Post Three: Exploration of the American West
In Response to:
Colin Calloway, One Vast Winter Count
Bernard DeVoto, Journals of Lewis and Clark
In reading One Vast Winter Count one gets a full appreciation of the enormous numbers of Native American tribes and their long march out of their pre-historic past and into their first contact with European explorers and then conquerors. The extent of the conqueror in contact with Native Americans in the West was remarkable. From the initial contact of the explorers, invaders as Calloway calls them, like de Vaca and Coronado, to the colonizers like Juan de Onate, Spanish attempts to take over from the Indians control over their land, culture and religion succeeded. The history of the Pueblo peoples was carefully drawn out for the reader and it was easy to sympathize with the Pueblo tribes and how they were brutally dominated and exploited by the Spanish and the Catholic Church in New Mexico.
After reading Calloway, it's easy to see that pre Lewis and Clark history of the West was full of colonial exploitation of the land and many native American peoples who stood in the way of Spanish colonial objectives. There was a regional revolution worth commenting which was the 1680 Pueblo Revolt that last for twelve years. As Calloway states: "Seen from Native American communities, the revolt was a dramatic bid for independence in an ongoing process of resisting foreign domination by responses that ranged from partial accommodation to open rebellion". (p165 Calloway) Calloway's historical work One Vast Winter Count does support Maria Montoya's thinking that the West was a place "with close connections to other imperial sites". In his book Calloway sets the stage for imperial interference in the West after Lewis and Clark.
Benard DeVoto's book Journals of Lewis and Clark was a great read. When comparing the Lewis and Clark expedition to the conquests of the Spanish explorers, Lewis and Clark learned how to explore with panache. The Corps of Discovery's encounters with the Native Americans, while not without tense moments were not the brutal encounters of Coronado, De Sosa and the other Spanish invaders. Notably, it was on multiple occasions, the actions of the Shoshone guide Sacajawea that enable the Lewis and Clark expedition to successfully deal with the different Native American tribes they came in contact with. On her own Sacajawea saves they expedition from disaster from the Nez Pierce. It was an unfortunate encounter with the Blackfoot Indians where Lewis and others in his expedition kill Blackfoot Indians that tarnish the overall good relations Corps of Discovery had with the Native Americans they encountered. If only U.S. and Native American encounters post Lewis and Clark's expedition could have been so idyllic.
Colin Calloway, One Vast Winter Count
Bernard DeVoto, Journals of Lewis and Clark
In reading One Vast Winter Count one gets a full appreciation of the enormous numbers of Native American tribes and their long march out of their pre-historic past and into their first contact with European explorers and then conquerors. The extent of the conqueror in contact with Native Americans in the West was remarkable. From the initial contact of the explorers, invaders as Calloway calls them, like de Vaca and Coronado, to the colonizers like Juan de Onate, Spanish attempts to take over from the Indians control over their land, culture and religion succeeded. The history of the Pueblo peoples was carefully drawn out for the reader and it was easy to sympathize with the Pueblo tribes and how they were brutally dominated and exploited by the Spanish and the Catholic Church in New Mexico.
After reading Calloway, it's easy to see that pre Lewis and Clark history of the West was full of colonial exploitation of the land and many native American peoples who stood in the way of Spanish colonial objectives. There was a regional revolution worth commenting which was the 1680 Pueblo Revolt that last for twelve years. As Calloway states: "Seen from Native American communities, the revolt was a dramatic bid for independence in an ongoing process of resisting foreign domination by responses that ranged from partial accommodation to open rebellion". (p165 Calloway) Calloway's historical work One Vast Winter Count does support Maria Montoya's thinking that the West was a place "with close connections to other imperial sites". In his book Calloway sets the stage for imperial interference in the West after Lewis and Clark.
Benard DeVoto's book Journals of Lewis and Clark was a great read. When comparing the Lewis and Clark expedition to the conquests of the Spanish explorers, Lewis and Clark learned how to explore with panache. The Corps of Discovery's encounters with the Native Americans, while not without tense moments were not the brutal encounters of Coronado, De Sosa and the other Spanish invaders. Notably, it was on multiple occasions, the actions of the Shoshone guide Sacajawea that enable the Lewis and Clark expedition to successfully deal with the different Native American tribes they came in contact with. On her own Sacajawea saves they expedition from disaster from the Nez Pierce. It was an unfortunate encounter with the Blackfoot Indians where Lewis and others in his expedition kill Blackfoot Indians that tarnish the overall good relations Corps of Discovery had with the Native Americans they encountered. If only U.S. and Native American encounters post Lewis and Clark's expedition could have been so idyllic.
posted by BrianGoodson | 10:16 PM
1 Comments:
Dawn Eden's Blog On: La. pizzeria owner seeks slices of NYC
A new blog has the unlikely title "Brooklyn Pizzeria Needs Help After Katrina" . Why would a "Brooklyn Pizzeria" need aid in the wake of the Gulf Coast hurricane? Simple - it's in the Big Easy.
Hi, I was just blog surfing and found you! You might find mine of interest, go see my work from home related site. It isnt anything special but you may still find something of interest.
Post a Comment
<< Home