indians

            Many Americans, that lived in the nineteenth century held various different stereotypes of Native Americans. Some may think of Native Americans living in the forest among animals, shooting off bows and arrows, and having pow wows. They where considered to be uncivilized monsters, that had only one goal, to kill the white man. While they did hold pow wows and different ceremonies, and the Native Americans did kill many Europeans this is not the whole truth nor very close to it. Fredrick Jackson Turner and Sarah Deutsch give good descriptions and thorough background information on Native Americans in Western history. When comparing their essays to James Fenimore Cooper's novel,The Last of the Mohicans,? where we can get a better idea of the Indian's point of view. One can see many similarities between the opinions of Turner and Deutsch and the image that Cooper portrays. There was many ideas and beliefs that these early Americas thought to be true, when in reality they where very wrong. Sarah Deutsch describes the sexual relations between the Native Americans, and in this description says that very often the women in the tribes would marry Anglos. Even though the situation is a bit reversed, this is also shown in the novel. The two daughters of the General fall in love with the two Mohican boys. So it is here too that we can see the Indians did have interracial relationships and marriages. Whether it was the men or women, we do know that it happened. Deutsch also mentioned, "None participated fully in the Anglo mythology of the West" (98, Deutsch). Here she is saying that the Natives, among many other races, did not follow all the rules and ways of the white men. This is also shown inThe Last of the Mohicans.? The Mohicans, like many Indians of that time, refused to follow the ways of the white men. This resistance destroyed many different cultures. The only way for any of the Indians to survive was to summit.