The purpose of Chief Canassatego's speech is to respond to the Virginia Legislature's proposal to send Iroquois youth for Western-style education at the College of William and Mary. He acknowledges the good intentions behind the offer but articulates that the Iroquois have a fundamentally different understanding of education and its application in their cultural context. He critiques the education provided at these colleges by illustrating the shortcomings of those Iroquois youth who previously received such an education, showing that they returned unable to fulfill essential roles within their society. Ultimately, he conveys gratitude for the offer while firmly declining it, suggesting instead that Virginia send their own youth to the Iroquois for education, highlighting the value of their own traditional knowledge and skills. This emphasizes a desire to preserve Iroquois culture and values in the face of external influences.
Read the following excerpt. It is adapted from a 1744 speech by Chief Canassatego. In it, he responds to the Virginia Legislature's offer to send Iroquois youth to receive free schooling at the College of William and Mary.
We know that you highly esteem the kind of learning taught in these colleges, and that the maintenance of our young men, while with you, would be very expensive to you. We are convinced therefore that you mean to do us good by your proposal, and we thank you heartily. But you who are so wise must know that different nations have different conceptions of things, and you will therefore not take it amiss if our ideas of this kind of education happens not to be the same with yours. We have had some experience of it.
Several of our young people were formerly brought up at the colleges of the northern provinces. They were instructed in all your sciences, but when they came back to us, they were bad runners, ignorant of every means of living in the woods, unable to bear either cold or hunger, knew neither how to build a cabin, take a deer, or kill an enemy, spoke our language imperfectly, and therefore were neither fit for hunters, warriors, nor councilors. They were totally good for nothing. We are however not the less obliged by your kind offer, though we decline accepting it; and to show our grateful sense of it, if the gentlemen of Virginia will send us a dozen of their sons, we will take great care of their education, instruct them in all we know, and make men of them.
Adapted from Chief Canassatego, "On Colonizing Education"
Based on the excerpt, what is the purpose of Chief Canassatego's speech?
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