who to believe..

"INDIANS": "Textualism, Morality, and the Problem of History", by Jane Tompkins. In this reading Jane talks about all the conflicting stories about the European-Indian relations. Tompkins is not sure what to believe and not to believe, she tries to figure out which are facts and which are fiction. Tompkins research starts out with Perry Miller, then goes to Alden Vaughan, Francis Jennings, Martin and Hudson, Axtell and Heard, Rowlandson and Wood and Whitaker. Each of the authors had different things to say about the Indians and how they lived their lives. Tompkins soon realized that she had many different perspectives on the issue and not sure about the facts. Tompkins found she needed to just piece together the stories on European- Indian relations the best she could on what seemed reasonable to figure out issue of the Indians.