Friday, December 01, 2006

Education

I don't have the privilege, as far as I can tell, to actually be descended from Native Americans, but I have enjoyed learning about them since I was in grade school. We started to learn Native history in some detail in fourth grade when we studied Wisconsin history and Wisconsin natives. I can remember feeling very angry at the injustice of the Black Hawk War and at the suffering of so many Native peoples just so Euro-American settlers could move in.

So, today, part of my research is directed at demythologizing history--trying to uncover Native American history from their point of view, a task which I'm not that qualified for at the moment because all my knowledge comes from books. Some day, God-willing, I will be able to meet and learn from living Native Americans.

Since I am a graduate student, trying to study Native American history, I thought this text was appropriate:

"On June 17, 1744, the commissioners from Maryland and Virginia negotiated a treaty with the Indians of the Six Nations at Lancaster, Pennsylvania. The Indians were invited to send boys to William and Mary College. The next day they declined the offer as follows.

"We know that you highly esteem the kind of learning taught in those Colleges, and that the Maintenance of our young Men, while with you, would be very expensive to you. We are convinced, that you mean to do us Good by your Proposal; and we thank you heartily. But you, who are wise must know that different Nations have different Conceptions of things and you will therefore not take it amiss, if our Ideas of this kind of Education happen not to be the same as yours. We have had some Experience of it. Several of our young People were formerly brought up at the Colleges of the Northern Provinces: they were instructed in all your Sciences; but, when they came back to us, they were bad Runners, ignorant of every means of living in the woods...neither fit for Hunters, Warriors, nor Counsellors, they were totally good for nothing.

"We are, however, not the less oblig'd by your kind Offer, tho' we decline accepting it; and, to show our grateful Sense of it, if the Gentlemen of Virginia will send us a Dozen of their Sons, we will take Care for their Education, instruct them in all we know, and make Men of them."


--from "Touch the Earth: A Self-Portrait of Indian Experience," by T. C. McLuhan

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I thought this text was very interesting. It shows how there is more than just one form of education, and that a person needs to have an education that fits his or her environment. Superfluous education doesn't make a functioning member of society.

I thought it was also interesting how the Six Nations reciprocated the offer and used rather cleverly polite language. Also, the Six Nations did not view white education as enough to turn their boys into men (warriors, hunters, counsellors), but, they believed that their Native education was able to make men out of white boys and, presumably, allow them to function as men in white society. The Six Nations saw themselves on equal terms with the whites in reciprocal relations, and perhaps as being superior to whites as far as what they could offer through education.

1 Comments:

Blogger Joshua Seraphim Anderson said...

"Education"! What an idea! And what a great blog, Eric. Wonderful! Keep it up.

11:18 PM  

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