Cultural Differences Between The Colonists And The Indians

The colonist and the Indians faced each other with many prejudices, many times leading to war. Most of their problems were due to the misunderstanding of cultural differences between the two people. Each side struggled with trust amongst one another making it easier to not to work with each other. The problems between the colonist and the Indians are exemplified in two different stories, “A Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary” written by Mary Rowlandson and the film The Last of The Mohicans produced by Hunt Lowry, Michael Mann and directed by Michael Mann. The many difficulties between the two people came down to the choice of not understanding of one another’s culture that led to the problems amid the colonist and the
And one day there will be no more frontier. And men like you will go too, like the Mohicans. And new people will come, work, struggle. Some will make their life. But once, we were here. (Mann, Hunt 1992).
Here Chingachgook stated that the Indians home is gone and that the colonists are only going to grow till the land is no longer wild. Once that happens a different kind of man will come and take over not remember the Indians of the land but this all was once theirs. The film dose show the side of the natives, but the writing of Rowlands shows the side of the
Mary” written by Mary Rowlandson, shows the perspective of the colonist struggles with the Indians. Rowlandson wrote of a smaller perspective of captivity and of her problems while in captivity. The settlement in which Rowlandson lived was attacked by the Indians at night, killing most of Rowlandson’s family and friends. Mary is shot during this attack while holding a child Rowlandson (2013) writes, “the bullets flying thick, one went through my side, and the same (as would seem) through the bowels and hand of my dear child in my arms” (p.129). Rowlandson describes the injury she sustained during the attack. When the attack was over Rowlandson was taken hostage and many times refers to the Indians with different names. Rowlandson (2013) wrote, “Now away we must go with those barbarous creatures” (p.130). Here the name that she called the Indians is referring to them not even being human but beneath that of a colonist, this is due to the fact that the colonists were Christians and the Indians did not believe the same way. As Rowlandson’s captivity begun she was being carried away by the Indians separated from her oldest children and carried her youngest injured child with her. While traveling Rowlandson’s child passed and she was devastated. Rowlandson was then sold and begun her slavery to an Indian master. Rowlandson held tightly to her faith that she would be released and trusted God though out this all.