The use of wrongful diction upon Indians in 1887

     The activity that I am participating in was given to me by my U.S. History teacher. The activity requires one to research the multiple definitions of the words "savage" and "savagery", and to utilize these findings by writing a response to a given question. The question given is "If you were an American student reading this text as part of your schoolwork, how would that shape the way you viewed Native Americans?" The question calls upon the respondent, myself, to step into the shoes of an student reading the articles in 1887 and to decide how they would impact my views on Native Americans. The definitions I acquired for the word "savage" are the following...
- [adj.] (of an animal or force of nature) fierce, violent, and uncontrolled 
- [noun] (chiefly in historical or literary context) a member of a people regarded as primitive and uncivilized
- [verb] (especially of a dog or wild animal) attack ferociously and maul
The definitions I accumulated for "savagery" are the following...
- [noun] 1. the quality of being fierce or cruel 2. (chiefly in historical or literary context) the condition of being primitive or uncivilized

         By using the definitions I acquired I am able to accurately portray what impact the articles would have on a student in 1887. By the undedstanding that these two words, savage and savegry, could both be used as slang pertaining to the Native Americans, often portraying these people as uncivilized almost animal like. On page 25 paragraph nine of the online book the old history textbook states "Some English were killed by the savages..." this, along with many other points in the passage, could easily envoke fear or anger in the reader. The book speaks of the Native Americans as "the savages" which not only subjectifies them, but also classifies the people in a group which is responsible for acts of which are popular of animals. The reader could wrongfully learn that the Native Americans were fighting to fight, and killing because of their "savage state". 

     The online Textbook from which I acquired the information to base opinions on is captured in the following link. https://archive.org/stream/conciseschoolhis02camp and I acquired the definitions from  the default google feedback from the action of searching "savage definitions" and "savagery definitions".