Page 147 - Encyclopedia Of World History Vol III

966 berkshire encyclopedia of world history

Rewriting History

One component of indigenous people’s movements is a Jesuits (Akwesasne Notes 1980 calendar, March 16).
reexamination and rewriting of their histories, written Finally, traditionalists say that Mohawks founded Kah-
by outsiders. The following is an example of the revi- nawake and later Akwesasne not as mission settle-
sionist history of the Mohawk, an Iroquois nation in ments, but as repopulations of lands that were part of
New York State and Canada. the ancient Mohawk territory. In this way native histo-
rians have constructed a counter version of Iroquois
The Position Papers: history partly by responding point by point to the
The Iroquois History scholarly and popular representations of their past.
of the Western World A second element in the construction of the tradi-
tionalist narrative of world history is the occasional
The Iroquois revisionist history is comprised of sev-
use of a few scholarly sources that support key polem-
eral elements. First, it refers to various historical puz-
ical positions in traditionalism. They often cite Mor-
zles found in scholarly writings on Indians. For
gan (1851) because he portrays the fully-functioning,
example, Iroquois traditionalists reject the Bering
idealized League.They often cite Parker’s version of the
Strait land bridge theory, asserting the in situ creation
“Code of Handsome Lake and the Constitution”
of North American indigenous peoples (Akwesasne
(Parker 1968), usually ignoring the critique of Parker’s
Notes 1978:1).A second example is their rejection of
sources by Fenton (Fenton 1968). In Basic Call to
the widely-accepted view among academic historians
Consciousness they cite Francis Jennings’s “The Inva-
that the Oneidas sided with the Americans in the Rev-
sion of America” (1975) because his demystification
olutionary War, the position papers, and numerous
(America was “invaded” not “discovered”) concurs
other writings, insisting the Oneidas were continu-
with the Indians’ perspective. Ironically, the position
ously neutral, along with the rest of the League
papers in Basic Call to Consciousness open with a
(Akwesasne Notes 978:105). A third example is the
copy of a line drawing of the Iroquois cosmology by
claim by some traditionalists that the Iroquois
William Fenton. The native version of history, there-
League was founded in 1390, not two hundred years
fore, sometimes depends on rather than reacts to
later, as some scholars estimate. A fourth example is
academic sources and anthropological constructions.
the argument that the seventeenth-century Iroquois
Source: Ciborski, S. (1990). Culture and power:The emergence and politics of Akwesasne
destroyed the Huron peoples not because of fur-trade Mohawk traditionalism (p. 99–100).Ann Arbor, MI: University Microfilms International.
rivalries, but because the Hurons were pawns of the
Spanish colonies, the Indians were initially given full cit- Indigenous Peoples
izenship rights after independence, but these were slowly in Central Asia
taken away as the elites, mainly descendants of Euro- Most people defined as indigenous in Asia come from
peans, fortified the state and adopted scientific racism its central parts.Their experience in the twentieth century,
and social Darwinism as justifications for taking away with few exceptions, has been a horrific one.The Stalinist
the lands and political rights of the Indians. As a result, regime in the Soviet Union, although it paid lip service
indigenous peoples were increasingly impoverished dur- to the rights of ethnic minorities, was murderous in its
ing the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Com- actual policies. Central Asian peoples suffered tremen-
bined with the increasing marginalization of the dously.The Buryats, for example, tried to establish a Mon-
indigenous peoples under state rule, in the late nine- golian republic independent of both Russia and China in
teenth century the national states invaded the territories the early twentieth century.When Stalin incorporated the
of indigenous groups not yet under their domination, Buryat region into the Soviet Union, many independence
such as the Pampas and Patagonia. leaders fled. However, Stalin demanded their return and