Friday, November 4, 2011
Work Cited
Cave, Alfred A. Pequot War. University of Massachusetts Press, 1996. eBook Collection (EBSCOhost). Web. 4 Nov. 2011.
Dwight, Timothy. Travels, in New-England and New-York. Volume 1. New-Haven, 1821-1822. 525pp. 4 vols.
Cronon, William. Changes in the Land. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data. 1983, 2003
A deep thought to wind us down...
THOMAS MORTON RIDDLE
The Thomas Morton riddle was one that kept coming up in the work. The riddle was compelling and full of deep thought. It mentions the idea that the difference between the Europeans and Indians was that the Europeans, “loved their property differently,” (80). Dwight makes a point about Indians in that they, “may be civilized; wherever it cannot , they still remain Indians,” (Dwight 164). Dwight alludes that the Indians were overwhelmed with the fact that the Europeans just loved property more so than they did. Once the Europeans stepped foot on that land, the property became the colonists’. “The land could not long remain unchanged if it were owned in a different way,” (Cronon 80).
Go green? Don't ask the Europeans about that...
Use of the Land
The main commodity of this new world was indeed the land. However the use of land differs drastically in Europeans and Indians. The northern Indians were more “game” driven. They lived entirely as hunters and gatherers due to their ecology. The Indians migrated seasonally to fulfill their needs. Once the ice broke, in the spring, northerners moved out to coastal sites to tend to their fishing nets and canoes. They relied a lot on the food sources of seashores and rivers. In the spring, they are able to get back to their typical routine of easy living. They, then, had to endure winters in which food was scarce. The Indians in away didn’t prepare very well for the season. However, they had enough food to survive and didn’t seem to care which boggled the minds of the Europeans. Southern Indians were more agriculturally developed, relying heavily on crops. Grain, which was the main staple, in the south, seemed, “ to smooth out the seasonal scarcities of food,” (42). This allowed them to maintain almost seven times the amount of people per hundred square miles. New England Indians, whether in the north or the south, moved from habitat to habitat for their demands of the ecosystem. Those demands were kept minimal because they moved, “according to the richness of the site and the season,” (53). They were careful of the ecosystem to not overuse a single species. They appreciate the land around them and were mindful of the ecosystem.
The Europeans couldn’t help but take advantage of all the commodities this rich land provided. The Indians way of agriculture was too slow and not productive enough. They began to use farm animals to plow from their crops. They wanted to get the most out of each piece of land. The plow and hooves of the animal damaged the soil until there wasn’t enough nutrient rich soil left. They completely exhausted the land after numerous times plowing. “Colonial farmers treated their land as a resource to be mined until it was exhausted, rather than one to be conserved” (153). The two methods to clear forests for agriculture were girdling and chopping trees down to their stump and then burning them. Girdling was a process of shaving the bark off the tree. It wasted a lot of wood but it also allowed the tree to not fall right away until several years later. One of the first noticeable things about New England is the vast amount of trees. The idea was implemented in their heads, is the amount of supplies they could come away with from these trees. Tree would provide timber which in high demand for the Europeans. Trees were cleared to provide fields for agriculture. They were also used in mercantile and trade. Trees were sent back to Europe to pay off debts people had to financial bankers. Many different species of trees were cut down, gathered up and sent to Europe to build vassals with. New England was cued as the key provider to the Royal Navy. “New England lumbering used forests as if they would last forever,” (111). The continued deforestation left a significant mark on the ecosystem.
A head-scratching topic...
WAMPUM
The Dutch West India Company first discovered wampum. It was used as a trading piece with the Indians. It comes from the word “Jewells.” At first they saw no value in it, but after, “they found the vivid colors evocative of a certain heightened spiritual states,” (62). It was made along the Long Island Sound and is composed of sacred shell beads from quahog and clamshells. “Wampum was soon transformed into a form of currency,” (53). It became a symbol for compensation, diplomacy, sachems and other special people. The Indians interpretation and belief in wampum as a supernatural being was interesting and makes one wonder why the author didn’t dive deeper into this topic. The Indians believed in it “miraculous origin and continues potency,” (51).
Indians and Europeans... Can they coexist?
Trade and Disease
The implementation of trade allowed from commodities to be exchanged with the natives for materials they desired. With tension over property boundaries mounting, trade began as a casual way for both the Europeans and Indians to receive something they didn’t have. In 1524, Verrazano discovered Indians along the coast of Maine. Although the natives seemed compelled with the items on board,
“They were nevertheless careful to direct Verrazano’s men to meet them at the rockiest and most dangerous part of the shore where landing was impossible,” (83).
It was if they didn’t have a care for them or an interest in trading. This encounter paved the way for, “the single most dramatic ecological change in Indian lives,” (85). It was the Old World diseases, which included smallpox, malaria, influenza, plague, yellow fever and many others. The Indians had never been exposed to anything like this. There was no development of immunity against them. In turn, women got pregnant with babies and they too didn’t acquire any immunity to fight these pathogens. The population fell from 70,000 to 12,000 in the first 75 years of the 17th century. In the long run, this provided another reason for the colonists to justify the seizing of their land because of the mast wipe out of the natives.
Getting back to trade, Calvin Harris, a historian, stated, “Indians became involved in the fur trade because they believed that game animals, rather than Europeans, had brought the epidemics upon them,” (91). Europeans offered items such as brass, copper, woven fabrics and iron used for knives and hatchets. This opened a business-like exchange and established markets of trade soon after. However, the Indians had, “little to nothing else,” (95) to offer but its homegrown maize or corn. Maize proved to be a smart item to trade for furs because of its ability to be produced or grown easily. It was also transported easier because of its lightweight. For more commercial exchanges, wampum was used a medium in most deals. Wampum is used as a form of “money” and will be discussed later in the blog. The beaver became the most vital part of the fur trade. The Indians, however, “killed animals only in proportion as they had need for them,” (98). Although the Indians had always been aware of killing the beavers only out of need, the Europeans changed the Indians’ trading notions and mindset. They weren’t accustom to this kind of commercialization and in turn, the beaver become scarce but still in high demand. Since beavers were the focal point of trade their, “low reproductive rates and sedentary habits made them easily threatened by concentrated hunting,” (99). Trade ultimately opened up many forms of communications and collectiveness but also exposed the Indians to disease. Trade also cornered the Indians into putting more animals into scarcity because of the fur trade with Indians from the north and south.
Land of Plenty cont...
“The ecological relationships which the English sought to reproduce in New England were no less cyclical than those of the Indians; they were only simpler and more concentrated,” (53).
The Indians perspective of the landscape was a much more conservative and self-sustaining. They lived off the land and migrated based on necessity. The Indians simply used what they needed from the ecosystem and once they had their fill, they moved onward. Indians “had learned to exploit the seasonal diversity of their environment by practicing mobility,” (37). They moved from place to place to discover, “maximum abundance through minimal work,” (53). Indians wanted to leave as little impact on the land as possible. Their lives revolved around the ability to move with their possessions being transported and stored on their backs. The Indians had a different connection to the land than the Europeans. The lifestyle was perceived as, “living richly, and having little in the way of either wants or complaints,” (80).
Moving into New England...
VIEW OF LAND OF PLENTY
America was an opportunity for Europeans to expand out to an “uncharted” world. Both the Indians and the Europeans had contrasting views of the landscape. The Europeans, “tendency [was] to view the landscape in terms of their own cultural concepts, the selective emphasis on commodities,” (Cronon 22). They were out to secure their own wants and needs in this vast land. All around them were an abundance of timber, land, animals and soil for planting crops. Each was viewed as a commodity in their own “economic” visual of the land. They saw opportunity to take advantage of this ecosystem. After a year or two, the Europeans discovered this land wasn’t like England at all. As the colonists prepared for the winter season they realized they were not prepared for this lifestyles. After many perished, the Europeans were able to learn and study the ways of the Indian lifestyle. Being in a new ecosystem, the Europeans picked up Indian traditions in order to improve their own lifestyles. They were able to grasp how the, “Indians held their demands on the ecosystem to a minimum,” (53). The colonists then used these techniques and implemented them into their perception of life and the use of the seasons. It was a way to make a profit and improve their living back in the homeland. The Europeans’ vision was to exploit each commodity to its fullest potential. Their mission was to develop permanent settlements and ultimately “improve” the land. They invested a lot in the land and expected heavy “profit,” in return.
To start...
“All change is not growth, as all movement is not forward” –Ellen Glasgow
INTRODUCTION
First off, change is something that is all around us. Time is a proponent of change. William Cronon’s work, Changes in the Land, is an interpretation with persuasive arguments of the ecology shift in 17th and 18th century New England. The Native Indians of New England become exposed to a European way of life and together live through a complex transformation in the land. The author brings the audience through the changing circumstances of European dominance and of the world around them. Thus delivering his thesis, “"the shift from Indian to European dominance in New England entailed important changes-well known to historians-in the ways these peoples organized their lives, but it also involved fundamental reorganizations-less well known to historians-in the region's plant and animal communities" (Cronon vii). Through countless pieces of evidence, the author depicts the life of New England Indians and Europeans as their relationship evolves over time along with the ecology around them.
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