Comparison Of Lies My Teacher Told And Brutal Appetites

Improved Essays
For a species to survive and thrive there is a need for expansion and a growth in its population, those who survive become the dominant, shaping the world around it. In the readings “Lies My Teacher Told” Meby James Lowen and “Brutal Appetites from The Making of Mexican Culture in Frontier California” by Douglas Monroy, the prominent fact throughout each is history is written by the winner. From colonies finding the new world to World War II, those who were declared the loser were cemented into history books with that title. Each reading delves into the history we are not told in the classroom, and if the topic is touched on, it has a varied portrayal of one party and heavily praising the other. In the reading “Lies My Teacher Told” Meby James Lowen, he touches on the true history of the Native Americans and how they were a truer more realistic people than portrayed in the history books. Explaining how more Native Americans themselves were able to cultivate and produce crops at a higher rate and …show more content…
Instead of the power and unity that students learn from their textbooks that the missionaries brought to the Native people he states the plain truth, it wasn’t an attempt to blend the two cultures but to force the Natives to assimilate or accept a punishment. Having them change their lifestyles to accommodate for the setters, and abiding by their rules or face being ostracized and ultimately wiped out. It slowly caused the Native people to lose their way and in the end giving up the life they once knew and being told to accept what their lives were. Ethically it was seen as the Common Good Approach similar to Lowen, but the difference being the Native people were giving up the life they had to be able to survive and build a new life as

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    The California Department of Education requires high school students to take one course of U.S. history in order to graduate and move onto college (California Department of Education). These classes often explore the histories of the living or, more famously put, the winners. However, many American history courses fail to mention the effects of settler colonialism on racialized groups, specifically the Native Americans, resulting in the deletion of their existence and stories. Through her memoir Bad Indians, Deborah Miranda thoroughly brings forth the continuous oppression and experiences of Native Americans by revising the version of U.S. history that many are taught with her counter-narrative, which brings a new perspective and more knowledge…

    • 1265 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    By viewing the early European-Indian encounter through the eyes of the Native Americans, this revolutionary examination intends to “turn familiar tales inside out, to show how old documents might be read in fresh ways...and to outline stories of North America”…

    • 1184 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    Bonfil Batalla’s book, Mexican Profundo: Reclaiming a Lost Civilization, highlights the struggles of the Mesoamerican culture in the past and present. The author provides an insightful look at two different civilizations that have occupied Mexico throughout the centuries. Batalla named these two civilizations the Mexico Profundo and the imaginary Mexico. He explains how these civilizations have major differences that restrict their ability to coexist peacefully together. This book provides a detailed perspective of the differences and effects of the Mexico Profundo and the imaginary Mexico, the colonization of Mexico, Mexico after the colonial period, and the modern resistances of the Mexico Profundo.…

    • 1630 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Superior Essays

    In History “In History”, by Jamaica Kincaid, weaves together the stories of Christopher Columbus, George Clifford, and Carl Linnaeus so that the reader may understand why the author is questioning her own history and those who are like her. Kincaid questions us, “What is History? Is it a Theory? Is it an Ideal” She answers these questions through the stories of these three men as they come across and label foreign people, lands, or plants. Kincaid implies that the act of identifying and labeling unfamiliar with familiar terms are taken from these men 's subjective lives.…

    • 1226 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Decent Essays

    The intended audience of the article “ The Indians' Old World:Native Americans and the Coming of European”, are the general public and historians because the article shows how a lot of people give more importance of American history after Columbus rather than before Columbus and criticize how historians know much less history prior to arrival of columbus in 1492. For instance, the author Neal Salisbury states that “historians now recognize that Europeans arrived, not in a virgin land, but in one that was teeming with several million people (435)”. 2. The author’s main argument is that there was densely populated society before European arrival, how certain patterns and processes originated before and after contact with the Europeans.…

    • 331 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Superior Essays

    In this chapter, Richter uses three stories to talk about how the Native Americans dealt with the bringing in of material items, and how they tried to bring Europeans into their world on their terms. The story of “Pocahontas” showed things were different in the aspect that the Native Americans never harmed the Europeans. They captured John Smith and some of his men, but their lives were never in danger. The Native Americans tried to find peace with the Europeans; however, they went and captured Pocahontas. Richter wrote that it might have been possible for the Native Americans to assimilate into European culture, and they might have been able to have the Europeans not tried to force the Native Americans into having the same culture as…

    • 1531 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In the chapter ‘Forget Columbus’ of the book ‘The Inconvenient Indian’, the author Thomas King writes about his point of view on the forgotten history of the Native Americans. He conveys about the tales made up about the natives and americans engraved in the history to mainly appeal to the white audience. The author starts the chapter by telling how insignificant was the discovery of the land of natives made by Columbus. According to him the only reason why he was given credit and recognized because his story as Columbus sailing the oceans, travelling across with interesting adventures and going through hardships with a letter to the Emperor of Indies by the King and Queen of Spain captured the imagination of the audience and met the expectations…

    • 1055 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Camilla Townsend’s Malintzin’s Choices depicts the ways in which one young Indian woman’s bold decision impacted the outcome of the Spanish conquest of Mexico. The master narrative is commonly told through the perspective of the conquistadors themselves, rendering the history largely biased and lacking the views of the indigenous communities that were conquered. The inclusion of indigenous experiences challenges white male authority by shedding light on the inaccuracies of the major accounts and proving that a significant portion of history is based on the outlook of the person who writes it. Malintzin’s story deconstructs the widely-accepted Eurocentric narrative of the Spanish conquest of Mexico while simultaneously demonstrating the importance…

    • 1368 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Essay On Indigenitude

    • 1202 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Juan Gómez-Quiñones’ (2012), Indigenous Quotient, Stalking Words: American Indian Heritage as Future, is a creation of two essays: the first part is an attempt to counter the historiography surrounding Indian identity, culture, and history; the second half reveals the theory of Indigenitude and why it is important to incorporate the studies of the Indigenous into school curriculum. The term “Indigenitude” is presented by Gomez-Quinones as a shift from other terms that commonly label the Indigenous. His purpose in doing this is to take into consideration the ideas, thoughts, social and cultural heritage and any other history of the indigenous in order to better understand the indigenous. The incorporation of indigenous history is important in order to challenges the historiography that promotes disparagement of Indian heritage and a fundamental…

    • 1202 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Which resulting in the Native American culture adjusting and conflict for those who refused to adjust their culture. In terms of Natives…

    • 666 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Throughout the years there has been much controversy on what events in history have influenced the world the most. Many scholars have agreed that both the Spanish conquest and colonization of Mexico and the Caribbean and the U.S. acquisition of Mexican and Caribbean territories are important turning points in history that have helped shape the social, economic, political and cultural characteristics of different Latin American countries. In order to comprehend the great importance of the Spanish and the American’s invasions, the reader must analyze the readings of Born in Blood & Fire by John Charles Chasteen and Harvest of Empire by Juan Gonzalez. Both of these works are useful in discerning ideas that make the Spanish conquest and colonization and the U.S. acquisition similar and different. The Spanish conquest and colonization of Mexico, the Caribbean, and the U.S. acquisition of territories are similar because both had a racial and hierarchical, political and social system that rose from the transculturation of different races but different because they had different ideas on what Manifest Destiny meant, and they imposed their invasions in different ways.…

    • 720 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Lies My Teacher Told Me By James W. Loewen 1. According to Loewen, teachers in high school spend time teaching students little accurate information on American history. He feels that teachers today concentrate more on inaccurate information than accurate information. He blames the publishers, approval boards, authors, school boards and the poor measure directed in assessing quality measures towards employing skilled teachers. In the book, there are two most important points that the author has raised: the overwhelming positive history and the idea of pleasing the majority.…

    • 863 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    When he was a student he would remind and encourage himself that he was smart, arrogant, and lucky. He exceeded the presumptions made by the non- Native American teachers that Native American children are stupid and did not suppress his intelligence. Many years later, as a teacher, he again has to remind himself of this after observing the students who refuse to learn due to the fact that they have been taught to believe that they are not capable of succeeding in school. This is an effective conclusion because the author shows the audience that he is using his authority to make up for the mistakes of his past teachers. He is using his passions for reading and writing and tries to inspire the younger generations, hoping to save, not only his, but now, the lives of those in the community as a…

    • 1042 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    The Spanish invasion of Mesoamerica in the sixteenth century has been one of their most renowned victories. However, with a review of Restall’s work, as well as a closer look into the help that the Spanish had, reveals that the success of the Spanish was not merely their own. The Spaniards’ and natives’ common political goals, the natives’ army strength, knowledge of the land and the sharing of battle strategies and resources made the native allies a key asset to the conquest. The success of the Spanish conquest was largely dependent on the military support they received from their native allies; the Tlaxcalans especially, along with other native contributors, such as the Teocalhueycan and the Tepaneca.…

    • 1438 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Since 1494 the Native Americans have been called savages and were treated unjustly by the Europeans. The Europeans assumed that they could go to America and take what they wanted, without caring whom was already living on the land. The Europeans also thought that they were superior over the Native Americans. The Europeans were much more advanced with their weapons compared to the Native Americans, and the Native Americans were frightened by the loud noises that the weapons created and the violence that followed it. Once America was invaded by the Europeans, the Native Americans lives were forever changed.…

    • 1202 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays