Post #1 The influence of Christian Beliefs on Native American Culture

     From day one of my History class I have been told that " History is the prescence or absence of change over time". Native Americans had been living in the Americas for centuries without any foreign influence or ideals, and yet when the first Europeans came to the native's lands these explorers considered them barbarians and pagans. This feeling of superiority that the Europeans shared was very clear on how they felt about the natives religious beliefs.  The Native Americans were very in touch with nature and considered themselves one with not only the earth but with the animals around them. Europeans considered this ridiculous since they all had strong Christian backgrounds where man was above beast.  Over time European influence not only changed the Native Americans daily lives, but would change their own religious ideals and sense of creation.

      The Native Americans not only had a very distinct way of life, but they also had a very distinct way of how they believed they were created.  The first story I read was from the natives of New Netherlands circa 1650.  At this time there were not many settlers in the New World and most of them were adventurers looking for economic freedom. Still, according to the story these men were also more then willing to share stories and information with the natives and even bigger willing to listen.  The first story talks about a goddess who comes down from heaven and wherever she steps, land appears from the water, which at this time the earth is covered by.  She gives birth to the animals; the main three being the deer, bear, and the wolf.  After she raises them she returns to heaven and the animals spread across the land. As man came to be the natives believed that everyone shared one of the three main animal spirits.  Most of the native families at this time had a totem which represented their animal spirit.  This society was very close to nature and considered themselves one with the animals.  This idea of animal kinship was a complete opposite religious ideal that any of the explorers ever had heard. 

      The next story is from the Ottawa Society circa 1720 and now we see how the explorers feel about the natives creation stories. Once again the story is based around nature but there is one main figure who is responcible for the creation.  This is somewhat different  from the first story where it is never said that there is one and only powerful being.  Regardless once again man is created from the animals so that once again they share qualities and characteristics from the animals.  After hearing this story the explorer who is listening to this story says " in the regard to the creation of man: it is based only upon the most ridiculous and extravagant notions." This shows the superiority that the Europeans feel since they believe that their religion is the only one true religion.  With the expansion of European settlements across America the natives soon found themselves at war with the explorers who they once welcomed into their lives.  History shows that over time the now new Americans conquered the natives and took their lands.  After taking their land they taught these "savages" their ways in many areas of life.  One of the ways they tried to get the natives to adapt was to convert them to Christianity.  This is seen more in the Sioux creation myth which was told around 1935.  In this story it tells of a creating power and a world that is wicked which strangely sounds like the story of moses from the bible. In the other two stories the creating power was something material and lived on earth with its creations and no an all powerful being.  Also the world was never wicked in the other stories and in this story the world was wicked and the creating power decided to bring forth rains long and hard enough to flood the earth.  In the Bible God flooded the earth to punish man and to cleanse the earth with a great flood.  Also at the end of the great flood he gave man the rainbow to show them that it would rain no more, just like god in the Christian religion did for moses.  Also the third creation myth ends with "then he rested" a rhetoric seen in the bible.  Since these creation stories were passed orally from one generation to another it was easy to forget certain details of the original story.  Also since the Christian beliefs were taught in the schools where the native children were taught they got myths and stories confused and eventually the old stories changed.  This is why over time parallels between Christian culture and native American culture blended.

      

      

Comments

[Sara Mutnick]

You have a lot of information from the stories that backs up your points. This is good because it is the foundation of your essay and without the proper information you would have nothing to build off.

The grammar and word choice in your post could have been paid attention to a little bit more. You have some spelling errors throughout the essay and words that could have been better replaced by another word.

Integrating quotes from either the text or reader would have allowed for more variety in your paragraphs. The quotes could have been used just to add interesting background information or support for your arguments.

[Teddy McGrath]

Pretty solid. Your supports are strong and well-explained, and your thesis is on point. Grammatically speaking, there is some work to be done. Specifically, you are missing quite a few commas (ex. use commas before a mid-sentence quotation), and some apostrophes as well (ex. "Native Americans' daily lives" in your thesis statement). Try not to use the same word or phrase twice in a sentence (Paragraph two, first sentence: the second "distinct way of" could be changed to "had very unique beliefs about creation"). Lastly, you could try to shorten the last paragraph a little better, or split it into two or three smaller paragraphs. Your ideas are good, just work on tightening the essay's mechanics a bit and you'll be gravy.

[Mark]

a well written post indeed. you have a solid thesis and your points in the body paragraphs correlate with the thesis nicely. the only discrepencies i see is your grammar and the vocabulary. some words could have been substituted for others. check out a thesaurus, they help a lot. the grammar is just an error from lack of proofreading. you should get a fellow student from your group to read your draft before you post it. moreoever the post is an enjoyment to read.