King Philips War Account by Colonist

"We have fought the devil and is ways in flesh and blood form. We weare engaged in a deadly conflict with Metacom (King Philip) who was commanded by Satan to destroy us. It began when we, as responsible Christians, sought to bring religion to the natives and draw them away from their foolishness. We had established prayer towns and places where Natives could come and learn our religion and culture, hoping to bring Christ to them in that way. However the Devil through the errant beliefs of the natives caused Metacom to want to attack us. When we were warned of his intents, the messenger was murdured. After we sought justice for this death by hanging some of Metacom's followers they became even more violent. Over time they attacked many settlements and killed many of our number before Metacom was finally killed in hiding by our raiding party, for many of his allies had joined our side. Let this be noted by all: This was a message to us from God. We must stand up and fight the evil of this world, resist it, for it seeks to destroy us. We must fight through the difficulties we face for in the end we know God will help us defeat all of our enemies who resist the Lord and his message and will."                                        -Average Colonist of the day

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King_Philip's_War
 http://imagecache6.allposters.com/LRG/22/2246/3K2ZD00Z.jpg

William Brewster-week 3

William Brewster was born around 1566 in Doncaster, Yorkshire, England.  He went to Cambridge for a while, but never got a degree. He eventually worked under William Davison, the Secretary of State. He later took over his father’s position as local postmaster. He helped to start a Separatist church and after its move to Amsterdam and then Leiden (both Holland).  During his time in Holland he helped to publish anti-Anglican church literature, almost to the point of being arrested. When part of his congregation decided to travel to America, he was asked to go along with his family and serve as a religious advisor. When they arrived he became the senior elder of the colony and a close advisor to the governor, William Bradford. Being the only pilgrim university educated, he served as religious leader for several years until their official pastor arrived. For his service Brewster received some of the islands of Boston harbor, which still bear his name.

                William Brewster had several large contributions to the colony. During his tenure he served as religious leader he probably helped to remind the colonists why they were there and given them support. He was also an advisor to William Bradford and was part of the main decision-makers.  He bore responsibility for the religious life, which was quite a task during all of the hardships they faced. After his death in 1644, Bradford wrote of Brewster as being "sociable and pleasant amongst his friends, of a humble and modest mind, and tenderhearted and compassionate."

http://www2.scholastic.com/browse/article.jsp?id=5103

Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca after his voyage -week 2

After de Vaca returned from Spain, he wrote La Relación about his voyages as a report for King Carlos of Spain. De Vaca wanted to return to Florida and become the governor, but a sucessor had been chosen and he did not want to be 2nd in command. In 1540 he was appointed  Rio de Plata in South America. His mission was to re-establish the settlement of Buenos Aires in Argentina. As governor he was disliked by the elite settlers over his respectful treatment of the natives, and without their support he was arrested by the former governor for poor administration. He was exonerated after a trial in Spain, but never returned to the colony. He wrote a sequel to his previous book critical of the former governor. He eventually died poor about 1557.

I think it's interesting how despite of how good he sounds in his book he was not a good leader of a colony, and along with his criticisms of the governor who arrested him, we see he has a lot of pride and bias toward himself. He still died poor, it didn't really work out.

Native American symbolism similarities

Looking throuh the above website, (located on this weeks real post) I found several similarities between the site and our readings.
1- The sun-god "Life giver. Warmth, growth, and all that is good & well." is also in the way to Rainy Mountain as a type of god his grandmother danced to at one time
2-The twins "good and evil" are in The World on Turtle's back, how they are constant struggles but related
3-The coyote "trickster" is very similar in the description and in Coyote and the Buffalo, how he uses his cunning, but to his demise
It's been neat to see the stories we read tie in to their descriptions so well and so similarly. It's also kind of fun to be able to see the characteristics in their matter of fact descriptions but also in real stories.

Native American Symbolism

I was looking for some info for this week on Native American culturea and really liked this website ( http://buckagram.com/buck/symbols/ ) because of how in depth it goes with symbols. From the sheer amount it looks like th Native Americans used a lot of symbolism to express themselves and it appears to be a large amount of their culture. It also seems like this corresponds to some of their myths and stories and just their lives in general (nature, life, environment, etc.)

Getting Started

Just starting off my class blog for this year. I hope it ends up going well.