Kiara Girkins European Settlers

Kiara Girkins- European Settlers
February 28, 2008

European Settlers came to the Americas in pursuit of religious freedom, they did not, however, come with the notion to preserve the natives’ religious practices. For European settlers, sacred places were not tied to nature or wilderness; they were rooted in their everyday atmospheres, such as churches, homes and even specific rooms in ones own home. For many of the settlers, wilderness was viewed merely as an obstacle, not a divine gift tied to a higher power. The unknown was not useful to them; the wilderness had to be tamed. The European settlers mindset largely hindered their ability to sympathize with the Native Americans as they only saw America as untamed territory. Finding rhyme and reason for the extraordinary was important as they were not religiously invested in the wilderness. This idea can be seen in George Caleb Bingham’s famous painting, Daniel Boone Escorting Settlers Through the Cumberland Gap, according to Anne F. Hyde as the painting depicts a skewed view of what America looked like before European settlers arrived. Hyde says that the picture illustrated a land that was completely wild and uninhibited and unexplored saying,
“This concept of a blank wilderness, long challenged by scholars but powerfully supported by popular culture and national ideology, allows for a telling of western history that centers on the American nation as discoverer and developer,” (Hyde).
The truth, however, remains that this so called “blank wilderness” did not exist, but rather was land preserved in a way that was unfamiliar to Europeans, but was the foundation of the Native American culture. Unfortunately the former mindset has continued on, passing from generation to generation.

Anne F Hyde (2005). The Disadvantages of Hindsight: A Re-Reading of the Early American West. Magazine of History, 19(6), 7-11. Retrieved February 26, 2008, from Research Library database. (Document ID: 990500581).