Christoopher Columbus, the man you thought you knew pt 2.

Gustavo Quintero
English 48A
September 27, 2007
Journal #2 Loewen Ch.2


Quote:
"...the Indians were well built and of quick intelligence they have very good customs...Later when Columbus was justifying his wars and his enslavement of the Indians, they became cruel and stupid a people warlike and numerous,whose customs and religion are very different from ours."

Summary:
The above quote shows just how quickly Columbus changed his attitude towards the Native Americans. One moment his is writing in his journal about how intelligent the Native Americans are and the next moment he is saying how stupid and "savage" they are. Columbus uses this attitude as a justification for the enslavement of the Native Americans that he "discovers".

Response:
The idea of Native Americans being "stupid" and warlike is not a new stereotype. Of course Columbus did not have televisions and comic books that glorified the Native American as a vicious warrior. He did have his journals though. Columbus uses his journals as a way to make himself feel like he is doing he right thing by enslaving the Native Americans. As stated in Loewen's book Columbus uses a simple psychological concept known as cognitive dissonance. This is the idea that we will, in our own mind, give a person or group of people a negative and completely false image so that we feel better about treating that person(s) as we please. It is a tragedy when you think about and read just all the inhumane treatment various cultures have been through over hundreds and thousands of years. The Native Americans were the earliest slaves that have lived in this country.

With this said I have to bring up author an that I read last year for an English course here at Foothill. Sherman Alexie wrote a book titled, The Lone Ranger and Tonto fistfight in Heaven. Throughout the whole book the image or stereotype of the "savage Indian" is brought up. Alexie seems to struggle with this concept because of the heavy use of this image in the book. It appears as a very predominant and negative image. One essay question we were asked to write about was whether or not the use of this image helped or hurt the Native Americans. I always thought that Alexie, although a brilliant story teller,wrote to many negative stories about his experiences on the reservation he lived on. Thus to me his stories hurt the image of the Native American. What I am trying to get at is that Columbus may have been the primer that set off the mistreatment of Native Americans.

This "warlike" people are truly a peaceful culture. The European explorers that came across these "warlike" Indians were treated for illness and given food and shelter. They also repaired the boats of explorers that had shipwrecked, such as Francis Drake. Lewis and Clark were only able to make their trek across the United States because of the help of numerous tribes. I love how Loewen points out how American textbooks fail to point out just how helpful the Native Americans were.