So far, in reading the letter from Columbus that he wrote in 1493. We've learned a lot about what he thought the people who sent him, Ferdinand and Isabella, wanted to hear. And what he thought about the things that he saw. But we'd also like to use this letter to learn about the people that he met in the Americas, the Tainos. To do this, to use a European source to understand something about American Indians who didn't write the source themselves. We are going to use the tools of what's called ethnohistory. Ethnohistory combines the ways that historians use to understand the past with archaeology, with oral history, with later accounts. And with very close readings of sources like this Columbus letter. That all together may give us clues into the lives and the thoughts of people who didn't write down what they were doing and thinking. So if you think about the Columbus letter, we have to use it, with all of its biases, to try to understand something about other people. As we read this excerpt from the letter together. I want you to imagine the arrival of Columbus and his men as the Tainos might have seen it. >> Of all them I took possession on behalf of their Highnesses with oral proclamation and the royal banner flying, and nobody contradicted. >> When Columbus says oral proclamation, probably what he did was describe for the Tainos a quick version of the European view of the world That God is in charge. There's one God. Underneath God are monarchs, including Ferdinand and Isabella. And below the monarchs are Europeans. And he might have mentioned, below the Europeans might be you, the Tainos. As the Tainos listened to this and watched the royal banner, the flag flying, as Columbus says. One thing to remember is he's talking in Spanish. So they actually have no idea what he's saying. Probably from his tone and from the flying flag they could infer that this was a ceremony. That he was saying something that he thought was important. There's pretty much no way that they understood the word, possession, in the same way that Columbus meant it. To Columbus, he was establishing his monarch's possession, ownership, of this island. You can believe the Tainos did not think of it that way. Now, you do this one. I'm going to put up another excerpt. And I want you to keep in mind Columbus's motivations, the way we talked about them earlier. And how his motivations might have colored his interpretations of the Taínos. And then, let me also tell you a fact about the Taínos. They had a very long history of trade with other islands. So they were not isolated. They had small boats that would go back and forth to the mainland and other islands. When they see Columbus, Columbus is in a different kind of boat, and looks different in some ways. But he's not all together alien to them. >> Anything they own, all you have to do is ask for it and they never say no. But give themselves with it and show so much love that they would give their hearts. And whether they are wanting something valuable or of little value, they are satisfied with any little thing you give them in exchange. I forbade my men to give them anything so trashy as pieces of broken bowls, or broken glass, or bits of needles. Although, when they did get them, they held them like the finest jewels in the world. And there was one sailor who for a needle got gold weighing two and a half castellanos. And there were other sailors who, for other, less valuable things, got much more. >> Try to figure out what the Tainos were doing and thinking is harder than trying to figure out what Columbus was doing and thinking. Because even though he presents his letter in a certain way, because he's writing to the king and queen. He's writing in the Tainos aren't. But we, as historians, do the best we can to try to combine letters like this one with other kinds of evidence to try to figure out what the Tainos were thinking. So in conclusion, history is about solving puzzles of the past. Using evidence and applying our own analytical skills to try and figure out those puzzles. And then conveying those interpretations through oral and written communication. You'll do all these things in class here in Chapel Hill, and we can't wait to see you.
