https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780195071986.001.0001/acref-9780195071986-e-0618
On the Western Plains, pre‐Columbian warfare — before the introduction of horses and guns — pitted tribes against one another for control of territory and its resources, as well as for captives and honor. Indian forces marched on foot to attack rival tribes who sometimes resided in palisaded villages. Before the arrival of the horse and gun, battles could last days, and casualties could number in the hundreds
https://www.jstor.org/stable/2803512
Indigenous People, Indigenous Violence: Precontact Warfare on the North American Great Plains
Douglas B. Bamforth, Man New Series, Vol. 29, No. 1 (Mar., 1994)
http://plainshumanities.unl.edu/encyclopedia/doc/egp.war.023
Intertribal warfare was intense throughout the Great Plains during the 1700s and 1800s, and archeological data indicate that warfare was present prior to this time. Human skeletons from as early as the Woodland Period (250 B.C. to A.D. 900) show occasional marks of violence, but conflict intensified during and after the thirteenth century, by which time farmers were well established in the Plains. After 1250, villages were often destroyed by fire, and human skeletons regularly show marks of violence, scalping, and other mutilations. Warfare was most intense along the Missouri River in the present-day Dakotas, where ancestors of the Mandans, Hidatsas, and Arikaras were at war with each other, and towns inhabited by as many as 1,000 people were often fortified with ditch and palisade defenses
Library of Congress Digital Collections Pioneering the Upper Midwest: Books from Michigan, Minnesota, and Wisconsin, ca. 1820 to 1910 Articles and Essays The History of the Upper Midwest: An Overview The Indians at the Time of Contact, 1600 ..
The Indians at the Time of Contact, 1600-1850
Native American cultures had occupied the Upper Midwest for centuries before whites arrived in the region. The invading whites were properly impressed by the thousands of burial mounds then to be found in the southern portions of the region, left behind by the extinct Hopewellian and Mississippian cultures. The Indians encountered by the whites at the time of contact depended upon fishing and hunting for a livelihood and spoke the Iroquois, Algonquin and Siouan languages. The European presence to the east had by then transformed Indian life. Indians became dependent upon guns and other western goods (and, often, got western diseases in the bargain). They warred with each other for primacy in their trade with the Europeans. Huron dominance of the Upper Great Lakes and eastern trade, and the Hurons themselves, were destroyed by the Iroquois in the mid-seventeenth century. The Sioux had been forced to move west by the Chippewa. Indians formed alliances with one and then another colonial power as power shifted from one to another. Charles Langlade, a half-white Indian leader known as the father of Wisconsin, helped the French defeat Braddock and the British; then fought with Burgoyne and the British against the Americans, and then lived out the balance of his life as an American. Remnant tribes huddled together. Stockbridge Indians, moving west from Massachusetts, lived with the Oneidas in central New York, before moving (with some Oneidas) to Green Bay, where they negotiated with resident Winnebago and Menominee Indians to win the right to establish a settlement.
Comments...