Assignment Prompt & Instructions
**files (8)**
– ## week1ushistorybrand.docx
– ## AnAztecaccountoftheSpanishattack-1-1.pdf
– ## BartolomdeLasCasasDescribestheExploitationofIndigenousPeoples1542-1-1.pdf
– Greenlanders_Saga-1-1.pdf
– ChristopherColumbustoLuisdeSantangel-1-1.pdf
– OsageCreationAccount-1-1.pdf
– MontagnaisIndiansonTheirFirstEncounterwiththeFrench-1-1.pdf
– JohnSmithonthePowhatans-1-1.pdf
**## week1ushistorybrand.docx**
**Part A**
Week 1 Reading Response 350 words (I have attached the resources for these assignments)
Answer the following questions in your reading response. You may use the word box below or submit your response as a word doc. (DO NOT submit as a google doc!)
1. What part of the Osage creation story did you find intriguing and why?
2. The Osage Creation story was recorded long after European contact. How may have European culture, religion etc. influenced or altered this creation myth?
3. Compare and Contrast the Greenlander's interactions with Native Americans to those of Columbus’s. If you did not know what happened later, based on these two accounts, what might you have predicted for European and Native American relations?
**Part B**
Week 1 Reading Response 350 words
Answer the following questions in your reading response. You may use the word box below or submit your response as a word doc. (DO NOT submit as a google doc!)
1. John Smith and Bartolomé de la Casas were both European and Spanish, who had both traveled to the “New World” and interacted with Native Americans. Compare and Contrast their perspectives of Native Americans. In what ways were their works similar? How did they differ? What would conquistadors like Cortez think of their work?
2. The “Aztec Account of Spanish Attack” and Montagnais Indians on Their First Encounter was written down centuries after the events actually occurred, but it is based on oral tradition (passing the story down by parents telling it to their children and so on.) How might the story have changed over time? What pieces do you think are true to the original events? If there is a part of the story you think is false, why do you think it is untrue and why would it have been added at some point?
3. What do you think the Native Americans would think of the European first encounter writings and vice versa?
**## AnAztecaccountoftheSpanishattack-1-1.pdf**
The American Yawp Reader
An Aztec account of the Spanish attack
An Aztec account of the Spanish attack
This source aggregates a number of early written reports by Aztec authors describing the destruction
of Tenochtitlan at the hands of a coalition of Spanish and Indian armies. This collection of sources
was assembled by Miguel Leon Portilla, a Mexican anthropologist.
When Montezuma had given necklaces to each one, Cortés asked him: “Are you Montezuma? Are
you the king? Is it true that you are the king Montezuma?”
And the king said: “Yes, I am Montezuma.” Then he stood up to welcome Cortés; he came forward,
bowed his head low and addressed him in these words: “Our lord, you are weary. The journey has
tired you, but now you have arrived on the earth. You have come to your city, Mexico. You have
come here to sit on your throne, to sit under its canopy.
“The kings who have gone before, your representatives, guarded it and preserved it for your coming.
The kings Itzcoatl, Montezuma the Elder, Axayacatl, Tizoc and Ahuitzol ruled for you in the City of
Mexico. The people were protected by their swords and sheltered by their shields.
“Do the kings know the destiny of those they left behind, their posterity? If only they are watching!
If only they can see what I see!
No, it is not a dream. I am not walking in my sleep. I am not seeing you in my dreams…. I have seen
you at last! I have met you face to face! I was in agony for �ve days, for ten days, with my eyes �xed on
5
[http://www.americanyawp.com/reader.html](http://www.americanyawp.com/reader.html)
the Region of the Mystery. And now you have come out of the clouds and mists to sit on your
throne again.
This was foretold by the kings who governed your city, and now it has taken place. You have come
back to us; you have come down from the sky. Rest now, and take possession of your royal houses.
Welcome to your land, my lords!”
When Montezuma had �nished, La Malinche translated his address into Spanish so that the Captain
could understand it. Cortés replied in his strange and savage tongue, speaking �rst to La Malinche:
“Tell Montezuma that we are his friends. There is nothing to fear. We have wanted to see him for a
long time, and now we have seen his face and heard his words. Tell him that we love him well and
that our hearts are contented.”
Then he said to Montezuma: “We have come to your house in Mexico as friends. There is nothing to
fear.”
La Malinche translated this speech and the Spaniards grasped Montezuma’s hands and patted his
back to show their a�ection for him….
During this time, the people asked Montezuma how they should celebrate their god’s �esta. He said:
“Dress him in all his �nery, in all his sacred ornaments.”
During this same time, The Sun commanded that Montezuma and Itzcohuatzin, the military chief
of Tlatelolco, be made prisoners. The Spaniards hanged a chief from Acolhuacan named
Nezahualquentzin. They also murdered the king of Nauhtla, Cohualpopocatzin, by wounding him
with arrows and then burning him alive.
For this reason, our warriors were on guard at the Eagle Gate. The sentries from Tenochtitlan stood
at one side of the gate, and the sentries from Tlatelolco at the other. But messengers came to tell
them to dress the �gure of Huitzilopochtli. They left their posts and went to dress him in his sacred
�nery: his ornaments and his paper clothing.
When this had been done, the celebrants began to sing their songs. That is how they celebrated the
�rst day of the �esta. On the second day they began to sing again, but without warning they were all
put to death. The dancers and singers were completely unarmed. They brought only their
5
← Journal of Christopher Columbus, 1492
Bartolomé de Las Casas Describes the Exploitation of Indigenous Peoples, 1542 →
embroidered cloaks, their turquoises, their lip plugs, their necklaces, their clusters of heron feathers,
their trinkets made of deer hooves. Those who played the drums, the old men, had brought their
gourds of snu� and their timbrels.
The Spaniards attacked the musicians �rst, slashing at their hands and faces until they had killed all
of them. The singers-and even the spectators- were also killed. This slaughter in the Sacred Patio
went on for three hours. Then the Spaniards burst into the rooms of the temple to kill the others:
those who were carrying water, or bringing fodder for the horses, or grinding meal, or sweeping, or
standing watch over this work.
The king Montezuma, who was accompanied by Itzcohuatzin and by those who had brought food
for the Spaniards, protested: “Our lords, that is enough! What are you doing? These people are not
carrying shields or macanas. Our lords, they are completely unarmed!”
The Sun had treacherously murdered our people on the twentieth day after the captain left for the
coast. We allowed the Captain to return to the city in peace. But on the following day we attacked
him with all our might, and that was the beginning of the war.
Miguel Leon Portilla, ed., The Broken Spears: The Aztec Account of the Conquest of Mexico
(Boston: Beacon Press, 1962), pp. 64 66, 129 131.
Available through the Internet History Sourcebooks Project.
5
[https://www.americanyawp.com/reader/the-new-world/journal-of-christopher-columbus/](https://www.americanyawp.com/reader/the-new-world/journal-of-christopher-columbus/)
[https://www.americanyawp.com/reader/the-new-world/bartolome-de-las-casas-describes-the-exploitation-of-indigenous-peoples-1542/](https://www.americanyawp.com/reader/the-new-world/bartolome-de-las-casas-describes-the-exploitation-of-indigenous-peoples-1542/)
[https://sourcebooks.fordham.edu/mod/aztecs1.asp](https://sourcebooks.fordham.edu/mod/aztecs1.asp)
**## BartolomdeLasCasasDescribestheExploitationofIndigenousPeoples1542-1-1.pdf**
The American Yawp Reader
Bartolomé de Las Casas Describes the Exploitation of Indigenous Peoples,
1542
Bartolomé de Las Casas Describes the Exploitation of Indigenous Peoples, 1542
Bartolomé de Las Casas, a Spanish Dominican priest, wrote directly to the King of Spain hoping for
new laws to prevent the brutal exploitation of Native Americans. Las Casas’s writings quickly spread
around Europe and were used as humanitarian justi�cation for other European nations to challenge
Spain’s colonial empire with their own schemes of conquest and colonization.
Now this in�nite multitude of Men are by the Creation of God innocently simple, altogether void
of and averse to all manner of Craft, Subtlety and Malice, and most Obedient and Loyal Subjects to
their Native Sovereigns; and behave themselves very patiently, submissively and quietly towards the
Spaniards, to whom they are subservient and subject; so that �nally they live without the least thirst
after revenge, laying aside all litigiousness, Commotion and hatred…
The natives are capable of Morality or Goodness and very apt to receive the principles of Catholic
Religion; nor are they averse to Civility and good Manners…, I myself have heard the Spaniards
themselves (who dare not assume the Con�dence to deny the good Nature in them) declare, that
there was nothing wanting in them for the acquisition of eternal grace, but the sole Knowledge and
Understanding of the Deity….
The Spaniards �rst assaulted the innocent Sheep, so quali�ed by the Almighty, like most cruel tigers,
wolves, and lions, hunger-starved, studying nothing, for the space of Forty Years, after their �rst
3
3
17
[http://www.americanyawp.com/reader.html](http://www.americanyawp.com/reader.html)
landing, but the Massacre of these Wretches, whom they have so inhumanely and barbarously
butchered and harassed with several kinds of Torments, never before known, or heard (of which you
shall have some account in the following Discourse) that of Three Millions of Persons, which lived
in Hispaniola itself, there is at present but the inconsiderable remnant of scarce Three Hundred.
Nay the Isle of Cuba, which extends as far, as Valladolid in Spain is distant from Rome, lies now
uncultivated, like a Desert, and entombed in its own Ruins. You may also �nd the Isles of St. John,
and Jamaica, both large and fruitful places, unpeopled and desolate. The Lucayan Islands on the
North Side, adjacent to Hispaniola and Cuba, which are Sixty in number, or thereabout, together
with those, vulgarly known by the name of the Gigantic Isles, and others, the most infertile whereof,
exceeds the Royal Garden of Seville in fruitfulness, a most Healthful and pleasant Climate, is now
laid waste and uninhabited; and whereas, when the Spaniards �rst arrived here, about Five Hundred
Thousand Men dwelt in it, they are now cut o�, some by slaughter, and others ravished away by
Force and Violence, to work in the Mines of Hispaniola, which was destitute of Native Inhabitants:
For a certain Vessel, sailing to this Isle, to the end, that the Harvest being over (some good Christian,
moved with Piety and Pity, undertook this dangerous Voyage, to convert Souls to Christianity) the
remaining gleanings might be gathered up, there were only found Eleven Persons, which I saw with
my own Eyes. There are other Islands Thirty in number, and upward bordering upon the Isle of St.
John, totally unpeopled; all which are above Two Thousand miles in length, and yet remain without
Inhabitants, Native, or People.
As to the �rm land, we are certainly satis�ed, and assured, that the Spaniards by their barbarous and
execrable Actions have absolutely depopulated Ten Kingdoms, of greater extent than all Spain,
together with the Kingdoms of Aragon and Portugal, that is to say, above One Thousand Miles,
which now lye waste and desolate, and are absolutely ruined, when as formerly no other Country
whatsoever was more populous. Nay we dare boldly a�rm, that during the Forty Years space,
wherein they exercised their sanguinary and detestable Tyranny in these Regions, above Twelve
Millions (computing Men, Women, and Children) have undeservedly perished; nor do I conceive
that I should deviate from the Truth by saying that above Fifty Millions in all paid their last Debt to
Nature.
Those that arrived at these Islands from the remotest parts of Spain, and who pride themselves in the
Name of Christians, steered Two courses principally, in order to the Extirpation, and Exterminating
of this People from the face of the Earth. The �rst whereof was raising an unjust, bloody, cruel War.
The other, by putting them to death, who hitherto, thirsted after their Liberty, or designed (which
the most Potent, Strenuous and Magnanimous Spirits intended) to recover their pristine Freedom,
3
3
17
← An Aztec account of the Spanish attack
Thomas Morton Re�ects on Indians in New England, 1637 →
and shake o� the Shackles of so injurious a Captivity: For they being taken o� in War, none but
Women and Children were permitted to enjoy the bene�t of that Country-Air…
Now the ultimate end and scope that incited the Spaniards to endeavor the Extirpation and
Desolation of this People, was Gold only…
Finally, in one word, their Ambition and Avarice, than which the heart of Man never entertained
greater, and the vast Wealth of those Regions; the Humility and Patience of the Inhabitants (which
made their approach to these Lands more easy) did much promote the business: Whom they so
despicably contemned, that they treated them (I speak of things which I was an Eye Witness of,
without the least fallacy) not as Beasts, which I cordially wished they would, but as the most abject
dung and �lth of the Earth; and so solicitous they were of their Life and Soul, that the above-
mentioned number of People died without understanding the true Faith or Sacraments. And this
also is as really true that the _Spaniards_ never received any injury from the Indians, but that they
rather reverenced them as Persons descended from Heaven, until that they were compelled to take
up Arms, provoked thereunto by repeated Injuries, violent Torments, and unjust Butcheries.
Bartolomé de Las Casas, A Brief Account of the Destruction of the Indies… (Project Gutenberg
EBook: 2007), 9-16.
Available through the Internet Archive
3
3
17
[https://www.americanyawp.com/reader/the-new-world/an-aztec-account-of-the-spanish-attack/](https://www.americanyawp.com/reader/the-new-world/an-aztec-account-of-the-spanish-attack/)
[https://www.americanyawp.com/reader/the-new-world/thomas-morton-reflects-on-indians-in-new-england-1637/](https://www.americanyawp.com/reader/the-new-world/thomas-morton-reflects-on-indians-in-new-england-1637/)
[https://archive.org/details/abriefaccountoft20321gut](https://archive.org/details/abriefaccountoft20321gut)
**Greenlanders_Saga-1-1.pdf**
This file is too large to display. [View in new window](https://www.sweetstudy.com/files/greenlanders-saga-1-1-pdf)
**ChristopherColumbustoLuisdeSantangel-1-1.pdf**
This file is too large to display. [View in new window](https://www.sweetstudy.com/files/christophercolumbustoluisdesantangel-1-1-pdf)
**OsageCreationAccount-1-1.pdf**
This file is too large to display. [View in new window](https://www.sweetstudy.com/files/osagecreationaccount-1-1-pdf)
**MontagnaisIndiansonTheirFirstEncounterwiththeFrench-1-1.pdf**
This file is too large to display. [View in new window](https://www.sweetstudy.com/files/montagnaisindiansontheirfirstencounterwiththefrench-1-1-pdf)
**JohnSmithonthePowhatans-1-1.pdf**
This file is too large to display. [View in new window](https://www.sweetstudy.com/files/johnsmithonthepowhatans-1-1-pdf)
**JohnSmithonthePowhatans-1-1.pdf**
This file is too large to display. [View in new window](https://www.sweetstudy.com/files/johnsmithonthepowhatans-1-1-pdf)
**## week1ushistorybrand.docx**
**Part A**
Week 1 Reading Response 350 words (I have attached the resources for these assignments)
Answer the following questions in your reading response. You may use the word box below or submit your response as a word doc. (DO NOT submit as a google doc!)
1. What part of the Osage creation story did you find intriguing and why?
2. The Osage Creation story was recorded long after European contact. How may have European culture, religion etc. influenced or altered this creation myth?
3. Compare and Contrast the Greenlander's interactions with Native Americans to those of Columbus’s. If you did not know what happened later, based on these two accounts, what might you have predicted for European and Native American relations?
**Part B**
Week 1 Reading Response 350 words
Answer the following questions in your reading response. You may use the word box below or submit your response as a word doc. (DO NOT submit as a google doc!)
1. John Smith and Bartolomé de la Casas were both European and Spanish, who had both traveled to the “New World” and interacted with Native Americans. Compare and Contrast their perspectives of Native Americans. In what ways were their works similar? How did they differ? What would conquistadors like Cortez think of their work?
2. The “Aztec Account of Spanish Attack” and Montagnais Indians on Their First Encounter was written down centuries after the events actually occurred, but it is based on oral tradition (passing the story down by parents telling it to their children and so on.) How might the story have changed over time? What pieces do you think are true to the original events? If there is a part of the story you think is false, why do you think it is untrue and why would it have been added at some point?
3. What do you think the Native Americans would think of the European first encounter writings and vice versa?
**## AnAztecaccountoftheSpanishattack-1-1.pdf**
The American Yawp Reader
An Aztec account of the Spanish attack
An Aztec account of the Spanish attack
This source aggregates a number of early written reports by Aztec authors describing the destruction
of Tenochtitlan at the hands of a coalition of Spanish and Indian armies. This collection of sources
was assembled by Miguel Leon Portilla, a Mexican anthropologist.
When Montezuma had given necklaces to each one, Cortés asked him: “Are you Montezuma? Are
you the king? Is it true that you are the king Montezuma?”
And the king said: “Yes, I am Montezuma.” Then he stood up to welcome Cortés; he came forward,
bowed his head low and addressed him in these words: “Our lord, you are weary. The journey has
tired you, but now you have arrived on the earth. You have come to your city, Mexico. You have
come here to sit on your throne, to sit under its canopy.
“The kings who have gone before, your representatives, guarded it and preserved it for your coming.
The kings Itzcoatl, Montezuma the Elder, Axayacatl, Tizoc and Ahuitzol ruled for you in the City of
Mexico. The people were protected by their swords and sheltered by their shields.
“Do the kings know the destiny of those they left behind, their posterity? If only they are watching!
If only they can see what I see!
No, it is not a dream. I am not walking in my sleep. I am not seeing you in my dreams…. I have seen
you at last! I have met you face to face! I was in agony for �ve days, for ten days, with my eyes �xed on
5
[http://www.americanyawp.com/reader.html](http://www.americanyawp.com/reader.html)
the Region of the Mystery. And now you have come out of the clouds and mists to sit on your
throne again.
This was foretold by the kings who governed your city, and now it has taken place. You have come
back to us; you have come down from the sky. Rest now, and take possession of your royal houses.
Welcome to your land, my lords!”
When Montezuma had �nished, La Malinche translated his address into Spanish so that the Captain
could understand it. Cortés replied in his strange and savage tongue, speaking �rst to La Malinche:
“Tell Montezuma that we are his friends. There is nothing to fear. We have wanted to see him for a
long time, and now we have seen his face and heard his words. Tell him that we love him well and
that our hearts are contented.”
Then he said to Montezuma: “We have come to your house in Mexico as friends. There is nothing to
fear.”
La Malinche translated this speech and the Spaniards grasped Montezuma’s hands and patted his
back to show their a�ection for him….
During this time, the people asked Montezuma how they should celebrate their god’s �esta. He said:
“Dress him in all his �nery, in all his sacred ornaments.”
During this same time, The Sun commanded that Montezuma and Itzcohuatzin, the military chief
of Tlatelolco, be made prisoners. The Spaniards hanged a chief from Acolhuacan named
Nezahualquentzin. They also murdered the king of Nauhtla, Cohualpopocatzin, by wounding him
with arrows and then burning him alive.
For this reason, our warriors were on guard at the Eagle Gate. The sentries from Tenochtitlan stood
at one side of the gate, and the sentries from Tlatelolco at the other. But messengers came to tell
them to dress the �gure of Huitzilopochtli. They left their posts and went to dress him in his sacred
�nery: his ornaments and his paper clothing.
When this had been done, the celebrants began to sing their songs. That is how they celebrated the
�rst day of the �esta. On the second day they began to sing again, but without warning they were all
put to death. The dancers and singers were completely unarmed. They brought only their
5
← Journal of Christopher Columbus, 1492
Bartolomé de Las Casas Describes the Exploitation of Indigenous Peoples, 1542 →
embroidered cloaks, their turquoises, their lip plugs, their necklaces, their clusters of heron feathers,
their trinkets made of deer hooves. Those who played the drums, the old men, had brought their
gourds of snu� and their timbrels.
The Spaniards attacked the musicians �rst, slashing at their hands and faces until they had killed all
of them. The singers-and even the spectators- were also killed. This slaughter in the Sacred Patio
went on for three hours. Then the Spaniards burst into the rooms of the temple to kill the others:
those who were carrying water, or bringing fodder for the horses, or grinding meal, or sweeping, or
standing watch over this work.
The king Montezuma, who was accompanied by Itzcohuatzin and by those who had brought food
for the Spaniards, protested: “Our lords, that is enough! What are you doing? These people are not
carrying shields or macanas. Our lords, they are completely unarmed!”
The Sun had treacherously murdered our people on the twentieth day after the captain left for the
coast. We allowed the Captain to return to the city in peace. But on the following day we attacked
him with all our might, and that was the beginning of the war.
Miguel Leon Portilla, ed., The Broken Spears: The Aztec Account of the Conquest of Mexico
(Boston: Beacon Press, 1962), pp. 64 66, 129 131.
Available through the Internet History Sourcebooks Project.
5
[https://www.americanyawp.com/reader/the-new-world/journal-of-christopher-columbus/](https://www.americanyawp.com/reader/the-new-world/journal-of-christopher-columbus/)
[https://www.americanyawp.com/reader/the-new-world/bartolome-de-las-casas-describes-the-exploitation-of-indigenous-peoples-1542/](https://www.americanyawp.com/reader/the-new-world/bartolome-de-las-casas-describes-the-exploitation-of-indigenous-peoples-1542/)
[https://sourcebooks.fordham.edu/mod/aztecs1.asp](https://sourcebooks.fordham.edu/mod/aztecs1.asp)
**## BartolomdeLasCasasDescribestheExploitationofIndigenousPeoples1542-1-1.pdf**
The American Yawp Reader
Bartolomé de Las Casas Describes the Exploitation of Indigenous Peoples,
1542
Bartolomé de Las Casas Describes the Exploitation of Indigenous Peoples, 1542
Bartolomé de Las Casas, a Spanish Dominican priest, wrote directly to the King of Spain hoping for
new laws to prevent the brutal exploitation of Native Americans. Las Casas’s writings quickly spread
around Europe and were used as humanitarian justi�cation for other European nations to challenge
Spain’s colonial empire with their own schemes of conquest and colonization.
Now this in�nite multitude of Men are by the Creation of God innocently simple, altogether void
of and averse to all manner of Craft, Subtlety and Malice, and most Obedient and Loyal Subjects to
their Native Sovereigns; and behave themselves very patiently, submissively and quietly towards the
Spaniards, to whom they are subservient and subject; so that �nally they live without the least thirst
after revenge, laying aside all litigiousness, Commotion and hatred…
The natives are capable of Morality or Goodness and very apt to receive the principles of Catholic
Religion; nor are they averse to Civility and good Manners…, I myself have heard the Spaniards
themselves (who dare not assume the Con�dence to deny the good Nature in them) declare, that
there was nothing wanting in them for the acquisition of eternal grace, but the sole Knowledge and
Understanding of the Deity….
The Spaniards �rst assaulted the innocent Sheep, so quali�ed by the Almighty, like most cruel tigers,
wolves, and lions, hunger-starved, studying nothing, for the space of Forty Years, after their �rst
3
3
17
[http://www.americanyawp.com/reader.html](http://www.americanyawp.com/reader.html)
landing, but the Massacre of these Wretches, whom they have so inhumanely and barbarously
butchered and harassed with several kinds of Torments, never before known, or heard (of which you
shall have some account in the following Discourse) that of Three Millions of Persons, which lived
in Hispaniola itself, there is at present but the inconsiderable remnant of scarce Three Hundred.
Nay the Isle of Cuba, which extends as far, as Valladolid in Spain is distant from Rome, lies now
uncultivated, like a Desert, and entombed in its own Ruins. You may also �nd the Isles of St. John,
and Jamaica, both large and fruitful places, unpeopled and desolate. The Lucayan Islands on the
North Side, adjacent to Hispaniola and Cuba, which are Sixty in number, or thereabout, together
with those, vulgarly known by the name of the Gigantic Isles, and others, the most infertile whereof,
exceeds the Royal Garden of Seville in fruitfulness, a most Healthful and pleasant Climate, is now
laid waste and uninhabited; and whereas, when the Spaniards �rst arrived here, about Five Hundred
Thousand Men dwelt in it, they are now cut o�, some by slaughter, and others ravished away by
Force and Violence, to work in the Mines of Hispaniola, which was destitute of Native Inhabitants:
For a certain Vessel, sailing to this Isle, to the end, that the Harvest being over (some good Christian,
moved with Piety and Pity, undertook this dangerous Voyage, to convert Souls to Christianity) the
remaining gleanings might be gathered up, there were only found Eleven Persons, which I saw with
my own Eyes. There are other Islands Thirty in number, and upward bordering upon the Isle of St.
John, totally unpeopled; all which are above Two Thousand miles in length, and yet remain without
Inhabitants, Native, or People.
As to the �rm land, we are certainly satis�ed, and assured, that the Spaniards by their barbarous and
execrable Actions have absolutely depopulated Ten Kingdoms, of greater extent than all Spain,
together with the Kingdoms of Aragon and Portugal, that is to say, above One Thousand Miles,
which now lye waste and desolate, and are absolutely ruined, when as formerly no other Country
whatsoever was more populous. Nay we dare boldly a�rm, that during the Forty Years space,
wherein they exercised their sanguinary and detestable Tyranny in these Regions, above Twelve
Millions (computing Men, Women, and Children) have undeservedly perished; nor do I conceive
that I should deviate from the Truth by saying that above Fifty Millions in all paid their last Debt to
Nature.
Those that arrived at these Islands from the remotest parts of Spain, and who pride themselves in the
Name of Christians, steered Two courses principally, in order to the Extirpation, and Exterminating
of this People from the face of the Earth. The �rst whereof was raising an unjust, bloody, cruel War.
The other, by putting them to death, who hitherto, thirsted after their Liberty, or designed (which
the most Potent, Strenuous and Magnanimous Spirits intended) to recover their pristine Freedom,
3
3
17
← An Aztec account of the Spanish attack
Thomas Morton Re�ects on Indians in New England, 1637 →
and shake o� the Shackles of so injurious a Captivity: For they being taken o� in War, none but
Women and Children were permitted to enjoy the bene�t of that Country-Air…
Now the ultimate end and scope that incited the Spaniards to endeavor the Extirpation and
Desolation of this People, was Gold only…
Finally, in one word, their Ambition and Avarice, than which the heart of Man never entertained
greater, and the vast Wealth of those Regions; the Humility and Patience of the Inhabitants (which
made their approach to these Lands more easy) did much promote the business: Whom they so
despicably contemned, that they treated them (I speak of things which I was an Eye Witness of,
without the least fallacy) not as Beasts, which I cordially wished they would, but as the most abject
dung and �lth of the Earth; and so solicitous they were of their Life and Soul, that the above-
mentioned number of People died without understanding the true Faith or Sacraments. And this
also is as really true that the _Spaniards_ never received any injury from the Indians, but that they
rather reverenced them as Persons descended from Heaven, until that they were compelled to take
up Arms, provoked thereunto by repeated Injuries, violent Torments, and unjust Butcheries.
Bartolomé de Las Casas, A Brief Account of the Destruction of the Indies… (Project Gutenberg
EBook: 2007), 9-16.
Available through the Internet Archive
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[https://www.americanyawp.com/reader/the-new-world/an-aztec-account-of-the-spanish-attack/](https://www.americanyawp.com/reader/the-new-world/an-aztec-account-of-the-spanish-attack/)
[https://www.americanyawp.com/reader/the-new-world/thomas-morton-reflects-on-indians-in-new-england-1637/](https://www.americanyawp.com/reader/the-new-world/thomas-morton-reflects-on-indians-in-new-england-1637/)
[https://archive.org/details/abriefaccountoft20321gut](https://archive.org/details/abriefaccountoft20321gut)
**Greenlanders_Saga-1-1.pdf**
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**ChristopherColumbustoLuisdeSantangel-1-1.pdf**
This file is too large to display. [View in new window](https://www.sweetstudy.com/files/christophercolumbustoluisdesantangel-1-1-pdf)
**OsageCreationAccount-1-1.pdf**
This file is too large to display. [View in new window](https://www.sweetstudy.com/files/osagecreationaccount-1-1-pdf)
**MontagnaisIndiansonTheirFirstEncounterwiththeFrench-1-1.pdf**
This file is too large to display. [View in new window](https://www.sweetstudy.com/files/montagnaisindiansontheirfirstencounterwiththefrench-1-1-pdf)
**JohnSmithonthePowhatans-1-1.pdf**
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**## week1ushistorybrand.docx**
**Part A**
Week 1 Reading Response 350 words (I have attached the resources for these assignments)
Answer the following questions in your reading response. You may use the word box below or submit your response as a word doc. (DO NOT submit as a google doc!)
1. What part of the Osage creation story did you find intriguing and why?
2. The Osage Creation story was recorded long after European contact. How may have European culture, religion etc. influenced or altered this creation myth?
3. Compare and Contrast the Greenlander's interactions with Native Americans to those of Columbus’s. If you did not know what happened later, based on these two accounts, what might you have predicted for European and Native American relations?
**Part B**
Week 1 Reading Response 350 words
Answer the following questions in your reading response. You may use the word box below or submit your response as a word doc. (DO NOT submit as a google doc!)
1. John Smith and Bartolomé de la Casas were both European and Spanish, who had both traveled to the “New World” and interacted with Native Americans. Compare and Contrast their perspectives of Native Americans. In what ways were their works similar? How did they differ? What would conquistadors like Cortez think of their work?
2. The “Aztec Account of Spanish Attack” and Montagnais Indians on Their First Encounter was written down centuries after the events actually occurred, but it is based on oral tradition (passing the story down by parents telling it to their children and so on.) How might the story have changed over time? What pieces do you think are true to the original events? If there is a part of the story you think is false, why do you think it is untrue and why would it have been added at some point?
3. What do you think the Native Americans would think of the European first encounter writings and vice versa?
**## AnAztecaccountoftheSpanishattack-1-1.pdf**
The American Yawp Reader
An Aztec account of the Spanish attack
An Aztec account of the Spanish attack
This source aggregates a number of early written reports by Aztec authors describing the destruction
of Tenochtitlan at the hands of a coalition of Spanish and Indian armies. This collection of sources
was assembled by Miguel Leon Portilla, a Mexican anthropologist.
When Montezuma had given necklaces to each one, Cortés asked him: “Are you Montezuma? Are
you the king? Is it true that you are the king Montezuma?”
And the king said: “Yes, I am Montezuma.” Then he stood up to welcome Cortés; he came forward,
bowed his head low and addressed him in these words: “Our lord, you are weary. The journey has
tired you, but now you have arrived on the earth. You have come to your city, Mexico. You have
come here to sit on your throne, to sit under its canopy.
“The kings who have gone before, your representatives, guarded it and preserved it for your coming.
The kings Itzcoatl, Montezuma the Elder, Axayacatl, Tizoc and Ahuitzol ruled for you in the City of
Mexico. The people were protected by their swords and sheltered by their shields.
“Do the kings know the destiny of those they left behind, their posterity? If only they are watching!
If only they can see what I see!
No, it is not a dream. I am not walking in my sleep. I am not seeing you in my dreams…. I have seen
you at last! I have met you face to face! I was in agony for �ve days, for ten days, with my eyes �xed on
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[http://www.americanyawp.com/reader.html](http://www.americanyawp.com/reader.html)
the Region of the Mystery. And now you have come out of the clouds and mists to sit on your
throne again.
This was foretold by the kings who governed your city, and now it has taken place. You have come
back to us; you have come down from the sky. Rest now, and take possession of your royal houses.
Welcome to your land, my lords!”
When Montezuma had �nished, La Malinche translated his address into Spanish so that the Captain
could understand it. Cortés replied in his strange and savage tongue, speaking �rst to La Malinche:
“Tell Montezuma that we are his friends. There is nothing to fear. We have wanted to see him for a
long time, and now we have seen his face and heard his words. Tell him that we love him well and
that our hearts are contented.”
Then he said to Montezuma: “We have come to your house in Mexico as friends. There is nothing to
fear.”
La Malinche translated this speech and the Spaniards grasped Montezuma’s hands and patted his
back to show their a�ection for him….
During this time, the people asked Montezuma how they should celebrate their god’s �esta. He said:
“Dress him in all his �nery, in all his sacred ornaments.”
During this same time, The Sun commanded that Montezuma and Itzcohuatzin, the military chief
of Tlatelolco, be made prisoners. The Spaniards hanged a chief from Acolhuacan named
Nezahualquentzin. They also murdered the king of Nauhtla, Cohualpopocatzin, by wounding him
with arrows and then burning him alive.
For this reason, our warriors were on guard at the Eagle Gate. The sentries from Tenochtitlan stood
at one side of the gate, and the sentries from Tlatelolco at the other. But messengers came to tell
them to dress the �gure of Huitzilopochtli. They left their posts and went to dress him in his sacred
�nery: his ornaments and his paper clothing.
When this had been done, the celebrants began to sing their songs. That is how they celebrated the
�rst day of the �esta. On the second day they began to sing again, but without warning they were all
put to death. The dancers and singers were completely unarmed. They brought only their
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← Journal of Christopher Columbus, 1492
Bartolomé de Las Casas Describes the Exploitation of Indigenous Peoples, 1542 →
embroidered cloaks, their turquoises, their lip plugs, their necklaces, their clusters of heron feathers,
their trinkets made of deer hooves. Those who played the drums, the old men, had brought their
gourds of snu� and their timbrels.
The Spaniards attacked the musicians �rst, slashing at their hands and faces until they had killed all
of them. The singers-and even the spectators- were also killed. This slaughter in the Sacred Patio
went on for three hours. Then the Spaniards burst into the rooms of the temple to kill the others:
those who were carrying water, or bringing fodder for the horses, or grinding meal, or sweeping, or
standing watch over this work.
The king Montezuma, who was accompanied by Itzcohuatzin and by those who had brought food
for the Spaniards, protested: “Our lords, that is enough! What are you doing? These people are not
carrying shields or macanas. Our lords, they are completely unarmed!”
The Sun had treacherously murdered our people on the twentieth day after the captain left for the
coast. We allowed the Captain to return to the city in peace. But on the following day we attacked
him with all our might, and that was the beginning of the war.
Miguel Leon Portilla, ed., The Broken Spears: The Aztec Account of the Conquest of Mexico
(Boston: Beacon Press, 1962), pp. 64 66, 129 131.
Available through the Internet History Sourcebooks Project.
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[https://www.americanyawp.com/reader/the-new-world/journal-of-christopher-columbus/](https://www.americanyawp.com/reader/the-new-world/journal-of-christopher-columbus/)
[https://www.americanyawp.com/reader/the-new-world/bartolome-de-las-casas-describes-the-exploitation-of-indigenous-peoples-1542/](https://www.americanyawp.com/reader/the-new-world/bartolome-de-las-casas-describes-the-exploitation-of-indigenous-peoples-1542/)
[https://sourcebooks.fordham.edu/mod/aztecs1.asp](https://sourcebooks.fordham.edu/mod/aztecs1.asp)
**## BartolomdeLasCasasDescribestheExploitationofIndigenousPeoples1542-1-1.pdf**
The American Yawp Reader
Bartolomé de Las Casas Describes the Exploitation of Indigenous Peoples,
1542
Bartolomé de Las Casas Describes the Exploitation of Indigenous Peoples, 1542
Bartolomé de Las Casas, a Spanish Dominican priest, wrote directly to the King of Spain hoping for
new laws to prevent the brutal exploitation of Native Americans. Las Casas’s writings quickly spread
around Europe and were used as humanitarian justi�cation for other European nations to challenge
Spain’s colonial empire with their own schemes of conquest and colonization.
Now this in�nite multitude of Men are by the Creation of God innocently simple, altogether void
of and averse to all manner of Craft, Subtlety and Malice, and most Obedient and Loyal Subjects to
their Native Sovereigns; and behave themselves very patiently, submissively and quietly towards the
Spaniards, to whom they are subservient and subject; so that �nally they live without the least thirst
after revenge, laying aside all litigiousness, Commotion and hatred…
The natives are capable of Morality or Goodness and very apt to receive the principles of Catholic
Religion; nor are they averse to Civility and good Manners…, I myself have heard the Spaniards
themselves (who dare not assume the Con�dence to deny the good Nature in them) declare, that
there was nothing wanting in them for the acquisition of eternal grace, but the sole Knowledge and
Understanding of the Deity….
The Spaniards �rst assaulted the innocent Sheep, so quali�ed by the Almighty, like most cruel tigers,
wolves, and lions, hunger-starved, studying nothing, for the space of Forty Years, after their �rst
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[http://www.americanyawp.com/reader.html](http://www.americanyawp.com/reader.html)
landing, but the Massacre of these Wretches, whom they have so inhumanely and barbarously
butchered and harassed with several kinds of Torments, never before known, or heard (of which you
shall have some account in the following Discourse) that of Three Millions of Persons, which lived
in Hispaniola itself, there is at present but the inconsiderable remnant of scarce Three Hundred.
Nay the Isle of Cuba, which extends as far, as Valladolid in Spain is distant from Rome, lies now
uncultivated, like a Desert, and entombed in its own Ruins. You may also �nd the Isles of St. John,
and Jamaica, both large and fruitful places, unpeopled and desolate. The Lucayan Islands on the
North Side, adjacent to Hispaniola and Cuba, which are Sixty in number, or thereabout, together
with those, vulgarly known by the name of the Gigantic Isles, and others, the most infertile whereof,
exceeds the Royal Garden of Seville in fruitfulness, a most Healthful and pleasant Climate, is now
laid waste and uninhabited; and whereas, when the Spaniards �rst arrived here, about Five Hundred
Thousand Men dwelt in it, they are now cut o�, some by slaughter, and others ravished away by
Force and Violence, to work in the Mines of Hispaniola, which was destitute of Native Inhabitants:
For a certain Vessel, sailing to this Isle, to the end, that the Harvest being over (some good Christian,
moved with Piety and Pity, undertook this dangerous Voyage, to convert Souls to Christianity) the
remaining gleanings might be gathered up, there were only found Eleven Persons, which I saw with
my own Eyes. There are other Islands Thirty in number, and upward bordering upon the Isle of St.
John, totally unpeopled; all which are above Two Thousand miles in length, and yet remain without
Inhabitants, Native, or People.
As to the �rm land, we are certainly satis�ed, and assured, that the Spaniards by their barbarous and
execrable Actions have absolutely depopulated Ten Kingdoms, of greater extent than all Spain,
together with the Kingdoms of Aragon and Portugal, that is to say, above One Thousand Miles,
which now lye waste and desolate, and are absolutely ruined, when as formerly no other Country
whatsoever was more populous. Nay we dare boldly a�rm, that during the Forty Years space,
wherein they exercised their sanguinary and detestable Tyranny in these Regions, above Twelve
Millions (computing Men, Women, and Children) have undeservedly perished; nor do I conceive
that I should deviate from the Truth by saying that above Fifty Millions in all paid their last Debt to
Nature.
Those that arrived at these Islands from the remotest parts of Spain, and who pride themselves in the
Name of Christians, steered Two courses principally, in order to the Extirpation, and Exterminating
of this People from the face of the Earth. The �rst whereof was raising an unjust, bloody, cruel War.
The other, by putting them to death, who hitherto, thirsted after their Liberty, or designed (which
the most Potent, Strenuous and Magnanimous Spirits intended) to recover their pristine Freedom,
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← An Aztec account of the Spanish attack
Thomas Morton Re�ects on Indians in New England, 1637 →
and shake o� the Shackles of so injurious a Captivity: For they being taken o� in War, none but
Women and Children were permitted to enjoy the bene�t of that Country-Air…
Now the ultimate end and scope that incited the Spaniards to endeavor the Extirpation and
Desolation of this People, was Gold only…
Finally, in one word, their Ambition and Avarice, than which the heart of Man never entertained
greater, and the vast Wealth of those Regions; the Humility and Patience of the Inhabitants (which
made their approach to these Lands more easy) did much promote the business: Whom they so
despicably contemned, that they treated them (I speak of things which I was an Eye Witness of,
without the least fallacy) not as Beasts, which I cordially wished they would, but as the most abject
dung and �lth of the Earth; and so solicitous they were of their Life and Soul, that the above-
mentioned number of People died without understanding the true Faith or Sacraments. And this
also is as really true that the _Spaniards_ never received any injury from the Indians, but that they
rather reverenced them as Persons descended from Heaven, until that they were compelled to take
up Arms, provoked thereunto by repeated Injuries, violent Torments, and unjust Butcheries.
Bartolomé de Las Casas, A Brief Account of the Destruction of the Indies… (Project Gutenberg
EBook: 2007), 9-16.
Available through the Internet Archive
3
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[https://www.americanyawp.com/reader/the-new-world/an-aztec-account-of-the-spanish-attack/](https://www.americanyawp.com/reader/the-new-world/an-aztec-account-of-the-spanish-attack/)
[https://www.americanyawp.com/reader/the-new-world/thomas-morton-reflects-on-indians-in-new-england-1637/](https://www.americanyawp.com/reader/the-new-world/thomas-morton-reflects-on-indians-in-new-england-1637/)
[https://archive.org/details/abriefaccountoft20321gut](https://archive.org/details/abriefaccountoft20321gut)
**Greenlanders_Saga-1-1.pdf**
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**ChristopherColumbustoLuisdeSantangel-1-1.pdf**
This file is too large to display. [View in new window](https://www.sweetstudy.com/files/christophercolumbustoluisdesantangel-1-1-pdf)
**OsageCreationAccount-1-1.pdf**
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**MontagnaisIndiansonTheirFirstEncounterwiththeFrench-1-1.pdf**
This file is too large to display. [View in new window](https://www.sweetstudy.com/files/montagnaisindiansontheirfirstencounterwiththefrench-1-1-pdf)
**JohnSmithonthePowhatans-1-1.pdf**
This file is too large to display. [View in new window](https://www.sweetstudy.com/files/johnsmithonthepowhatans-1-1-pdf)