Page 89 - Confronting Race Women and Indians on the Frontier, 1815 - 1915

FRONTIER PH ILOSOPHY: E U ROPEAN D I S COURSE

"distinct title to it ansmg f r om actual labor." Grund was slightly
different. Although he regretted "the f a te of the doomed people," he
believed that the "rest of Mankind" would "use the land much more
efficiently." 133 Other travelers agreed that rescuing the land f r om
"savages" in order to turn it to industry was a progressive change, and
they f o und it difficult to contemplate America's "growing wealth and
strength without rejoicing."134
Given such viewpoints, it is little wonder that portrayals of "bad"
Indians f a r outnumbered those of "good" Indians. Most white
Europeans, schooled in world colonialism, looked down on peoples of
color.As early as 1628, a Dutch minister had described Native Americans
as "entirely savage and wild . . . uncivil and stupid as garden poles."135
This theme was repeated many times throughout the f o llowing decades.
A French pianist called Indians in his audience "a delegation of savages."
A Hungarian naturalist declared Indians to be "completely savage and
f a r, f a r removed f r om civilization." And a Prussian traveler insisted that
they were " corporeally and mentally so very different" fr om whites. 136
As late as 1913, English writer and social critic Rupert Brooke pro­
claimed his judgment of American Indians in the VVCstminster Gazette.
"The Indians have passed; they left no arts, no tradition, no buildings or
roads or laws; only a story or two, and a few names, strange and beau­
tiful."137 Evidently, such critics not only adhered to the doctrine of white
superiority, but had colossal egos as well.
Unfortunately, some Europeans reacted so negatively to the Indians
they met because they had been led by Chateaubriand, Cooper, and
others to expect romantic, colorful figures. They were disappointed and
disillusioned to find small, wiry f o lk who could have come "from the
lowest mob of our great European cities."138 Comparisons of Native
Americans with peasants, Arabian Bedouins, and gypsies were
common. 1 39 One disenchanted Englishman concluded that "they are a
dirty vagabond lot, not unlike our gipsies," whereas another stated that
they "appeared like the lowest and worst of our gipsies."140 Given the
popularity of such unflattering assessments, it is unsurprising that other
whites described Indians as having "snakes" in the "bosom of their race"
and as violent people who attacked white colonies and harbored white
murderers, robbers, and rapists. 141

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