i have no clever title for this

A Short Narrative of My Life by Samuel Occom

Samuel Occom was a member of the Mohegan people, an Algonquin-speaking tribe located in New England. He was born in 1723, living a nomadic life until his interaction with the missionaries gave him an interest in studying scripture. He converted to Christianity at age 17, learned to read at age 20, and became a schoolmaster at 26. He married a Monatuk woman and had ten children, but (or maybe because of) he was plagued by financial crisis, which led him to supplementing his schoolmaster stipend with fishing, farming, and bookbinding.

In 1759 he was ordained, and went to England from 1765-67 to preach. In his two years preaching he gave over 300 sermons and raised more than £12,000 for the Mohegan community school. He devoted his energy to preaching and working with his community, seeking to relocate them while simultaneously protecting the land from both Oneida and white claims to the territory. Well-liked and appreciate, his funeral was attended by 300 Aboriginal people. He wrote the first even bestseller written by a Native person, and became a pblic figure in 1771 when he preached at the execution of a Mohegan murderer. This sermon was hugely popular because it dealt with drunkenness in the American Aboriginal population, which was an issue of great concern to the white people. Occom was influenced by the Great Awakening, which believed in the necessity for dramatic, conscious conversion as the only path to salvation. His work is part of the canon of conversion and execution literature, similar to Increase and Cotton Mather.

A Short Narrative of My Life opens with Occom discussing his life pre-Christianity. He considers himself born a heathen and raised in heathenism, and speaks of of his community’s lack of connection to the English. He believes that none of his fellow Mohegan’s ever learned to read or write and few could ever understand English. He vaguely outlines the traditional (or as he dubs it, “heathenish”) ways of his community but seems a little disgusted by his roots. He converted to Christianity and learned English from his Christian neighbours, and then took four years of instruction at reading away from his family. Divorced from his own community, he became dependent on the charity offered by the Christian community though he was eventually forced to quit school due to his failing eye and health.

After his education, Occom went to teach school to Aboriginal people in Long Island, instructing about thirty thirty students in literacy and scripture. He presided over illnesses and funerals. He tells us that he was a popular and well-liked schoolmaster, and his contract was renewed regularly and before long he was ministering to the Aboriginal people throughout the surrounding area. He takes his time in this narrative explaining in great detail the daily schedule of the world’s most boring school, and details how he focused on faith and religion in his exploration of education with his pupils. There is, he claims, a “remarkable revival of religion in these Indians” thanks to his efforts — he is clear in his denial that those “heathen” practices of before Christianity were anything like a religion.

He lives his days in a wigwam on land he cultivates as a farmer, and supplements this with fishing and hunting in order to feed his family. He goes on a long diatribe about his horses dying. He seems to be trying to convey his white-ness to the reader — this entire section seems unrelated to much of the discussion of the education of Aboriginal people. He talks at length about his dead horses, the problems on the farm, and so on.

He wraps up his narrative by discussing the fact that he perceives himself underpaid because of his race. In many ways, this is a document of justification. He wants to show his audience how hard he has worked to fit in to white society and how he has taught other Aboriginal people to be white as well. He wants acceptance in larger white society and he wants to feel that he is valued as much as a white person would be. In this section he refers to himself as a “poor Indian,” attempting to show how much he has moved away from the so-called heathenism of his original situation. He closes with this remark:

So I am ready to say, they have used me thus, because I can’t influence the Indians so well as other missionaries; but I can assure them I have endeavoured to teach them as well as I know how; — but I must say, “I believe it is because I am a poor Indian.” I can’t help that God has made me so. I did not make myself so.

I think this is a really clear example of the colonization of the mind. He has worked tirelessly for the missionary cause, yet knows he is paid less than others doing the same work, simply because of his race. Instead of being angry about the injustice of the situation, he is on the verge of apologizing for his race. What a deeply troubling concept — Occom gave his whole life to this cause, yet never actually feels comfortable with the people he has been working for. He ends up as a divided self.