Jacoby piece I found particularly interesting because of its discussion of how those who were bent on destroying the Apache Indians would compare them to wolves, which is considered a dangerous pest. “Some writers noted that Apaches and wolves haunted the same “hungry waste” and attributed Apache tribal names to the Indians’seeming closeness to wolves.” I feel this line from Jacoby article important because even today we still associate the Native Americans with wolves but the context is less harsh. Today the connection more about being in tune with nature and the concept of Native Americans as the first environmentalist then the attempt at dehumanization discussed in Jacoby’s article.
The message of Turner’s article was intriguing in that he uses the west as a message that is trying to get across which is that the United States to put the same level effort into educating it future, that it did in conquering the west. Turner thoughts are summed up at the end with this comment, “A new era will come if schools and universities can only widen the intellectual horizon of the people, help to lay the foundations of a better industrial life, show them new goals for endeavor, inspire them with more varied and higher ideals.”
Jacoby performs a historical analysis of the experience of the Apache people of the U.S.- Mexico borderlands. His study shows the Anglo- Americans were deliberately exterminating Apache people- which in other words, was genocide. Even the word used, “extermination” –I attributed to pest removal, getting rid of the Apache was like getting rid of the wolves, they were pests- goes hand in hand with the simultaneous removal of wolves. Apaches and wolves developed a similar identity in the eyes of Anglo settlers. Individuals that volunteered to take part in the extermination were often ordered to shoot whatever Apaches they saw- “shoot savages upon site.” Just like a herd of bison, no distinction would be made, and the goal was simply to destroy. This says something about people at the time- why were they so desensitized, this is undoubtedly murder…Jacoby says that many settlers killed the Apache as a “grotesque spectacle.”
The cartoon on pg 250 was especially shocking- the way that this extermination was viewed at times as comic relief! I agree with Jacoby- he says the reason for this is that the U.S. was trying to assert control over the Western reaches of North America and correspond with one of the globe’s pre-eminent ages of imperial expansion- in the mean time German, France, GB, and other European countries were scrambling to get a portion of Africa.
Turner is trying to promote education as a good thing; as good preparation for the up and coming world. It seems that he wants those in the west to appreciate education. In order for people to have a voice in their country- they must be educated on current issues and stop taking a passive approach. He puts the University out there as a place where people can find meaning in life and learn a skill that will lead to their success- like learning proper agricultural techniques. On pg 3 I like what he says, “American democracy was born of no theorist's dream; it was not carried in the Sarah Constant to Virginia, nor in the Mayflower to Plymouth. It came out of the American forest, and it gained new strength each time it touched a new frontier. Not the constitution, but free land and an abundance of natural resources open to a fit people, made the democratic type of society in America for three centuries while it occupied its empire.” – he is trying to unite Americans and encourage education for future generation- revolutionary!
I found the Jacoby article more interesting than Turner's. Perhaps the main reason for this is the disposition Jacoby takes in regard to the Apache Indian tribe. As we've seen before, from early Europeans all the way up until the mid/early 1900s with the Trail of Tears, Native Americans have been more than often looked down upon the inferior individual. That is also very present in this piece, however, the reference about the Apache resembling wolves in behavior and manner is really indicative that the Europeans inherently thought less of them. It was more than a dislike or loathing of a people, it was a sense of uncertainty and confusion as to why the Native Americans were the way they were. I believe much of the reason they were exterminated in the fashion that they were was a result from slight psychological intimidation and extreme misunderstanding.
Turner's article was also interesting from another perspective on the expansion west. His focus is obviously education and how vital it is in order to grow and develop as a nation. In some of his words and ideas he portrayed the incredible importance in broadening the horizons of the youth, or just younger generations to come. He is clearly invested in the future of the nation and offers his outlook in hopes to help encourage the importance of education as well as relate it to the potential success as a major benefit from it.
I did not find Turner's article to be very interesting but it did make a crucial point about how the future of the country depends on the educated. "From the beginning of that long westward march of the American people America has never been the home of mere contented materialism. It has continuously sought new ways and dreamed of a perfected social type." I think this quote accurately describes the United States and its values. I believe that what makes America great is the fact that we were founded on the idea of creating a better world where people can express their opinions and views without being persecuted. This has led us to become one of the most powerful countries in the world with a very advanced society.
Jacoby's article on extermination sheds light on the horrors that took place between the "cowboys and indians." From the beginning of colonialization, Native Americans have always been seen as savage and inferior to the "white man" and the comparison of the Apaches to wolves further reiterates this notion in the minds of Euro-Americans. Since the white settlers were so different from the Indians, they reduced the natives to a subhuman status in order to make it easier for them to eradicate them from the land by killing them in hunting fashion, as if they were animals.
Turner’s insistence on the coming of a new era was, in many ways, accurate. He was certainly right about America’s need to be conscious of environmental consequences and no longer simply take advantage of everything for only the present. He said that the age of cheap land, crops, and cattle was gone for good. In many ways, this assessment was accurate as a result of new farming methods and increased population in the west. Turner spoke about how the American West is a symbol of freedom, making possible the rags-to-riches dream for the common man. By comparing American settlers to past explorers, Turner noted the appeal of the undiscovered and how mankind seems to have an ever-present desire for exploring and conquering the unknown.
This desire to conquer is evident in Jacoby’s article about many Americans’ thoughts on the extermination of the Native Americans. Jacoby writes about the different ways that people justified this extermination. Many had the desire to take control of all of North America, and as historian Deloria called it, the concept of “defensive conquest,” which essentially excused Euro-Americans because they were supposedly forced into aggression as a result of Amerindian violence. This view was shared by many and the authority of Darwin was even invoked by way of a quote from On the Origin of Species saying it was inevitable that the most advanced of mankind would destroy those who were inferior. The assumption that the Euro-American perceptions of progress automatically defined what was superior and inferior created a blindness that was ironically detrimental to all mankind thanks to the wasteful lifestyles that came with this mentality.
The question raised by both of these articles is one we mentioned in class and one that does not have a definite answer. It is the question of whether what happened to the Indians and to other species is a natural process or whether it can and should be stopped. This question brings into question what is natural and whether or not there is a divide between nature and that which is created by man.
I found the Jacoby piece very interesting because it showed how truly awful the Indians were treated in the West. It seems that Americans had gone past the point of thinking of Indians as “uncivilized savages” and further degraded them to the status of a wild animal, and a nuisance at that (as opposed to a majestic or uniquely American wild animal). I was further shocked to find that in exterminating the Indians, there didn’t seem to be a whole lot of discrimination between gender or age; generally everyone in sight was killed, and only sometimes the young were spared. I also find it interesting to see how narrow-minded people were—Jacoby says that many people thought that “Extermination is our only hope”, as if there was absolutely no other way to deal with the Indians. Also, I found their justification for extermination equally unsatisfying, because they claimed that it was natural and survival of the fittest, but killing off people isn’t really a natural way for populations to die out.
I liked how in Turner’s piece he turned the idea of a frontier away from a physical, tangible object and into more of an intellectual idea and goal to aspire to. I think it is especially effective in encouraging education and demonstrating the value of education. He is constantly focusing on progress in America, whether it be physical, intellectual, or any other kind of progress. I think this demonstrates the ideals of the larger American population and helps us to understand actions/decisions of the time in America.
Jacoby’s article really put the American view of the American Indians, specifically the Apache, into a clearer, undiluted light. It demonstrated the sentiment that many groups that partake in genocide develop: the group they are seeking to “exterminate” is below human. That particular group, in the eyes of those doing the exterminating, becomes nothing more than a group of animals. Americans tied the image and mentality of a fox to the Apache Indians. This formed the image of them being sneaky and cunning, essentially pests and threats to the American lifestyle. I actually enjoyed Turner’s article. Though it wasn’t necessarily exiting, it was interesting to see how he, in a way, tracked the way the human mind functions and how history becomes historic. He stated that the past, present, and future of a nation depend on the educated. With the expansion of education, people began to reflect more upon events and grow more analytical as time continued to unfold. As man’s level of education increases, he is more likely to reflect upon the impact his present actions will have in the now and in the future, as well as take into consideration the events of the past that created the present.
The Jacoby article was really disturbing to me. I really didn’t like the language used and the descriptions of the violence used against the Indians it made me cringe. Such phrases such as “the logic of extermination or extermination becomes a tangible good” and “shoot these savages upon sight.” Last class we discussed how the Indians and bison are generally viewed as the victim and this article definitely reinforced that idea. Its hard for me to fathom that a little less than 20% of the population opposed to total extermination.
I enjoyed Turners article yet I had to read it multiple times to get the full meaning out of it. Turner explored how the idea of the American Frontier became an essential part of our identity as a country. He stresses on the values of the American frontier men and relates it to education to day and the need for exploration, creativity and intellect.
On a side note the new issue of the National Geographic had an entire article and photo shoot on the “Age of Man, Enter the Anthropocene.” I thought this really related to class and our previous discussions of the transformations of nature as over ruling the landscape and then a middle ground and then complete human take over of the landscape. The pictures reminded me of the paintings we looked at in class of the different stages.
I found the Turner piece as what it is, a graduation speech. Not to interesting to say, but with the laying out of broader ideas. Advocating for knowledge with the thirst which we use to conquer the west. Educating people was the basis of what the west would be built on, and that is why it was necessary.
The Jacoby article was much more interesting. The extermination of the Indian was inevitable, either from natural forces, the military, other tribes, or even the everyday citizen. I found it especially interesting that people during this time were beginning to care about cruelty to animals. Those imposing humane ideas on the treatment of animals, without any of these ideas toward the American Indian, in this case the Apache. Comparing them to the pest of the wolf, called for their extermination for the preservation of the white man. Making such a comparison shows how low Americans then thought of the Apache, with no remorse. Killing women and children, even throwing infants into the fire. I guess you could call this survival of the fittest, but all out extermination is not surviving, it is destroying.
I personally thought that Jacoby's article was good, yet disturbing to read. It was important for me to read because his article defines how awful the Apache tribe were treated in the West. The Anglo-Americans referred the Apache Indians that they were akin to the wolves. What I found important about his article was that Jacoby believed that the only way to expunge the Apache population was to exterminate them. I truly believe that the reason that the Anglo-Americans wiped out numerous Apache Indians because they wanted to conquer their territory. They also wanted this problem solved promptly because the Federal and Confederate Governments were dealing with another major crisis: the Civil War. When I first read the article, I have always believed that "extermination" during that era meant "expulsion," but after reading the entire article, I can now see how extermination and genocide relate towards each other. In Turner's letter, the only portion of his letter that I found interesting was that he's trying to relay a message to the people out west that they need to be educated. America was in a progress during that time period, and Turner wanted people to make the correct decisions to build a better future for a better America. This letter is similar to typical politicians preaching to his or her allies that every American must do a better job to make America more efficient and cleaner to make this country prosperous and better for the future. Education is the vital key of making America stronger.
I think Turner's message and the way he used the American frontier to connect to the life transition of self sufficiency was interesting. I found the piece a little hard to read because it did not seem very connected. I felt it would have been more powerful if he had stayed with the frontier ideal and not gone into how the frontier had changed and how our attitude toward nature has taken a 180 degree turn. The comment he made that I found the most intriguing was when he stated "not the Constitution, but free land and an abundance of natural resources open to a fit people, made the democratic type of society in America for three centuries while it occupied its empire." I found this interesting because we often do not refer to America as an empire, even though at this time we were in fact conquering the west. Also, as we have discussed in class, the west was seen as more savage and wild, not necessarily in tune with the democratic ideals of the rest of the country.
Jacoby's piece was really interesting. He explains the extermination of the Apache Indians by dehumanizing them and thinking of them as wild animals, such as the wolf. Treating the Apache's like the wolf allowed the frontiersmen to view the Apache's as a pest, something in their way preventing them from achieving their God given right of conquering the West. Thus ushering in the extermination of these Apache’s and other Indian groups. I had a particulary hard time reading about the murder of Apache infants, especially the story in which Sugarfoot Jack played with the little boy and then killed him when he got bored.
I found the Turner article slightly interesting. What struck me about it though, was how he talked about the importance of the University, and how all the generations before his had, something to occupy them, and that was westward expansion. Then he basically said that his generation had no westward expansion to occupy them, and so for them to contribute to the growth of the country, they must become more educated.
The Jacoby article I found really interesting. Especially the part by the settler King Woolsey, where he refers to male Native Americans as "bucks". Basically to him they were animals to be killed and slaughtered like any other. I also found the cartoon picture interesting as it is slightly taking the side of the Native American. It says basically that White Americans stole everything from the Native Americans, and then tried to basically run them out of the country, and when the Native Americans retaliated to such treatment Americans became angry because they thought what they were doing was just, and that the Indians where being childish
I think it's interesting in the Jacoby piece how he doesn't really talk about the Americans wanting try to befriend the Apache's, but instead they automatically assume that the only way to keep expanding like they are is to fully exterminate them. I also found it interesting that they sent out the U.S. Army on campaigns against the Apaches to try to exterminate them, it just seems like America was overreacting to this by sending out the entire Army. I found some comparisons to the way that they animalized the Apache to the way that American soldiers animalized the Japanese or the Vietnamese during their WWII and Vietnam, and while it is by no means a good thing to do I just thought it was kind of interesting to see that the animalization of our enemies has taken place many times over American history. As for the Turner piece it's cool to me to see how he's expressing how things have changed over time in regard to American's relationship with nature because before we were trying to figure out ways to conquer it but now we are trying to protect and save it.
The Jacoby article, while uncomfortable to read in today's politically sensitive world, gives us a chance to read into what was the mindset of many Americans at the time of settlement in the west. Often times, genocide is rationalized as one group thinking that the other group is less than human. In the case of the American settlers and the Native Americans, Jacoby makes this point clear. The Americans viewed the Indians as a nuisance, and the only real way to obtain their land was to remove them from it. The dehumanization of the Native Americans is frightening to think about in today's world, but was a sad reality in the 19th century.
The Turner speech seems to cement the idea that the American identity was fully created by the settling of the West. The true American character was evident in the setting that was created by the "individualistic liberty-loving democratic backwoodsmen". Overall, the Turner speech seems to be simply a historical overview of the settlement of the American continent, framed as a graduation speech to inspire the importance of education in the creation of the American character.
The Turner article called Americans to pursue an education in order to be able to solve the new problems the nation would have to face. I found Turners piece an example American's changing point of view about future goals. Turner states,"The cry of scientific farming and the conservation of natural resources replaces the cry of rapid conquest of the wilderness." So no longer are Americans urged to conquer,but to become educated in order to fix the problems the earlier generations had created. The Jacoby piece was certainly an insightful yet disturbing read. It certainly provided a unique look at the colonists points of views about Indians. Before reading this I thought colonists saw American Indians as an obstacle to their expansion, and a population which should be controlled but I had never envisioned colonists seeing the American Indians as pests that should be exterminated. It is a disturbing point of view but a necessary one to understand to be able to comprehend the events of Native American extermination.
One key theme of Turner’s speech is that Americans need to focus on solving the country’s problems instead of simply conquering the new frontiers of the west. Turner seems to harbor a bias for human progress at the expense of the environment. Another interesting aspect of the speech is that although Turner emphasizes freedom throughout his talk, he glosses over both any mention of slavery in the past or the current situation of freedmen in his time.
One issue I have a hard time wrapping my head around from the Jacoby article is, how people could ever give a reasonable justification in blindly accepting “the violence of settler colonialism?” I find it interesting that Jacoby invokes Charles Darwin with a quote on page three that states ‘ the civilized races of men will almost certainly exterminate, and replace, the savage races throughout the world.’ Some Europeans have rationalized their imperialism through Darwin’s theories, so I am not surprised to find Americans employing the same logic to their own expansion.
In Frederick Turner’s article, “The West and American Ideals,” Turner states that American democracy came out of the American forest and gained strength as people moved farther west and conquered the frontier. He also compares the population of the frontier to the settled states of the old world. Turner expresses the transformations that took place throughout the nation and the importance of universities to educate society and nurture the “human spirit.” Turner refers to this as humans’ strong desire for the undiscovered. Turner is writing from the perspective of being the first generation of Americans who can look back upon the westward movement era as a historic movement now coming to an end.
In “The broad platform of extermination”: nature and violence in the nineteenth century North American borderlands, Karl Jacoby presents the view or characterization of the Apache Indians as wolves, which therefore justified their extinction. Jacoby proposes several questions about the process of the Native American extinction, was their extinction a natural process? This is an interesting question that I would initially respond to as not being a natural process, but I am many years removed from the situation and do not have a full understanding of the psychological ramifications that might have plagued the Apache and other Indian tribes.
Jacoby piece I found particularly interesting because of its discussion of how those who were bent on destroying the Apache Indians would compare them to wolves, which is considered a dangerous pest. “Some writers noted that Apaches and wolves haunted the same “hungry waste” and attributed Apache tribal names to the Indians’seeming closeness to wolves.” I feel this line from Jacoby article important because even today we still associate the Native Americans with wolves but the context is less harsh. Today the connection more about being in tune with nature and the concept of Native Americans as the first environmentalist then the attempt at dehumanization discussed in Jacoby’s article.
ReplyDeleteThe message of Turner’s article was intriguing in that he uses the west as a message that is trying to get across which is that the United States to put the same level effort into educating it future, that it did in conquering the west. Turner thoughts are summed up at the end with this comment, “A new era will come if schools and universities can only widen the intellectual horizon of the people, help to lay the foundations of a better industrial life, show them new goals for endeavor, inspire them with more varied and higher ideals.”
Jacoby performs a historical analysis of the experience of the Apache people of the U.S.- Mexico borderlands. His study shows the Anglo- Americans were deliberately exterminating Apache people- which in other words, was genocide. Even the word used, “extermination” –I attributed to pest removal, getting rid of the Apache was like getting rid of the wolves, they were pests- goes hand in hand with the simultaneous removal of wolves. Apaches and wolves developed a similar identity in the eyes of Anglo settlers. Individuals that volunteered to take part in the extermination were often ordered to shoot whatever Apaches they saw- “shoot savages upon site.” Just like a herd of bison, no distinction would be made, and the goal was simply to destroy. This says something about people at the time- why were they so desensitized, this is undoubtedly murder…Jacoby says that many settlers killed the Apache as a “grotesque spectacle.”
ReplyDeleteThe cartoon on pg 250 was especially shocking- the way that this extermination was viewed at times as comic relief! I agree with Jacoby- he says the reason for this is that the U.S. was trying to assert control over the Western reaches of North America and correspond with one of the globe’s pre-eminent ages of imperial expansion- in the mean time German, France, GB, and other European countries were scrambling to get a portion of Africa.
Turner is trying to promote education as a good thing; as good preparation for the up and coming world. It seems that he wants those in the west to appreciate education. In order for people to have a voice in their country- they must be educated on current issues and stop taking a passive approach. He puts the University out there as a place where people can find meaning in life and learn a skill that will lead to their success- like learning proper agricultural techniques.
On pg 3 I like what he says, “American democracy was born of no theorist's dream; it was not carried in the Sarah Constant to Virginia, nor in the Mayflower to Plymouth. It came out of the American forest, and it gained new strength each time it touched a new frontier. Not the constitution, but free land and an abundance of natural resources open to a fit people, made the democratic type of society in America for three centuries while it occupied its empire.” – he is trying to unite Americans and encourage education for future generation- revolutionary!
I found the Jacoby article more interesting than Turner's. Perhaps the main reason for this is the disposition Jacoby takes in regard to the Apache Indian tribe. As we've seen before, from early Europeans all the way up until the mid/early 1900s with the Trail of Tears, Native Americans have been more than often looked down upon the inferior individual. That is also very present in this piece, however, the reference about the Apache resembling wolves in behavior and manner is really indicative that the Europeans inherently thought less of them. It was more than a dislike or loathing of a people, it was a sense of uncertainty and confusion as to why the Native Americans were the way they were. I believe much of the reason they were exterminated in the fashion that they were was a result from slight psychological intimidation and extreme misunderstanding.
ReplyDeleteTurner's article was also interesting from another perspective on the expansion west. His focus is obviously education and how vital it is in order to grow and develop as a nation. In some of his words and ideas he portrayed the incredible importance in broadening the horizons of the youth, or just younger generations to come. He is clearly invested in the future of the nation and offers his outlook in hopes to help encourage the importance of education as well as relate it to the potential success as a major benefit from it.
I did not find Turner's article to be very interesting but it did make a crucial point about how the future of the country depends on the educated.
ReplyDelete"From the beginning of that long westward march of the American people America has never been the home of mere contented materialism. It has continuously sought new ways and dreamed of a perfected social type."
I think this quote accurately describes the United States and its values. I believe that what makes America great is the fact that we were founded on the idea of creating a better world where people can express their opinions and views without being persecuted. This has led us to become one of the most powerful countries in the world with a very advanced society.
Jacoby's article on extermination sheds light on the horrors that took place between the "cowboys and indians." From the beginning of colonialization, Native Americans have always been seen as savage and inferior to the "white man" and the comparison of the Apaches to wolves further reiterates this notion in the minds of Euro-Americans. Since the white settlers were so different from the Indians, they reduced the natives to a subhuman status in order to make it easier for them to eradicate them from the land by killing them in hunting fashion, as if they were animals.
Turner’s insistence on the coming of a new era was, in many ways, accurate. He was certainly right about America’s need to be conscious of environmental consequences and no longer simply take advantage of everything for only the present. He said that the age of cheap land, crops, and cattle was gone for good. In many ways, this assessment was accurate as a result of new farming methods and increased population in the west. Turner spoke about how the American West is a symbol of freedom, making possible the rags-to-riches dream for the common man. By comparing American settlers to past explorers, Turner noted the appeal of the undiscovered and how mankind seems to have an ever-present desire for exploring and conquering the unknown.
ReplyDeleteThis desire to conquer is evident in Jacoby’s article about many Americans’ thoughts on the extermination of the Native Americans. Jacoby writes about the different ways that people justified this extermination. Many had the desire to take control of all of North America, and as historian Deloria called it, the concept of “defensive conquest,” which essentially excused Euro-Americans because they were supposedly forced into aggression as a result of Amerindian violence. This view was shared by many and the authority of Darwin was even invoked by way of a quote from On the Origin of Species saying it was inevitable that the most advanced of mankind would destroy those who were inferior. The assumption that the Euro-American perceptions of progress automatically defined what was superior and inferior created a blindness that was ironically detrimental to all mankind thanks to the wasteful lifestyles that came with this mentality.
The question raised by both of these articles is one we mentioned in class and one that does not have a definite answer. It is the question of whether what happened to the Indians and to other species is a natural process or whether it can and should be stopped. This question brings into question what is natural and whether or not there is a divide between nature and that which is created by man.
I found the Jacoby piece very interesting because it showed how truly awful the Indians were treated in the West. It seems that Americans had gone past the point of thinking of Indians as “uncivilized savages” and further degraded them to the status of a wild animal, and a nuisance at that (as opposed to a majestic or uniquely American wild animal). I was further shocked to find that in exterminating the Indians, there didn’t seem to be a whole lot of discrimination between gender or age; generally everyone in sight was killed, and only sometimes the young were spared. I also find it interesting to see how narrow-minded people were—Jacoby says that many people thought that “Extermination is our only hope”, as if there was absolutely no other way to deal with the Indians. Also, I found their justification for extermination equally unsatisfying, because they claimed that it was natural and survival of the fittest, but killing off people isn’t really a natural way for populations to die out.
ReplyDeleteI liked how in Turner’s piece he turned the idea of a frontier away from a physical, tangible object and into more of an intellectual idea and goal to aspire to. I think it is especially effective in encouraging education and demonstrating the value of education. He is constantly focusing on progress in America, whether it be physical, intellectual, or any other kind of progress. I think this demonstrates the ideals of the larger American population and helps us to understand actions/decisions of the time in America.
Jacoby’s article really put the American view of the American Indians, specifically the Apache, into a clearer, undiluted light. It demonstrated the sentiment that many groups that partake in genocide develop: the group they are seeking to “exterminate” is below human. That particular group, in the eyes of those doing the exterminating, becomes nothing more than a group of animals. Americans tied the image and mentality of a fox to the Apache Indians. This formed the image of them being sneaky and cunning, essentially pests and threats to the American lifestyle.
ReplyDeleteI actually enjoyed Turner’s article. Though it wasn’t necessarily exiting, it was interesting to see how he, in a way, tracked the way the human mind functions and how history becomes historic. He stated that the past, present, and future of a nation depend on the educated. With the expansion of education, people began to reflect more upon events and grow more analytical as time continued to unfold. As man’s level of education increases, he is more likely to reflect upon the impact his present actions will have in the now and in the future, as well as take into consideration the events of the past that created the present.
The Jacoby article was really disturbing to me. I really didn’t like the language used and the descriptions of the violence used against the Indians it made me cringe. Such phrases such as “the logic of extermination or extermination becomes a tangible good” and “shoot these savages upon sight.” Last class we discussed how the Indians and bison are generally viewed as the victim and this article definitely reinforced that idea. Its hard for me to fathom that a little less than 20% of the population opposed to total extermination.
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed Turners article yet I had to read it multiple times to get the full meaning out of it. Turner explored how the idea of the American Frontier became an essential part of our identity as a country. He stresses on the values of the American frontier men and relates it to education to day and the need for exploration, creativity and intellect.
On a side note the new issue of the National Geographic had an entire article and photo shoot on the “Age of Man, Enter the Anthropocene.” I thought this really related to class and our previous discussions of the transformations of nature as over ruling the landscape and then a middle ground and then complete human take over of the landscape. The pictures reminded me of the paintings we looked at in class of the different stages.
I found the Turner piece as what it is, a graduation speech. Not to interesting to say, but with the laying out of broader ideas. Advocating for knowledge with the thirst which we use to conquer the west. Educating people was the basis of what the west would be built on, and that is why it was necessary.
ReplyDeleteThe Jacoby article was much more interesting. The extermination of the Indian was inevitable, either from natural forces, the military, other tribes, or even the everyday citizen. I found it especially interesting that people during this time were beginning to care about cruelty to animals. Those imposing humane ideas on the treatment of animals, without any of these ideas toward the American Indian, in this case the Apache. Comparing them to the pest of the wolf, called for their extermination for the preservation of the white man. Making such a comparison shows how low Americans then thought of the Apache, with no remorse. Killing women and children, even throwing infants into the fire. I guess you could call this survival of the fittest, but all out extermination is not surviving, it is destroying.
I personally thought that Jacoby's article was good, yet disturbing to read. It was important for me to read because his article defines how awful the Apache tribe were treated in the West. The Anglo-Americans referred the Apache Indians that they were akin to the wolves. What I found important about his article was that Jacoby believed that the only way to expunge the Apache population was to exterminate them. I truly believe that the reason that the Anglo-Americans wiped out numerous Apache Indians because they wanted to conquer their territory. They also wanted this problem solved promptly because the Federal and Confederate Governments were dealing with another major crisis: the Civil War. When I first read the article, I have always believed that "extermination" during that era meant "expulsion," but after reading the entire article, I can now see how extermination and genocide relate towards each other.
ReplyDeleteIn Turner's letter, the only portion of his letter that I found interesting was that he's trying to relay a message to the people out west that they need to be educated. America was in a progress during that time period, and Turner wanted people to make the correct decisions to build a better future for a better America. This letter is similar to typical politicians preaching to his or her allies that every American must do a better job to make America more efficient and cleaner to make this country prosperous and better for the future. Education is the vital key of making America stronger.
I think Turner's message and the way he used the American frontier to connect to the life transition of self sufficiency was interesting. I found the piece a little hard to read because it did not seem very connected. I felt it would have been more powerful if he had stayed with the frontier ideal and not gone into how the frontier had changed and how our attitude toward nature has taken a 180 degree turn. The comment he made that I found the most intriguing was when he stated "not the Constitution, but free land and an abundance of natural resources open to a fit people, made the democratic type of society in America for three centuries while it occupied its empire." I found this interesting because we often do not refer to America as an empire, even though at this time we were in fact conquering the west. Also, as we have discussed in class, the west was seen as more savage and wild, not necessarily in tune with the democratic ideals of the rest of the country.
ReplyDeleteJacoby's piece was really interesting. He explains the extermination of the Apache Indians by dehumanizing them and thinking of them as wild animals, such as the wolf. Treating the Apache's like the wolf allowed the frontiersmen to view the Apache's as a pest, something in their way preventing them from achieving their God given right of conquering the West. Thus ushering in the extermination of these Apache’s and other Indian groups. I had a particulary hard time reading about the murder of Apache infants, especially the story in which Sugarfoot Jack played with the little boy and then killed him when he got bored.
I found the Turner article slightly interesting. What struck me about it though, was how he talked about the importance of the University, and how all the generations before his had, something to occupy them, and that was westward expansion. Then he basically said that his generation had no westward expansion to occupy them, and so for them to contribute to the growth of the country, they must become more educated.
ReplyDeleteThe Jacoby article I found really interesting. Especially the part by the settler King Woolsey, where he refers to male Native Americans as "bucks". Basically to him they were animals to be killed and slaughtered like any other. I also found the cartoon picture interesting as it is slightly taking the side of the Native American. It says basically that White Americans stole everything from the Native Americans, and then tried to basically run them out of the country, and when the Native Americans retaliated to such treatment Americans became angry because they thought what they were doing was just, and that the Indians where being childish
I think it's interesting in the Jacoby piece how he doesn't really talk about the Americans wanting try to befriend the Apache's, but instead they automatically assume that the only way to keep expanding like they are is to fully exterminate them. I also found it interesting that they sent out the U.S. Army on campaigns against the Apaches to try to exterminate them, it just seems like America was overreacting to this by sending out the entire Army. I found some comparisons to the way that they animalized the Apache to the way that American soldiers animalized the Japanese or the Vietnamese during their WWII and Vietnam, and while it is by no means a good thing to do I just thought it was kind of interesting to see that the animalization of our enemies has taken place many times over American history. As for the Turner piece it's cool to me to see how he's expressing how things have changed over time in regard to American's relationship with nature because before we were trying to figure out ways to conquer it but now we are trying to protect and save it.
ReplyDeleteThe Jacoby article, while uncomfortable to read in today's politically sensitive world, gives us a chance to read into what was the mindset of many Americans at the time of settlement in the west. Often times, genocide is rationalized as one group thinking that the other group is less than human. In the case of the American settlers and the Native Americans, Jacoby makes this point clear. The Americans viewed the Indians as a nuisance, and the only real way to obtain their land was to remove them from it. The dehumanization of the Native Americans is frightening to think about in today's world, but was a sad reality in the 19th century.
ReplyDeleteThe Turner speech seems to cement the idea that the American identity was fully created by the settling of the West. The true American character was evident in the setting that was created by the "individualistic liberty-loving democratic backwoodsmen". Overall, the Turner speech seems to be simply a historical overview of the settlement of the American continent, framed as a graduation speech to inspire the importance of education in the creation of the American character.
The Turner article called Americans to pursue an education in order to be able to solve the new problems the nation would have to face. I found Turners piece an example American's changing point of view about future goals. Turner states,"The cry of scientific farming and the conservation of natural resources replaces the cry of rapid conquest of the wilderness." So no longer are Americans urged to conquer,but to become educated in order to fix the problems the earlier generations had created.
ReplyDeleteThe Jacoby piece was certainly an insightful yet disturbing read. It certainly provided a unique look at the colonists points of views about Indians. Before reading this I thought colonists saw American Indians as an obstacle to their expansion, and a population which should be controlled but I had never envisioned colonists seeing the American Indians as pests that should be exterminated. It is a disturbing point of view but a necessary one to understand to be able to comprehend the events of Native American extermination.
One key theme of Turner’s speech is that Americans need to focus on solving the country’s problems instead of simply conquering the new frontiers of the west. Turner seems to harbor a bias for human progress at the expense of the environment. Another interesting aspect of the speech is that although Turner emphasizes freedom throughout his talk, he glosses over both any mention of slavery in the past or the current situation of freedmen in his time.
ReplyDeleteOne issue I have a hard time wrapping my head around from the Jacoby article is, how people could ever give a reasonable justification in blindly accepting “the violence of settler colonialism?” I find it interesting that Jacoby invokes Charles Darwin with a quote on page three that states ‘ the
civilized races of men will almost certainly exterminate, and replace, the savage
races throughout the world.’ Some Europeans have rationalized their imperialism through Darwin’s theories, so I am not surprised to find Americans employing the same logic to their own expansion.
In Frederick Turner’s article, “The West and American Ideals,” Turner states that American democracy came out of the American forest and gained strength as people moved farther west and conquered the frontier. He also compares the population of the frontier to the settled states of the old world. Turner expresses the transformations that took place throughout the nation and the importance of universities to educate society and nurture the “human spirit.” Turner refers to this as humans’ strong desire for the undiscovered. Turner is writing from the perspective of being the first generation of Americans who can look back upon the westward movement era as a historic movement now coming to an end.
ReplyDeleteIn “The broad platform of extermination”: nature and violence in the nineteenth century North American borderlands, Karl Jacoby presents the view or characterization of the Apache Indians as wolves, which therefore justified their extinction. Jacoby proposes several questions about the process of the Native American extinction, was their extinction a natural process? This is an interesting question that I would initially respond to as not being a natural process, but I am many years removed from the situation and do not have a full understanding of the psychological ramifications that might have plagued the Apache and other Indian tribes.
Here's the link that Anna referred to:
ReplyDeletehttp://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2011/03/age-of-man/anthropocene-photography