The Indian Tribes: place and characteristics
"A compléter car j'ai été coupée
dans mon élan par les résultats d'écrit...
Il reste certainement beaucoup de fautes et d'imprécisions..."
Gemina
Ordre de rencontre:
- OTOS
- YANKTONS
- TETON SIOUX
- MANDAN
- HIDATSA
- SHOSHONE
- CLATSOP
- WALLA WALLA
- NEZ PERCE
- BLACKFEET
SIOUX= Dakota; first major crisis with Indian tribes when ask for a toll;
MANDAN: North DakotaChief Sheheke goes to Washington; With 4,500 inhabitants, the earth-lodge villages have a greater population than St. Louis
ARIKARAS
SHOSHONE: Sacagawea’s tribe; chief= Cameawhait, Sacagawea’s brother; near the Peaks of the Otter, before Great Divide
NEZ PERCES: Columbia basin; wear sailor’s shirt: sign of previous explorers and traders; Chief paralysed for 5 years cured in sweating pitch; provide horses on way back
Les Indiens sont étonnés de voir ces étrangers hommes barbus. Ils se montrent amicaux et leur fournissent des poissons et de racines de camas (des liliacées). Les Indiens souhaitent améliorer leur position dans le système des échanges et veulent des fusils pour pouvoir résister à leurs ennemis. Comme il l'avait fait avec les tributs du Missouri, Lewis donne un drapeau américain au chef. Mais les Nez Percés ne vivent pas sur le territoire acheté à la France. Le geste a une signification nouvelle. Les membres de l'expédition sont les premiers Blancs à entrer en contact avec ces populations, et malgré les revendications plus anciennes des Espagnols et des anglais, cette cérémonie offre aux Etats-Unis un argument qui leur permettra de revendiquer ultérieurement ces territoires. Le chef, Twisted Hair, trace sur une peau d'élan blanc une représentation du pays à l'ouest. Il accepte de les accompagner pour servir d'intermédiaire avec les tribus des vallées et de garder leurs chevaux jusqu'à leur retour.
SALISH: Columbia basin; use Chinese coins as potlatch: previous explorers and traders; think York is covered with wood coal
TLINGITS: Columbia basin; fur trade;
CHINOOKS: Columbia basin at Clatstop, heal Indians’sore eyes with collyrium; fur trade excellents navigateurs ; qui s'étend jusqu'à la côte. Ces indiens peuvent affronter les plus hautes vagues sur leurs canots, magnifiquement construits et décorés. Linguistiquement, leur langue, le chinookan, ne ressemble à aucune langue de l'est des Rocheuses, et ils ne pratiquent pas le langage des signes. Les communications sont difficiles.
IROQUOIS: chief Logan
PIEGANS on way back; thieves; one shot by Lewis
CHICKASAWS: at first: friendly but then unhappy about lands taken from them
CREEKS: under strict georgian laws: deceited by states governement promises
CHEROKEES: treaty of Hopewell 1785: failed keeping the settlers out of the Indian lands as had been promised to them; treaty of Holston 1791: formal guarantees and help to become farmes and pacification but failure too
MIAMIS and SHAWNEES= Ohio Indians
OJIBWAS, POTAWATOMIS, KICKAPOOS= North Illinois Indians
OSAGES: used in fur trade by French families of New Orleans; opposed to the Kickapoos in fiece fights for monopoly of peltry trade with settlers: Lewis and Clark’s interference to convince the Kicka to go back home
TETONS BRULES hostile
OTOS, OMAHAS, SIOUX: disagreements that the Corps tried to reconciliate OMAHAS: former powerful tribe decimated by smallpox epidemic in 1801-1802; attacked their hereditary enemies CHEYENNES, OTOS and PAWNIES in suicidal assaults rather than seeing their descendence marked by smallpox.
Indian policy
Jefferson considered them as superior beings, equal to the Whites and sometimes more sophisticated (Chief Logan who was a good orator= superior mind for Jefferson) ; needed just to get to civilization; savagery as a transient propriety
Jeff adhered to principle of MONOGENESIS (same origin for all humans) , a creed sanctionned by Holy Scriptures, but thought black race was inferior
patronizing attitude of the Great Father : to force Indians into civilization and sedentarization for their own good; could not but realize the superiority of the White man’s civilization and desire it.
18th cent= popular image of the Noble Savage perfectly adaptated to his environment
Jefferson expresselly asked for a fair diplomatic treatment
with Indian tribes and wanted treaties to be signed, good will to be
shown in the acquisition of Indian lands;
yet could not conceive they eventually refused to yield. Wished Americans
to be seen as exemplary in their way to deal with uncultivated peoples;
Lewis and Clark= the spokesmen of Jeff’s diplomacy
Law about not shooting Indians except if compelled to: very subjective “legitimate means of retaliation”
Trading House policy: develop trade bet the 2 communities so that civilization should gradually gain and obtain the conversion of the Indians; idea to put within Indians’ reach things contributing to their domestic comfort
before Revolution, policy of treaties forced by Britain onto Indians with some formal approval; then indians went on the British side and were lured into seeing the American settlers as land greedy (which was partly true)
aftermath of the revolution: ruthless confrontation bet natives and settlers because of the great nned of lands from the government of the Confederationto reward veterans and to sell land and refuel the treasury: Indians were aggressively dispossessed; specter of a general war.
to avoid flare of violence, some members of new government favored a more lenient approach: 1787 Northwest Ordinance: ineluctable expansion but importance of remaining on good termes , peaceful cohabitation.
under Washington, Indain affairs left to Secretary of War Henry Knox , because native nations seen as potentially hostile; 1790 Act legislation to purchase Indian lands; previous acquisitions considered as invalid
Oct 1791: annual message to Congress: Washington laid cornerstone of the policy and Jefferson followed suit in 1803; however Jeff had to admit that Indians had become reluctant and distrustful; spread Washington laws to all Indians;
however natives never really consulted about their fate; see to it that eventually, Indians were dispossessed of their land and made to believe it was for their greater benefi: for Jeff: moral and institutional validity of that; added a clause against introduction of alcohol in Indian country; to make all interests advance
between Wash and Jeff, psdt Adams not so interested in Indian policy
keywords= morality, humanity, tolerance; Henry Knox’s words similar to Northwest ordinace text: “The indians being the prior occupants possess the right of the soil. It cannot be taken from themunless by their free consent; or by the right of conquest in case of a just war”= elastic concept of just war!! Expansion covered up with altruistic intentions and notion of innocent journey
Indians became reluctant: failure of trading house policy and of various treatis; Henry Knox stppoed being hopeful; from Noble Savages to Savages: do not want to see what is good for them...: commiseration and infantilization
1805: Jefferson’s Second Inaugural Address : “... to prepare them in time for the state of society which to bodily comfort adds the improvement of the minds and morals”
Dernière mise à jour le vendredi 7 avril, 2006