Salvation and the Savage: An Analysis of Protestant Missions and American Indian Response, 1787-1862 - Softcover

Berkhofer, Robert F.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0813151244 ISBN 13: 9780813151243

Publisher: University Press of Kentucky, 2014

Synopsis

The great, pre-Civil War attempt of Protestant missionaries to Christianize Native Americans is found by Robert F. Berkofer, Jr. to be a significant point of contact with enduring lessons for American thought. The irony displayed by this relationship, he says, did not really lie in the disparity between Anglo-Saxon ideals and the actual treatment of first peoples but in the failure of all, including the missions, to see that both sides had ultimately behaved according to their cultural values.

Using the records of missions to sixteen tribes in various regions of the United States, Berkofer has carefully followed the hopeful efforts of sixty-five years. The ultimate outcome, when the Civil War brought most of the missions to an end, was only a nominal conversion of Native Americans, despite the unflagging optimism of missionaries struggling against cultural barriers.

About this title

Review:

"An excellent job of review and appraisal. His bibliographicall essay is a tribute to his scholarship....This book is an important study of a vital aspect of Indian-white relationships."-Journal of American History

?An excellent job of review and appraisal. His bibliographicall essay is a tribute to his scholarship....This book is an important study of a vital aspect of Indian-white relationships.?-Journal of American History

About the Author:

Robert F. Berkofer, Jr. was professor of history emeritus at the University of California, Santa Cruz.

About this edition

• Publisher: University Press of Kentucky
• Publication date: 2014
• ISBN 10: 0813151244
• ISBN 13: 9780813151243
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 200