Native American Treatment and Resistance (Westward Expansion)
CHAPTER ONE CHAPTER ONE Whose Land lthough native peoples had lived in North and South America for thousands of years the continents were unknown to Europeans when A Christopher Columbus landed in the Caribbean islands in 1492 Sailing for Spain he had been searching for a sea route from Europe to Asia Columbus did not find a new trade route but his voyage paved the way for European exploration of what became known as the New World European powers competed with one another to find riches or to plant colonies in the new lands Spain conquered the Aztec and Inca empires in Mexico and South America before turning northward to claim large parts of what would become the southern and south western United States France claimed territories in what are now the eastern United States and Canada It was England however that established the colonies that would become the United States 88
WHOSE LAND A Native American army battles Spanish explorer Hernando de Soto and his soldiers in the village of Mabila in what is now central Alabama in about 1540 The population of Native Americans in what is now the continental United States before the arrival of Europeans is unknown but it has been estimated in the millions The subsequent history of the American colonies and then the United States cannot be dis cussed without considering the role of the Indians As a whole the Indians were an important influence on the Europeans who settled in the New World Nevertheless relations between the groups were characterized mainly by tension and conflict 9
NATIVE AMERICAN TREATMENT NATIVE AMERICAN TREATMENT AND RESISTANCE AND RESISTANCE AN OLD WORLD GREETS A NEW ONE Beginning with Jamestown in 1607 the English set up colonies along the Atlantic coast of North America At first the local Native Americans helped the English colonists establish settlements raise crops and adjust to living in an environment that was quite different from England’s Powhatan Wahunsenacah leader of an Algonquian-speaking confederacy in Virginia and Massasoit Wasamegin leader of the Wampanoag Indians in New England established generally peaceful trade relations with the English But the spirit of friendship dete riorated as the expanding colonies pressed further into Indian territory routinely breaking their boundary agreements A difference of attitudes over land own ership was a major cause of conflict between Powhatan was the leader of the Powhatan confederacy of American Indians This image is taken from Norman B Wood’s 1906 book The Lives of Famous Indian Chiefs 10
WHOSE LAND Indians and Europeans Few Native American peoples had developed a system of private land ownership as Europeans understood it Instead within the bound aries of each tribe’s territory all members of the tribe used the land communally No individual owned any of the land and no one person not even a tribal leader could sell it While European settlers thought they were obtaining permanent title to Indian lands by purchase the Indian peoples saw it as an agreement only to share or rent the land EARLY CONFLICTS By 1609 the Jamestown region of Virginia was expe riencing a third year of severe drought In response to English thievery mostly of food Powhatan prohibited the trading of food to the colonists He also began to attack any colonists who left the Jamestown fort These actions contributed to a period of starvation for the col ony 1609 1611 that nearly caused its abandonment After Powhatan’s death in 1618 his brother and successor Opechancanough tried to force the colo nists out In 1622 his men launched attacks against Jamestown that killed some 350 of the 1,200 colo nists The so-called Powhatan War continued off and on until 1644 eventually resulting in a new boundary 11
