Cultures of Native Americans:1775-1815
This is an excerpt from the paper...
This research paper discusses the cultures of Native American peoples as they existed during the creation of the American nation from 1775 to 1815. It focuses upon the traditional cultures of the Eastern Woodlands Indians, the Iroquois in the North, the Algonquian Shawnee in the Northwest Territory and the Muskhogean Creek Confederacy in the Deep South and Gulf region. Over the centuries, a plethora of Indian tribes east of the Mississippi evolved and developed a wide diversity of cultural institutions and patterns of life, uniquely adapted and attuned to their natural environment and historical circumstances. All of them were significantly disrupted and altered by contact with European settlers. By the time of the American Revolution, most of the Algonquian tribes in New England and other Indians along the Atlantic coast had been substantially eliminated as autonomous cultures. West of the Hudson River, the relatively sophisticated, politically cohesive and militarily potent Iroquois culture adapted successfully to the threats posed by the arrival of the white man for several centuries. However, the outcomes of the French and Indian War and the American Revolution, as well as cultural atrophy, led to its eventual demise. The migrations forced upon the Algonquian Shawnee nation propelled it into a leadership position among the tribes in the Northwest Territory who were threatened by white settler expansion after the Revolutionary War and led to belated efforts to internall
. . .
St. Lawrence, a prophetic Seneca leader Dekanawidah, and his able Onondaga spokesman Hiawatha, created the Iroquois League of Five Nations. This was an alliance, not for the purpose of internal self-government, which remained decentralized, but to conduct war and foreign policy. For about 200 years, the League effectively promoted Iroquois interests by playing the European powers off against each other. For most of that period, the Iroquois tended to tilt toward the British, but they used their central position to extract concessions from both sides. When the French made a determined effort to gain control of the Ohio River Valley, the Iroquois League supported the British who prevailed.
Effects of the American Revolution and its sequel. Under the Proclamation of Paris of 1763 which ended the French and Indian War, the British declared that the frontier areas beyond the Appalachians would be offlimits to European settlers. However, the American colonists began settling the area anyway. In 1768, the Iroquois League under the Treaty of Fort Stanwix surrendered Iroquois claims to lands south of the Ohio and Susquehanna. This outraged the Indians in these areas, most of whom were dependent upon the Iroquois for support, and who then
. . .
Some common words found in the essay are:
Grand Councils, Black Belt, Wars Iroquois, Farb Iroquois, North American, Corn Celebration, Creek Confederacy, Mohawks Indian, False Society, Europeans Edmunds, creek confederacy, american indian, lower creeks, hunting grounds, iroquois league, fur trade, upper creeks, revolutionary war, european powers, northwest territory, french indian war, west hudson river, il forum 1988, traditional hunting grounds, ed american indian,
Approximate Word count = 4901
Approximate Pages = 20 (250 words per page)
|