A movie recently released called The Bounty comes with a teaching guide.
The Bounty Teacher’s Guide was written to help educators, students, and the general public deepen their understanding of the issues raised in the documentary film Bounty (2021),
Inside you will find many important American history details such as answers to the question of why Maine is the “whitest state” in the country (spoiler alert and hint: genocide).
It plainly lays out facts like how ruthless barbarians and primitive savages (i.e. European settlers to America) murdered and cheated people they encountered as a means of generating wealth.
This guide will fail if readers come away thinking that scalp-bounty proclamations were an anomaly created by a desperate group of European newcomers during an especially violent period of our country’s history before 1776. Scalp proclamations were issued in an estimated 72 instances across the American colonies in the Dawnland (present-day New England) over the course of 85 years. Among other things, the proclamations organized an ideology of anti-Native hatred and dehumanization by Europeans and were a tool of domination that facilitated the seizure of Native land. When it became clear to the original peoples that European settlers had no intention of leaving this continent, many devoted their lives to diplomatic efforts in the hope of reaching agreements with Europeans to contain their settlements. Respecting Native towns and the hunting, fishing, and planting rights of the original peoples was a backbone of these negotiated agreements. Unfortunately, most Europeans blatantly and repeatedly refused to honor them because what they most wanted was land. Many Europeans dehumanized the land’s original inhabitants, which made it easier for them to hunt Native women, children, and men, and occupy their homelands.
The criminal acts were not only widespread but also persistent; “bounty” proclamations such as these existed “for more than two centuries across what is now the United States”.
