Levatino 1

Grace Levatino

Cooper, Summer Assignment

AP Lang 1

22/8/2018

English SOAPSTONE

Dunbar- Ortiz, Roxanne. “Chapter Two Culture of Conquest.” An Indigenous People’s History

of the United States. 2014. Pp. 32-44.

Speaker: Roxanne Dunbar- Ortiz is a an American historian and feminist. Based on the way the

author speaks of natives in her passages the reader can see her extensive knowledge of

the topic and can assume that she is in defense of Native Americans, but has no direct

relations to them.

Occasion: Dunbar-Ortiz wrote this passage as a response the controversy surrounding opinions

on Columbus day and the validation of European exploration. Ortiz mentions that

Europeans “participated in [a] culture of conquest--violence, exploration, destruction, and

dehumanization,” backing up the idea that the colonization of the Americas was not

morally correct (1).

Audience: The author is trying to reach the broad spectrum of people interested in the

colonization of Americas and early colonizations that led up to this. Dunbar-Ortiz writes

to those who need more information about early conquests that “didn’t start with

Europeans crossing the Atlantic” (1)

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Purpose: The chapter is written in order to inform the reader of European conquests, and how it

led to the colonization of the Americas. Dunbar- Ortiz writes that the Americas were

founded under “white supremacy- and its justification for genocide” (6).

Subject: The author’s main focus throughout the chapter is to explain the justifications

Europeans gave for their massive colonization. Dunbar-Ortiz claims these motives

transitioned “from religious wars to the genocidal mode of colonialism ” (8). Ortiz

explains of European colonization transitioned from being justified by religion to the idea

of white supremacy.

Tone: Dunbar-Ortiz uses a critical tone in regards to the means of European colonization. The

author uses this tone when describing that Europeans benefited from technology that

“allowed the development of more effective weapons of death and destruction” that

furthered European terrorization of the conquered (3).

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Dunbar- Ortiz, Roxanne. “Chapter Three: Cult of the Covenant.” An Indigenous People’s

History of the United States. Pp. 45-55.

Speaker: Roxanne Dunbar- Ortiz is a an American historian and feminist. Based on the way the

author speaks of natives in her passages the reader can see her extensive knowledge of

the topic and can assume that she is in defense of Native Americans, but has no direct

relations to them.

Occasion: Dunbar- Ortiz’s chapter was written as a response to sources that discredit the

complex civilizations of Native Americans prior to European influence. The passage

mentions that Europeans stole “already cultivated farmland and the corn, vegetables,

tobacco, and other crops domesticated over centuries” by American Indians (2).

Audience: The piece is written towards American citizens that have reaped the benefits of

indigenous people. Dunbar- Ortiz also writes to this audience since they have seen the

first hand effects of how religion can shape a society through the covenants that built in

one.

Purpose: Dunbar- Ortiz writes in order to defend the complex cultivation of land that took place

before it was “wretched away from the Indigenous peoples” (1). The goal of the piece is

to help the reader better understand the foundation to which America is built on and how

these aged ideas continue to come up in common works such as “The US Constitution,

the Declaration of Independence, The Pledge of Allegiance,” and many more (6).

Subject: The piece was written about how religion played a key role in the development and

structure of early American societies. Dunbar- Ortiz states that “certain societies in

certain eras of their development have looked to scriptures for guidance” (4).
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Tone: The author uses a pragmatic tone towards the development of American societies, looking

at it from a reasonable perspective. Dunbar- Ortiz understands that all colonizations

“claim a kind of rationalized origin story up wich they fashion patriotism or loyalty to the

state” (3). This author is realistic with the causes and effects of all types of colonization.
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Momaday, N. Scott. “The Becoming of the Native: Man in American Before Columbus.” 1993.

Conversations in American Literature, ​Eds Robin Dissin Eufses, et al Bedford St.

Martins, 2015, pp. 199-203.

Speaker: Navarre Scott Momaday is a member of the Kiowa tribe and has blood ties to other

Native American Indians. He writes his piece with many biases, in favor of natives, due

to his ancestry and the stories he has grown up knowing. He writes with the first person

point of view of a Kiowa, having seen the firsthand effects brought to them from

Columbus’s explorations in the “New World”.

Occasion: Momaday wrote his piece as a result to the lack of knowledge surrounding Native

Americans and the thousands of years they lived unchanged by the European mind.

Momaday states that “relatively little is known of the Americas and their peoples before

Columbus,” inclining Momaday to attempt to inform the reader responding to the gap in

time that had little documentation familiar to those used today.

Audience: Momaday directs his piece towards anyone who is is in agreement that Columbus

brought civilization to the New World. Whether it is Europeans or Americans, Momaday

targets all who are unaware of the complexities Native Americans acquired without the

influence from any outside countries.

Purpose: The story was written in order to inform the reader of the complexities of Native

American societies and the wide variety of history that took place prior to Columbus’s

arrival. Momaday points out the “untold number of languages and dialects, architecture to

rival any monument of the Old World, astronomical observations and solar calendars, a
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profound knowledge of medicine and the healing arts,” etc. that were all highly

developed before Columbus stepped in.

Subject: The piece was written as a source of information regarding Native American peoples.

As stated by Momaday the people that Columbus came across in the Americas were

“members of a society altogether worthy and well made, a people of everlasting earth,

possessed of honor and dignity and a generosity of spirit unsurpassed” (203).

Tone: Momaday speaks to the reader in a very passionate tone, showing how strongly he feels in

defense of Native Americans. His strong ties to American history are shown as he

continuously uses phrases such as “I believe,” and proudly stating the history of his

culture, never faltering in his support of Natives.

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Nunn, Nathan and Qian, Nancy. “The Columbian Exchange: A History of Disease, Food and

Ideas.” ​Journal of Economic Perspective, American Economic Association,​ Vol. 24, No.

2 Pp. 163-168, American Economic Association,

https://web.viu.ca/davies/H131/ColumbianExchange.pdf​.

Speaker: In the piece Nathan Nunn and Nancy Qian show a perspective of the Columbian

Exchange with biases due to them writing from an economic standpoint on the topic and

them both being exports on the topic. Both authors speak from the point of view of the

Americas and Old World and are able to write without favoring one over the other.

Occasion: This piece was written as a response to the Columbian Exchange and as an attempt to

explain the outcome of the event. The various different opinions on how the exchange

affected the world at the time can be heavily debated which caused an immediate need

for this article.

Audience: Nunn and Qian wrote this article for the people of the New and Old World as a

comparison between the two. The statements in the article show Americans and

Europeans that the Columbian Exchange had effects on both sides.

Purpose: The article was written in order to “to broaden the scope of economic studies of the the

Columbian Exchange by studying aspects of the exchange that have received less

attention” (164). By having this in the beginning of the piece it lays out a roadmap for the

information that will be covered throughout in regards to aspects of the Columbian

Exchange that aren’t as well known by others or normally talked about.l0-pl-i-p;.pn-l0

Subject: The piece focuses on the positive and negative aspects of the Columbian Exchange that

affected the New and Old World. Nunn and Qian mention how diseases, crops, and
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materials had the ability to strengthen economies, but also lead humans down an

unforgiving path.

Tone: When describing the Columbian Exchange the author uses a very direct tone, going over

the exchange as it happened and does not favor any particular sides in the article. The

authors use facts to give very straightforward on how the New and Old World benefited

and were harmed by the various changes brought from the interactions of the two.
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Weatherford, Jack. “Examining the Reputation of Christopher Columbus.” ​The Jatibonicú Taino

Tribal Band of New Jersey; US Regional Taino Tribal Affairs Office located in

Lenapehoken, the land of the Lenape People​. Hartford.

http://www.hartford-hwp.com/Taino/docs/columbus.html​.

Speaker: In “Examining the reputation of Christopher Columbus” Jack Weatherford speaks

directly to the reader. Weatherford works as an anthropologist, studying the interactions

of humans at all points in history, which is likely to have influenced his opinions on the

subject matter and his way of delivering this information.

Occasion: This piece was written in a direct response to Weatherford’s opinion of Columbus

Day. Weatherford mentions that “The United States honors only two men with federal

holidays bearing their names” and he convinces the reader with no doubt that Christopher

Columbus is not deserving of a holiday in celebration for his exploitation of America (2).

Audience: Weatherford is directing his article to any Americans who naively turns to Columbus

as a person to look up to or celebrate. The statements stated in response to Columbus’s

voyage to the New World are likely to be shocking and rejected by many Americans who

have so blindly idolized the “founder” of their great nation.

Purpose: The author wrote this in order to bring to light the true actions that Christopher

Columbus carried out upon arriving to the Americas. Weatherford wants everyone to

know that Columbus was greedy, mistreated people in some of the most inhumane ways

thought to be possible, and is given far too much credit for accidentally stumbling across

a land that had been previously inhabited for centuries.

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Subject: Weatherford speaks to the reader about many misunderstood events during the time

Columbus made his voyage and arrived in the New World. He successfully presents

Columbus as a villain and supports this by saying the disturbing truth that he “hunted

Indians for sport and profited beating, raping, torturing, killing, and then using the Indian

bodies as for for their hunting dogs” (2)

Tone: Weatherford uses a defensive tone against Columbus as a response to his disagreement

with the credit that he is given throughout the country for a discovery that was not his

own. The author states “[Columbus] was no more the discoverer of America than

Pocahontas was the discoverer of Great Britain” backing up the presence of Native

Americans and defaming Columbus (1).

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Zinn, Howard. “Chapter 1: Columbus, the Indians, and the Human Progress.” ​A People’s History

of the United States, History is a Weapon, History is a Weapon,

http://www.historyisaweapon.com/defcon1/zinncol1.html​.

Speaker: Howard Zinn uses very intelligent diction so the reader can tell that he has extensive

knowledge of history and Columbus’s voyages. Zinn states his opinion early on in the

article helping conclude that he is confident in his research and understanding of

America's past.

Occasion: Zinn wrote this article as a resource countering the usual one sided view of history

told through the eyes of the more popular side inmost history books. He states that he

wants to try to tell “the discovery of America from the viewpoint of the Arawaks, [and]

of the constitution from the viewpoint of slaves,” and by doing so he is able to convey a

much deeper recollection of these events(6).

Audience: Howard Zinn’s book was written with the intention of educating fellow American

citizens, along with trying to catch the attention of those interested in the study of history.

Zinn is a straightforward method of explaining history that he believes should be used

when anyone comes across these major moments of the worlds past.

Purpose: Zinn wrote his book “A People’s History of the United States” in order to convince his

readers to take a step back and reevaluate their view of the past. Zinn believes that a

historian must “emphasize new possibilities by disclosing those hidden episodes of the

past,” and by this he means that it is the lesser known side of history that should be

stressed and brought to everyone’s knowledge (7).

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Subject: The main focus throughout Zinns chapter is Christopher Columbus and his conquests in

the New World. His main subject point in this is the harsh treatment that Native

Americans were put to at Columbus’s request, such as being forced to give information,

unwillfully put into captivity, and the loss of their freedom in return for their lives (2).

Tone: Howard Zinn uses an informative tone throughout his piece by trying to tell the readers of

many of the commonly not mentioned sides to the history of Americas colonization. He

goes through mentioning Columbus’s encounter with natives along with other acts of

colonization through the country to further educate anyone who may come across his

piece.