Squanto

   Squanto played a very important role to the English colonies.  He was brought to the colony by another Indian named Samoset, who could speak very broken and bad English.  Samoset told the English that Squanto could speak English well, since he had been to England.  He helped the Pilgrims negotiate peace treaties among the Indian tribes and create trading agreements.  He helped translate and negotiate between the governors and tribal leaders.  He also worked as a guide to the Pilgrims, by teaching them about how to utilize their natural resources that were new to them.  I believe that the Pilgrims probably would not have survived without Squanto.  The Indians may have attacked the English if there was no peace treaties. The may have all died of starvation if they were not able to trade with the Indians, or if Squanto had not taught them about the land.   
Source: http://www.mayflowerhistory.com/History/BiographyTisquantum.php
Picture: http://www.east-buc.k12.ia.us/01_02/AH/sq/sq.jpg1

Journals!

         This past week we have been reading different accounts of discoveries of the new world.  They all came from different writers that were expressing how the first settlements were.  Some were primary sources, like John Smith's journal, but others were secondary sources, like the video "Nightmare in Jamestown."  They all may be from vastly different authors, but they are all very much alike.  Especially in the bias views they all had.  They all described the Native Americans in negative ways, even the National Geographic movie did this! I thought that it was kinda ridiculous that they had barely even interacted with these people yet they were calling them salvages and barbarians.  They had already had these misconceptions about the Native Americans before they had even met them for themselves.  I believe that there were many misconceptions and bias views in all the journals and the video.  I believe that people, especially National Geographic, should just say what happened so we actually know the truth about history instead of just exaggerating things to make a good story.

My First Post Went A Little Like This...

Hey! So, this my very first blog, but it is going to be mainly about my English class.

This week we have been learning about the Native Americans, their culture, and their literature. I think that it is very interesting that they are so "in tune" with nature.  The earth is the center of their entire way of life, and I feel like our culture now takes the earth and nature for granted and don't appreciate it as much as we should.  We tend to destroy the earth instead of honor it like the Native Americans did.
I was also fascinated by the city, Cahokia.  I think that it is amazing that there was such a large well functioning city back then.  The structures they built all by hand are unbelievable.  I seriously can't believe that they were able to build such large and magnificent mounds and buildings with only their hands.  That would take so much work and time to build something that great.

The Native Americans have been fun to learn about these past few weeks.