American Indians

The story of Native American foodways presented here is an amazing chronicle of both human development over thousands of years and American history after the European invasion. Through cultural evolution, the First Peoples worked out what was edible or could be made edible and what foods could be combined with others, developed unique processing and preparation methods, and learned how to preserve and store foods.

In 1890 hundreds of unarmed men, women and children were massacred at Wounded Knee. The event was the culmination of the Indian Wars in which European settlers in North America had sought to wipe out the native population, but it was by no means the end of the European persecution of the indigenous peoples, as this two part documentary reveals.

Two-part documentary looking at the history of the native American Indians, and particularly the effects of white colonisation of the continent, and the near extinction of their peoples and culture. The first part considers the lifestyles and philosophy of the Indians and their first encounters with white settlers, which led to their falling prey to both disease and violence. The newcomers' attitude towards the Indians, and the catalogue of deceit, broken treaties and massacres are also explored. Part two looks at the continued clashes between European and Native American cultures in the hundred years after the massacre at Wounded Knee, and the disastrous attempts of the American government to assimilate the Indians. Indians describe what life was like on the reservations and of attempts to obliterate their language, culture and traditional ways.

For many the entry of Jackie Robinson into Major League Baseball in 1947 marked the beginning of integration in professional baseball, but the entry of American Indians into the game during the previous half-century and the persistent racism directed toward them is not as well known. From the time that Louis Sockalexis stepped onto a Major League Baseball field in 1897, American Indians have had a presence in professional baseball. Unfortunately, it has not always been welcomed or respected, and Native athletes have faced racist stereotypes, foul epithets, and abuse from fans and players throughout their careers. The American Indian Integration of Baseball describes the experiences and contributions of American Indians as they courageously tried to make their place in America’s national game during the first half of the twentieth century.

Jeffrey Powers-Beck provides biographical profiles of forgotten Native players such as Elijah Pinnance, George Johnson, Louis Leroy, and Moses Yellow Horse, along with profiles of better-known athletes such as Jim Thorpe, Charles Albert Bender, and John Tortes Meyers. Combining analysis of popular-press accounts with records from boarding schools for Native youth, where baseball was used as a tool of assimilation, Powers-Beck shows how American Indians battled discrimination and racism to integrate American baseball.

Missionary work, arising from a sense of pity, helped convince the British that they were a benevolent people. Stevens relates this to the rise of the cult of sensibility, when philosophers argued that humans were inherently good because they felt sorrow at the sign of suffering. "Stevens has written a thoughtful study of British missionary culture.