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Meagan Jaycox

Cooper/ Whipple

5/25/17

Overcoming the shadow of the Old World

Before explorers sailed over from the Old World, the New World and its inhabitants, the

Native Americans, were unknown to the advanced Old World. When Conquistadors first landed

in America, they were driven by the three G’s: God, gold and glory, they had no regards to the

lands Native people and their loose claims to territory. Once the Europeans “discovered”

America, they continued to treat that Native Americans poorly, they justified their actions by

making the Natives out to be primitive and barbaric people. This negative image of Native

Americans, followed through the founding of the United States, leaving the Native Americans

diverse culture forever changed. Overall, outside influences from the Old World, such as Europe,

and Spain obviously had a major impact on on the Natives way of life through years of slavery,

oppression of religion and completely altering the nomadic way of life through the forcible

relocation to reservations. Although there was a slight amount of positive impacts for the Native

Americans, they were all overshadowed by the horrific mistreatment the Natives faced.

Early interactions between Europeans and Natives are infamous for the large scale spread

of disease and violence that led to a large percentage of Native Americans dying. It is estimated

that anywhere from 50 to 90% of the Native American population was wiped out due to diseases

from the Old World, such as smallpox or measles, (Growth Decay Entry). For the Acoma people

their first interaction with the Spanish, in the 1580s, was a peaceful one, Fray Agustin Rodriguez

and his men had a meal at the top of the mesa, and the Acoma people shared some of their
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culture with them by showing them their dances, artwork and special foods. The second

interaction as our guide said, was far less friendly, this was due to Spain’s new interest in the

Northern territory of New Mexico, the idea of mass expansion was starting to settle in,

(Robinson). When Onate and his men came to the village and demanded that the Acoma people

give more food than they were able to, due to the limiting conditions of winter; the natives

weren’t able to provide him and his men with a suitable amount of food, so conflict emerged. At

first it would seem the Acoma people beat the small army of 8, but then once news of the attack

got back to military leaders, reinforcements were sent. The Acoma survivors faced terrible

treatment, men and women between the ages 12-25 were sentenced to twenty years servitude,

and when they were returned home, their right foot was cut off, to send a message not to mess

with them again ( Tour Guide). From that point on there were small conflicts, and the Acoma

people practiced passive resistance to the treatment that was being placed upon them. The

Spaniards continued to act superior to the Acoma people when they, in a way, enslaved them to

build a Cathedral and force their religion on the Natives, over their traditional religion. The

Spanish were ruthless in the building of the church, they forced the Acoma men to travel to the

very top of another mountain, and carry the logs back, without touching the ground, in four days.

If the Acoma men grew tired and accidentally let the four special logs touch the ground, then

they would be whipped and forced to start again. The reason why these logs were significant,

was that they were going to be at the front of the church, part of the altar, closest to God. The

Natives adapted to this tyranny by practicing their religion in secrecy, the city has a traditional

church. However, this church was hidden to look like a normal house, except for the fact that it

had holes in the sides of it. These holes were meant for the watch guard to be able to give a
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warning to the Acoma people, if a Priest walked by, they didn’t want to get caught. To this day

the Acoma people tend to the Cathedral, they have two men working on updates and keeping it

clean. They believe in keeping this Cathedral out of respect for all of their ancestors that died

during the forced process of building it. They also intertwine their traditional religion along with

Catholicism, because they believe both religions hold the same values and have similar leaders.

Another example of the Spanish enslaving the Pueblo people, and forcing their religion on them,

is the Pueblo Revolt, also known as​ Popé's Rebellion, ​ lasted from August 10-21, 1680. The

rebellion took place due to the vast mistreatment of Pueblo Indians in the area, they were losing

their culture and religious values due to the ones placed on them by the Spanish. At first the

various Pueblo Indian tribes wouldn’t be able to plan such a successful uprising, since they

didn’t speak the same dialect, but over the years of enslavement they learned Spanish as their

common language and were able to communicate a complex uprising, for the time. The Pueblo

people had a 12 year peace time, with the Spanish still out of New Mexico, unfortunately in 1692

the Spanish came back but there was little to no resistance upon their return. Upon the mutual

return of the Spaniards, the Natives were treated with more respect than they previously were.

For example they had an option to practice both religions, instead of being forced to singly

follow Catholicism, (Pueblo Revolt entry) Furthermore, while the Pueblo people gained

knowledge on religion and accumulated a unified language throughout the tribes, those positive

gains came at a large cost; they lost their freedom, and began to lose some of their culture along

the way.

In more recent years Native Americans culture has been misrepresented, due to

stereotypes that date back to the discovery of Natives. In the novel ​The Education of Little Tree
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by Forrest Carter. The book was published and sold as a real life account of a native child’s life,

the novel was a best seller, the only problem was that the novel was a lie. The novel was not

written by a real Indian, it was not a true account of a young child’s beautiful transition from

childhood to adulthood, it was fake. The novel was based off of the racist’s authors stereotypes,

even the language in the novel was made up, ( Rubin). It took years for the truth about this novel

to come out, and for that amount of time the Native Americans culture was being wrongfully

sensationalized, thus harming their culture. In the novel ​Like a Hurricane ​by Paul Chaat Smith

and Robert Allen Warrior, the authors portray a sense of misrepresentation the traditional

reservation Indians felt, compared to the Urban Indians who acted irrational and used the media

to extremes. In the novel, the modern Native Americans used the media to their advantage and

gained more attention to their movement, this upset the traditional Native Americans, because

they have different lifestyle values. In the novel, the Urban Natives dress up in formal traditional

dress wear, which should only be used for special ceremonies. The natives use this dress wear to

make a larger impact on the media, even though it stereotypes their culture, and makes their

ceremonies less significant, because they use their costumes as a gimmick for attention, ( Like a

Hurricane Entry). This misrepresentation has been a long lasting effect of the stereotypes that are

embedded in our society, and there are no positives to this.

One account where Native Americans were able to go against the Government’s wishes

more successfully, was after World War Two. At this time, the Government was desperate for

large amounts of uranium to create weapons for the war, they found the largest reserve of

uranium to be on the Colorado Plateau, which was mainly owned by Native Americans. The

Navajo miners made profit off of the uranium, except they soon noticed that the continuous
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mining of this chemical had dramatic repercussions on their health and water supply. The Navajo

Indians quickly refused further continuation of the mining process, thus upsetting the

government and causing tensions between the two groups. For many Native American tribes,

water is a sacred gift, while visiting the Acoma people, our tour guide mentioned how precious

water was to them atop of their plateau. Also, on the last night of the trip during dinner, our

speaker, Crystal, mentioned how difficult it was for her to get water to her home and how the

water nearest to her was tainted by uranium. She went on to explain how the government had

been avoiding giving her community easy access to clean, drinkable water. These stories show

how the Navajo miner’s refusal to continue mining uranium negatively affected their relationship

with the government. Despite gaining further confrontation with the government, this was a

good move for the Natives, because they stood up for the things their culture values such as

water and good health.

In conclusion, while the Native Americans gained small amounts of religion and

language to their culture, which can be seen as a positive, the overall effects of Spanish and

European influences was negative. The Natives suffered years of mistreatment and

misrepresentation, which threatened their culture and values. Today, the Natives are still facing

tensions with the government over water and uranium rights, but they’ve gained more attention

and support on these subjects due to the media, and students who wish to investigate Native

Americans current struggles.

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Work Cited

Kirkpatrick Sale, ​The Conquest of Paradise: Christopher Columbus and the Columbian Legacy

(New York: Knopf, 1990), pp. 128–158 (Las Casas qtn., 157); Noble David Cook,

Born to Die: Disease and New World Conquest, 1492​–​1650​ (Cambridge, UK:

Cambridge University Press, 1998), pp. 26–39; Francisco Guerra, “The Earliest

American Epidemic: The Influenza of 1493,” ​Social Science History​ 12 (1988):

305–325.

Rubin, Dana. “The Real Education of Little Tree.” ​Texas Monthly​, Genesis Park, 1 Dec. 2016,

www.texasmonthly.com/articles/the-real-education-of-little-tree/. Accessed 26 May

2017.

Robison, John Kelly. ​Phoenix on the Mesa: Acoma Pueblo During the Spanish Colonial Period,

1500-1821​. Ph.D. dissertation, Oklahoma State University, 1997. 372 pp.

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