Arrivals...There goes the neighborhood

To dilly dally, I will not be going straight on to the purpose of this blog post, and I’m sorry to put this sentence into this blog post Mr. McCarthy, but it’s the only way that I can think of to make this blog post seem long, boring, and make me seem like I’m an overachiever. I wanted to dilly-dally some more, but I just got scared think of you Mr. McCarthy lowering my grade for dilly-dallying and not getting straight onto the discussion of this blog, “Arrivals… There Goes The Neighborhood”.

The short stories- “A Journey Through Texas” by Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca, “The General History of Virginia” by John Smith, and “Of Plymouth Plantation” by William Bradford in the Prentice Hall Literature: The American Experience book all had a common theme, and that theme was the explorers from Afro-Eurasia coming over to the Americas in the hopes of conquering land for themselves or for their kings and queens. The feelings that the Indians had of the “invasion” really depended on how much experience each Indian tribe had with explorers. The more understanding you had about the purpose of the explorers’ comings would make you more hostile towards them. Why? Well first imagine that you owned a piece of land in a really peaceful and exotic environment. On that piece of land, you have about 13-15 triangular prism that has a hole on the top of the prism and about six thin but sturdy oak wood sticks sticking out of that hole and small plots of land that has vegetation. In those 13-15 teepees lived around 30 people that you have gotten really close too and has formed many great memories with each other. Now on a peaceful day, the sun is bright and shinning and next thing that happens is that a group of 7 males walk onto your land and are being extremely nice, greeting everyone and giving away free bead necklaces. Soon you form a friendly bond between the newcomers, and they have built houses and have begun civilization right next to your land. That seems fine right? Of course it is, you have found a new trading partner and have found new allies that can help you during territorial battles. Now you’re thinking that life is all great from what seems to be happening, but your new neighbors have been snatching your women and children from their tepees and putting them on their ship at night without you knowing. Then one day they decide to do assault your men on your own land. Then the explorers decide to leave the land and sail back to their origin land with your women children as their slaves. Doesn’t this enrage you about explorers, the people that you had so much trust on have backstabbed you. This is a reason to why the Indians in, “The General History of Virginia” kill a couple of John Smith’s men and took John Smith as a prisoner and decided on a death of crushing his head. The chief of the tribe believed that John Smith and his subordinates were a threat to them, scared that they would try and conquer their land and enslave them, so the chief decided to make the first move and kill off some of the explorers or else the situation of getting conquered or close to getting conquered over will happen again. For the other stories, like, “A Journey through Texas”, and “Of Plymouth Plantation” The Indian tribes never really did encounter explorers until in these stories they did. In these short stories, the Indians were scared of them because of how they looked, but were also amazed at them because the Indians believed that they were like “aliens”. In the “Journey through Texas” the Indians thought that Alvar and his men were like demi-gods because Alvar performed the first surgery in Texas, but the surgery to the Indians was like a healing ceremony going on. The Indians were scared of them a little bit because it seemed like Alvar and his men had powers. In the “Of Plymouth Plantation” the Indians later on in the story approaches them, but I’m pretty sure that the Indians have already known their arrival earlier, but were just sacred to approach them. When William Bradford and his subordinates were struggling, the Indians saw their troubles, but ignored until they saw that they were in desperate need, that was when the Indians came to help them out, teaching them the agriculture of the Americas and how to protect themselves from the harsh weather of the Americas.  From all three of these short stories, the Indians and the explorers later on did get to forma better bond, but as time passes and more explorers come over to the Americas to start a new life or to get away from their countries harsh judgment on their beliefs, they dominate more land, and soon backstabbing the Indians and pushing them further away. From this most of the Indian tribes that used to dominate the Americas have been backstabbed a few times, but can’t fight back because their technology wasn’t as high tech as the Explorers were. The explorers’ native lands created a snowballing effect, one country would create a new type of musket and another country would get a spark of a new idea for a better and more efficient musket. While in the Americas, there was no snowballing effect since most tribes didn’t really know each other that well, and didn’t like each that well also. As time flies, there are no more Indian reservations, but cities and suburbs.