This is my Reading Log #2. For this reading log I had to read two articles about the relationship between the Europeans and the First Nations People. It discussed how to Europeans forced the Natives into Christianity, and mistreated them. After I read these articles, I became very interested in this topic, and this was the article that inspired me to do my research project on this issue.

 

Reading Journal #2

There was one quite obvious main argument of this reason, and it was that the Europeans were trying to force the Indians to Christianity, and for the most part the Indians were resisting. I believe the main reason the article was written was to shed light on how big of an issue this really was. Many Indians were told that if they didn’t believe in the Europeans belief of Christianity then they would go to hell. As stated in the article, Indians who followed the Europeans beliefs and embraced Christianity were committing cultural suicide, and weren’t liked by many of the Indians who chose to stick with their own beliefs. I believe this article is very convincing of the fact that the Indians were mistreated. Many of the Europeans wouldn’t listen to the Indian leaders’ complaints about what was happening and brushed them off. The Indians were led to believe that because they weren’t following the Europeans beliefs that they were going to die of disease. When in reality the reason the Indians were dying of diseases was to do with the diseases and bacteria that the Europeans were bringing over. The evidence that the author used to make a convincing argument is when like said above, the Indians thought they were dying of diseases because they wouldn’t convert to Christianity. When the author states that by connecting baptism with the spread of smallpox, native Americans mounted a compelling indictment of the mission and its methods.