Rethinking The English (fanfic)

Unsettling History

I have to frame this next chapter with the opening gambit that I am a white English woman who has never visited America. All I know about it's history, including the era discussed in The English I know from books, films, and TV. I do not pretend to be anything but an interested observer, but as such have a few comments to make about the depiction of this part of American history in The English.

For a start it seems as if whites just invaded the US and stole it by force from the indigenous people who had already been living there for thousands of years. They did this by using diplomacy, apparent friendship, violence, biological warfare, starvation... to name but a few methods.

In The English Eli talks about the illnesses the English brought with them. I realise some of this was accidental but I know that smallpox infected blankets were knowingly given to the natives at this time in history. It seems inconceivable that any so called civilised race or culture would stoop so low and be so cruel, but then the land was wanted, as were the minerals within them. This seems to be all that mattered to the whites.

Another method mentioned in the English is the starvation of the natives through the decimation of the buffalo herds. It appears this was the single most effective way of ridding the land of its own naturalised tribes, they simply had no food to eat and no hope of the herds returning as they were almost all dead. The whites got rich off this situation, utilising the by-products of the dead buffalo, which must have been a very bitter pill to swallow indeed.

Genocide under the guise of religion and the so called civilising of a race (or many if we consider them tribe by tribe) is a despicable act, and one the human race has done again and again. The hypocrisy flies in the face of all reason and ideals of human kindness. That 'Christians' could justify these deaths truly beggars belief. Of course I'm judging them through a modern lens, but I think even back then people should have known it was wrong, more than this, thoroughly deplorable.

I wonder how the US education system frames this part of their ancestry, do they ignore it, did they seek to re-write it? I've read Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee by Dee Brown - a chillingly factual and comprehensive account of the Americanisation of the West. It really is a damning indictment of the government and the prevalent social attitudes of the time. My biggest take away from this was how must modern day Native Americans feel now? I cannot imagine the bitterness, sadness and anger they must experience.

I'm not rose tinting the facts, some tribes and Indians were violent and cruel in some of their practices by all accounts. Blood was spilled on both sides, yet how would any invaded culture seek to protect themselves in that situation? Most tribes believed in peace and the sanctity of nature, the connection between them and the land and all living creatures under the sky. That their peace was so rudely and cruelly broken is a part of world history we should all be loathe to forget.

In The English Eli is a Pawnee. He mentions how many enemies that tribe has, even more so when some of them became scouts for the US army it seems. I can understand both sides, the suspicion and hatred of a native who it seems has turned traitor on his own people. At the self same time, these scouts were simply trying to navigate a completely desperate situation the best way they knew how, with loyalty and kinship...misplaced as it turned out to be.

Eli says he was 'proud to serve' and for a warrior I can see why. The Pawnee took great honour from acts of bravery and skill, particularly in battle, they could hardly have foreseen that the very army they fought side by side with would so quickly and viciously turn on them too. We would have to ask ourselves I think what would we do in this situation, if we can even imagine it. How many of us might do the same as Eli?

I find myself wondering also how do Native Americans react to modern day stories about the 'Wild West'? Although we have moved on from typical cowboy and Indian films with non indigenous actors, are we still reliant on over simplified characters and props? Is there a Native American film industry that tells stories about a time before the white men came along? I would be interested to know. Also I know a little about modern day reservation life, except why some Native Americans live in such places? Poverty, drug, crime and suicide rates are disproportionately high there, is this because of sustained prejudice and discrimination or is it somehow a long distant psychological remnant cultural memory of the violence they were subject to?

It's all fascinating and terribly dark, that these things really happened, and could do again.