American Ignorance

I am Alone, pgs 383-384, He has filled graves with our bones, pgs 385-387


I found both of these speeches to be very interesting. To tell you the truth I am not a big American history fan but the more I read, the more interested I get. As I read both of the speeches, you could sense the emotion that was spilling out of both the tribe leaders. I know both these speeches were written a time or two later but the emotion of the Indian leaders obviously made an impression.

As I read through both of the speeches, I got upset at how the white government thought that they deserved to acquire land and material objects at the cost of human life. I know that that idea has been around for centuries but to come to an unknown land and tell the inhabitants that they have to give it up "just because" was just ignorant. As I read "I am Alone" I felt for a man who had compassion, humility and kindness. On page 384 Cochise tells of his grandfather basically saying that all mankind be accepted with friendship. Here is the leader of a great and powerful tribe just opening his arms accepting all who pass by. I felt that Cochise was a very smart but broken Indian. As I read his speech, he talks of his people fighting in several wars. Here is a man who will fight for freedom to the point of annihilation but at the same time realize that if this war with the white government does not stop, not one of his people will be left. At the end of his speech I got the sense that this was a broken man just by his tone. Cochise is tired of the war, tired of the time it is taking to establish a treaty, tired of fighting, in a general sense, with the white man. Cochise knows he has lost not only the war but their freedom. So in the end he basically bows to the whites thanking them for what they are willing to give the tribe.

On the other hand you have Charlot, who is covered with anger and rage. I think that his speech tells it in a nutshell. White man came, took, and now wants to tax us. What Charlot knew was that the white man wanted to basically kill off the unknown foreigners that they could not control. Indians did not live by white mans rules so that made the white man afraid. Charlot wants to get his point acrossed to his people by giving them very descriptive imagery of what the white man did. Not only did the white man take our land by force after quiet threats of war, they kill our people for acts of kindness. White man knows nothing but greed and violence.

Even though both of these speeches were written well after the actual speeches had been presented, and that we are not sure of their accuracy, I have a new found respect for our native American Indians.

The more I think about these speeches the more I can relate them to todays enviroment. They are very parallel to each other. Back then the government was trying and forcing their will upon people that they did not understand. They needed to control them so that they could predict every move that the tribes would make. Today, I feel it is the same way with our so called diminishing middle class. The middle class makes this country what it is today. This country was built on the backs of the industrial age hence "Blue Collar Workers". I find it ironic that we get the crap taxed out of us and now we have to bear the burden of 12 trillion dollars. The only variables that changed are the people. Whether you are an indian or middle class joe, the government wants and will get the control they so desparately desire. Governments fear the unknown!!!!! Just a thought.