The Saginaw Trail by Leslie K. Pielack

Author:Leslie K. Pielack
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Arcadia Publishing Inc.
Published: 2018-10-09T16:00:00+00:00

THE COMFORT ZONE

Seasonal encounters with local bands was a universal experience of early Michigan pioneers. In some cases, frontier isolation led to mutual respect and assistance between the old culture and the new. White settlers might admire and trust the wilderness skills of local Indians and develop lasting friendships. Settler children were quick to learn the languages and customs through contact with native children. As adults, their accounts are observant and reflect more sensitive and accepting attitudes than those of other whites who had limited capacity or interest in learning native language and customs. Instead, narratives of these pioneers say more about their own superstitions and fears than offering an understanding of the Indians they encountered. Furthermore, few documents survive beyond settlers’ accounts to provide insight into the historical Native Americans of the Saginaw Trail, and unfortunately, tribal documents are also scarce. Tribal history is largely dependent on oral tradition. Thus, little is known of the thousands of Ojibwa, Odawa and other Anishnaabe people who remain undocumented and unknown.91

As decades of the nineteenth century passed, Indians grew less numerous in Indian country. They succumbed to smallpox and cholera, retreated farther north or were removed by force.92 Prejudicial attitudes in the public mind began to lump all native people together, further reducing tribal, individual and cultural distinctions. “Indian” became ever more pejorative; indigenous people were increasingly seen by whites as foreign, strange, dirty, lazy, poor, burdensome and, ultimately, condemned to entrenched prejudice and bigotry.

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