January 22nd Workshop Response

1) A brief summary of the seminar. Include any highlights for you – new information, a particularly useful exercise, a favorite moment. Be sure to identify the main historical themes and the core documents presented in the seminar.

One of the major themes of yesterday's workshop was the "Vanishing Indian" in art, literature and histories of the time despite the fact that there were still many Indians around. We discussed how the accepted fate of the Indians in the eyes of the whites was that they would vanish and be no more, even from those sympathetic to them. The historiography of the time lamented their loss even as many were under guardianship or working as servants in the very towns where the histories were being written. The overarching theme of the literature and history was that the disappearence of the Indians was to be unavoidable.

We then looked at images of Niagara as a symbol of America and other Indian images which alluded to their dissappearnce, defeat and westward migration. The Indians were often depicted at sunset or facing west while white civilization would be sunlight or lighter colors and images. The images showed how over time Indians disappeared from art, as earlier images had many Indians at Niagara while later images had British soldiers and no Indians. We then discussed how forbidden love narratives sprang up at this time and how many elites would claim to be descendants of Thundersquall or Pocahontas. Those who were responsible for the disappearance of Indians now wanted ironically to be connected to the noble children of the forest, even as they denoucned or ignored the Indians still around.

The afternoon was spent working with images from the McKenney books. These images were from extremely rare texts and showed a reverence for the Indians, even though the text may have shown them as savages. We did some activities on visual literacy that helped uncover what certain images were trying to convey. We saw the connection between Indian legends which were used to explain Indian disappearance (Indians commiting suicide, dying, or being killed on a mountain) but no Indians were used in imagery of these locations.

2. What questions did the seminar raise for you and how will you follow-up on those questions? Will you need to do further research – and if so, how will you approach that research and what sources are available to you?

The big question that was somewhat explored is how the people of the time had the paradox of claiming the Indians to be vanished and gone from the land, romanticizing the tribes and former Indians of the land while ignoring the Indians who still lived amongst them. We sort of concluded it was because of the difference of the servants or Indians under guardianship between the romanticized notion of the Indian in literature, poetry and art. It would be desirable to claim you were a descendent of mighty chief Thundersquall but that wasn't the same type of Indian who may live in your town or work for you.

3. How would you use this material in the classroom? If you do not currently teach this material, pretend that you do (you may be teaching it at some point in your career!).

The images we used can certainly be used as can a lot of the readings and poetry. We discussed at great length how this literature can be used in contrast with the census material from last session to contrast what was happening in culture and what was really happening with Indian populations to get the kids to think critically about sources.

4. How does the material presented in the seminar deepen your understanding of the relationship between representation and reality in the history of New England natives?

This session dealt mostly with representation and how the Indian was vanishing if you trusted the sources, literature, and art of the time but in reality they were still around, albeit in a very different lifestyle or identity than previous generations of Indians.