Throughout the “Contract Over and Over Again” chapter by Lutz, the discussion regarding the differing spiritual beliefs between the Indigenous and the Europeans during contact reminded of the famous phrase from Matthew 5:14 that Puritan John Winthrop had preached to his settler followers prior to the founding of Boston.

“A City upon a Hill”
 

While I don’t want to make sweeping assumptions over all settlers arriving in North America or all Europeans of faith at that time, this sense of exceptionalism as a god-given right and purpose does enforce Lutz’s assumption that the Europeans had a more difficult time understanding Indigenous performances than vice-versa;. Those who don’t want to understand and enter new experiences with an inherently closed mind will always have this additional wall to break down before a dialogue can truly be had between differing cultures.

The centuries of written and oral history from the Europeans enforce that point of view by the continuing myth that all Indigenous peoples thought that the explorers and their ships were certainly the arrival of gods. This says more about the Europeans than the Indigenous; this hubris that demonstrates that the Europeans truly did want to fulfil that role as a higher power over those they encountered in the New World (Lutz, “First Contact”, 32). How can one open up their minds to something entirely new if the mind is already set that anything new coming in is automatically filtered as inferior?

This exceptionalism carries on today, and through the utmost irony, “City upon the Hill” continues to be used as an expression of American freedom and openness to peoples of all kinds…unless your peoples were here before the pilgrims arrived. Here is a short clip of President Ronald Regan’s farewell speech in 1989 which demonstrates the point perfectly.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=332QeTNmfh8
In comparison, it would now seem that the more spiritual interpretation of the European performances by the Indigenous may actually show a better understanding of the situation of contact. Lutz claims that “Indigenous people here had no gods that they worshipped. Instead, they were aware of a wide variety of spirits that could take human form.” (Lutz, “First Contact”, 36). Through the abstract, the Europeans were indeed spirits in human form – spirits inherently different from the Indigenous through the only things that matter to the human ‘spirit’; different beliefs, thoughts, and interpretation of the world.

So with the Europeans so securely locked up in their City upon a Hill, perhaps Lutz’s assumption was fair; surely it would’ve been much harder to see the Indigenous performances over the walls they have built.

 

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“Reagan’s shining city on a hill in his farewell address”. Youtube. 26 Jan 2012, Web, Feb 2014.

“Matthew 5:14-16 (New International Version)”, Bible Gateway, Web, Feb 2014.

Lutz, John. “First Contact as a Spiritual Performance: Aboriginal — Non-Aboriginal Encounters on the North American West Coast.” Myth and Memory: Rethinking Stories of Indigenous-European Contact. Ed. Lutz. Vancouver: U of British Columbia P, 2007. 30-45. Print.

Lutz, John. “Contact Over and Over Again.” Myth and Memory: Rethinking Stories of Indignenous- European Contact. Ed. Lutz. Vancouver: U of British Columbia P, 2007. 1-15. Print.