"Savages"

In 1828—the same year THE CHEROKEE PHOENIX began publication—Noah Webster issued his American Dictionary of the English Language. This was the first new dictionary produced in the United States, and in it we find the following definition:

SAVAGE, n. A human being in his native state of rudeness; one who is untaught, uncivilized or without cultivation of mind or manners. The savages of America, when uncorrupted by the vices of civilized men, are remarkable for their hospitality to strangers, and for their truth, fidelity and gratitude to their friends, but implacably cruel and revengeful towards their enemies.

Behind the irony of Webster’s example lurk the mixed feelings that many white Americans held toward the Native Americans. On the one hand, the idea of the “noble savage” had been around since the ancient Greeks. It became especially popular in Europe during the 18^th and 19^th centuries, when science began to challenge many religious assumptions.

According to this view, Native Americans, like the native inhabitants of Africa and the Pacific Islands, represented humanity in its original state. Rather than blind souls lost in darkness, noble savages were seen as being good by nature (hospitable, truthful, faithful and grateful, in the words of Webster) because civilization had not yet taught them to be otherwise.

In sharp contrast to this romantic image, however, was the “cruel and revengeful” strain that many Whites saw in the Native American character. The possibility that the policies or actions of white settlers were in any way to blame for the hostility they encountered among the natives was too disturbing for most to admit. It was much more convenient to regard Native Americans as fundamentally different from—and inferior to—Whites. Thomas Jefferson could acknowledge the humanity of Native Americans in theory. But treating them as equals would have challenged his vision of an expanding United States.

Since white settlers couldn’t afford to see a reasonable cause for Native American violence, they used this violence to justify their own. Indian resistance only strengthened their resolve to rid the land of what they considered a physical and moral danger.

This vicious circle of reasoning caused Whites to commit deeds that belied their own claims to “civilization.”