1. From “Noble Savage” to “Vanishing Indian”: Euro-American Perceptions of Native Americans
English 441
Dr. Roggenkamp

2. Native-American Literature is a Post-Colonial Literature
Literature by a COLONIZING culture (e.g. people of European descent) usually distorts the experience and realities of the colonized people—creates a picture of innate inferiority in terms of the colonized people
Literature by the COLONIZED culture (e.g. Native Americans) attempts to regain the power to speak for themselves, rather than be spoken ABOUT by the colonizers

3. Native-American Literature is a Post-Colonial Literature
This literature articulates group identity, reclaims the past, writes their version of history—but also recognizes the influence of the colonizer
Colonizing countries often appropriate the languages, images, scenes, traditions, etc. of the colonized land—and vice versa

4. Colonial New England conceptions of indigenous peoples
View 1: Native Americans lost tribes of Israel, waiting for conversion
View 2: Native Americans as children of Satan – descendents of fallen angels
Either way, justification to eradicate people and culture
Image: The Death of Jane McCrea, John Vanderlyn, 1804

5. Southern colonial conceptions of indigenous peoples
“Noble Savage”
“Savage” meaning “uncivilized”
“Noble” meaning innocent, pure, wise, childlike, connected to nature, spiritual—but uncultured
Merely inferior rather than the intrinsically evil “ignoble savage” of New England
Open to European guidance and deliverance
Totally romanticized view
Image: Baptism of Pocahontas, John G. Chapman, Capitol Rotunda, Washington D.C.

6. “Noble Savage”

7. “The Vanishing Indian”
Pre-contact indigenous population of North America: est million (about 2 million today)
Disease and warfare
From 1840s : Native Americans are “vanishing race”
Vanishing in face of “superior” Euro-American advance
Justifies advance of non-Native population and eradication of Native American cultures
Image: Last of Their Race, John Mix Stanley, 1857

8. “Civilization” of the Frontier: A “Manifest Destiny”
Image: American Progress, John Gast, 1872

9. “Indian Territory,” circa 1700
Yellow=Spanish; green=French; blue=English
British actively displaced natives with settlements
Everything other than blue generally considered "Indian Territory”

10. “Indian Territory,” 1763
1763, France cedes land east Mississippi River to England
King George III issues “Indian Proclamation Line,” creating first official “Indian Country”

11. “Indian Territory,” 1783
1783 Treaty of Paris revokes Indian Proclamation Line
Line redrawn to reflect actual encroachment across Appalachians and Ohio River Valley

12. “Indian Territory,” 1803 1803 Louisiana Purchase
Made Mississippi River natural barrier between “Indian Country” to west and “civilization” to east

13. “Indian Territory,” 1834
1834, Indian Trade and Intercourse Act

14. “Indian Territory,” 1854

15. “Indian Territory,” 1876
After Civil War, Five Nations of Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Creek, and Seminole forced to cede additional lands
Great Plains tribes relocated from Kansas and Nebraska, 1876

16. “Indian Territory,” 1889
1889 General Allotment Act and creation of Oklahoma Territory
“Indian Territory” shrunk to final form

17. Indian Removal Act of 1830 President Andrew Jackson
Force Native American removal from East
Guise of protecting and preserving Indian cultures
Move west or give up all tribal rights
Removal as only way to “civilize” the “vanishing Indian”

18. The “Trail of Tears”