Champlain/John Smith

There was a great deal of issues with the first encounters of the early Europeans of Native Americans. One encounter in particular I found interesting was Samuel De Champlain. Champlain was was a Frenchman who went on expeditions through Saint Lawrence and made many Indian allies along the way. One group of Indians in particular were the Iroquois. He bonded very well with them and one day a combat broke out between the Iroquois and their enemies in which the Iroquois ended up being victorious. What I really found to be grotesque though was what the Iroquois did to their captured enemies after the combat. They ripped out their fingernails and would burn the penis. They would even scalp the prisoners, take out their heart, cut it up, and would make the brother of the victim eat it!! But in the end Champlain departed with the understanding of the mutual friendship he formed with the Indians and he promised to them he would be there for them like a brother.  

Now we have the legendary Englishmen Captain John Smith who is most known for his establishment of the new colony Jamestown. As a little girl I was first introduced to John Smith in the Disney movie Pocahontas.

Oh yes I see the great resemblance (sarcasm). But there were some great similarities between the movie and from the actual events. John Smith was indeed a leader and encourager as in the movie. One day while Smith was looking for food along the river he was captured by the Powhatan tribe and taken to the chief. He also befriended the chiefs daughter Pocahontas who ultimately saved him from being executed by laying her head over his which also all happened in the movie. There are arguments to this very day as to what really went on between the two but I stumbled across a video on YouTube that shows the scene where John Smith is about to be executed and Pocahontas lays her head across John's saving him.  

De Las Casas

Of all the stories so far, I can relate to the De Las Casas reading the most. De Las Casas was all for Native American rights. He actually witnessed the cruelty that the Indians of Hispaniola encountered from the Spaniards. I related to this story the most because it reminded me a lot of how African Americans suffered through the same cruelty as the Indians did. In De Las Casas "The Very Brief Relation of the Devastation of the Indies" it talked about how Indians were separated form their families and beaten. Also, how some wives were raped by the Spaniards in front of their husbands. Very harsh images came to my mind while reading this. The Spaniards would even do harm to children and babies. The Spaniards would chop up women and children, stab them, drown them, and even burn them to death. Some they even hanged. All of which were very similar actions African Americans encountered. At some points the Indians rose up and went against the Spaniards and were even successful in killing some of them but for every Christian killed by Indians, they would slay a hundred Indians. All this harsh behavior on Indians took place in the 1500's. Around 400 years later, African Americans went through the same punishments. Slaves were separated from their families, beaten, raped, and hanged. The two situations greatly compare although for different reasons. Indians because of wanting to take over/expand their land, African Americans, just based off the color of their skin.