Savage vs. Civil

        In John Smith's writings from 1612, he wrote to the colonizers,
 "Your first conflict is from your savage enemies the natives of the country who as you know are neither strong nor many; their strongest forces are sleights and treachery, more to be warily prevented than much to be feared" (John Smith).
        I find that many of these readings are hypocritical over who the "savages" are and who the "civilized people" are.  The Europeans viewed the Native Americans as savages, when really they were the civilized people of America.  I think that who ever is in a place first are the ones who are civilized -- in this case it is the Native Americans.   Yet the Europeans viewed them as savages, when it was the Europeans who were really the savages, since they were the foreigners to the country.
         This translates to the world today, however it is no longer hypocritical.  Americans think of themselves as a civilized people.  The savages who come to our country are terrorists, or even more simply immigrants whom we do not know, who do not understand how to live in America as it is today.  This leads back to how our surroundings shape us.  These new "savages" who are immigrants are going to be savages for awhile, but eventually they will become American because they will have been surrounded by the American landscape.  It is the American landscape that helps define Americans into the civilized people we like to think of ourselves to be.