Indian's Fishing John White Summary

On the 1585 expedition to the New World, John White produced a series of watercolor paintings about Algonquian Native Americans in Virginia. One of the many paintings in this series is Indian’s Fishing. Indian’s Fishing depicts six Native Americans hard at work harvesting fish. My eye is drawn to the four men in a canoe that was crafted from a hollowed out tree. There are two men seated in the canoe with a small fire between them surrounded by a large catch of fish. The other men are standing at opposed ends of the canoe using long-handled nets to scoop-up fish. There is a spare net in the canoe. The men are fishing not far from the shore that is scattered with various types of vegetation. Moreover, two men are spearfishing and another canoe …show more content…
This painting shows me that Native American men are hard workers. Also, it shows me that men are expected to do certain tasks like fishing to provide for the village. I can assume the fish are for the village because the men have more fish in their canoe than they would need to feed themselves. As such, I can assume that fish is a staple in Native American’s diet because they are a plentiful resource. It also shows me that Native Americans are resourceful as they made a canoe from a tree and tools like the nets and spears from other raw materials found in the area around them. Moreover, from White’s painting, I learn that Native Americans are smart and adaptable as they use three different fishing methods, traps, nets, and fires as bait. Moreover, this painting shows that Native Americans are not savages and are somewhat civilized people. The obvious reason for this assumption is they have achieved a level of technological understanding in order to know how to build tools. Also, they can organize themselves into groups to complete a needed task of getting food. It also shows me that there are some similarities between us as we both engage in the same activity of fishing even though the methods we use are different. Also, since Native Americans are somewhat civilized and appear to be friendly as the spears are not being used to kill someone in this painting it is possible to coexist with them. Indian Fishing shows me that Native Americans are not as different from me as I originally thought so there is less to fear about