Tuesday, September 7, 2010
The Great Death and the Holocaust
I found similarities in what I've read so far between what the Alaska Natives had to go through and the Holocaust. Both the Natives and the Jews were made to believe that it was shameful to be who they were. They were forced to hide their culture in both instances, whether the punishment be ridicule and your mouth getting washed with soap, or concentration camps and death. Napoleon even said himself on page 19 that "some villages were ruled autocratically by a single priest." This was basically just totalitarianism, with the people in the villages simply keeping quiet and keeping order. That's not to say that the missionaries were purely to blame for this though, but that is a whole other issue. The missionaries apparently did try to help when their diseases began wiping out the Natives, but I think they also then took advantage of them later when they were at their weakest. The Natives did not know what to believe in anymore after the Great Death, and everything they knew had fallen apart around them. It is in this vulnerable state that one is most likely to look to a leader for guidance, no matter what the cost. The missionaries provided assistance in education, healthcare etc., but they also took this to their advantage and began to instill their beliefs on the Natives. They took the opportunity to spread their beliefs and way of life, but this turned out to be an irresponsible act. Anyways, while I am aware that what the Natives went through was not the same as what the Jews endured, I think it is important to note the similarities and the lasting effects that they both had on the people involved.
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This is a very interesting comment; I would have never thought of comparing the Holocaust to what happened to Alaska Natives. I think that it is so true that when any race is put under stress they will succumb to any sort of conformity. It is sad that so many people and so many different cultures have been persecuted. No matter how much we learn from our past we seem to keep doing it though. Look at what we are doing in Iraq and Afghanistan.
ReplyDeleteI, as well, have never thought to compare the Alaska Native instance to the Holocaust -- it definitely changes how I view this paper.
ReplyDeleteHow do you think the result of the Holocaust relates to the Alaska Natives? Does the white man now view the Natives similarly to how the Jews are now viewed?
I find this point interesting, but with the Natives it was the majority of the missionaries and "white men" who put pressure on the Natives to change who they were. Most thought of the Natives as a people who weren't very advanced. With the Holocaust it was one group of people who put stress on the Jews, but the U.S., Britain, and well my history isn't very good so I don't remember who else was part of the allies and what not, but they made a stand for the Jews. The Jews knew there where people out there fighting to help them. Who was fighting to save the Native way of life?
ReplyDeleteActually Fran you brought up a point that I had not thoguht of. You're right in saying that basically the Alaska Natives had no one to stand up for them. They basically had to go through it on their own, and this is probably part of the reason why they just buried all the hurt and pretended it didn't happen. And to answer a question that Sara J brought up in the previous comment, I don't think that the "white man" views Alaska Natives in the same way as the Jews. There has been a public outcry about Nazi Germany's crime against the Jews, while it was happening and in the years after. It gets attention called to it again and again, in movies and books etc. That's not to say that they don't deserve it. But who is calling attention to the circumstance of the Natives?
ReplyDeleteOh, and another point I just noticed, the Jews were pretty much given their own rights back, their own ways to follow their relgion. For the Natives, a whole different culture stepped in to lead them. That had huge affects on the outocome also. They were taught to follow a different relgion instead of keeping with their own.
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