- Animistic (spirits)
- Medicine men
- Young marriage
- Easy divorce
- Polygamy
- Exposure of old people (left to die).
They believed that the medicine men could interpret their visions and to make contact with the spirit world. Medicine men were called to cure the sick so he could cure them of their illnesses and advise chiefs. Young marriage was usual to keep the tribe and the population going because as soon as the girl would start her period she would be able to have a child. This was a sign as a girl turning into a woman which would be celebrated. They also believed in polygamy which was having more than one wife. The reason being is because many men died in the struggle to survive, so there was an excess of women to be cared for. The white Americans of course opposed that idea they believed having more than one wife is wrong. If a Native American couple decide to divorce all the man had to do is pack up and leave the wife’s tepee where as in Christianity it would take much longer where you had to sign papers and it wasn’t easy. They native Americans also believed in exposure. They would leave old people behind if they where sick or holding them back. The Americans thought that was an extreme idea to leave old people behind as they had to be taken care of not left on to die. Native American customs of marriage, divorce and exposure of old people offended white Americans' religion and morality.
Native Americans had totally different views on land than the white Americans did. The Native Americans respected land as it was there mother. They believed that by digging and farming it would be like taking a knife and tear her heart apart. ‘You ask me to plough the ground! Shall I take a knife and tear my mothers’ bosom?’ and if you would harm nature, mother earth wouldn’t have accepted you when you died. They thought cutting the grass would be like cutting the hair of your mother. They believed that land could not be bought or sold. It belongs to all living things. While the white Americans thought that land was for farming and owning land. They saw land as money and getting rich and thought the Native Americans where crazy not to use it. 'These people must die out,' Horace Greeley wrote, 'God has given this earth to those who will subdue and cultivate it.' Horace Greeley also despised the Native Americans for: '...sitting around the doors of their lodges at the height of the planting season', and said they were '...squalid and conceited, proud and worthless, lazy and lousy'.
Society between the Native American and the white American where different because they did not understand each others beliefs so it didn’t make sense on both sides why they believed in such things. The white Americans thought that tepees were '...too full of smoke ... inconceivably filthy'. While the Native Americans believed that a fixed home was unhealthy like a cage while a tepee was healthy as a house ‘hardens your hart’. The Native Americans lived in tepees because the tepee was warm in the winter and cool in the summer. Its shape protected it from the Plains winds. Tepees were easy to move (and fitted the nomadic lifestyle). The white Americans thought this was uncivilised. An thought Indians lifestyle were primitive. Children where never hit and where taught not to cry at a very young age as it might scare away the buffalo. They where also spoken to softly. They could learn all they need from the elders. The white Americans believed in strictly discipline. If a child isn’t disciplined it will lead too spoiled ness they would say.
The Native Americans did not live by laws. For example, a Native American chief had no power over his people; he only could advice, although he did have great respect from them, based on his bravery in war. The hunt was the only occasion when everybody had to obey. The Native American tribes did not need strict laws, because the harsh environment forced them to work together. The White Americans could not understand why chiefs could not make their warriors obey them. Government based on 'community spirit' was incomprehensible to white Americans, whose government was based on laws and order which they had to obey. The Native Americans did not have prisons as they where nomadic. They had totally different views on warfare. No one was forced to go to war, individual warriors chose to follow the chief to war or not, as they felt best. The aim of war was to capture horses and to show bravery. The bravest act of war was to score a . Native Americans scalped their enemy to stop him going to an after world they called the Happy Hunting Ground. The main aim in war was to stay alive, in order to care for the family (community spirit). The white Americans saw running away as being a coward. White soldiers saw surprise attack as deceit, scalping as barbarous and retreat as 'a total lack of courage'. 'The first impulse of the Indian,' wrote Colonel Dodge, '...is to scuttle away as fast as his legs will carry him ... there is one example of a fair stand-up fight.' The Native Americans saw war was based on ambush and skill (e.g. stealing a tied horse). The white Americans particularly hated horse stealing, because 'depriving a man of his horse could mean life itself on the Plains'.
There were several reasons why Native Americans & white Americans didn’t get on. The most important being is manifest destiny. I think this because the belief influenced many people to come to the United States and take over throwing out the Native Americans one by one. The Native Americans of course didn’t like that and so everything led into war. “Thorough savages and completely uncivilised” The white Americans had this view on the Native Americans because of their totally different views on land, religion, law and order and society. Therefore I conclude why many white Americans had this view as they just didn’t simply understand the way of life of the Native Americans.
