A study of how perceptions of Native Peoples has shaped their future. Specifically based on Mary Rowlandson’s "The Sovereignty and Goodness of God" and Cynthia Kadohata’s "Weedflower"

1. How Perspective Changes
Lives
How the perspective of American’s shaped Native People’s lives based on their
representations in Mary Rowlandson’s The Sovereignty and Goodness of God and Cynthia
Kadohata’s Weedflower.
Written by Lauren Domangue on April 8th, 2018

2. Covered in this Presentation
 How Mary Rowlandson and others at the time viewed Native Peoples (1682)
 The Wilderness blends with Civilization
 How being a captive was similar to being a native
 How the perceptions of Native People continued into the future
 How the Japanese and Native People are similar
 How the Japanese-Americans and the Native People treated each other
 Why Perspective Matters

3. How Mary Rowlandson and others at the
time viewed Native Peoples (1682)
 Based on Mary Rowlandson’s descriptions of natives, it can be determined that
people tended to think of natives as savages and wild.
 In her captive narrative, she calls them heathens, ravenous beasts, barbarous creatures,
and other names that refer to them as wild and unpredictable.
 She also compares natives to wolves and hellhounds, while comparing Christians to
sheep, a symbol of purity and innocence.
 At one point, Rowlandson thanks God for “preserving us in the wilderness.”

4. The Wilderness blends with Civilization
 Throughout her writing, you can see how Rowlandson associated natives with the wilderness, and
Christian palefaces as civilized based on her understanding of the two cultures.
 Native customs were as unfamiliar and cruel as the wilderness she was in.
 She thanks God that while crossing a river she doesn’t even have to get her feet wet like some of her captives
are, as she is already weak and it is beginning to get cold. She then says, “I was not before acquainted with such
kind of doings or dangers.” This comparison shows how closely she links the unknown and danger to the native
people.
 When she sees natives in English attire she becomes hopeful, but then, upon noticing they were natives, she
states, ““…there was a vast difference between the lovely faces of Christians, and the foul looks of those
heathens….”
 Over time, Rowlandson gets used to the native’s culture as she discovers she must get over her
civilized nature in order to survive, and that the two cultures are not that different.
 She describes how food she once considered “filthy trash” is now “sweet and savory”
 When visiting King Philip, Rowlandson comments the pipe she is offered is “…a usual compliment nowadays
amongst saints and sinners,” showing that the cultures of the natives and palefaces are no longer so different.

5. How being a captive was similar to being a
native
 Mary Rowlandson, as a captive, was put in a similar position as the native people at
the time were.
 Both lost their land to people foreign to them
 Both were losing family and friends due to the other side
 Neither one could control what the group with more power would do with them
 Both had to give up their culture, or sacrifice parts of their belief system in order to
survive
 Example- Indian children went to schools where they were taught the ways of the Europeans,
and captives like Rowlandson have to give up their idea of remaining pure to survive in the wild
with their captors

6. How the perceptions of Native People
continued into the future
 Through Cynthia Kadohata’s book Weedflower, one is able to see that the
perception that native people are wild and dangerous continued
 The Japanese, like other Americans at the time, believed the stereotypes about
native people
 When Sumiko is with Sachi see the natives that live on the reservation for the first time,
Sachi says they’ll get scalped and then get their fingers cut off and boiled if they are seen
(Kadohata, 121). Sachi also tells Sumiko that they are in constant danger because they
are on a reservation, and that the Indians hide at night and will kidnap a person’s family if
they don’t behave (Kadohata, 124).
 Sumiko assumes that Frank and is family live in a tepee because he is a native (Kadohata,
216)

7. How the perceptions of Native People
continued into the future
 The idea that native people are less then the Americans can be seen by the lack of
resources they have on the reservation when the Japanese- Americans arrive.
 The Japanese- Americans are given things such as ice and electricity that the natives
aren’t given access to (Kadohata,143)
 Because the reservation is housing the internment camp, the government is setting up
running water on the reservation (Kadohata, 159)
 Due to other tribes having poor living conditions, the Mohave reservation now hosts the
Chemehuevi tribe. The Hopi and Navajo tribe will be joining them soon(Kadohata, 160).
This shows that despite having a reservation, The native people lack permanent land to
call their own.

8. How the Japanese and Native People are
similar
 The Japanese- Americans were similar to the natives as they had both been forcibly
removed from their belongings, face discrimination from the American government
and people, and are trying to preserve their culture from generation to generation.
 The Nisei, or people born in America whose parents are from Japan, are not allowed to
serve in the U.S. military
 Even though the natives are considered citizens of the United States, each state can
decide whether they have the right to vote
 The Japanese-American families try to hide any ties they have to their past and their
culture the beginning of the novel to avoid being put in camps, just as native people
tried to assimilate to give their descendants the best life they could

9. How the Japanese-Americans and the
Native People treated each other
 Despite the fact that the Japanese- Americans in the internment camps were similar
to the natives, both discriminated each other
 Even though Sumiko knew what it was like to be left out because of her race, she doesn’t
allow Frank to meet Bull to talk about irrigation systems. This situation is reminiscent of
Sumiko not being allowed into a classmate’s birthday party.
 The natives call the Japanese- Americans Japs
 The natives built a fence to around the internment camp to keep their cattle from
wondering into it instead of building a fence around the cattle. This is similar to how the
natives were placed in reservations and how the Japanese-Americans were placed inside
of internment camps.
 One reason the native are okay with the Japanese-American’s staying is because their
farming is helping to irrigate the land

10. Why Perspective Matters
 Without the understanding how the Europeans coming to America saw native
people at the time, it is impossible to understand how the laws of our nation were
ever justified. The viewpoints of people 500 years ago have shaped the societal
beliefs and morals of the present.
 The perspective of Sumiko and other Japanese-Americans of native peoples show that
the problem didn’t erase itself overtime. The idea that natives are savages and wild has
been so engrained into culture that many do not question how this nation has removed
them from their land, and don’t give them the same rights as other American citizens.
 The perspective of Mary Rowlandson shows the beginning of the unfair stereotyping and
treatment of native people.