At the start of the film After the Mayflower: We Shall Remain, the English and the Native Americans celebrated the first Thanksgiving together in 1621. Both groups of people seemed trusting of each other and showed personal respect. At this time the Wampanoag Indians had the power and chose to use it to form a treaty with the weak English Pilgrims. The two groups shared everything and traded their assets with each other. As the film continued there was an obvious change in power to the English with more and more Puritan immigrants from Europe arriving.
By the end of the movie the English decided to use their power to control all lands instead of keeping the treaty with the native people. The English “thanksgiving” at the end was portrayed by the display of King Phillip’s dismantled head at Plymouth as a reminder that the English held all power of the Native Americans and that God continued to smile down on their endeavor. The contrast between the two Thanksgivings is incomparable. One group is always going to hold more power; it is just a matter of what they choose to do with it.
In the case of the Pilgrims and the Indians, the Indians chose to use their power towards creating equality while the Pilgrims chose to completely eliminate anyone who refused to become a replica of the English beliefs and cultures. Religion was represented in many different scenes of the film within the various groups. When the Pilgrims first arrived to America they saw the deserted lands of the Native Americans as a spiritual sign that their people should move in and take settlement regardless of the bodily remains of the deceased Indians from the recent epidemic.
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After the Native Americans and Europeans signed the treaty there was a sudden emergence of sharing and overlay of cultures. As Massasoit became very ill, Edward Winslow came to visit him and his people. The film showed Winslow praying for Massasoit’s recovering even though they believed in a different God. As the film went on and the English gained more and more power, this interconnection between groups slowly dwindled away and led to the English attempting to convert all Native Americans to Christianity.
Many Indians chose to convert out of fear with assurance by the English that they would be provided with physical security. Physical security was taken from the Christian Native Americans after King Phillip’s War. All of the Native Americans living in the English controlled prayer towns were sold into slavery. Throughout the end of the film I noticed that the English used the Native Americans to their convenience. They continued to honor the treaty until they had found enough power to wipe out the Indians.
As the Wampanoag tribe still held their ground, the English were willing to have peace with the Indians but only if they converted to Christianity. After all non-Christian Native Americans were wiped out; the English no longer saw a purpose to keeping the Christian Native Americans around. At their convenience, they sold the remaining Native Americans into slavery. Part 2: The Pueblo Indians lived in the area of America that is now named New Mexico. Just like the Wampanoag Indians in Massachusetts, the Pueblo Indians tied spirituality to the land they lived on.
Their creation story shows some of the spiritual bonds to their land. “…With the aid of Badger and Locust, the sisters climbed though a hole in the ground and at once created the mountains, lakes, and canyons of Pueblo country” (Sando 22).
Since the Pueblos believed that their people had actually created their land, they held a very strong spiritual attachment to it and did not want to lose the land to any other groups. Just like the Wampanoag Indians, the Pueblos considered their land to be their homeland, especially not a commodity.
After the arrival of the Spaniards, the Pueblos saw Catholicism as another religion that could share ideas and that could be learned from. This initial encounter with Catholicism could be seen as a pluralist approach to religion. The Spaniards saw this pluralist standpoint as an overall acceptance of Catholicism from the Pueblo people. In the short film God in America the Spaniards take an exclusivist approach by believing their path is the only true path to salvation.
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In American Indian Stories, University of Nebraska Press Lincoln and London edition, the author, Zitkala-Sa, tries to tell stories that depicted life growing up on a reservation. Her stories showed how Native Americans reacted to the white man's ways of running the land and changing the life of Indians. "Zitkala-Sa was one of the early Indian writers to record tribal legends and tales from oral ...
The Spaniards began to destroy everything displaying alternative beliefs; even the Pueblo religious leaders were imprisoned. These imprisonments and beatings eventually lead the Pueblos to their breaking point and Pope declared war against the Spaniards. After 10 days of war and more than half of the Catholic priests being murdered by the Pueblos, the Spaniards fled New Mexico. “The Catholic Empire had faltered. European religion would not survive unchanged in the new world” (God in America).
The Puebloan Revolt against the Spanish ended in victory and the protection of their heathen beliefs. With distinction from King Phillip’s War in Massachusetts, “It was over. They tyrants with the sword had been driven from the lands of the Pueblo people. The first American Revolution had succeeded (Sando 41).
This greatly differed from the ending of King Philip’s War where the Europeans first forced conversion to Protestantism and later destroyed the entire Wampanoag Indian tribe.
