Depreciating the Indian in America

Between the narrative of William Apess and the poem by Lydia Sigourney is a shared them of the undervaluing of the Native American by limiting his possibilities and trying to write them out of our nation’s history. In Apess’ An Indian’s Looking Glass for the White Man, he conveys this theme by giving examples of the inequality that is experienced by “red skins” from white people and relates it to Biblical scripture about how to treat one’s brother in the correct way in the eyes of God. He says that because God commands that to truly love him you must love your brother, then white men, who call themselves devoutly religious, are liars because they do not show love to their Indian brothers. He cites Matthew 22:37, 40 which states, “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart. Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.” He reiterates this point with 1 John 4:21, “He who loveth God loveth his brother also.” However, instead of white men “loving” the red men they mistreat them by denying them rights and privileges and counting them as less than equal, going completely against what God has demanded of them as Christians. Apess continues on with this powerful notion of religion criticism as a way of evoking true and legitimate awareness from white people by asking, “Did you ever hear or read of Christ teaching his disciples that they ought to despise one because his skin was different from theirs?” The obvious answer is no, and this strikes at the heart of Apess’ point of concern, white men have no validity on the basis of religion in denying Native Americans liberties that they feel they are entitled to, so Indians, in the eyes of God, should be able to enjoy opportunities like preaching, education, holding office positions, and marriage with a person of any race, if this nation were to call itself a true Christian nation. Sigourney’s Indian Names, illustrates the undervaluing of Indians by showing how white men have tried to write natives out of our history here in America, despite their great contributions. She opens with, “Ye say, they have all passed away… but their name is on our waters, ye may not wash it out”. This sets the tone of how Americans have used the Indians for their resources and knowledge of the American landscape and then in totally failed to give credit to the natives for their help in allowing settlers to be successful. They want to exploit all they can from the Indians but not give them any credit. Sigourney writes, “ But their memory liveth on your hills”, signifying that natives have done and meant so much more to the success of America as a whole than their given recognition for, that their influence can never really be masked by white male greed.  The poem ends with, “your mountains build their monument, though ye destroy their dust”, meaning as we continue to advance as a country, we are continually trying to push further and further away the Indian influence and association, for example the Indian diaspora of the Trail of Tears and the Indian Removal Act of 1830. These two works combined reflect a underlying sense of undervaluing of Native Americans in an emerging American society.