Shaw: Ideology and History

I had several thoughts going through my mind when reading "Saint Marie" and "Native American Genocide" as well as watching Powwow Highway. I think the most compelling idea is the connection of the denial of this genocide not only to religious rhetoric but also our own history as a nation. 

Since the beginning of what we know today as America, Anglo-Saxons have been controlling, manipulating, and extinguishing the existence of countless Native Americans. What is fascinating, is how little is actually taught about these events. In school, we are taught about The Trail of Tears, Sacajawea, Pilgrims and Indians, and possibly through post-secondary education we begin to learn about the systemic suppression of an entire culture of people. However, when compared to what we learn about the genocide that occurred during World War II, it seems that even as children, we have a much clearer perspective on what was actually taking place. We are taught about how awful the Nazis were and their atrocious crimes against humanity, but how often are our own ancestors thought of as manipulative, powerful and perpetrators of genocide? I think in part this is has a lot to do with the religious rhetoric that played a role in America's sordid past.

It is very clearly presented in Saint Marie, but I think we often don't realize how connected religion was to controlling entire populations and cultures. Anyone who was not an anglo-Christian was usually considered a savage and almost always treated as "other." As discussed in the article, "Native American Genocide," "Individuals associated with the earth (such as non-Christians, women, and the native populace of the Americas) needed to be subdued and converted, if not eliminated." This belief aligned with the ideology of "Contemptus Mundi," which is a religious concept that we still give credit to today. It's the belief that earthly existence is impure or devoid of divinity. In Saint Marie, we see Marie treated incredibly harsh by Leopolda, who seems to believe she can beat the devil out of Marie. This kind of logic that Marie is less than or "other" simply due to her heritage, is part of what allows ideologies like racism or nationalism to exist and often snowball into a situation with much greater impact than the initial intention.

Something we also see through The Powwow Highway, is the relegation of the Native American people into stereotypes. By classifying populations of people it becomes much easier to manipulate those images we ascribe to them and twist their countenance into whatever is necessary to vilify or discredit these populations in order to maintain control. This is an obvious parallel to the propaganda tactics used by the Nazis during the war to control the public opinion of the Jews. 

I think overall, it is slightly more difficult to think of the plight of the Native American people because it forces us to address our own ignorance and face parts of our country's history that we may not want to see. It's easy to say that it's not our fault because we weren't educated thoroughly on the subject, but as with any ideology, when it is allowed to exist and manifest itself in negative ways, we can not solve the problem by ignoring it. Saying that this wasn't a genocide does not fix the problem, it's through acknowledgment, understanding, and hopefully inner-peace that forgiveness occurs.