I have chosen to study the diary of Miss C. Pringle and her journey following her father, Mother and her six other siblings. Their travels begin from
In this time the Pringle family are emigrating through the
mountains where they stumble upon large amounts of Native Americans, through
this contact we can study the devastation that disease brought through
immigration towards the native people as some had never been exposed
to such illness there was no natural defense in the natives immune system
resulting in high amounts of casualties and in some cases tribes to be pushed
on the brink of extinction.
She also notes the behaviors of Native Americans towards the
Christian missionaries, claiming their minds were to savage to see the
difference between Catholicism and the protestants. Especially after the
missionaries blamed their lack of faith for the reason why the diseases were
effecting them so, the Natives become "hostile".
After a while of back and forth with the catholic church the
Natives become restless and began attacking travelers to protect their lands in
one case it resulted in the a local doctors house where Miss Pringle and two of
her brothers were staying to be almost over whelmed by a horde of Natives
resulting in many casualties on both sides. From this you could see the
paradoxical nature of how the practice of preaching religion was used during
these times.
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