Review of NATIVES AND NEWCOMERS by James Axtell
an excerpt from http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/64122/review_of_natives_and_newcomers_by.htmlhttp://www.associatedcontent.com/article/64122/review_of_natives_and_newcomers_by.html
When one thinks about the original inhabitants of North America (Native Americans), old stereotypes and misconceptions always spring to mind. Stereotypes in history view the Native Americans as "savage" with spiritual connections to nature, whose lifestyles were simple and plain. The characteristics placed on Native Americans often contradict each other and fail to offer a real understanding of the people. The view of European settlers coming to the Americas can be seen in stereotypes where Europeans are portrayed as the victimized Christians with limited Native Americans interaction. James Axtell, author of Natives and Newcomers: The Cultural Origins of North America, pulls the curtain back on such stereotypes and studies Native American culture, traditions, lifestyles and their relationships and interactions with European settlers. The Nations Council for Social Studies states that culture is dynamic and ever-changing and by understanding culture, students of history can fully understand themselves and people from different cultures. Axtell clearly explores the NCSS standard of culture throughout his book and breaks down long held stereotypes of early Native Americans and European settlers.
One misconception Axtell explores is the idea that the Pilgrims were the first settlers to reach the shores of North America. Axtell describes the Pilgrim’s experience with hostile Native Americans a reaction from experience, not barbarism, "Fresh from European ports, the Pilgrims could not know that the natives who received them so ungraciously were not acting out of some atavistic racial hatred or primitive xenophobia but from a well-founded sense of revenge for injuries inflicted by earlier European visitors" (p. 16). Axtell seeks to explain this sense of rage on part of the Native Americans by looking for the earliest encounters between Native Americans and Europeans, which, was largely ignored in classroom text books before the 1960s and even today. Axtell also seeks to understand the cultures and thought processes of both groups prior to the encounter to explain the conflicts that arose from early contact.