Epistemological Questions: The Plains People
-On the plains people of America
"In the heart and centre of this great and powerful republic, and in the middle of the Nineteenth Century, there exists a nation of barbarians, living in the hunter state, among whom the use of the plough and hoe is unknown, and to whom the word of God is not preached. Why?"
- Thomas Twiss (1856)
In reading about the roots of our culture and the ideas of progress and innovation as a mainstay in our mindset, I thought it would be advantageous to highlight the other side of the coin. Early historians and some people today still feel that Americans are unique and special. Our history proves that as we formed a unique and vibrant nation on the ideals of the Enlightenment. But our culture of progress, heroic science, and democracy is just one culture among many. It goes unnoticed and taken for granted that the ideas of self-reliance, innovation, and progress are not universal and that they are in fact fallible.
In reading about the frontier of America as European influences crossed this country from every which angle, it strikes me to highlight our initial misconceptions about Native Americans and their culture. Our view, as expressed succinctly above, of the people who inhabited North America thousands of centuries before Europeans arrived was one of a people unchanged, unchanging, and unchangeable.
With further investigation one finds out the intricacies of the Plains people and all of Native Americans. Infused with a rich history of environmental adaptation, intricate trade networks, and innovation these people were nowhere near outside of time. When Europeans first came on the scene the people who inhabited the plains were only the last in a long list of generations of people who had moved in and out of the area. Due to its location east of the Rockies and west of the eastern woodlands the plains had been a central juncture to a complex network of peoples surviving in a harsh world.
The important point for us in discussing the interaction of the plains people is not necessarily their culture alone, but our perception of them and ourselves during and after the frontier experience.
The real truth is that the Old world wasn't meeting a New one, but the other way around.
"In the heart and centre of this great and powerful republic, and in the middle of the Nineteenth Century, there exists a nation of barbarians, living in the hunter state, among whom the use of the plough and hoe is unknown, and to whom the word of God is not preached. Why?"
- Thomas Twiss (1856)
In reading about the roots of our culture and the ideas of progress and innovation as a mainstay in our mindset, I thought it would be advantageous to highlight the other side of the coin. Early historians and some people today still feel that Americans are unique and special. Our history proves that as we formed a unique and vibrant nation on the ideals of the Enlightenment. But our culture of progress, heroic science, and democracy is just one culture among many. It goes unnoticed and taken for granted that the ideas of self-reliance, innovation, and progress are not universal and that they are in fact fallible.
In reading about the frontier of America as European influences crossed this country from every which angle, it strikes me to highlight our initial misconceptions about Native Americans and their culture. Our view, as expressed succinctly above, of the people who inhabited North America thousands of centuries before Europeans arrived was one of a people unchanged, unchanging, and unchangeable.
With further investigation one finds out the intricacies of the Plains people and all of Native Americans. Infused with a rich history of environmental adaptation, intricate trade networks, and innovation these people were nowhere near outside of time. When Europeans first came on the scene the people who inhabited the plains were only the last in a long list of generations of people who had moved in and out of the area. Due to its location east of the Rockies and west of the eastern woodlands the plains had been a central juncture to a complex network of peoples surviving in a harsh world.
The important point for us in discussing the interaction of the plains people is not necessarily their culture alone, but our perception of them and ourselves during and after the frontier experience.
The real truth is that the Old world wasn't meeting a New one, but the other way around.
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