Ask yourself, who owned property? The majority of the people who owned land were white male Christians. You wrote “how the colonizing whites had taken both their possessions and land and effectively destroyed their nation.” To elaborate on this issue, owning land was a major way of participating in the United States government. Unfortunately, to the Whites, Native Americans were still thought of being only savages and children. I felt an assurance that I was included in the plan of redemption with all my brethren” (Apess 173). Apess had an Epiphany when he realized “Christ died for all mankind- that age, sect, color, country, or situation made no difference. I completely agree with your point of view on the fact that William Apess wrote his autobiography to show his white audience the similarities and differences between Native Americans, Christians and Christianity. A Son of the Forest and Other Writings.Amherst:University of Massachusetts Press, 1997. In order to get any respect from the colonizers, natives would need to take up Christ as the first step to integrating or at least slowing the loss of their possessions and land.Īpess, William. And no wonder they succeeded– the natives were melted down into tenderness and love, and they became as kind and obliging as any people could be.” (Apess 34) Without Christianity he sees the natives as effectively doomed. “They preached not themselves, but Christ Jesus– and him crucified: And while they were doing this, they sought not their own advancement. The only denomination that had any success was the expressive Methodists, who Apess clearly preferred. Apess is under the belief that the natives were descendants of the “Ten Lost Tribes of Israel,” and being so gave them inherent rights as creatures of equal status in the eyes of God. “Let us look around us, and what do we behold? The forests of Canada and the West are vocal with the praises of God, as they ascend from the happy wigwams of the natives” (Apess 34) and talks about reclaiming them “from the most abandoned and degrading practices and brought to a knowledge of the truth as it is in Jesus!” (Apess 33) He goes on to explain that because of the mistrust that the natives have of the white man, missionaries have found it hard to preach the word of God to them. He argues against the idea prevalent among whites at the time that Indians are “not susceptible of improvement,” (Apess 34) but cites and example of their progress measured by their adherence to Christianity. Apess goes into great detail about his “once happy, powerful, yet peaceful people” (Apess 4) and how the colonizing whites had taken both their possessions and land and effectively destroyed their nation. William Apess’ A Son of the Forest is a dense religious and societal commentary as well as an autobiography.
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