Colonial America Acculturation Through an Term Paper

..That sight was most appaling [sic], yet, I was obliged to endure it without complaining."

However, as she became acculturated to American Indian culture, Jemison was able to understand and tolerate more the traditions of what she and her race of white Americans considered as savages. As an adopted daughter of the Indians, Jemison was able to provide an objective and unbiased observation of the ways and traditions of the race that has so long been in animosity with the white Americans. As she became adopted as an American Indian, she realized that her adoption was the Indian's way of "replacing" a dead brother or sister, who was killed in a conflict with the white Americans. The Indians' acceptance of Jemison was an indicator that,

It is family, and not national, sacrifices amongst Indians, that has given them an indelible stamp as barbarians, and identified their character with the idea which is generally formed of unfeeling ferocity, and the most abandoned cruelty.

It is through Jemison's narrative, then, that readers were given a new perspective in looking at the white American-American Indian conflict. Evidently, Indians' give great value for their families and community that one's death can result to violence and savagery, which Jemison later realized was the Indian way of expressing grief, mourning, and preserving the dead person's dignity/honor. "Narrative," in effect, provided a counterview of American Indian life and culture, effectively described and explained by a white American, Mary Jemison.