41 pages • 1 hour read
Daniel K. RichterFacing East from Indian Country: A Native History of Early America
Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 2001A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapter 4Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 4 Summary: “Native Voices in a Colonial World”
Richter examines two types of historical documents that record the words of Indigenous people in early America: conversion narratives and spiritual autobiographies of Indigenous Christians as transcribed by Puritan missionaries in Massachusetts, and speeches of Indigenous diplomats as recorded by colonial government scribes.
In 1653, Puritan missionary John Eliot published Tears of Repentance, a collection of conversion narratives by Indigenous Americans from Natick, the “praying town” Eliot had founded near Boston. The most extensive narratives are those by a man named Monequassun. His testimony is couched in an idiom more European than Indigenous, full of “interminable expressions of self-flagellating piety” (115). However, Richter believes that although Eliot may have adapted the wording, the speeches probably represent a “reasonably authentic record” (117) of what Monequassun said.
Puritan clergyman William Perkins developed an elaborate “morphology of conversion” (119) consisting of 10 stages modeled on the Calvinist doctrine of divine grace. Indigenous Christians used their new faith to make sense of their material and spiritual conditions, emphasizing interpersonal relationships rather than doctrinal or creedal statements. This perspective was a natural extension of the community-oriented worldview common among Indigenous peoples.
In 1679, a delegation of Mohawks gathered in Albany, New York, to deal with the aftermath of Bacon’s Rebellion. A Virginia official, William Kendall, read a speech in which he expressed friendship and goodwill toward Indigenous people but asserted that, when nearing Christians, they must lay down their arms or else risk being killed. Presents were given as tokens of friendship to Indigenous communities, who then gave their reply, which was translated into English and recorded.
Treaties between the groups solidified into a standard procedure that included ceremonial processions, hospitality and condolence rituals, historical recollections, and a declaration of ideals that should govern the relationship between the two peoples. The exchange of gifts demonstrated good faith and served as a record of the treaty. During the leadership of New York Governor Edmund Andros, a set of English-Indigenous alliances known as “the Covenant Chain” was established. In these alliances, Andros became a “peacemaking civil chief” (147) and peaceful relations were established between various Indigenous tribes.
All these treaties attempted to “integrate the English empire into a Native world” (149), even though it was clear that the balance of power had shifted toward the English. Rather than submit to English power, Indigenous peoples either mobilized it or used it for their benefit, much like a spiritual power controlled by a shaman. By using the power of the spoken word, Indigenous groups tried to “carve out a distinct cultural space within a Puritan structure of political and ideological domination” (150). The treaties had to be regularly reconfirmed to keep them fresh and active. Colonists often arrived at treaties ignorant of the protocol, and Indigenous communities took it upon themselves to teach them.
Chapter 4 Analysis
Chapter 4 is the only part of the text that concentrates on recorded Indigenous words—words that were, naturally, filtered through European scribes in ways that often reflect subtle forms of Racial Antagonism and Erasure. Richter emphasizes the importance of diplomatic treaty ceremonies in forging a bond between Indigenous people and Euro-Americans. These rituals, although governed by a strict formality, had a purifying emotional function. They were ordered toward “drying tears, setting minds straight, establishing clear channels of communication, reciprocal exchanges of friendly words and symbolic gifts” (139). Kinship terms such as “Brother” and “Child” were used to suggest the ideal relationship between Indigenous and white people.
Richter presents the “praying town” of Natick as a Protestant counterpart to the Roman Catholic reserves (religious communities) spread near the St. Lawrence River, of which Kateri Tekakwitha was a member. Richter emphasizes that many Europeans migrated to North America for religious reasons, as a central part of their personal “salvation drama,” and sought to involve Indigenous people in this process, using their conversion as a justification for the colonial project. The religious zeal of many European settlers, in Richter’s view, impeded Cultural Accommodation. Though settlers often demanded that Indigenous people adopt Christian beliefs, there is little to no record of white settlers adopting Indigenous beliefs. Puritans often saw Indigenous beliefs as heretical or even Satanic, and their categorical rejection of such beliefs meant an enormous lost opportunity for cultural exchange.
The Indigenous religious conversion narratives—written by European religious leaders purportedly taking dictation from their Indigenous pupils—show Indigenous people adopting the religious vocabulary and spiritual concepts of Christianity, with little that is distinctively “Indigenous” left in the style. The conversion stories often dwell on the sinfulness of typical Indigenous cultural patterns; there is a strong emphasis on personal sin in the narratives, and on the difficulty in finding “atonement and comfort” (122). This emphasis on the sinfulness of Indigenous life and spirituality meant that the work of the missionaries was largely characterized by Racial Antagonism and Erasure.
