Review of Natives and Newcomers by James Axtell
When one thinks about the original inhabitants of North America (Native Americans), old stereotypes and misconceptions always spring to mind. Stereotypes in history view the Native Americans as “savage” with spiritual connections to nature, whose lifestyles were simple and plain. The characteristics placed on Native Americans often contradict each other and fail to offer a real understanding of the people. The view of European settlers coming to the Americas can be seen in stereotypes where Europeans are portrayed as the victimized Christians with limited Native Americans interaction. James Axtell, author of Natives and Newcomers: The Cultural Origins of North America, pulls the curtain back on such stereotypes and studies Native American culture, traditions, lifestyles and their relationships and interactions with European settlers. The Nations Council for Social Studies states that culture is dynamic and ever-changing and by understanding culture, students of history can fully understand themselves and people from different cultures. Axtell clearly explores the NCSS standard of culture throughout his book and breaks down long held stereotypes of early Native Americans and European settlers.
One misconception Axtell explores is the idea that the Pilgrims were the first settlers to reach the shores of North America. Axtell describes the Pilgrim’s experience with hostile Native Americans a reaction from experience, not barbarism, “Fresh from European ports, the Pilgrims could not know that the natives who received them so ungraciously were not acting out of some atavistic racial hatred or primitive xenophobia but from a well-founded sense of revenge for injuries inflicted by earlier European visitors” (p. 16). Axtell seeks to explain this sense of rage on part of the Native Americans by looking for the earliest encounters between Native Americans and Europeans, which, was largely ignored in classroom text books before the 1960s and even today. Axtell also seeks to understand the cultures and thought processes of both groups prior to the encounter to explain the conflicts that arose from early contact.
Axtell explores the thinking and intellectual make-up of the European mind during the early years of contact with Native Americans on the North American content. Axtell states that Europeans were not ignorant of possible encounters with natives because of their imperial connections with places such as Africa. When Europeans encountered Native Americans they viewed them as “other” or inferior. The European interaction with the new group of people was doomed to suffer hostility because of their mindset even before the first encounters.
The mind of a Native American is also explored. During the first contact many Native Americans viewed Europeans as equals or possibly superior. From white accounts, the proverbial explanation that Native Americans thought Europeans were somehow supernatural or possessed powers is addressed in Axtell’s book. The Native Americans were open to possibility of a positive relationship. The possibility of a positive relationship is not due to an overgeneralization about Indian hospitality; rather, it is due to the fact that they did not have pre-existing negative psychological attitudes to sabotage a positive relationship.
The change that took place in both the Native Americans and Europeans offers original insight into the world of early contact between Native Americans and Europeans. Axtell looks at the 17th century consumer revolution of Native Americans to show the changing mind of the original inhabitants. Axtell argues that Native Americans became more materialistic as their contact with Europeans increased. Native American fascination with gold became realized only after contact with the new comers. As a result of the materialism, Native Americans became increasingly indebted to the Europeans; buying clothes, tool, food, decorations and novelty items. Materialism changed Native Americans so much so, that they had a rebirth of spiritualism to try and escape the want or “need” of European goods. Axtell points out that the consumerism introduced by the Europeans changed not only Native mind sets; rather, it changed Native American life entirely because it made them dependent on the Europeans. In the end, Native Americans became more dependent on Europeans than the Europeans were on Native Americans.
Culture as defined by the National Council for the Social Studies as a system of beliefs, knowledge, and traditions. The key to the standard 1 is the understanding that cultures change according to new beliefs, traditions, and knowledge are introduced to a group of people. The NCSS states that cultures are “dynamic and ever-changing.” Axtell’s book provided ample opportunities to see the change of groups of people by the introduction of another culture into an area.
Trade was the primary vehicle for the interaction of Native American cultures and European cultures. As a result of trade both Native American culture and European culture changed. Both Europeans and Native Americans adopted new forms of language. This new language was a system of communications through signs and gestures. The signs grew in sophistication as participants grew to understand the system better. The new sign language was a form of neutrality for traders whose primary purpose was peaceful trade. One outstanding example of a new language formed by the emersion of the two cultures is at the Gulf of St. Lawrence were fishermen and natives “âÂ?¦created a form of lingue franca composed of Basque and two different languages of the Indian, by mean of which they could understand each other quite well” (p. 57).
Native Americans were shown in Axtell’s book to change the most as a result of the interaction between the two cultures. The Native American’s self sufficiency was ended with the introduction of European goods. The idea of credit was introduced to the Natives as Axtell states, “In late summer or early fall, the trader advanced the Indians on account the goods, arm, ammunition, and food they needed for the winter hunt,” describing the dependency on traders (p. 108). Another good that changed native live that was acquired from traders was alcohol. Axtell studies brawls, stabbings, and chaos that resulted from alcohol consumption.
The NCSS Culture standard seeks to understand “how do cultures change to accommodate different ideas and beliefs. Axtell’s book shows that the clash of cultures between the Europeans and Native Americans often resulted in a solidification of existing cultures in opposition to new ones. Ironically the interaction between cultures of the Native American and the culture of the Europeans helped to define the characteristics each individual culture possessed.
The Native Americans had a series of stages to counteract any change of their own culture as a result of European contact. The stages included incorporation of changes, beating the new changes or new comers, joining them, copy and finally to avoid. By the 19th century, many Native Americans were at stage five; avoid. The strategies used by the Native Americans showed what happened when one group of people were confronted with a new group of people, idea, or change that they could not escape. The fact that Native Americans ultimately avoided European culture is not the most significant point in relation to NCSS standard 1. The most important point in relation to the standard is the process of change within the Native American culture itself.
The Europeans developed a sense of identity and collective identity as a result of their clash of culture with Native American culture. Much like the Native Americans, the European settlers did not integrate into Native American culture; rather, the opposing culture helped to identify their own culture. Native American culture became the “other” to the settlers. The culture of the settlers became reactionary to the culture of the “other.” In effect, the long term struggle with Native American cultures and peoples helped the North American Europeans distinguish themselves from Europeans living in mother countries. The change from fractured groups of people to the early colonist during the pre-Revolutionary years is a study in the process of cultural change itself.
The reading was very insightful regarding early North American encounters between Native Americans and European traders. It was at revelation to know that whalers had contact with natives of the North American content as early as 1517. When learning about European contact with the Americas, one only learns about the Southern American experience of genocide and brutality. The northern experience was full of awkward communication, misunderstandings, and peaceful trade and business.
Axtell reasonably argues that there was some Native American influence on colonists but not as much as early scholars may have believed. Some influences include, the transition to a more hunter oriented life for some in early Americans. One of Axtell’s most famous European examples who changed as a result of natives was the White Indian; Whites who chose to leave their colonial lifestyle to live with the natives. There are many native words that have also trickled into white vernacular as well. One of the most important influences of Native American culture Axtell argues was the adoption of native warfare that was used by colonists by during the Revolution. Axtell finally argues that colonists did not really adopt that much from the Native Americans because colonists did not value the same things that natives did or identify themselves as Native Americans; rather, they became Americans.
One of the idealized, mythic, epic stories of Native American influences on European colonists is the borrowed warfare style used during the Revolution. Axtell makes a very valid claim that the colonists did not go “native” or become like the Indians because they did not have the same value system or beliefs and practices. Many people today still believe in the idealized myth of Native American influence. This influence can be seen in shopping malls where cowboy hats in north east cities are sold next to portraits of the “noble savage” or the pretty Indian woman. Many Americans today would be hard pressed to admit that there was not as much of a Native American influence on the early colonists as once believed. Movies, books, and popular culture still exploit the native culture for profit out of ignorance and greed.
Axtell’s book is an ideal example of showing the change of groups of people as a result of new ideas, innovations, other groups of people, and traditions. Many people do not know about the early interactions between Native Americans and Europeans. There are many misconceptions about both Europeans and Native Americans that still persist today.
