Is Trust Really Possible??

Author's Note- This is a logbook that I created for Social Studies. It is all about the American Indian Wars that occurred in the West. As you are reading this very, very, very long logbook, please look for some figurative language.  
October 12, 1492.

The beginning of the bloody American Indian Wars. We heard from the French that there was gold over in the West and have just started to head in that direction. The hardship of walking here has been horrifying. It’s like watching a horror film, but we are all in that film. The heat from the sun burns through our skin, like fire singeing through our souls. We have walked for miles in the burning sun and I feel like I have been walking for 5 decades without water. My family and I are as scared as a deer running from a pack of wolves. We want this nightmare to end, especially for my wife, for she is about to have a child. I hope that God has mercy on us and protects us from this never ending journey.

October 1585-1626

Many, many years have passed and a lot has happened since then. In 1585, Sir Walter Raleigh sent an expedition under Sir Richard Grenville and Sir Ralph Lane to create and establish a colony on Roanoke Island. (Yenne) It turns out that the expedition was a bust. In 1587, John White was sent to the island but had to go back to England in to retrieve supplies. (Yenne) He got delayed for many years and didn’t return until 1591. (Yenne) The colonists had vanished without anything left behind. Not even a trace. (Yenne) It was an expedition gone wrong and is a scary mystery. It seems that these troubled times are more scary than I thought. My family and I have become more and more petrified and my wife is about to give birth. This makes our trip even more frightening than we wanted.

1600

We have finally made it to the west. It was a very cruel journey walking on the hard and rocky ground. My wife died giving birth to our son Sam. She only survived 3 hours after the birth and Sam only lasted 2. My life came to a screeching halt. Now, I have no family left. Just me and my horse, Spirit. I have walked for miles and waited for over a century to get to the West, and I finally made it.

1615

We have just received word that all of the gold is gone. (Catt) I traveled miles and miles to get to the West. I risked my family’s life and lost my wife and son along the way. I came all the way out here, for nothing. Many people have given up their homes to come out here and now everyone is settling in. Trying to make a new life is very hard and it’s very difficult without my wife and son and with all of the tragedies that occur. 

1620

We have just spotted some Indians out here. They look like ferocious eating tigers. The burning glare in their eye makes you melt to the ground. These Indians are scaring the crap out of me and I don’t know whether I should leave or if they will. If something doesn’t happen soon, then war is about to break out. I can feel it.

March 1636

It has been the most crucial 14 years of my life. Some of the Indians that we spotted have attacked our village and our tobacco farms that the newcomers had built around the village of Jamestown. (Dolan, The American Indian Wars) We were unprepared. The Indians known as the Powhatan tribe killed 347 of our settlers.  (Dolan, The American Indian Wars) Everything in our village was heavily fortified.  (Dolan, The American Indian Wars)It then remained untouched from then on.  (Dolan, The American Indian Wars)After the attack, I drew this picture of what it looked like so that someday, I would be able to sell it and move out of the West. From then on, that day was known as the Jamestown Massacre of 1622. But I always ask myself: Why the attack?  (Dolan, The American Indian Wars)

  

1650

The West is quiet. We haven’t had an attack from the Powhatan Tribe for over 14 years. During the fight, I thought that I was going to die. But the thought of my wife and son kept me alive. I never thought that I wouldn’t have a family. I have never felt so alone. Not a wind howls nor a wolf cries. Just the loud sounds of gun fire and bows and arrows. I never thought that the West would be like this. If I would have known that it would have been like this, I wouldn’t have moved out here in the first place.

1675

I have just found my answer on why the Powhatan tribe attacked us: we violated the treaties that Benjamin Franklin and Patrick Henry negotiated with the tribes by taking their land to use for logging, digging, mining, ranching and settlement.  (Dolan, The American Indian Wars)And it wasn’t just any land that we took, it was their sacred land.  (Dolan, The American Indian Wars) Now the wind howls its mighty objection. This isn’t just fighting between two cultures. Trust is no longer an option. This is war.

June 1675

It has been 53 years after the Jamestown Massacre. The Indians have invaded the village of Swansea in New England’s Plymouth Colony.  (Dolan, The American Indian Wars)We called this war, the King Phillip’s War. It was named after the chief of the Wampanoag.  (Dolan, The American Indian Wars)All the answers are coning clear now: The Powhatan Tribe attacked us because we were once friends with them… until our numbers increased.  (Dolan, The American Indian Wars)Same thing is happening with the Wampanoag: they are like stallions riding through the trees. This war has gone from the Plymouth Colony, to the Massachusetts Bay, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New Hampshire and Maine.  (Dolan, The American Indian Wars)Someone must step up and stop this… This ends now.

1700

I don’t know if I can take the West anymore. We are at war right now, and many people have been calling it the American Revolution. This is a brutal world now a days. I’m very surprised because we had 2 Indian tribes come and fight on our side. They were the Oneida and Tuscarora.  (Dolan, The American Indian Wars)We did find out that 4 Indian tribes were with the British. They were the Mohawk, Onondaga, Cayuga and the Seneca tribes.  (Dolan, The American Indian Wars)With everything that has been going on, I don’t know whether trusting the Indians is in the ball game anymore. I thought coming out here was going to be a new start for my life, to get away from all the taxes and the British and the king, but this, everything out here in the west is like a new beginning gone wrong. I can’t even describe what life would be like if my wife and son were here. I chose the wrong path for my family and I shouldn’t have listened to the French. I should have stayed home.

1740

There has been so much chaos and the Indians and English fight like cats and dogs! Many people have snuck out of the village and gone to the Indians to try and make peace with them to get them to stop attacking us. So far, either our men have died, or they disagree and attack again. Both cultures are as different as night and day. I’ll tell you one thing; these Indians are more difficult than cutting cucumbers with a spoon. I feel like that the fighting is never going to end. It feels like that I has just started.

1766

The French and Indian War has finally ended. We had an estimation of about 5,000 men dying in this war.  (Dolan, The American Indian Wars)I don’t know how much longer I can stay in the west. All I have seen out here so far is war. The French promised more gold and to provide us with beaver fur. But no; all we have gotten is an arrow through our heads and blood on our skin! What more do the Indians want before we are all dead!?

1791- 1794

Another bloody battle has sprung out in the Old Northwest. The fighting has gone from Ohio, to Indiana, to Illinois, to Wisconsin and sections of Michigan. As the Indians have been attacking our farms and settlement, a 1,400-man-force under Major General Arthur St. Clair suffered 913 casualties.  (Dolan, The American Indian Wars)It was a major defeat for us. The Indian warriors passed them on to us like a sandstorm over Egypt. Although, in the Battle of Fallen Timbers, we, the Americans were commanded by the hero from the Revolutionary War, General “Mad” Anthony Wayne.  (Dolan, The American Indian Wars)It was the 1795 victory in the Treaty of Greenville. When this occurred, the Indians let us settle the southern 2/3 of the Old Northwest.  (Dolan, The American Indian Wars)Since then, I don’t know if they are trying to be nice to us, or they just hate or guts. Everyday it’s like we hate you and then we love you! I just never thought that the west would be like this. And still, day after day, I think of my family and what would have happened to them if they were here.

The Mid-1830’s + 1840’s

We have just received word from President Andrew Jackson; they are removing the Cherokee Tribe from their Georgia and North Carolina homes and sending them to the Indian Territory. The whites wanted the tribe from the land to be gone so that the Georgia land could be used “more efficiently.”  (Dolan, The American Indian Wars)And this is what doesn’t make sense: If we want to make peace with the Indians, why are we removing them from their homes? It’s like removing a lion from the zoo. And much has happened as the Indians moved. Men, women and even children died from hunger or heat. By the time the Indians had finished their walk, they had lost over 4,000 lives. Most of the deaths happened in the stockades and not on the road. I have heard that because so many lives were lost by the U.S. government, it earned the haunting title as “The Trail of Tears.”  (Dolan, The American Indian Wars)I was thinking about all these wars that we have had between us and the Indians, that I call these tragic times, the American Indian Wars, and the way that these wars are turning, it looks like that they will never end.

November 29, 1864

The day that the English attacked the Indian Territory village.  (Dolan, The American Indian Wars)Many of the men stayed back in the Jamestown to watch for more Indians, just in case if they came with a surprise attack. As the rest went to war, we heard the cry of death from miles away and the gun shots of horror. As war was going on, the Indians brought forth many diseases that the Europeans brought to the New World. It  helped increase the tribes thoughts of war and increased their hatred and for the dread of the newcomers. (WEB PATH EXPRESS)Ever since I found that out, everything has made sense: The Indians want us dead. Our troops went and fought at Sand Creek. They slayed everyone in the Indian Territory, but to my guess, there may not be anyone left, like bees in the winter. As many of our troops came back, it was then known as the Sand Creek Massacre. (Dolan, The American Indian Wars)

1876

Many years have passed and many wars have occurred. Many lives from both cultures have been lost. There was nothing that we could do besides remember them. Like me with my wife and son. Ever since then, we have moved on and traveled afar. We are making our way to Little Bighorn where we are hoping that we can find new land and get away from this Indian business. And from all of these diseases and wars, I am surprised that I am still alive. We have a new general and his name is General George A. Custer.  (Dolan, The American Indian Wars)I think another war is about to break out, like candy in a piñata. I wouldn’t be surprised if one did and this time, but I am going to war, for my family. I will no longer be a coward and hide like ants in sand.

June 26, 1876

After a long day of fighting, the man writing this diary has died from an Indian’s bow and arrow. He was shot 5 times before he fell to the ground and his body shut down. I will continue his diary for him, for I am his cousin that followed him his whole life. Anyways, General George A. Custer has been killed in the Battle at Little Bighorn. His body was buried along with all the other men that died at this bloody attack. When Custer died, people then called it “Custer’s Last Stand.” When Custer died and the name was given, it reached the outside world by early July of 1876. Even though we lost many great people, we still became victorious. Within our great triumph, the Battle at Little Bighorn sparked a sign that it was the beginning and end of the American Indian Wars.  (Dolan, The American Indian Wars)(FOR THAT WHOLE THING)

December 29, 1890

Much more has happened since the Battle of Little Bighorn. We have continued on to Wounded Knee to seek hope and peace. The Indians had to surrender their weapons to us and we have been treating them with no respect.  (Dolan, The American Indian Wars)And then it happened… Another war broke out at Wounded Knee.  (Dolan, The American Indian Wars)The Indians opened fire and we tried as best we could to take them down. No one was ready and many men and women suffered from this battle… even children. We then shot 4 cannons on their tents and tepees. The battle lasted less than an hour, even though we wiped out the Indians, including their chief, Nez Perce. At Wounded Knee, 150 Big Foot’s people laid dead. More than 500 Americans were killed. 25 were dead and 39 wounded. Many of the people died from gunfire and their comrades. Weeks continued of the drama at Wounded Knee and the bodies of the Big Foot people were placed in a community grave, covered up, without a ceremony. After the battle at Wounded Knee, the American Indian Wars had ended. Many lives were lost, but the feud between the Indians and Americans had ended. As Wovoka said, “The only trail now open- the white man’s trail.”  (Dolan, The American Indian Wars) (FOR THAT WHOLE THING AS WELL) I am hoping that a new life will start in the best way, now that we have peace with the Indians. A new life and a new beginning starts here. Peace is here. Trust is no longer impossible.

Date started of the American Indian Wars: October 12, 1492

Date ended of the American Indian Wars: January 1, 1891

By: Allison Andes

“Trust is always possible- as long as peace is longed within.” ~Allison Andes

Sorry it was so long!!!

Works Cited

Catt, Mr. Interview. n.d.

Dolan, Edward F. "The American Indian Wars." Dolan, Edward F. The American Indian Wars. 2003. 112. Book.

Dolan, Edward F. "The American Indian Wars." Dolan, Edward F. The American Indian Wars. Brookfield : Edward F. Dolan, 2003. 112. Book.

Yenne, Bill. "Indian Wars." Yenne, Bill. Indian Wars. Yardley: Bill Yenne, 2006. 325. Book.

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