A Little Claim

I thought I would elaborate upon Chris and DeAne's prompt for Friday's class in my blog.  Reading the first 13 chapters of Black Elk leads me to make the claim that the conflicts between the Native Americans and Americans in the course of this book are largely conflicts in FREEDOM. I do not wish to somehow imply that the Americans should have pushed the Native Americans off of their land.  Not at all.  Rather, I think that each perspective, both whites and Native Americans' were focused upon the notion of freedom.  Americans saw Manifest Destiny as a freedom they were allowed to entertain, because according to their laws, the Native Americans did not actually own deeds to the land, therefore they could take it over, and it was their freedom to move about and do so.  On the other hand, Native Americans saw the Whites' actions as an encroachment upon their freedom of mobility and of lifestyle.  Black Elk writes, "Our people were all sad because Crazy Horse was dead and they were going to pen us up on little islands and make us be like Waischus"(115).   The Native American's saw an intrinsic part of their freedom to be their ability to freely move as they were accustomed to and to be able to have their own land.   In modern times, it is easy to look at the expansion of America as a terrible action, but viewed through the lens of freedom, I think it is easier to understand how whites were able to ignore the validity of the Native Americans' wishes.   It also gives a clearer view as to why tensions between the two groups became bloody so quickly.    Freedom, for all peoples it would seem, is very serious business.