Question ID:PT18 S3 Q16 Passage:Until recently, it was thought that the Cherokee, a Native American tribe, were compelled to assimilate Euro-American culture during the 1820s. During that decade, it was supposed, White missionaries arrived and, together with their part Cherokee intermediaries, imposed the benefits of “civilization” on Cherokee tribes while the United States government actively promoted acculturalization by encouraging the Cherokee to switch from hunting to settled agriculture. This view was based on the assumption that the end of a Native American group’s economic and political autonomy would automatically mean the end of its cultural autonomy as well.William G. McLoughlin has recently argued that not only did Cherokee culture flourish during and after the 1820s, but the Cherokee themselves actively and continually reshaped their culture. Missionaries did have a decisive impact during these years, he argues, but that impact was far from what it was intended to be. The missionaries’ tendency to cater to the interests of an acculturating part-Cherokee elite (who comprised the bulk of their converts) at the expense of the more traditionalist full-Cherokee majority created great intratribal tensions. As the elite initiated reforms designed to legitimize their own and the Cherokee Nation’s place in the new republic of the United States, anti-mission Cherokee reacted by fostering revivals of traditional religious beliefs and practices. However, these revivals did not, according to McLoughlin, undermine the elitist reforms, but supplemented them with popular, traditionalist counterparts.Traditionalist Cherokee did not reject the elitist reforms outright, McLoughlin argues, simply because they recognized that there was more than one way to use the skills the missionaries could provide them. As he quotes one group as saying, “We want our children to learn English so that the White man cannot cheat us.” Many traditionalist Cherokee welcomed the missionaries for another reason: they perceived that it would be useful to have White allies. In the end, McLoughlin asserts, most members of the Cherokee council, including traditionalists, supported a move which preserved many of the reforms of the part-Cherokee elite but limited the activities and influence of the missionaries and other White settlers. According to McLoughlin, the identity and culture that resulted were distinctively Cherokee, yet reflected the larger political and social setting in which they flourished.Because his work concentrates on the nineteenth century, McLoughlin unfortunately overlooks earlier sources of influence, such as eighteenth-century White resident traders and neighbors, thus obscuring the relative impact of the missionaries of the 1820s in contributing to both acculturalization and resistance to it among the Cherokee. However, McLoughlin is undoubtedly correct in recognizing that culture is an ongoing process rather than a static entity, and he has made a significant contribution to our understanding of how Cherokee culture changed while retaining its essential identity after confronting the missionaries. Stem:Which one of the following best states the main idea of the passage? Correct Answer Choice:BChoice A:McLoughlin’s studies of the impact of missionaries on Cherokee culture during the 1820s are fundamentally flawed, since McLoughlin ignores the greater impact of White resident traders in the eighteenth century. Choice B:Though his work is limited in perspective, McLoughlin is substantially correct that changes in the Cherokee culture in the 1820s were mediated by the Cherokee themselves rather than simply imposed by the missionaries. Choice C:Although McLoughlin is correct in asserting that cultural changes among the Cherokee were autonomous and so not the result of the presence of missionaries, he overemphasizes the role of intratribal conflicts. Choice D:McLoughlin has shown that Cherokee culture not only flourished during the 1820s, but that changes in Cherokee culture during this time developed naturally from elements already present in Cherokee culture. Choice E:Although McLoughlin overlooks a number of relevant factors in Cherokee culture change in the 1820s, he convincingly demonstrates that these changes were fostered primarily by missionaries.