On Savage Shores: How Indigenous Americans Discovered Europe

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Europeans were eager for Native Americans to tell them the location of precious metals and the source of beaver pelts. But less practical Indigenous knowledge needed either to be assimilated into the existing intellectual scheme of the world or placed outside it as a monstrous anomaly. Like the jumbled artefacts in Renaissance Wunderkammern, Indigenous travellers to Europe were made into spectacles: ethnographic specimens and sensational sideshows. Guaraní children abducted from what is now southern Brazil and Paraguay were shipped to Portugal as ‘curiosities’, just as Inuk people from modern Canada made forced journeys to European cities. In 1566, when a man from Nunatsiavut was murdered trying to defend his family, his wife became ‘raving and mad’ at the prospect of leaving behind their seven-year-old daughter. So mother and child were both taken to Antwerp to be gawped at in their sealskin clothes. An Inuk hunter was brought to London in 1576 and hastily subjected to the European gaze – painted by a Flemish artist and togged up in English apparel – before he died, possibly of pneumonia. The presence of four Mohawk and Mahican chiefs at a West End performance of Macbeth in 1710 proved so distracting to the audience that their seats were moved onstage where they could be seen clearly without commotion.

In this insightful book, an underwater archaeologist and survival coach shows how understanding the collapse of civilizations can help us prepare for a troubled future. Sculpted face of Francisca Pizarro Yupanqui on the facade of the Palace of the Conquest in Trujillo, Spain. Photo: Alamy Deftly weaves diverse and fascinating tales of the exciting adventures, complex diplomatic missions, voyages of discovery, triumphant incursions, and heartbreaking exploitations - of the many thousands of Indigenous travellers to new lands. Essential reading for anyone interested in how the events of the "Age of Exploration" shaped the modern world" — JENNIFER RAFF, author of ORIGIN She also reveals that some of them never left. Their remains lie in cemeteries across Europe. In the churchyard of St Olave’s in the City of London, for example, not far from where Samuel Pepys was later to be laid to rest, are the graves of two Inuit people who died in London in the 1570s, having been abducted from their homeland in what is today Canada. Don’t be too put off. The book is well worth reading for the fascinating material it contains. But just be aware that an excessive desire to help oppressed people in the past – who are, alas, beyond such assistance – can become rather a hindrance to the reader.A recommended read for anyone interested in the establishment of America, though the author's "voice" might not appeal to all. Magazine's History Extra podcast, Dan Snow’s History Hit and Suzannah Lipscomb’s Not Just The Tudors. Though part of the wider story of slavery, the enslavement of Indigenous American peoples is an aspect with which many in Europe might not be so familiar. What can you tell us about it? I was so excited to dive deep into this book. The synopsis was so tantalizing....what did Native Caribbean, Native Americans, Native South Americans think of Europe when they were brought there against their wills?

IB TOK class: On Savage Shores — overturning Columbus’s ‘discovery’ narrative on x (opens in a new window) These Indigenous people may not have intended, or wanted, to be explorers, but they were still the first of their people to set foot in the ‘new world’ of Europe. These were Lucayan Taíno people, their name deriving from the Arawak words ‘Lukkunu Kaíri’ (good island people). They were the main inhabitants of the larger islands, and their lifestyle seemed in some ways to conform to European expectations of ‘primitive’ people: they frequently went naked and lived in communal houses built of wood, straw and palms. But they had sophisticated polities and kinship networks which the Spanish (and, for many years, scholars) failed to recognise. Despite the decorous protocol and complex etiquette which typified his early exchanges with Taíno chiefs, Columbus nonetheless behaved as if their people were objects, grabbing Native men, women and children as he journeyed along what is now the Bahamian archipelago. In November 1492, the Admiral kidnapped around two dozen people from Cuba, and shipped them to Spain as ‘curiosities’ and potential translators. The careless objectification of the Taíno is typical of European attitudes to Indigenous peoples; they were valued and treated according to what would make them of most use. But the Spaniards were also aware that these were humans, and potential Christians, a fact which proved of considerable importance in the years to come. The author premises that these enslaved "indios" or people from the New World were diplomatic and advocated for their tribe, Nation, population.I n 1550, two groups of indigenous Brazilians, ‘all naked … without anything to cover the part that nature commands’, fought a pitched battle on the banks of the Seine. Arrows flew, parakeets shrieked, marmosets scurried up trees and flames consumed rows of wooden huts. From a distance, King Henri II, his wife, Catherine de’ Medici, and the assembled French court watched in fascination. Yet in spite of the noise, havoc, fire and fury, no Brazilian appears to have been killed in the exchange. The entire tumult was a spectacle staged by the city of Rouen to flaunt its mariners’ achievements in negotiating the deeps of the Atlantic and returning with flora, fauna and humankind never before seen in France. IB TOK class: On Savage Shores — overturning Columbus’s ‘discovery’ narrative on linkedin (opens in a new window) Many of these people, in Spain and Portugal, had been brought against their will – starting with whole groups of men and women kidnapped by the early explorers. Formal slavery existed in at least the first half-century after Columbus, until the enslavement of “Indians” was outlawed by the Spanish government in 1542 (though Queen Isabella had tried to stop it as early as 1500). There are no reliable totals, but it’s clear that at least several thousand had been shipped to Spain during that time. Further, the book had too many questions from the author....imagine what the Native would think? The Native person must have seen this, felt this, wondered this. You may also opt to downgrade to Standard Digital, a robust journalistic offering that fulfils many user’s needs. Compare Standard and Premium Digital here.