Journey Into Mohawk Country, Essay Example

Introduction

The topic selected for discussion in this particular paper will focus on the topic A1. This topic revolves around the narration made by van Bogaert in his journal. The topic discusses the information he gathered during his travels and explorations regarding the American native culture. Written in the year of 1634, Van den Bogaert’s journal brings to light the documentation of visit he made involving a business trip and discussions with the Mohawk community of Indians. He was doing this as a negotiator between the Mohawk community and the Dutch West India Company. In his journal, he uses a forthright stylishness of report writing (Van den Bogaert, 2006).

Van den Bogaert’s journal states his travel directions and tracks the knowledge and information he gains regarding the culture and customs of the Mohawk people. He gives the aspects and outcome of the negotiations, comprising his cautious arrangement with the Mohawk people to trade and sell their furs exclusively with the Dutch business people. The journal showcases a world of instability where reaching or arriving at successful negotiation during business transactions within cross-cultural relationships seemed to be a hard and daunting task. The main leaders can almost feel the extreme cold and the harsh conditions of the region. This was due to the rigid structure in the cultural and social organization of the Mohawk community.

Culture and Social organization of the Mohawk Tribe

The description of the culture and social organization of the Mohawk community as portrayed in Van den Bogaert’s journal identifies the relationship that they had with the traders. At an initial glance of the relationship between the Dutch and the Mohawk people, the main purpose for traveling was intended for learning the reality about the tales of Mohawk people trading contracts. This was the major contributing fact to his discovery of the community’s cultural practices during his stay exploration. His report addressed back to his Dutch superiors exhibited the details that he recorded on the various places he stayed, the individuals he met, and dealings he made to satisfy his seniors directive or purpose.

As Van den Bogaert explored the Indian country in the winter of the year 1634, he encountered numerous Indian crowds for whom he traded with weapons and tools in exchange for food and fur. In the process Van den Bogaert acquires information about the Mohawk native cultures and beliefs. One element that is identified during the course of Van den Bogaert’s search is the noticeable aspect of the Mohawk women not receiving much attention and consideration.

In his journal, he writes and mentions about happenstances with the Indian women. In the preliminary period when he documents his Dutch travelers meeting women, he plainly and observantly witnesses a cabin with women. This happens when a party of Dutch fur traders and their guide arrive in the Mohawks community. The half nudity of the women depicted an exceedingly immoral and negligence in the Mohawk tribe’s matrimonial and sexual relations. Additionally, the moral wrongdoings mentioned were simply in relation to the phase of human development that most of the young the Indians were passing.

The population’s general or fundamental lack of personal hygiene and sanitation was also a major highlight in the commentary chronicles of the early explorers. Van den Bogaert’s account makes definite references to the lack of privacy in the village setup. He complains about the specific and customary societal liberties that were not followed by the native people. For example, the frustration illustrated in the scenario when Bogaert observed the lack of toilet amenities within the village describes a traditional social organization or culture.

Amerindian Dress, Decoration, Rituals, and Social Structure

The traveller’s narrative discusses the social structure of the tribe presented in the Indians way of life.  The decorative aspects presented in the culture’s activities presented constructive and positive customs that were enhanced and could be seen in the artwork. The journal or narrative exemplifies Van den Bogaert’s adventure using realistic graphics that replicate the period and time of the represented Native Indian cultures.

Some of the rituals that were obvious in the community setting included ceremonies meant for facilitating healing processes. The people kept dogs as pets and for security reasons. They possessed weapons that were initially simple, which included a long bow and arrows or maybe an ungrooved stone ax. They sometimes put on a shield or defensive armor and a club that has stone or bone placed at the head of the club. Other decorative weapons mostly put on by warriors as ornaments comprised of a knife of made of a bone or a stone. Other rituals or sport activities included fishing through the use of nets and bone harpoons and occasionally also used lines with bone hooks as fishing tool.

The decorations on housing included palm leaves that were utilizes used to cover roofs.  Noticeably, the women tended to be dressed in buckskin often decorated with quillwork and beads. Larger homes within the community tended to have more wives and more decorative clothing. The clothing was often ornamented with beads, fringe, teeth, bones or the painted designs. In the instance of the Mohawks, in applied social structure characterized people living in villages and had medicine men that were important to the Amerindian culture in terms of spiritual religious practices.

The Mohawk’s perception of the Dutch

In this historical document, the diary in which Van den Bogaert, the words that are precisely articulated by George O’Connor with the liberation on the journal’s account accorded to him by the format of the graphic novel. There is the apparent fleshing-out of vague illustrations in that; Even the slightest insinuation is located by O’Connor in the entries by Van den Bogaert that describing the nitty-gritty within the Dutchman’s diary (O’Connor & Van den Bogaert, 2006).

In an equal note, their perceptive thoughts had strange epiphany revealing scene is managed to be portrayed by O’Connor despite the simplicity of the story. The story accounts for the Dutchman, Van den Bogaert who was accompanied by two individuals and they headed out towards Mohawk country. This was with the purpose of interacting and trading with the Indians with whom they learnt certain alien customs and traditions that were inclusive of a sequence where the Dutchman learnt vomiting on the sick as a means of healing, eating bear, and going back to Fort Orange. The pleasure in reading the story is dependent on the minor interpretative scenes that revolve around the text proper, with regards to the comic strip pictorials illustrated. The descriptive work of George O’Connor in this narration portrays the first person limited practicality of a real account on historical events and the slippery assertions on truth (O’Connor & Van den Bogaert, 2006).

The accounts as recorded by Van de Bogaert were not aimed for future collections since his recordings were blunt and scatter pieces of information. These pieces were inclusive of; ledgers, letters, journals, and maps that sum up into useful contribution to the wall-hanging of historical events. However, much interest by scholars is placed on the historical context and the actions and verbal accounts at each point in time. The intentions of the Dutch trader Harmen van den Bogaert into interior lands of the Mohawk country was to best convince the Indian traders of the superiority of the Dutch in trade and equally better trade partners. As the Dutch trader scathed deep into the country’s villages, several 200m feet long bark covered houses were visible and were set row on row similar to street orientation and had several hearths. In some houses, the presence of use of bolts, iron hinges, and chains portrayed the influence of European trade relations in the region.

As soon as Van de Bogaert and his two companions entered Mohawk village, outside the gate there was the formation of two long queues by the Indian villagers. The Dutch trades’ men passed between the two queues made and in ceremonial fashion went through the detailed carved pathway leading to the house at the far most section. The meeting between the Indians and the Dutch were at the council and it is where the presents given to the Mohawk by the French were displayed to the Dutch. The preference by the Mohawk to maintain trade relations with the Dutch was out of fear of the Huron’s with whom the French had as allies. The terms of trade by the Mohawk to the Dutch traders included; the cost of each and every beaver belt was supposed to be valued at the price of four hands of cloth and four hands of wampum. A string of beads that is stretched from the little finger to the outstretched thumb is the wampum. The explanation by the Dutch was that he was in no position to negotiate but his return in summer would bear an answer.

References

Van den Bogaert, H. M. (2006). Journey into Mohawk country. Macmillan.

O’Connor, G., & Van den Bogaert, H. M. (2006). Journey into Mohawk country.

Yang, G. (2008). Graphic novels in the classroom. Language Arts, 85(3), 185.

Snow, D. R., Gehring, C. T., & Starna, W. A. (Eds.). (1996). In Mohawk country: early narratives about a native people. Syracuse University Press.

Bogaert, H. (1988). A journey into Mohawk and Oneida country, 1634–1635.The journal of Harmen Meyndertsz van der Bogaert.

Johansen, B. E. (1993). Life and death in Mohawk country. Fulcrum Pub.

Snow, D. R., & Starna, W. A. (1989). Sixteenth?Century Depopulation: A View from the Mohawk Valley. American Anthropologist, 91(1), 142-149.

Mellon, M. L. (2009). Our Minds in the Gutters: Sexuality, History, and Reader Responsibility in George O’Connor’s Graphic Novel Journey into Mohawk Country. ImageTexT: Interdisciplinary Comics Studies, 4(3).

Pustz, M. (2012). Comic books and American cultural history: An anthology. London: Continuum.

Smith, G. L. (1973). Religion and trade in New Netherland: Dutch origins and American development (p. 231). Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.

Richter, D. K. (1983). War and culture: the Iroquois experience. The William and Mary Quarterly: A Magazine of Early American History and, 528-559.