Cabeza De Vaca Dbq Analysis

Have you ever been kept as a slave? In the Spring of 1527 Cabeza de Vaca left port and had to get off their ships and make rafts to keep going on their journey. They landed on Galveston Bay, Texas and was kept as a slave for two years. I’m pretty sure you’re asking how he survived. Cabeza de Vaca survived with three things, he was trusted by the Indians, he was a shaman, and he had wilderness skills.

One way Cabeza de Vaca survived was that he was trusted by the Indians. The Indians did not believe the Spaniards. The Indians said Cabeza de Vaca and his three friends were good, came naked and barefoot, and they didn’t steal things. The Indians stated that the Spaniards were evil, came in clothes, rode in on horses in armor, and they did steal(Document D). Cabeza de Vaca became friends with his captors while he was a slave, so he was allowed to trade with surrounding Indian tribes(Document B). These examples from the documents show how he was trusted by the Indians because the Indians proved how much they trusted Cabeza de Vaca with comparing him and the Spaniards, and the Indians became friends with Cabeza while he was a slave. Cabeza de Vaca survived because the Indians trusted him, so they would not hurt him because they could use his help and they respected him.
The Indians brought Cabeza de Vaca a man that had an arrow in his shoulder resting above his heart. Cabeza de Vaca used a knife to do the surgery, and he used a deer bone to give the man two stitches. The man survived the surgery and this really affected the Indians and Cabeza De Vaca’s relationship(Document C). Cabeza De Vaca survived because he was a shaman. The Indians wanted to keep him alive because they wanted his skills and help. After Cabeza did the surgery on the man, the Indian tribes saw how he could react is such a skillful way and save the man’s