A Nation's View on Savages

The clash between Native American and English culture has long been noticeable. Smith and Rowlandson called them “savages” in the early days, but so did the whole nascent nation. When looking at the Constitution of the Iroquois Nations: The Great Binding Law, it is clear that the Natives have much different values from those instilled in the colonies. Benjamin Franklin describes the clash best in his opening to Remarks Concerning the Savages of North America: “Savages we call them, because their manners differ from ours, which we think the perfection of civility; they think the same of theirs.”

The stereotype built up in pre-national history of the natives is one built not on verity but on the fear of the unknown and the different. Franklin urges the newly formed nation to throw away those stereotypes and “examine the manners of different nations with impartiality.” In the study of sociology this is called “cultural relativism.” In this way, it is the idea that one should judge another’s society not on their personal values but on the specific society’s values. This practice allows for a less bias view and, similarly, a more straightforward approach to understanding other’s cultures.

However, the nation’s view on natives did not reflect Benjamin Franklin’s noble goal. In the end of his piece he tells the story of one Indian who was looking to sell his beaver to a merchant on a Sunday. The merchant told him it was not a day that they could do business for it was the day to meet and “hear and learn of good things.” The Native did not understand what this meant, so he joined the merchant at the meeting and was afterword denied any just payment for his beaver. He supposed he had heard the man at the meeting speak of beaver, and for this reason he believed that the meetings “are only to contrive the cheating of Indians in the price of beaver.” A simple misunderstanding and maltreatment like this left a lasting impression on the natives on how the white culture operates.

Although the differences between natives and whites are numerous, it is not implied that one or the other culture it better than the other. It is in human nature to prefer one’s own culture to another, which is why there is so often conflict between differing societies. In Franklin’s piece it is mentioned how the Indians turned down a schooling offer because the type of knowledge taught at white schools was irrelevant in Native American society. The white’s offered the schooling as something valued in their society, and the Native’s looked down upon it because it did not teach necessary knowledge for survival in their own culture. This showcases that not only did the whites look down upon the natives, but also, in certain situations, the natives looked down upon the whites.

Although this clash of cultures was seemingly inevitable, there was always a way to avoid it. As Ben Franklin outlined in his Remarks Concerning the Savages of North America, the Indians are not below white culture in civility, they are simply different. If this simple viewpoint had been adopted much earlier into the general sentiment of the nation, many future conflicts could have been avoided and the two societies could have lived in relative harmony.