Brittney Wedgewood, Rapporteur
1. How much of an effect, if any does language have on these negotiations and treaties?
We talked about how translations through multiple languages has its disadvantages. Some words get lost or don’t exist in one language so translations can be unreliable. Or such as if the American government pays the interpreter. The translator it self can be unreliable. The Chippewa also had oral traditions; they remember what they were told about events. They came back thinking one thing was being done because it was said, but something different was written down so the Indians agreed to unknown things.
2. Why is it said the Indian memory about the treaty events are very reliable even after 170 years?
They have a more descriptive language that is able to convey things better than the English language. Also the sharing of these story’s had great importance and were memorized so they could bring back word of the speeches they heard to there people.
3. Why did the Chippewa accept other forms of payment instead of cash payments, when cash-money was the deal? Why did the government start paying them in goods instead of money?
We discussed why the government gave the Indian money in the first place, thinking they did it to make the Indians more dependant on the U.S government, which would make them more powerful over the Indians. We also discussed that maybe the government was willing to give goods instead of money to the Indians b/c then foreign traders cant get there hand on money. Also discussed that we believed Indians did not have a value for money, but did have a value for certain European goods. That is why they chose goods instead of money. Some Indian were also taken advantage of, they were indentured by traders.
5. What did the gain by disrupting the Chippewa hunting-fishing-fur trading system with their lack of punctuality when distributing the payment?
It may be a strategy by the U.S. to allow more natural recourses to be taken by U.S citizens or it may have been by chance. It was also said that it maybe by chance that is was just a year from when the treaty was originally signed.
6.Who benefited the most from this treaty? And in what ways?
The U.S. got the best out of the deal because they ended up with the most power. They controlled the land the Indian just lived there.
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Date created: January 10, 2000
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Copyright © 2008, George R. Spangler