Zinn Chapter 1

The main point of this reading that the author is trying to convey to the reader is the unnecessary cruelty that the newcomers displayed to the Native Americans who were established in the America's way before them. Not a lot of people realize what we did to the Native Americans in order to take this land from them. They also do not realize the kindness that the Native Americans met us with when we first arrived here and the hostility we ended up showing them because of our greed after a short amount of time on land. A quote from the reading that I feel summarizes how Zinn feels pretty well would be, "Thus began the history, five hundred years ago, of the European invasion of the Indian settlements in the Americas, a history of conquest, slavery, and death. But in the history books given to the children of the United States, for generation after generation, it all starts with heroic adventure- there is no bloodshed- and Columbus Day is a celebration."

The American Indian people had developed many ways of survival and producing food and such things for themselves. As soon as Columbus and the rest of the Europeans arrived the Indians were forced into slavery and taken to look for the gold treasures. Their crops and houses were destroyed and their lives were over as they used to know. Columbus knew he could not go back to Europe empty handed so he had the Indians do all of the work for him and since he did not find mass amounts of gold he forced the Native Americans into slavery and took them back on his ships. The Native Americans did not deserve this at all either they had done nothing to harm the Europeans. In fact when they saw the ships arriving they swam out into the ocean and greeted the sailors with gifts and things of that nature. Once on land they gave up anything they had for the newcomers and were willing to trade for anything.

Do you think that the history books for younger children should be changed so they tell the actual truth of what Columbus did after his arrival?

Were the Native Americans too friendly to the Europeans who they did not even know?

This reading made me upset on how the Europeans treated the Native Americans who were so nice to them and never did anything but show them respect and hospitality. They did not deserve anything that was done to them and it is frustrating they were treated with such disrespect.