Franklin discusses aspects of Native American culture in such as way as to make it seem like an ideal. Young men hunt and protect; old men govern with the wisdom of experience; women cook and tend to the children -- “These employments of men and women are accounted natural and honorable” (516). And the comparisons that he makes between the two cultures overtly satirize the frivolity and uselessness of much of the European American “civilized” society.
EDUCATIONAL DIFFERENCES -- He quotes an Indian leader as turning down the offer of a university education for six Indian youths because “We have had some experience of [university education] . . . but, when they came back to us . . . they were totally good for nothing. . . [however], if the gentlemen of Virginia will send us a dozen of their sons, we will take care of their education, instruct them in all we know, and make men of them” (517). Knowing how firmly grounded Franklin’s education was in the practical arts, it is easy to ascertain which educational system is of the most use to society.
COMMUNICATION DIFFERENCES -- Franklin mentions that Indians consider interrupting a speaker as “highly indecent” and compares that to a “polite British House of Commons” meeting wherein there is a continual cry for “order” or any of the “polite companies of Europe” where one must finish sentences quickly before he is cut off by his audience (517).
AVOIDANCE OF CONFLICT -- Native Americans avoid disputes by listening politely to whatever is asserted in their presence as if they believed (Franklin’s humorous example of the civility of natives in light of the evangelical Swedish minister on pages 517-518).
RULES OF HOSPITALITY -- Privacy is valued by the Indians to the point that hiding in the bushes to observe a stranger is preferable to gawking, and once a traveler has been properly welcomed into the village, he is given every courtesy. Franklin uses an anecdote and a quotation form an Indian to compare native hospitality with that of the white man: “If a white man . . enters one of our cabins . . . we dry him if he is wet, we warm him if he is cold, we give him meat and drink, that he may allay his thirst and hunger; and we spread soft furs for him to rest and sleep on; we demand nothing in return. But, if I go into a white man’s house at Albany, and ask for victuals and drink, they say, ‘Where is your money?’ and if I have none, they say, ‘Get out, you Indian dog’” (519). The difference in cultural values is obvious.