Responding to The Beginning History

In the reading of this assignment called The Beginning, I learned many things. However, after many readings, various things were still left on the paper for me to learn later. It was very comprehensive, but exactly what I was wanting to know about. Naturally, I was interested because it centered on the Cherokee tribe and mentioned Kentucky which is my "birth" state and the state of my grandparents. There was a lot of meat in this writing which I want to absorb. I will be making lists of the names of people, places, and dates. I will be consulting maps as I read and re-read this paper over the next few weeks to come to a better understanding.

I was drawn to how much like the television series Survivor history has been: Out-lie, out-steal, out-fight anyone and everyone. Don't worry about who you hurt. Just like on the show, many alliances were made and broken. The mightier person usually won the battles, and on rare occasions, the little guy won. But, every day brought new challenges and victors. Every day meant someone had to win until there was only one left standing. That is where the show differed from reality. On Survivor the last man standing wins one million dollars. And, in order to run this metaphor completely into the ground, the winner usually finds that money is its own corrupter and cannot replace integrity and responsibility.

Would it have been possible for the Cherokee to have retained their land? No, the times they were achangin'. The Cherokee lived in harmony and at peace with each other and nature. Although I am sure there were disagreements even among them, I am sure these were not earth-jarring enough to erase an entire people nearly from the face of the earth. Europeans had long been living in crowded conditions and needed new ways and places to make money. With the European technology that existed during the 1500's and beyond, the Cherokee were doomed. Why? Because they had not lived in a culture where the rule of the day was all about what a person wanted, not being satisfied with just what they needed.

What I see is that Europeans came to this new land and some treated the Native Americans they found as beneath them for the most part. Have you ever noticed how man likes to have someone he feels is lesser than himself to lord it over? England considered the settlers low-lifes. France hated the English and by extension, the settlers. The settlers hated the English on one side and the First Peoples on the other side. They were hemmed in and had to have more room. But, as it turns out, no matter how much the CHerokee were willing to give up of their boundaries, it was never enough.

Sadly, even in this year of 2009 this Manifest Destiny cult continues. It is not enough that the United States has many debts and problems to solve here within the borders that is established, but they must fight in battle around the world continuing the destruction of life, cultures, environment, and well-being.

I would like to think that when all the treaties were made between the Cherokee and the settlers, that each side intended to keep their promises. But, that was not the way it turned out. Obviously, coming from two different cultures each intereted the treaties in the realm of their own knowledge, expectations, and practices.

Did the Europeans improve the new land? In the ways that Europeans thought were important, yes. They brought lots of "things" with them to help develop and economy and trading towns all over the place. But, they did not improve this land. They destroyed the Cherokee way of life and their hunting grounds. They took a proud people and turned them into slaves. And, if that was not enough, they brought new, deadly diseases with them. And, the tradition continues as we constantly and continually rape and pilliage our enviornment.

All the things of which I have spoken thus far, are terrible, indeed. But, to me the two things I consider to be the most unforgivable was the picture in my mind of brave warriors committing suicide over the what was left of them after the Small Pox. I was brought to tears. I will not like living with this memory.

I feel the losing of the Cherokee religious traditions was the most devilish, devastating, and de-moralizing event to come about from the Small Pox and the arrival of white men. Robbing any people of their core beliefs and culture robs men of hope. When man has no hope, man is finished. Then, he must then turn his hatred and heart-ache upon himself.


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