No one can claim that Americans of the late 19th century didn’t know about the depredations committed against the indigenous peoples of the continent. Helen Hunt Jackson knew. Like-minded reformers knew. They knew because the U.S. government itself had recorded vast quantities of evidence about the crimes, which, in many cases, the government itself had committed. There’s no telling how many more wrongdoings never made it into the official records, but as the author mentions, the full history of the offenses against Native Americans would fill endless volumes.
Long passages of this book consist of extracts from the official government reports and other printed correspondence. I think Jackson’s intention in crafting her book this way was to show, beyond any doubt, that the U.S. government knew exactly what was happening concerning the acts of violence and broken treaties. Any citizen could have known about this if they had bothered to find out. Jackson condensed as much information as she could for the general public.
Jackson expresses genuine outrage and grief for the lies and cruelty waged against the native inhabitants. Still, her perspective is very much that of a 19th century Christian reformer. She celebrates the spread of Christianity among Native Americans, never considering whether Christianity might be part of the problem. She also celebrates the tribes that live in a “civilized” way, turning to farming versus hunting and gathering. Throughout, she adopts the typical attitude of the “white man’s burden” toward saving these people. This perspective clashes with modern sensibilities, and there are newer, better ways of looking at this terrible history. Still, her work was at the vanguard of social justice writing for its time, and the book had concrete impacts on how Congress dealt with Native Americans.
If this topic interests you, read this book to learn how the issue was seen by 19th century reformers.
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