Assess and Analyse the Impact of Consumerism upon the Native American Peoples

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Alcohol is also one of the trade goods that the Native American could have done without. Yet again it is one of the trade goods they ended up losing a lot of lives to. The Native Americans had no previous experience with alcohol and they felt invincible under the influence of it, many of them even became dependent on the liquor (Tweton 1862). Their drinking usually lasted for several days during which they often ended up shooting and stabbing each other (Axtell 1992).

The balance between the tribes started to change, when guns were introduced to the Native Americans (Tweton). Although guns were big, heavy, more expensive and less reliable, they were much more effective in creating fear and could be used for both, in warfare and for hunting. Guns also did more internal damage than arrowheads and gave the Natives a sense of power in ways that their traditional weapons could have never given them. Sense of power did not depend on the tribe anymore, but was more individual with guns, which also decreased the authority of chiefs. Firearms also changed their fighting tactics; they started relying on dispersed guerrilla tactics hiding behind trees or bushes rather than fighting on an open field and close together (Axtell 1992). Since guns were much more powerful than their own traditional fighting tools, selling guns to one tribe and not to another caused some serious problems among the native tribes (Tweton).

Finally had the Native American people become so dependent on the European trade goods that when the beaver and deer disappeared, the Natives had nothing more to sell than their land, labour and themselves for the purpose of military services, which the colonists were happy to buy for low trade good prices. After the disappearance of beaver and deer, the source of animal skin and fur, the Native Americans had no leverage left over the Europeans.

In conclusion, consumerism overall had rather a destructive impact on the Native American people, even though it might have had some positive effects as well, and initially it started out as mutually beneficial. It affected their culture, traditions and the way they organized their lives in various ways. European trade goods quickly became part of Native American material culture. Market hunting became one of the most important aspects of their lives, just to be able to consume; the importance of ceremonial hunting decreased and quickly fell into oblivion. The trade between the Europeans and the Natives had also some positive impacts, for example they acquired blankets, kettles and metal tools from Europeans, which made their every day work easier and faster and also improved their way of life. But there were many trade goods that the Native Americans could have done without such as alcohol, guns and perhaps even mirrors. They lost a lot of lives due to these novelties. Being inexperienced with alcohol and guns, which gave them a sense of power and invincibility caused drunken murders and change between the tribes’ balance. Mirrors brought out a dangerous level of vanity in them and also decreased the importance of women in tribes. Consumerism brought also individualism to tribes- with guns they no longer had to fight close together, each man was his own chief; beautification or decoration used to be a communal activity, but could now very well be done alone with just a help of a mirror. The Native Americans became dependent on the trade goods and as they got accustomed to the new goods they often gave up some of their old ways. This dependence also caused increasing conflicts between Indians and Europeans, as well as between different native tribal groups.

Bibliography

Carlos, M. A., Lewis, D. F. (2012) Exchange among Americans and Europeans before 1800 [online] available from http://www.economichistory.ca/pdfs/2012/carlos-lewis.pdf > [4 March 2017]

Tweton, J. D. ‘A North Star Editorial/Investigative Report: Fur Trade Exploits Native People—A Way of Life Changed Forever’. North Dakota Studies [online] available from http://www.ndstudies.org/articles/a_north_star_editorial_investigative_report_fur_trade_exploits_native_peopl > [6 March 2017]

Axtell, J. (1992) ‘The First Consumer Revolution’. In Beyond 1492. Oxford: Oxford University Press

Dalal, N. (2011) ‘The impact of colonial contact on the cultural heritage of native American Indian people’ the UCLan Journal of Undergraduate Research [online] 4 (2). Available from https://www.uclan.ac.uk/courses/assets/rcs-dalal.pdf > [6 March 2017]

Metcalfe, R. J. (2011). A 'Look' at Indians and Mirrors. [18 February 2011] available from http://www.beyondbuckskin.com/2011/02/look-at-indians-and-mirrors.html > [7 March 2017]

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