Through this historical exhibit, the cultural differences between the Native Americans and the White settlers will be anaylzed and discussed, by the use of Indian captivities. The literature works that will be discussed are those consisting of personal thoughts and opinions of each culture, about the other culture. These resources accurately describe the true feelings felt by each culture, that were especially expressed when captives were taken by the Native Americans. The unique thoughts within the two cultures are thoroughly expressed in each resource, showing how immense the hatred between the two social groups was.

Louise Barnett writes an article that explicitely discusses how plentiful Native American tribes were before the White settlers came to the land, and the stereotypes that were placed on the Indians, or "the [great] Voice that was the South" (341). She bases her theories on the romance novels that were produced in a much later time than when the first settlers came to live in the New World. When the settlers came, the Native Americans consisted of over six hundred communities, spoke a large variety of languages and had over one thousand tribal societies spread across the land. According to Barnett they lived beautifully, they were one with nature with a dignified respect for the land itself, and it's resources. Once the settlers came, chaos emerged and when pieces of literature were composed the Native American was unfairly demeaned as a devil or demon. As soon as romance novels, consisting of the dangerous frontiers, came into the picture the Indian, once again, was cast as the hated-antogonist who was always capturing the women and children while killing the men of the "respectable" towns. Barnett argues the plots of these "feel-good" books with"to reduce these diverse peoples to stereotype and counterstereotype, savage and noble savage, is to cast shadow puppets on the wall" (341). In retrospect she is countering the novel's plots by saying that the White settler authors of the later romance novels really had no idea what the Native Americans were really like, because in the majority of their lives they had never experienced any of the situations they wrote about. Also, to Barnett it seemed morally unfair to judge the Native Americans with their at-first peaceful and quiet lifestyles.

These journals have one purpose for the reader which is "to clarify the ways in which this nation has been ehtnic from the first" (158). That one sentence summarizes the United States' continuing problem of racial and ethnic problems. The problems will always be there, from the first day the White settler came into America to the present,  it is just a matter of finding a policy and rules for the country that will appease everyone in any group or organzation. The Native Americans and White settlers did not even consider trying to comprise or appease the other group when it came to who would hold the power. Each cultural group thought that they were the better and more intellectually suited to be in charge and compromising or splitting the power was put out of question. The journals explained the betrayals between the two social parties, which ultimately led to Indian captivities and the settlers revenge. The Native Americans would attack the settlers' town and the majority of the time leave with captives, as prizes of war or as bargaining pieces for material items, usually money. The captives, depending on the Indian tribe,  usuaully were not treated well, having to fight for their lives most of the time. The settlers, knowing that attacking the Indians would just probably end up with everyone, including the hostages being killed, decided to take the psychological approach to these "disruptive experience[s]" (158). The settlers tried to transform "the 'unnatural' inversion of power at the hands of the Indians into a more 'culturally useful' story of  deliverance" (158). Without using force, settlers would usually buy or bargain for the captives, who would then tell the story as one of religion, where the "devil" captured and tortured them, and when God willed the punishment to be over, the "good" settlers rescued them. The White settlers thought it was unnatural for the Native Americans to have any power, and instead of trying to assimilate them into their cultural, they retaliated to the captivities in a way that provoked the Indians to continue to rebel and cause problems to their newly settled towns.

This text of article reviews analyzes and explains the colonial life of the settlers. The authors discuss the settled life of the White man and his family, which helps explain how they got the image of the "savage" and "barbaric" Indian. To begin, this review explains that a "loosely" European culture came into the New World, where there already existed a "loosely" Native American culture (730). It contradicts many other articles, explaining about Indians and the White men, who exclaim that both cultures were very well distinguished and close-knit family groups. The review continues on to state that the two cultures should have mingled and compromised since neither one had the dominate power from the beginning, but then the struggle for power came into top priority for both parties. The English settlers thought "to lay claim to them [Native Americans]  and subjugate them by binding them within language," the English language (730). This idea did not play out very well with the Indians who with "resistance to European ideology," refused to assimilate into the White settlers culture, and thus began the rebellion of a proud people (731). The rebellion was against the settlers idea of a "group implicitly unified, across North America, by a cultural system of religion, value, and narrative," based soley on the White man's values and morals (736). This text explains that the settlers did not mind having to share their newly found land with a pre-existing people, but they did mind that the Indians were a completely different culture; so the settlers became "God's messangers" and began to try to turn the Native Americans to the settlers' ways of life.  Once this idea of converting the Native Americans came into action, the settler began experiencing "episodic catastrophes," such as Indian raids on settlements, wife and children being captured and held until ransom could be established and paid, and material possessions being stolen (736). The Native Americans were a proud people, and once they rebelled against having to diminish their own personal and cultural beliefs, they were immediately labled as a "wild, demonic, and dangerous," cultural race. 

This document explains the Puritan settlers view on Indian captivity and how they dealt with such issues. To begin, the only explanation that can explain why some of the settlers are taken is explained, which is that "it is the Lord's doing" (1).  The settlers believed that the reason some of their colonial neighbors were captured by Indians was that they deserved it, in God's eye, and that they should embrace the punishment; if they survived then their penance would have been served in justice. Mary Rowlandson was a perfect example of this belief, when she became captured with her children. When reading pieces of her journal on her experience, it is difficult to find any harsh words against her Indian captors; all that can be found is repentence, as well as thanks and praise to God for her life. Throughout her difficult, and traumatizing captive, where she even lost her youngest child, Mary always believed that she was being punished for not being good and completely faithful in her Puritan beliefs. The Native Americans were brutal to their victims at times, but even through the toughest experience, the Puritan captives were taught to endure and embrace this punishment for God, for surely God "hath remembered mercy," for his victims (1).  Although this approach sounds peaceful, as if the settlers were trying to endure the Native Americans and try to get along, there is an underlying motive for these religious ways. The Puritans changed their view of the new land from one of "savages and wilderness," to one of "a fresh, green" land from which [they] might draw their virtuous sustenance , a virtue so powerful as to restore the virginity of a continent now rid- figuratively and, increasingly, literally- of its native inhabitants" (3). The reason the settlers were being calm and collected through their horrendous ordeals is because they believed that for God's punishment, of having to deal with the Native savages, they would be redeemed by God ridding their newly beloved continent of the Indians. Although it would seem that the settlers were a kind, understanding, and religious people, they had underlying motives of an Utopian society that consisted of only their race and culture. The settlers had very little patience for the Native Americans, who in turn did not respect or understand the settlers. This article explicitly explains that the developing hatred each culture was experiencing for the other was there, even though the Puritans tried to blantantly cover theirs up with a religion shield.

The piece discussed, is one that explains Indian captivity, which now, in today's world have the "faint immortality of preserved folklore." The article explains the various captivities that took place, from the gruesome and troubling ones, to the calm ones that resulted in the "adoption" of the captive into the tribe.  When the "adoption" would take place, the White settler would be absorbed into the Indian culture and be reluctant to return to the White civilization. Still no matter which one occurred, how it took place is all the same: force.  It is explained that the Indians always came in terror upon the White settlers, and brutally took captives, either as trophies of war or in order to receive "a profitable source of income" (173).  An example, through a story, is told of an older man who sat outside with his beloved gun on his lap, just watching and waiting for Indians to come onto his land. As soon as they would "sneakily" approach, the man would immediately start shooting, waiting for nothing. Each culture lived in fear of the other, and took to heart the saying "shoot first, ask questions later." There was no compromising or understanding between the two parties, just anger and revenge. The captivities were a brutal and vicious cycle for the settlers and the Indians: with the settlers having to protect their homestead and families, and the Indians trying to get more money and material goods.

To fully understand how the Native Americans truy felt about the White settler, it should be told by someone who has competely joined their culture. The author of this text was captured as a small boy by Indians, and was "adopted" by the captor's tribe. When he approached an Indian chief from a differing tribe, when he was older, the chief calmly told him, "you are a stranger...and you have come to us because you are too feeble and worthless to have a home or a country of your own...go back, therefore, from this place, and be no longer a burden to us or I will certainly take your life" (480). That single statement by the Native American chief completely describes the true feelings the Indians had about the settlers. When the settlers first came over the local inhabitants, the Native Americans, thought of them as intruders and mistrusted them from the beginning. Then, when the time came for the settlers to start their "city on a hill," and began to try to convert the Indians to their lifestyle, the rebellion of the Indians started. The captivities performed by the Indians, to this author, were just "cultural-crossing" experiences, that tended to be blown out of proportion when being re-told, which caused the unnecessary and un-ending fighting between the Indian and White culture (483). The text explains that, yes some of the captivity experiences were extremely brutal and horrendous, but for the most part it was simply just a way for the power-struggling Native American to express his anger and a way to increase his income.

Through the use of various articles and journals, it can be said that along the cultural difference between the Native American and the White settler, there was always fear and fighting. The struggle for power was a tough battle, with each culture group wanting to hold superiority over the other. Indian captivities were one of the first forms of attack to inflict pain and punishment on the settlers for their attempts to drive the Indians out of the new land.  Both social groups came to live in fear of the other, and that way of life became a vicous and dangerous cycle. The Native Americans and the White settlers had their own goals in mind: settler's was to take over the land, and the Indians just to continue living on the land. Neither group wanted treaties or accomodations, they wanted to live freely, and that fierce independent way of thinking led to the battle for power between the two cultures. To the present day it can be seen that the Indians' efforts to remain a free culture was in vain, for they did not have the sufficient resources to outlast the greatly increasing number of settlers immigrating to the New World.