# 4 How Native Americans Changed in the 19th Century

                                                                                                         Taylor Bray

                                                                                                        10/05/2005

                                                                                                        US History 120

                                                                                                             

                                                            

                             How Native Americans Changed in the 19^th Century

In the middle of the 19^th century, the North American society was dramatically changing and affecting everyone involved.  The new immigrants from Europe were taking control of everything they saw, in particular, the Native American’s lives.  Certain aspects that affected the Native Americans were: The Second Great Awakening; temperance; and the change of opinion of education.  Because the Americans had so much influence on the Native Americans, they had no choice but to change into Americans.  In George Catlin’s painting, Pigeon’s Egg Head, his view of Native Americans in the time frame of 1830 and 1850 was that they were as easily influenced as children and sacrificed their culture for the American way of life.

            After the Europeans settled by the coast, they decided they wanted to move west towards the Native American’s territory.  In the “Trail of Tears,” the Americans forced the Seminole, Choctaw, Creek, Cherokee, and the Chickasaw to move to reservations farther west so they could settle more land (Nation of Nations, p. 295-6).  The government assured the Native Americans that they would be taken care of and not to worry about having to move.  The “Indians, however, knew the bitter truth of the matter.  Without effective political power, they were at the mercy of the pressures of the marketplace and the hardening racial attitudes of white Americans” (p. 297).  The Indians were aware from the beginning that the Americans were trouble and when they had to move, they knew things were going to change.

The Second Great Awakening was a widespread change of religion throughout Northern America.  “The dominant form of Christianity in America became evangelical Protestantism.  Its emphasis on the ability of everyone to bring about his or her salvation upheld the American belief in individualism” (p. 319).  The Native Americans at first were very skeptical and stubborn to change their religions that they had been practicing for so long, however because of its great success in spreading so well, the Indians eventually gave up and acquired a new religion.

            Catlin was aware of all the changes in society going on at the time he created this painting and how they were affecting the Native Americans.  By just looking at the painting, one can see all of the different characteristics that the Native Americans adopted from the Americans. For one, Pigeon Egg Head is wearing American military clothing instead of the traditional decorated leggings and robes. Two interesting objects inside his back pockets are two bottles of whiskey.  In the time this painting was created, there was a movement going on to stop the overuse of alcohol in America.  “…by 1830 the average American consumed four gallons of absolute alcohol a year, the highest level in American history and nearly triple present-day levels” (p. 327).  This awful habit did not just stay within the American culture, no; it extended out towards the Indians and corrupted their life style too. 

            Another big point that helped change the Native American way of life was the new found respect for education that the Americans obtained.  “Nevertheless, by the 1850s the number of schools, attendance figures, and school budgets had all increased sharply.  School reformers enjoyed their greatest success in the Northeast and the least in the South,” (p. 329).  They were unable to be successful in the South because the elite land owners did not want to waste their time educating those who did not have a chance of rising in the social ladder.  However, education as a whole did spread pretty wildly, even to the lands of the Native Americans.  The Americans wanted to educate the Indians in order to transform them into sophisticated and cultured people just like themselves.

            There were many things going on in such a short amount of time that changed the Native American’s way of life forever.  The change of religions, abuse of alcohol, and the new found importance for education molded the Indians into the very people they were trying to fight against becoming.  George Catlin caught this change to the very detail in his painting, Pigeon’s Egg Head, with the before and after picture of a Native American chief.  Even though the Indians resisted as much as they could against certain things, it was eventually inevitable to convert as easily as children. 

Bibliography

Davidson, James W., Gienapp, William E., Heyrman, Christine L., Lytle, Mark H., Stoff, Michael B. Nation of Nations: A Concise Narrative of the American Republic. McGraw-Hill. New York, NY, 2006

Comments

[bpatonetz]

Taylor,
You did a very good job of using the text book to explain what was happening to Native Americans during the time period of Catlin’s painting. The quotes and facts from the text book show the historical significance and make your post meaningful.

One suggestion I have is to try to tie your historical references to the painting more. The body paragraphs have good information, but it is not tied back to showing how the painting reflects these ideas of Native Americans adopting a new religion or being changed by the education reform. Your post would be stronger if you brought all of this information together throughout your essay instead of just in the conclusion because it is hard to see your point until the very end.

Another suggestion I have is to include more information about the painting. Your thesis focuses on Catlin’s view being portrayed through his work, but the painting is not mentioned very often. You did a good job of including details of the painting in your third body paragraph and I think you should try to do more of that in your post.

I think your post could also be improved if you would rewrite your thesis statement. When I first read it, I thought it was good, but your post does not mention that Native Americans were influenced like children are. Try to make your thesis statement relevant to the points that you bring up in your post.

[Vernon Eppard]

You did a terrific job of using different examples to prove your point.
However, you should probably consider showing the painting that you are referring to. It's hard for a reader to tell if what you are saying is accurate if they can't compare it to the actual painting.
Also, Brittany suggests rewriting your thesis to support your paper. Scince the thesis is the outline for your paper and you usually write it first, you should consider writing your paper based on your thesis. Next time, reread your thesis and each paragraph to make sure that you supported your thesis as much as possible.
My last piece of advice is to use more than one source for your paper. It's hard work finding materials related to a specific topic like this, but it provides your paper with a lot more credibility if you do. Using different sources shows that more than one person agrees with what you are asserting. Keep trying your best and hopefully our advice will help you reach your full potential.

[Mark Sythammavong]

I like how you incorporated many parts of the textbook into this post. It shows how much effort you put into the research and also great job incorporating them into the sentences. The thesis was also not as strong as the conclusion. The conclusion about wrapped things up, but the thesis did not clearly define what the post was to be about. Perhaps you could re-read the thesis after the post is written and see if it needs changes. Which leads me to my next point, it seems that you did not talk about the painting very much but rather the history of what occurred. You only mention the bottle of whiskey and it's relation to alcohol, there were other parts of the painting which we talked about in class. To save yourself time, try using footnotes at the end of quotations and reference them to a single reference.

[James Kim]

You did a great job on backing up your statements with evidence from the text. You also did well with the structure of your essay as you had smooth transition sentences between paragraphs. One thing I suggest for you is to fix up your thesis statement. You talked about the Second Great Awakening, temperance, and the change of opinion of education for your body paragraphs, but they were not included in your underlined thesis statement. I did like your thesis statement, but I think you could of added the main ideas you were explaining in it. Another suggestion for you is to describe Catlin's painting more throughout your essay. It seems like you described it only in your fourth paragraph, which makes it sound kind of unbalanced. My last suggestion for you is to parallel your historical references more to the painting. It seems like the knowledge given in your second and third paragraphs are straying away from your thesis because it doesn't talk about the painting. Good job.