From “Noble Savage” to
“Vanishing Indian”:
Euro-American Perceptions of
Native Americans
English 441
Dr. Roggenkamp
Native-American Literature is a
Post-Colonial Literature
Literature by a COLONIZING culture (e.g.
people of European descent) usually
distorts the experience and realities of the
colonized people—creates a picture of
innate inferiority in terms of the colonized
people
 Literature by the COLONIZED culture (e.g.
Native Americans) attempts to regain the
power to speak for themselves, rather than
be spoken ABOUT by the colonizers

Native-American Literature is a
Post-Colonial Literature
This literature articulates group identity,
reclaims the past, writes their version of
history—but also recognizes the influence
of the colonizer
 Colonizing countries often appropriate the
languages, images, scenes, traditions, etc.
of the colonized land—and vice versa

Colonial New England conceptions
of indigenous peoples

View 1: Native Americans
lost tribes of Israel, waiting
for conversion
 View 2: Native Americans
as children of Satan –
descendents of fallen
angels
 Either way, justification to
eradicate people and
culture
Image: The Death of Jane McCrea, John Vanderlyn, 1804
Southern colonial conceptions
of indigenous peoples
“Noble Savage”
 “Savage” meaning “uncivilized”
 “Noble” meaning innocent, pure,
wise, childlike, connected to
nature, spiritual—but uncultured
 Merely inferior rather than the
intrinsically evil “ignoble savage”
of New England
 Open to European guidance and
deliverance
 Totally romanticized view

Image: Baptism of Pocahontas, John G. Chapman, Capitol
Rotunda, Washington D.C.
“Noble Savage”
“The Vanishing Indian”
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Pre-contact indigenous
population of North America:
est. 10-15 million (about 2
million today)
Disease and warfare
From 1840s : Native Americans
are “vanishing race”
Vanishing in face of “superior”
Euro-American advance
Justifies advance of non-Native
population and eradication of
Native American cultures
Image: Last of Their Race, John Mix Stanley, 1857
“Civilization” of the Frontier:
A “Manifest Destiny”
Image: American Progress, John Gast, 1872
“Indian Territory,” circa 1700
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Yellow=Spanish; green=French; blue=English
British actively displaced natives with settlements
Everything other than blue generally considered "Indian
Territory”
“Indian Territory,” 1763

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1763, France cedes land east Mississippi River to
England
King George III issues “Indian Proclamation Line,”
creating first official “Indian Country”
“Indian Territory,” 1783

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1783 Treaty of Paris revokes Indian Proclamation Line
Line redrawn to reflect actual encroachment across
Appalachians and Ohio River Valley
“Indian Territory,” 1803

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1803 Louisiana Purchase
Made Mississippi River natural barrier between “Indian
Country” to west and “civilization” to east
“Indian Territory,” 1834

1834, Indian Trade and Intercourse Act
“Indian Territory,” 1854
“Indian Territory,” 1876
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After Civil War, Five Nations of Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw,
Creek, and Seminole forced to cede additional lands
Great Plains tribes relocated from Kansas and Nebraska, 1876
“Indian Territory,” 1889
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1889 General Allotment Act and creation of Oklahoma
Territory
“Indian Territory” shrunk to final form
Indian Removal Act of 1830
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President Andrew Jackson
Force Native American
removal from East
Guise of protecting and
preserving Indian cultures
Move west or give up all
tribal rights
Removal as only way to
“civilize” the “vanishing
Indian”
The “Trail of Tears”