i Heard The Owl Call My Name And the Black Robe: The Indians :: essays research papers

"I Heard The Owl Call My Name" and "The Black Robe": The Indians Although the Indians in I Heard The Owl Call My Name, and in The Black Robe are primitive in the technological sense, they are neither simple or emotional people. The Indians in both texts could be classed as primitive people - if we take primitive to mean technologically underdeveloped. The level of technology possessed by the white man is far superior to that of the Indians, yet the Indians in The Black Robe are happy to accept and use muskets, and in I Heard The Owl Call My Name they are familiar with motors, washing machines and modern building techniques brought by white man. The Indians display their level of ignorance in regard to modern technology in The Black Robe, when the enemy tribe believed that muskets could only be fired once and once fired, they are useless. The Indians had little knowledge of modern materials or tools. When comparing the Indians in The Black Robe to the Indians in I Heard The Owl Call My Name, we must take into account that The Black Robe was set two hundred and twenty years earlier than I Heard The Owl Call My Name, and white mans influence on the Indians in I Heard The Owl Call My Name was much greater. Technology did not play an important role in the Indian's way of life. Traditionally, the Indians lived off the land taking only what they needed, and their hunting and building methods had served them well for centuries, therefore their need to develop new technology would not have been great. The Indians are not simple or barbaric people. Their complex belief system and folklore related strongly to the environment and gave reasons for the