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The fabrication of the American Indian by White
American culture began around the 1820s. By that
time, national feelings about Indians had developed
into a kind of schizophrenic depiction of them,
a phenomena that continues to the present day. Two
polar opposite stereotypes developed: the noble
savage (peaceful, spiritual, mystic guardian
of the land who exists in harmony with nature and
was the original conservationist), and the ignoble
savage (a marauding untamable murderer; a hellish
demon who scalped women and children. Once conquered,
he was depicted as a thief, a drunkard, and a beggar,
unwilling to work but willing to accept government
handouts). The noble savage stereotype developed
first in Europe. It first appeared in the United
States in areas where "the Indian problem" had been solved. It's important to understand that
as manifest destiny swept westward, it was possible
for Indians to become picturesque and quaint in
areas where they were either vanquished or powerless; i.e., no longer a threat. In recent times,
the ignoble savage caricature has been most prevalent
when Indians reclaim their rights, such as spear
fishing rights in Northern Wisconsin and Michigan,
or as they've started to gain economic and political
power through casino revenue. It seems that White
Americans today become exceptionally angry at Indians
who do not fit the romanticized noble savage mold
and so recast them ignobly. Both stereotypes depict
the Indian as childlike and primitive, and always
the "Other," distinct from any other race.
The ignoble savage came first, created by the Puritan
distrust of the wilderness and the precarious position
they found themselves in during the early colonial
experience. The Pilgrims wintered aboard the Mayflower
after their arrival in New England in 1620. William
Bradford wrote in Of Plymouth Plantation,
"Besides, what could they see but a hideous
and desolate wilderness, full of wild beasts and
wild men--and what multitudes there might be of
them they knew not." When the Pilgrims did
make contact with Indians, Bradford described them
as "skulking about," and having stolen
some workmen's tools. The Pilgrims were soon contacted
by English-speaking Squanto, who introduced them
to Massasoit, the great Sachem of the Wampanoags,
with whom the Pilgrims made the 1621 peace treaty.
The two groups maintained an uneasy peace until
Massasoit's death in 1661, at which time the leader's
son Wamsutta succeeded him. Following the death
of Wamsutta in Plymouth while negotiating with the
Puritans, his younger brother Metacom became
Sachem of the Pokanoket and Grand Sachem of the
Wampanoag Confederacy. |
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The English called Metacom "Philip of
Pokanoket," but he was nicknamed "Prince
Philip" by the colonists because of his
regal bearing. When war erupted between the
Wampanoag and the colonists in 1665, Philip
was sarcastically re-nicknamed "King Philip," and the conflict has since been popularly and
historically known as King Philip's War.
(Red King's Rebellion). The source of the conflict
is complicated. The Wampanoags relied on the
English for trade goods, particularly iron tools,
and as a counterweight to their own native enemies.
On the other side, as the colonial population
increased (some estimates are that it was doubling
every twenty-five years), the need for expansion
became critical, which soon changed the dynamics
of trade. Colonists began establishing small
settlements in the region between New England's
coastal plain and the Connecticut River Valley,
putting pressure on the local Indians. In 1671,
the court in Plymouth, hearing of ongoing threats
against the colonists, attempted to coerce the
Indians into turning over many of their firearms
to the colony. This had limited results and
increased Native suspicions about the colonists.
Another factor was the ongoing attempt by the
Puritans to Christianize the Indians through
"praying towns," |
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| reservations created
by Massachusetts Bay officials where converts
were expected to learn English customs and trades. It was a report of pending hostilities from
a "Praying Indian" translator and
adviser to Metacom named John Sassamon that
sparked the conflict. John Sassamon was murdered, allegedly
killed by few of Phillip's Wampanoag angry at his
betrayal. Three Wampanoags were arrested, tried, and
convicted of Sassamon's murder, and then hanged on
June 8, 1675 at Plymouth. Some Indians believed the
three had been falsely convicted, and saw the Colonial
judicial response as an insult to Indian sovereignty.
In response, a band of Pokanoket, possibly without
Philip's approval, attacked several isolated homesteads
in Swansea, destroying the town and killing several
settlers. The colonists quickly retaliated by destroying
the Wampanoag town at Mount Hope. War then raged throughout
the countryside. Metacom was betrayed and ambushed
by an Indian named John Alderman in August 1676, and
his severed head was displayed on a pike in Plymouth
for decades. Three years of bloody and destructive
conflict was costly for both sides. The colonists
became increasingly reliant on on the British government
for protection, which soon tried to exploit them for
their own gain. Consequences for the Indians were
even more devastating and far-reaching. By 1678 over
half of the native population of New |
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England had been
eradicated. The depiction of Metacom for more than a hundred
years following the war was that of the ignoble
savage. He was cast as a diabolical demon, while
the Puritans were painted as heroically doing
God's work. This was especially true during
the American Revolution, when there was a need
to create a more idealized "first settler",
whose early colonial struggles against nature
and beast (including Indians), now helped justify
independence. One of the tools used to spread
this propaganda was a book titled, Diary
of King Philip's War by Benjamin Church;
a captain present at Metacom's ambush. When
first published in 1716, it was a mere 120 pages,
without notes or illustrations. During the years
of British taxation policy and colonial protest,
the book was reprinted (1772), this time with
a description of Church's life, and an engraving
of Metacom by Paul Revere. Titled, "Philip,
King of Mount Hope," the image is an unflattering
portrait of the Indian leader. He is depicted
as being short and squat, and pygmy-like, typically
ignoble.
The creation of the noble savage stereotype
was influenced by the advent of Romanticism
and its influence on the first generation of
American writers, especially Washington Irving
and James Fenimore Cooper. |
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| Irving, in his essay
"The Traits of Indian Character" (1819-1820),
firmly placed "Indianness" within
the environmental "scenery" in which
the Indian lived. By Romanticizing and glorying
the wilderness that had created the noble savage,
a wilderness that was quickly disappearing,
he was also criticizing the first European
colonists. This theme is further explored in Cooper's The Pioneers (1823), which is set in the
twilight of rural 18th Century central New York where
the frontier has now moved West beyond them; the beautiful
wilderness replaced by orderly farms. Cooper's "civilization",
however, is prone to irrational, sinful destruction
of nature. The townsfolk's slaughter of the wild animals
is well beyond any safety or economic justification.
In one scene, the hero character of Natty Bumppo, whose
legendary wilderness skills and attitudes were honed
through his intimate contact with nature and Indians,
is appalled at their employment of a cannon to bring
down a massive flock of migrating pigeons. Bumppo criticizes
the "wasty ways" of so-called civilization
and says it's a sin to kill more than one can eat. Meanwhile,
the noble Indians struggle to understand and accept
the "order" imposed on them in the form of
strict hunting laws. |
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This new trend in the depiction of Indians was part
of a conscious effort in the early 19th Century to
create a national identity. With Independence and
a definitive physical separation from England resulting
from the War of 1812, Americans consciously reinvented
their past in order to further distinguish themselves
from their predominantly British ancestors. They looked
first to the first "Americans". The pilgrims
were natural candidates to be redrawn in mythical
proportions, a status they maintain to the present
day, and Indians came to symbolize a romantic connection
to the country's wild, virgin past (East of the Alleghenies,
at least). Even Metacom received an image enhancement.
Washington Irving wrote specifically about Metacom
in his essay, "Philip of Pokanoket" (1819-1820).
By reinterpreting him in nationalist terms as "a
patriot to his native soil," he set the stage
for a long history of White America's attempt to explain
the legitimacy of their claim to the North American
continent by establishing a mythical relationship
with the continent's Romanticized wilderness origins
(which now included Indians). Lingering Anti-British
sentiments also played a role in allowing Whites to
establish this mythical brotherhood with Indians.
An 1819 play called She Would Be a Soldier; or
The Plains of Chippewa had a small but important
Indian role, played by an American-born Shakespearean
stage actor named Edwin Forrest. The nameless character
was a guide to a bumbling, idiotic British officer,
and contrasted him with American-like sensibilities
such as logic, loyalty, patriotism, and nobility of
spirit. In one critical scene, the Indian is captured
by the Americans, and he explains why he hates them
and is justified in working for the British:
You came with the silver smile of peace, and
we received you into our cabins; we hunted for you,
toiled for you; but when your numbers increased,
you rose like wolves upon us, fired our dwellings,
drove off our cattle, sent us in tribes to the wilderness,
to seek for shelter; and now you ask me, while naked
and a prisoner, to be your friend!...Think you I
would be your enemy unless urged by powerful wrongs?
No, white man, no!
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The American response is to tell the Indian
that he and his people are the victims of British
propaganda, and that the Americans and Indians
are united in their native brotherhood against
an intervening foreign power--the British. Given
this explanation, the Indian sees the error
of his thinking. He calls the Americans his
"brothers," and pledges his friendship.
The rehabilitation of Metacom continued in
1825, when Benjamin Church's diary was reprinted
by Samuel Drake of Boston, this time in 304
pages and with a new engraving that modified
the image of infamous sachem. No longer shriveled
and ugly, this new Metacom was tall, strong,
and far more heroic-looking. The book still
cast the early settlers in a heroic light, but
it de-demonized Philip. The public's response
to this version was so favorable that in 1827
Drake published yet another version, this one
360 pages long. |
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The "Vanishing Indian" and Jacksonian
Indian Policy
The reinterpretations of the Indian and of Metacom
were both well underway by 1826, but both took a giant
leap forward in 1828 when actor Edwin Forrest (of She Would Be a Soldier fame), who was interested
in developing uniquely American plays, took out an
advertisement in a New York newspaper, The Critic,
offering $500, "To the author of the best Tragedy,
in five acts, of which the hero...shall be an aboriginal
of this country." The winning entry was Metamora;
or the Last of the Wampanoags, by John Augustus
Stone. The play was first performed in New York on
December 15, 1829, with Forrest playing the lead character
of Metamora, a representation of Metacom. Written
and performed at a crucial moment in the history of
US Indian policy, the play manages to put forth a
strong defense of the Indian position while at the
same time justifying his forced removal (or "voluntary
emigration," as the government called it), to
Western lands. Metamora's enemies are not so much
Americans as they are British. He actually befriends
the kindhearted American colonists Oceana and Walter,
who recognize the native as an honorable, if untaught
savage who loves his country, his family, and who
keeps his word. He is spiritual, if not Christian,
but the audience would recognize in him a fear of
an all-mighty being that was Christian-like in its
humility. Metamora was a tragic figure, his inevitable
demise brought about not by Americans, but by the
manifest destiny of freedom-seeking Whites, whose
quest to escape the tyranny of the Old World Order
necessitated a new one. The Americans could bemoan
the inevitable fate of the Indian, but could also
see themselves as worthy successors to be stewards
of the North American continent. |
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Much of
the success and impact of Metamora; or the
Last of the Wampanoags was due to the acting
talents of Edwin Forrest. He reportedly spent
a month living with an Indian chief in New Orleans
as research. His interpretation of the noble savage
focused greatly on physical characteristics he
gave Metamora. Many of the now long-standing stereotypical
attributes of how an actor should portray an Indian
are due to Forrest, including the monosyllabic
"ugh" grunts, certain tonal and facial
expressions, his body carriage (including a particular
way of walking in a straight line), and an emotional
stoicism imbued with grandeur and pathos. Once
enraged, however, the Indian character reverted
to the ignoble savage. Forrest's own physique
and voice were impressive, and in one particular
scene he wielded a Tomahawk on a White man with
terrifying power, electrifying the audience with
the sheer bluntness of his brutality and forever
ingraining the image of the wild savage in the
minds of the audience. In doing so, Forrest was
making it clear that such a creature must be removed, |
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| nobility aside, for the sake of civilization.
That the two stereotypes could coexist in a single
character was not a problem for audiences. Fenimore
Cooper also had already played an important role
in thetrend of both romanticizing and demonizing
the Indians in a single work. In his most famous novel, The Last of The Mohicans (1826), Chingachook
and Uncas (the good Indians) are idealized as the noble
savage, while Magua and the other Hurons (the bad Indians)
exhibit subhuman tendencies; they revel in violence
and eat their meat raw. |
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As Americans continued to move West beyond
Mississippi and again competed for land, the
ignoble savage once again came into vogue. In
1837 Robert Montgomery Bird published Nick
of The Woods. Set in 1760s Kentucky, it
was written as a direct refudiation of Cooper's
romanticized Indian. The hero character, Nathan
Slaughter, is essentially an Indian hater, and
the destruction of the Red menace is his sole
concern. In the preface of the 1837 edition
Bird wrote:
We owe, perhaps, some apology for the hues
we have thrown around the Indian portraits
in our picture,--hues darker than are usually
employed by the painters of such pictures.
But, we confess, the North American savage
has never appeared to us the gallant and heroic
personage he seems to others. The single fact
that he wages war--systematic war--upon beings
incapable of resistance or defence,--upon
women and children, whom all other races in
the world, no matter how barbarous, consent
to spare,--has hitherto been, and we suppose,
to the end of our days will remain, a stumbling-block
to our imagination: we look into the woods
for the mighty warrior, 'the feather-cinctured
chief,' rushing to meet his foe, and behold
him retiring, laden with the scalps of miserable
squaws and their babes.--Heroical? Hoc
verbum quid valeat, non vident.
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| With the popular success
of Metamora; or the Last of the Wampanoags, the
stage was soon crowded with vanishing Indian plays.
They were so prolific that soon the noble savage character
was being burlesqued and parodied, with the effect that
Indians were for a long time considered unsuitable subjects
for serious art and literature. By 1870, with the Civil
War behind them and national attention having turned
toward Reconstruction and the West, the Plains Indians
and their culture had supplanted the Wampanoag and the
tribes of the Iroquois confederacy in the public imagination.
Metacom became an "Eastern Indian," and faded
into history. |
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| Secondary Sources: |
| Berkhofer, Jr., Robert. The White
Man's Indian: Images of The American Indian from Columbus
to the Present, New York, Vintage Books, 1979. |
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| Bourne, Russell. The Red King's Rebellion:
Racial Politics in New England, 1675-1678, Oxford,
Oxford University Press, 1990. |
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| Harland, Marion, ed.Character Sketches
of Romance Fiction and the Drama (Complete in 4
Volumes), New York, Selmar Hess, 1892. |
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| Jones, Sally L. "The First but Not
the Last of the 'Vanishing Indians': Edwin Forrest and
Mythic Re-creations of the Native Population," Dressing In Feathers, ed. S. Elizabeth Bird,
Westview Press, 1996. |
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| King Philip's War. (2007, August 6).
In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 21:04,
August 9, 2007, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=King_Philip%27s_War&oldid=149624663 |
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