the Christian Indians

only Heaven can reward your reverence, though I do not doubt that his Majesty (may God keep him) will do so.

when informed of the truth

the Church

Even to the last, I could not convince the Indians that we were of the Christians...

who must be obeyed and served,

the Indians being ever diligent to bring us all they could.

and given them to the Christians,

they neither hailed me nor drew near to make an inquiry...

so strangely habited as I was

they must be won by kindness, which is a way certain, and no other is.

but preferred to die rather than live in dread of such cruel usage as they received

they looked as though they would willingly die.

The sight was one of infinite pain to us

hearing more of Christians.

we gave many thanks to God our Lord

he answered that they came from heaven.

over six hundred open hearts of deer.'

they place their houses on the skirt of a wood, the thickest and most tangled they can find, and near it make a ditch in which they sleep.

When no longer offended and their anger is gone, they return. From that time they are friends as if nothing had happened

until their heat has subsided.

they strike each other with the fists, fighting until ex- hausted, and then separate.

It is com- mon among them all to leave their wives when there is no conformity, and directly they connect themselves with whom they please.

the Indians leave him to perish, unless it be a son or a brother; him they will assist, even to carrying on their back.

in seasons of scarcity, the children were allowed to suckle, that they might not famish

The children are suckled until the age of twelve years, when they are old enough to get sup- port for themselves.

On one occasion while I slept, the fire fell upon the straw, when it began to blaze so rapidly that not- T^-ithstanding the haste I made to get out of it,

while walking naked as I was born.

I was detained some time.

for every day went on increasing his compassion and his gifts.

many came to us that night sick

sat down among us, and from the sorrow and pity they felt, they all began to lament so earnestly that they might have been heard at a dis- tance, and continued so doing more than half an hour.

but when they saw us thus, in a plight so different from what it was before, and so extraordinary, they were alarmed and turned back.

He answered that it was no longer a time in which one should com- mand another] but that each should do what he thought best to save his own life

He answered saying that could not be done, because the boat was far to sea and he wished to reach the shore

They entreated us to go with them, and said they would give us the Christ- ians, water, and many other things

and of more authority and condition than any we had hitherto seen

The Governor replied that he would give up the hostages when they should bring the Christians they had taken.

In the boat

more than forty men of disease and hunger

we knew not how to construct, nor were there tools, nor iron, nor forge, nor tow, nor resin, nor rigging; finally, no one thing of so many that are necessary, nor any man who had a knowledge of their manufacture; and, above all, there -was nothing to eat, while building, for those who should labor...

and could pass out of it only through death,

and that whatever might happen to one should be the lot of all, without any forsaking the rest.

that of the persons mounted, the greater part commenced secretly to plot, hoping to secure a better fate for themselves by abandoning the Governor and the sick, who were in a state of weak- ness and prostration.

Grod,

There were not horses enough to carry the sick, who went on increas- ing in numhers day hy day, and we knew of no cure.

to the place I had visited.

They are of admirable proportions, very spare and of great activity and strength.

com- manded the cavalry to dismount and charge the In- dians on foot.

the people beyond were less numerous and poorer, the land little occupied, and the inhabitants much scattered ; that thenceforward were great lakes, dense forests, immense deserts and solitudes

As we sallied they fled to the lakes near by, because of which and the large maize fields, we could do them no injury

asking for their women and children, whom we re- leased

very cold.

the Gelves

truth

and for some persons difficult to believe, nevertheless they may without hesitation credit me as strictly faithful. Better than to exaggerate, I have lessened in all things, and it is sufficient to say the relation is offered to your Majesty for truth.

and bring them to a know- ledge of the true faith and true Lord,

it might testify to my exertion in the royal behalf.

To me, one only duty remains, to present a relation of what was seen and heard in the ten years I wandered lost

that I should not have to speak in order to be reckoned among those who for diligence and fidelity in affairs your Majesty honors.

but coming in the providence of God and solely by His will.

extreme of blackness

that I have come to another conclusion respecting the Earth

the inhabitants on discovering us abandoned their houses, and took to flight, carrying of their goods to the mountain.

penetrate

This is so beautiful a place

The Indians on board the ships called this island Saomete. I named it Isabela.

seemed to take great pleasure in serving us.

It appeared to them that we were honest people

where I gave it the name of Santa Maria de la Concepcion

San Salvador

I could conquer the whole of them with fifty men, and govern them as I pleased.

if they had any gold

wrought in a wonderful manner considering the country

and would be good servants and I am of opinion that they would very readily become Christians, as they appear to have no religion

Weapons they have none

coarse like that of a horse’s tail

that he before all others took possession (as in fact he did) of that island for the King and Queen his sovereigns, making the requisite declarations, which are more at large set down here in writing.

At two o’clock in the morning the land was discovered, at two leagues’ distance;

a piece of cane

for the Admiral had given orders to that effect.

the needles

Those on board the Nina ascended the rigging, and all declared they saw land. The Admiral also thought it was land,

demanded of the Admiral a reward for his intelligence.

Part of the day saw no weeds, afterwards great plenty of it.

Saw a whale, an indication of land, as they always keep near the coast.

Here the pilots found their places upon the chart: the reckoning of the Nina made her four hundred and forty leagues distant from the Canaries, that of the Pinta four hundred and twenty, that of the Admiral four hundred.

the seamen were terrified

saw a large fragment of the mast of a vessel

that the crew might not be dismayed if the voyage should prove long.

which he affirmed he saw every year, and always of the same appearance

perpetual Viceroy and Governor in all the islands and continents which I might discover and acquire, or which may hereafter he discovered and acquired in the ocean; and that this dignity should be inherited by my eldest son, and thus descend from degree to degree forever

countries of India

the holy Father had never granted his request, whereby great numbers of people were lost, believing in idolatry and doctrines of perdition

would

purely Indian

Truly it would have been wise and well for those of early times if they could have held their tongues.

From this day ye may feed yourselves and find your own venison, for this child shall do so no more for you.”

Ye

For when he did but point his finger at a moose, or anything which ran, it would drop dead;

but his little eyebrows were of stone.

their religion.

Then I ate this medicine and everything changed.

one leading to a hole in the earth and the other extending up above.

The coffin will be set before you and then you will see your body.

Bring whatever desires you possess along with you and then come and eat or drink this medicine. This is life, the only life. Then you will learn something about yourself, so come.

It is a cure for all evil.

ill

now for the first time one was cured.

Indian doctors and then I tried all of the white man’s medicines,

Winnebagoes

“If I take this road I am likely to meet some people, but if I take the other road, I am not likely to meet anyone.”

“If I take this road I am likely to meet some people, but if I take the other road, I am not likely to meet anyone.”

“Let us eat peyote again to-night.”

I saw a man with horns and long claws and with a spear in his hand.

“All right, I’ll do it.”

If only some of my own people were here!

the younger members who have been strongly permeated with Christian teachings translate the prayer into, “God, the Son, and the Holy Ghost.”

by John Rave

parts of the Bible

asking forgiveness

member of the cult

Christmas

Since that time white men have come to America.

I came to this country to have my mother baptized as a Catholic.

They gave him an anchor and an English flag.

America (England?)

The people had never seen a canoe before.

This was before the white people had ever heard of America.

and so provisioned his great canoe.

stone canoe

“Whenever you wish to kill anything, though it were half a mile off, point this stick at it.”

A stranger

Woodchuck

How Glooskap went to England and France, and was the first to make America known to the Europeans.

the spirit of the plant suggests to him the proper remedy.

agreed to furnish a remedy for some one of the diseases named,

ut this so enraged the others that they fell upon the Ground Squirrel and tore him with their teeth and claws,

to make their victims dream of snakes twining about them in slimy folds and blowing their fetid breath in their faces, or to make them dream of eating raw or decaying fish, so that they would lose appetite, sicken, and die.

with rheumatism, so that he, is rendered on the instant a helpless cripple

The deer next held a council under their chief,

by cutting his claws,

increased so rapidly that their settlements spread over the whole earth and the poor animals found themselves beginning to be cramped for room

Diluting any literature, much less that of a traditionally oppressed and misun- derstood group of peoples, serves little purpose. Trying to create a multi-ethnic course or unit simply perpetuates the old Euro-American notion that everything not European must somehow be "the same" and a bit inferior

"Indians" are most familiar and recognizable when ahorse and inarticulate

Formulary roles, conclusions, and situations replace humanity and individual diversity.

There is a danger, however, that the American reading audience may take Momaday's books as literal statements of fact rather than as the products of artistic imagination and license.

a Native American's "statement," though certainly not the Native American point of view

This ritualized form of lan- guage, the bastardized product of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century clerical trans- lators at treaty conferences, has become so associated with Native American utter- ance that today its usage in certain circles is practically mandatory to insure ethnic credibility.

unctuous

confirm to the white reader that contact with Euro-Americans was the most significant event in the forty-thousand-year history of Native people on this continent

White writers almost invariably portray Native American cultures as fragile, regressive, deteriorating entities

By far the greatest volume of fiction pertaining to Native Americans has been written about them by non-Natives.

this little story has great impact

he agreed without any clarification of the terms

without such knowledge, how can we, as reader or listener, penetrate to the core of meaning in an expression of literary art?

amalgam

The idea of national conquest, total victory or defeat, or the development and evolution of a sophisticated military technology were conspicuously (relative to the European example) absent.

fascinating

Surely these quintessentially un-European creatures (no clothes, no crosses, etc.) could not be human. Perhaps they were a new species of ape; perhaps manifested devils . . . but certainly not souls!

Societal diversity was accepted, tolerated, and assumed, and each group took pride in its own distinctive features, including its own oral (literary) traditions.

But there was not, and is not.

"Native American litera- ture,"

Since that time white men have come to America.

I came to this country to have my mother baptized as a Catholic.

They gave him an anchor and an English flag.

America (England?)

The people had never seen a canoe before.

This was before the white people had ever heard of America. The white men did not discover this country first at all.

and so provisioned his great canoe

stone canoe

"Whenever you wish to kill anything, though it were half a mile off, point this stick at it."

A stranger

Woodchuck

How Glooskap went to England and France, and was the first to make America known to the Europeans.