Essay - Colonial America Acculturation Through an Adopted American Indian's Perspective: an...

Colonial America

Acculturation through an Adopted *****n Indian's Perspective: An *****alysis of "A narrative of the life of Mrs Mary Jemison" by James Seaver

For years, colonial American society held the view ***** American Indians as savages whose barbaric traditions and ways illustrated life leading to stagnation and eventual disintegration of the early periods of civilization. As America moved *****wards progress ***** development, ***** Indians' stubborn attitude of holding on to *****ir heritage became an impediment to the Americans, who planned America to be inhabited by a civilized, and not barbaric, society. The autobiography of ***** Jemison's life ***** a c*****ptured prisoner and eventually, an adopted member and "daughter" of the ********** Indians demonstrated how, despite the popular ***** that the American Indians are "savages," the conflict between ***** new ***** settlers ***** Indians is not a clash ***** the old and new societies and human economies, but ra*****r, a cl*****sh of two radically different cultures.

The culture clash between the white Americans and American ***** were evident in the kind of ***** ***** each ***** maintains: while white Americans are primarily individualists, putting premium on ***** self before other people, American Indians are collectivist, valuing cooperation and unity more than individual achievement or success in life. Thus, f***** white Americans, the ***** ***** the Indians, who worships Nature and participate in violent, yet socially acceptable ***** of human sacrifice ***** engag*****g in tribe wars ***** considered 'barbaric,' reminiscent ***** the old ways of human ***** that had failed to develop over time. The savage nature ***** the ***** was ***** early on in Jemison's recollection of her and ***** family's capture, narrat*****g how her parents were killed and later scalded by her cap*****rs: "[t]hose scalps I knew at ***** time must have been taken from our family...That sight ***** most appaling [sic], yet, I was obliged to endure it w*****hout complaining."

However, as she became acculturated to American Indian culture, Jemison w***** able ***** understand and tolerate ***** the traditions of what she and her race ***** ***** Americans considered as savages. As an ***** daughter of the **********, ***** w***** ***** to provide an objective and unbiased observation ***** the *****ays and traditions of ***** race that has so long ***** in animosity with the white *****. As she became adopted as an American Indian, she realized that ***** adoption w***** the Indian's way of "replac*****g" a dead br***** or sister, who was ***** in a conflict with ***** ***** *****s. ***** Indi*****ns' acceptance of Jemison was an indicat***** *****,

It is family, ***** ***** national, *****s amongst Indi*****s, that ***** given them an indelible stamp as barbarians, and identified their character with the idea which ***** generally formed of unfeeling ferocity, and the most abandoned cruelty.

It is through *****'s narrative, then, that readers were ***** a new perspective in looking at the white American-American Indian conflict. Evidently, Indians' give great value for *****ir families and community ***** one's death can result to violence and savagery, which