Native American And Puritan Culture Clash example essay topic

Culture Clash: Puritans amongst Indians In 1630, a group of Puritans fled from the Church of England to the Massachusetts Bay colony in search of the freedom to practice their "pure" form of Christianity, also known as Puritanism. The group of people known as the Native Americans (or American Indians) are the original inhabitants of the Northern and Southern American continents who are believed to have migrated across the Bering land bridge from Asia around 30,000 years ago. When these two societies collided, years of enforced principles, oppression and guerrilla warfare began. The great barriers of religion, ethics and world-views are the three largest factors which led to the culture clash between the Puritans and Native Americans. Religion played a very important role in both Puritan and Native American society, though their ideologies different greatly.

"Like all Christians, Protestant and Catholic, the Puritans believed that God was all-knowing and all-powerful. And like all Calvinists, the Puritans emphasized that idea of divine sovereignty known as predestination. At the center of their thinking was the belief that God had ordained the outcome of history, including the eternal fate of every human being" (Davidson / Gein app / Heyrman/ Lytle / Stoff, 64). According to Puritan beliefs, God had chosen a select number of people to join him in heaven as his elect. The Native Americans, on the other hand, believed that everyone was the same; no one was better than anyone else. As Sitting Bull once said, "Each man is good in [the Great Spirit's] sight".

This theory was in direct conflict with the Puritan's view. The means through which the beliefs of these two groups were carried on also differed greatly. The Puritans had their Bible, which detailed their entire religion and held the answers to all possible questions. The Native Americans on the other hand relied on oral transmission of the theology.

Thus, while the Puritans had a constant place to turn to when they wanted to figure out what they believed, Native Americans were forced to fill in the blanks between stories they had heard because none of their beliefs were documented. This aspect made them both unable to relate to one another. The most prominent difference between the two religions was the character of their belief systems. The Puritans believed in one God and one God only. The Native Americans, though also worshipping their own almighty "Great Spirit", took further reverence for all living (and once living) things, worshipping the trees and their ancestors as well as their omnipotent Manitou. The Puritans, holding all aspects of the Bible literal and as divine mandate, saw this worship of beings other than their God as idolatry (which was in clear violation of the first commandment).

Therefore, the Puritans held the Native American society as a society wallowing in sin. Sin was the basis for another big hurdle in Puritan / Indian relations; their differing sets of moral and ethical values. The Puritans valued their faith above anything else. They believed that their conviction for God held precedence to anything else. John Winthrop explains that there is a tie between God and his people, and because of this tie they will perform God's articles with severe precision in the "city on a hill", and that nothing else should be practiced. "Thus stands the cause between God and us.

We are entered into covenant with him for his work, we have taken out a commission, the Lord hath given us leave to draw our own articles, we have professed to enterprise these actions, upon these and those ends, we have hereupon besought him of favor and blessing. Now if the Lord shall please to hear us, and bring us in peace to the place we desire, then hath he ratified this covenant and sealed our commission, [and] will expect a strict performance of the articles contained in it" (Davidson / Gienapp/ Heyrman / Lytle/ Stoff, 19). John goes on to explain the consequences of breaking these "articles". The Native Americans, on the other hand, lived their faith and used their actions as tools of their beliefs. Rituals like food preparation and dancing were all actions giving adoration to the sprits of nature. Ceremonies such as these have been exemplified throughout the Captivity Narratives of many of the imprisoned.

John Gyles explains a ritual that suggests the Native American's gratitude to their God for their feast. "And an old squaw and captive, if any present, must stand without the wigwam, shaking their hands and body as in a dance, and singing, "We gage oh neo who", which if Englishe d would be "Fat is my eating". This is to signify their thankfulness in feasting times" (Clark and Vaughan, 104). The final, and arguably most important, of the factors leading to the Native American and Puritan culture clash was the conflict of self and world-views held by the two groups. The Puritans thought in dualistic terms, the world was separated between God and Devil. Also, the Puritans believed that the mortal world was temporary and of little consequence.

Every single human being was predestined, either going to Heaven or Hell, and that this next world was the only place of significance. The Native Americans, on the other hand, believed that the world they inhabited was the next world. They thought that by dying, they simply returned to the earth. With this train of thought, it seems unlikely that they would be forced into worship through fear if they knew that they were headed home no matter what practices they held in life. The Puritans believed in a specific set of religious ideals, while the Native Americans had a more tolerant view of worship. The Puritans believed that true faith in their God and brotherly affection was the only way of reverence, which was explained in John Winthrop's "Model of Christian Charity", where the Native Americans believed in daily ritual and reverence for nature as a form of worship.

The Puritans considered themselves all evil and thought of life as a momentary transition, while the Indians thought of themselves as equal halves of good and evil and mortal life (and it's logical successor) as fundamentally the same thing. All these differences in lifestyle contributed to the cultural conflict that plagued the Native Americans and Europeans for years to come. Proven both through history and the numerous captivity narratives that lead us into the Native American world, the cultures of the Puritans and Amerindians were completely incompatible. The responses from Puritan colonists such as Mary Rowlandson, John Williams, and John Gyles, on their captivity opened the eyes of the rest of the world to the reality that there would be many hardships in trying to unite these two diverse cultures. From religious rituals, languages, mode of transportation, attitudes in handling friends and foes, and even differences in what they ate; these are only a few aspects of life that came as a startling surprise to the Puritan captives. Living amongst these tribes, the Europeans came to find that there was no comparing the two worlds.

Coming from such a secure and confident society, Puritans found these characteristics of Native Americans to be appalling and outlandish. The Amerindians, on the other hand, found many of the qualities of these newcomers to be extremely odd as well. The differences in the ever-so-important features of a civilization, such as religion, ethics, and world-views, could not be overcome. These elements would be mainly held constant in both societies and thus, making it virtually impossible for positive Puritan-Amerindian relations to prevail.

Bibliography

Clark, Edward W. and Alden T. Vaughan. Puritans Among the Indians; Accounts of Captivity and Redemption. Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press. 1981.
Davidson, James West, William E. Gienapp, Christine Leigh Heyrman, Mark Lytle, Michal e B. Stoff. Nation of Nations and Nation of Nations Concise; A Document Collection. Crawfordsville, IN: R.R. Donnelley & Sons Co. 1999.