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Essay on Indian Affairs and Culture in Colonial America
As the cultural heirs of the English "winners," Historians of colonial America have been relatively alert to signs of the European impact upon Indian culture, perhaps as a way of explaining the "inevitable" triumph of a "superior" way of life. But they have been far less ready to recognize the surge of cultural influence in the opposite direction. Even ethnohistorians, who learn early that acculturation is a two way street, have concentrated so intently upon the native side of the frontier that they have largely ignored the important reciprocal changes wrought upon colonial culture. Thus both groups of historians have been unable to convince their colleagues, students, or the general public that the Indians are anything but an exotic if melancholy footnote to American history.
Where historians have not deigned to tread, others have rushed in. Since the last quarter of the nineteenth century, several articles and chapters have treated "The Contributions of the American Indian to Civilization" or "Americanizing the White Man." 2 But most of them are either derivative, unhistorical, or downright foolish. They all suffer from at least one of four major problems. First, with one antiquated exception, they take as their subject all of American history and culture, with no differentiation of sections, classes, demography, or chronology. Second, "Indian" culture is similarly over generalized; no allowance is made for tribal, culture area, or even chronological differences.
Third, they focus on isolated materials or traits rather than on cultural complexes (how items were used, valued, and integrated by the Indians) or on cultural creativity (how they were used, perceived, and adapted by the colonists). And finally, the conclusions of some and the implications of all lack common sense. To suggest, even indirectly, that "what is distinctive about America, is Indian, through and through" or that Americans are simply Europeans with "Indian souls" 3 is blithely to ignore the "wholly other" nature of English colonial......
