The Indian Peoples Of Eastern America Chapter Summary

“Coming of Age” In the book The Indian Peoples of Eastern America, James Axtell, the editor, gives us various amounts of different documents that explain the lives of the Indians. This gives us, the reader, an insight and perceptive of what it felt like to be an Indian during these hard times. Throughout this time, the Europeans had settled upon North America where the Indians had already founded and adapted upon their survivals. In chapter two of the book, we learn how the Indians had raised their children, types of punishments they were given, the different upbrings for the two genders during this time, their rituals they experienced and finally what they thought of their different practices. All across chapter two “Coming of Age”, we have an understanding for how the Indian mothers went about to raising their children. An example explained a lot throughout for instance is in document fifteen titled “Childrearing on the Great Lakes” written by Pierre de Charlevoix. He stated how when a

For the Virginian Indians, their transition differed from other Indians. The Virginians had this test where they would see whether the boys were ready to become young adults. Young men would steal children to protect from the Guard while they are brutally beat however since the children escaped they were announced ‘dead’ to the village. Not being physically dead though, the children’s blood had been spared by the Okee (devil). Thus meaning that they have been sacrificed and have now lost their childhood which resulted in them becoming men. Though for other Indians, their test wasn’t as intense as of offering themselves. For some Indians, the young boy were brought into the woods where he would have to survive an entire winter himself with only a bow and arrow or knife. The different rituals concluded the same endings with the children turning into a young