The Cultural Differentiation Between Native Americans and Euro-Americans

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The term multicultural society is rather a modern term, and in that regard, looking at the history of the United States, it is very unlikely that it is applicable anywhere prior to the second half of the 21st century. In what concerns the historical relations between the Euro-Americans and the Native Americans in the United States, the case is much worse, as multi-culture does not imply considering one culture superior, and thus assimilating the “weaker” culture.

Nevertheless, one fact that cannot be denied is that Euro-American culture and Native American culture were totally different, and despite some attempts to narrow the gap between them, they remain different in many fundamental aspects. In that regard, this paper put light on some of the differences between the aforementioned cultures, and the way these differences developed through history.

The existence of a clash between the cultures can be seen through the folklore of Native Americans, where many of their relations with white people were summarized “as humorous Trickster tales, in which the Coyote or Raven antihero (protector of Indians) overpowers some threatening feature of white culture.” (Nabokov XXII) The differences between Native Americans and Euro-Americans or the settlers at the time can be traced back to their first encounters, specifically in terms f languages, local cultures and civilizations.

When Columbus arrived, Native Americans had over three hundred distinct cultures and spoke over two hundred different languages. Comparing to the Europeans, these numbers surpass them in both terms, and accordingly at the time, i.e. 1492, North America had already seen the rise and fall of an array of Native American civilizations (Nabokov, pp. 3-4). In that regard, it can be said with confidence that, when the settlers and the Native Americans first met, they were at different levels of cultural heritage, and both were rich and distinctive.

The differences in their starting positions can be related to the fact that Native Americans were developing remotely without any external influence. Prior to Europeans discovering the new continent in 1492 Native Americans had lived in the continent thousands of years before, where some scientists believe that ancestors, roughly 10,000 years ago made their way across a land bridge that spanned the Bering Sea, which connected northeastern Asia to North America. Thus, the advantages in progress for Europeans are merely the result of mutual influences from Asia and Africa, rather than any other advantages.

The differences in culture were also seen through the way Native Americans and the westerner perceived each other. Natives perceived the Europeans as a race “whose power bordered upon the supernatural.” (Nabokov 21) The European perception, on the other hand, varied, but mostly was negative, where for example “Spain viewed the Indians both as potential converts to Catholicism and as slave labor for its silver mines in Mexico and the Southwest and its plantations in the Caribbean”, while English soldiers and traders perceived the Indians as “savages” (being hunters) and “devil-worshipers” (not being Christians); they were nuisances who blocked the growth of this new English-speaking colonial world.” (Nabokov, pp. 19-20).

The differences had continued into such aspects as religion, education, social life, etc., and although there was an assimilation movement it can be said that it was something that the Indians were excited about. The problem was in the different views on this assimilation, where for example “Indian reformers insisted that if the young were taught white habits of hygiene, diet, clothing, work by the clock, and worship on Sunday, then paganism and savagery, poverty and dependency would eventually die out.” (Nabokov, p. 215).

On the other hand, Native Americans saw this assimilation as a threat to the persistence of their culture, wherein such aspects as schooling, children were “absent from crucial festivals in their community’s religious calendar, or from the initiation rituals that transformed the young into tribal adults.” (Nabokov, p. 217).

It should be noted that the cultures of Native Americans and Euro-Americans being different, the implication of the supremacy of one culture came only from the Euro-American side. In that regard, this assumed supremacy forced the adult Indians to abandon their traditions, while sent the kids to western schools. Nevertheless, as a contradiction, as much as Westerners tried to erase the culture of Native Americans, they also attempted to learn about it, where “pioneer scholars began to visit the new reservations to record the same old customs for posterity.” (Nabokov, p. 213).

The current state of the cultural differentiation between Native Americans and Euro-Americans is somewhat contradictory. On the one hand, they had total independence in the reservations, and on the other hand the conditions there were disastrous in terms of health, education, and job opportunities, and thus many of the Native Indians had to move out of the reservation, i.e. into the area of total dependence.

When a person has nothing, or very little, and is told by a trusted source, the U.S. government, that life will be better for them if they move into town, into the new homes, what are they to believe? (Nabokov, p. 419).

Accordingly, such situation implied that there are no clashes of cultures between the Native Americans and Euro-Americans, as the Indians that moved were assimilated into the new cultures becoming, as Reagan Stated, “Citizens along with the rest of us” (Nabokov, p. 405), while the ones that remained were almost invisible for the American society, wondering if they still exist. In that regard, the cultural independence within the reservations was somewhat in a better condition, where they were preserving the basic elements necessary to their survival, i.e. language, history and land to relate to. In terms of the latter, it was only partially as most of the land was taken by the government. Currently, language is preserved, the older traditions are revived and traditional rituals are practiced (Nabokov, p. 444).

However, these efforts are not sufficient for the survival of the culture, as the Euro-Americans like many other in the era of globalization, there is one world to be joined, and Indians who are on the verge of extinction should join it too (Nabokov, p. 447). In general, the establishment of the Indian culture within American society can be reached only through education.

Indians have the highest dropout rates than any other group in the United States, and thus Indians should be educated and first of all about their culture, their language, their traditions, and their religion. Their culture should be exposed to the world, as the barrier of invisibility should be removed. Personally, I think the gambling incomes could be invested in popularizing the Indian culture, literature, and general Indian achievements so that the society that Indians still exists.

Reading the texts, the perceptions of Native Americans changed drastically, as the image portrayed of Indians in the media, not only is so small, it also reflects the invisibility of Indians in society. Taking an example of Mark Twain’s “Tom Sawyer”, the Indian character was one, and it was negative. It can be said that there are also positive portrayals of Indians in the media, but they are very few, and mostly portrayed in retrospect, omitting a modern presence of Native Americans in the society.

Aspects such as the opposition to religion, and the basis of their view on creation, and their organized political structure were unknown. One thing that can be said reading the Indian culture is that it is a questionable issue on who were the savages after all when the European first came to this land. The cultures are indeed different, but what each of them offered makes it controversial, which culture is supreme to the other.

It can be concluded, that cultural differences of Indians and Euro-Americans is an issue that might continue to be discussed and managed without a solution, as long as it will be far from the general public in the United States. In that regard, there is a great responsibility on Native Americans themselves to initiate the first steps. In a country that promotes multi-culture, it can be said that Native Americans have a great chance for their culture to be recognized just as any other culture.

Works Cited

Nabokov, Peter. Native American Testimony : A Chronicle of Indian-White Relations from Prophecy to the Present, 1492-2000. Penguin Books, 1999.

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The Cultural Differentiation Between Native Americans and Euro-Americans

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