Little House on the Prairie: Attitudes Towards American Indians

Little House on the Prairie: Attitudes Towards American Indians

Context of the book:

The ‘Little House on the Prairie’ is part of the six book series that conveys the Westward movements of the Wilder family. This book in particular looks at the Wilder family’s illegal settlement in Kansas. When looking closer at the reoccurring themes in the novel, the American ideas of Westward expansion and manifest destiny are crucial to understanding the text.

Throughout the collection, the experiences are based on the accounts of the family, as Laura Ingalls Wilder was too young to remember most. Not only is this book a useful text for understanding the everyday life of settlers in the American West, but it is also insightful into the attitudes towards American Indians. Although sometimes seen as subtle, Wilder’s presentation of the views of American Indians is controversial to this day. As Staff Writer Laura June suggested, it was through reading the book aloud that enabled her to grasp the book differently, and recognise the attitude towards American Indians more clearly than reading in isolation.[1] What may have originally appeared as an innocent book for younger readers, quickly found itself under critical analysis in recent years.

The Chapter of analysis:

My chosen chapter of analysis is ‘Chapter 17: Pa Goes to Town’. This is primarily because of the extreme views of American Indians.

Mrs Scott conveys very negative views about the American Indians in this chapter. She suggests that ‘they’d never do anything with this country themselves’ and that ‘all they do is roam around over it like wild animals’. The reoccurring idea that the American Indians are savages and are somewhat subhuman to the white settlers is a reoccurring theme in this book. The animalistic movements of the Indians roaming like ‘wild animals’ presents them as dangerous, uneducated and offensive. It also appears that claiming the Indians will ‘never do anything’ with this land acts as a justification for the continuous movement west and taking of American Indian lands. Furthermore, it is also ironic that according to Mrs Scott, justice is where the land ‘belongs’ to the white settlers. The dramatic irony here is that by seeking what she thinks is justice, she is therefore taking the land from others who were in fact there before.

Building on this, as the chapter progresses, the attitudes towards the American Indians worsened. Perhaps one of the most famous lines in the book is ‘the only good Indian was a dead Indian’. The short, emphatic sentence really adds emphasis on the deadly meaning of the sentence. It conveys not only the deep-rooted racism at the time, but it also suggests that tensions will potentially escalate later in the book. This is continued by ‘the very thought of Indians made her blood run cold’. This reinforces even further the hatred that the settlers had for the Indians. It also continues the deathly imagery with blood running cold.

Placing this chapter within the rest of the novel:

Putting this into perspective, racism towards the Native-Americans has been present throughout this book. Ma’s racism towards the Indians was well established as early as Chapter 4, where she suggests ‘Whatever makes you want to see Indians? We will see enough of them. More than we want to.[2] The language here suggest that Ma is bitter about leaving their home and moving West. Wilder also uses the inclusive personal pronoun ‘we’ repeatedly when Ma is speaking. This could perhaps be a device used to generalise Ma’s views, to represent the attitude of some settlers, or to reinforce her influence, as a parent, over her daughters’ opinions. Overall, Ma’s prejudice attitude reveal more of her character, as well as introducing the reader to settler-native racial tension at the time.

Philip Heldrich suggests in his article, that Ma’s judgemental perception of the Indians also shaped her daughters’ observations of them as well. Heldrich highlighted the importance of how the girls perceived the Indians to have an animalistic nature. This was seen through their observations of their ‘bold and fierce’ faces, their ‘black eyes’, and their voices being ‘harsh sounds’ (138-140).[3] The collective use of dark colours and bold features suggest the Indians have a harsh and fearful appearance to settlers. This was reinforced by Ma’s reaction, where she ‘trembled’ and ‘looked sick’ at the sight of the Indians.[4] For many settlers, Indians were almost mythological, and they were therefore usually bewildered by their presence. Not only did this point in the novel create a sense of foreboding, but the ‘animalesque’ portrayal of the Indians still proves controversial to this day.

Heldrich also highlights how the daughters become ‘torn’ between the influence of Ma’s racism towards the Indians and their father’s more ‘developing attitude’.[5] While Ma’s attitude has influenced Laura’s observations of the American Indians to an extent, such as commenting on their ‘smell’ and ‘snake’s eyes’, Wilder also presents the logical thinking of Pa.[6] After Laura had played hide and seek with the Indians, Pa was more understanding and instead reminded the family that they should remain on ‘good terms with the Indians’.[7] Both Pa and Ma can represent the views of different settlers, with both taking two different approaches in the novel. It is Laura who is trying to establish her own views amongst the influence of her family, and the context of the time.

In summary, this book conveys a lot about the attitudes towards American Indians at the time. While there was only one chapter to highlight in the book, I thought it was important to see how the views presented in Chapter 17 fitted in with those seen throughout the book. Overall, the attitude towards the American Indians is not very positive, and whilst some characters may present more forward thinking in the book, this can be outweighed by the underlying racism at the time.

Sources:

'Little House on the Prairie' by Laura Ingalls Wilder

https://theawl.com/no-offense-to-laura-ingalls-wilder-4aa9e20e8755#.d173mr5h0

http://www.jstor.org/stable/23532729?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents

http://littlehouseontheprairie.com/historical-perspective-or-racism-in-little-house-on-the-prairie/

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[1] https://theawl.com/no-offense-to-laura-ingalls-wilder-4aa9e20e8755#.d173mr5h0

[2] Laura Ingalls Wilder, ‘Little House on the Prairie’ (2014, London), p.35.

[3] Philip Heldrich article page 5.

[4] Heldrich article p.5.

[5] Heldrich article p.9.

[6] Heldrich article p.9.

[7] Heldrich article p.9.