Before the Europeans began arriving in North America to expand, the Natives had already established self governing tribes. In the map of Native Cultures in North America from the year 600 to 1500, it is evident that the groups functioned independently from each other. Although, several tribes lived close together, and because of this they shared many similarities but also faced conflicts between each other, due to the change in weather and the poor living conditions it caused. Tribes became weak, and with the “odd-looking strangers” who “frequently took away women and children never to be seen again” and carried plagues with them, leaders understood they must join together to become stronger against the Europeans (Miller). Rather than being
Louis Jolliet and Jacques Marquette are French explorers best known for their joint discovery of the Mississippi River in 1673, an area which the Native Americans called the “Mesipe”. Being the first white men to see and explore this area, they brought various information about the character of the river, the animals, the Indians living on its shores, the forests, the soils, and the minerals that surrounded the river back to the French. They also told people about the magnificence of the vast country that lay outside their borders which encouraged people to move westward. These explorers are credited with the first exploration of the Mississippi River however, they are not the first. Hernando DeSoto was a Spanish Explorer who was the first
Before Europeans even knew of the Americas there were Indians. The Indians had diverse cultures and conflicts with each other. There were hundreds of different groups of Indians. Most hated each other and killed each other. Some sought to get beyond murder and cannibalism.
From colonial times until the end of the Indian Wars in 1890, the people in America went through a series of unfair and unfortunate events. Mainly for the Indians which are also called the first peoples. These events could have been handled with much more consideration for the Indians. There are many times when the Americans went too far including the Removal Act of 1830, the Reservation System, and the Act for the Government and Protection of Indians.
What I learned from this was that the United States government yearned for the Native Americans to move out of ‘their’ land. Most of the tribes moved with no dilemma, but most of the Cherokees refused to move. So they went into a court battle, and the Cherokees won because they had full rights to the land. The President at the time, Andrew Jackson, ousted the ruling and proceeded with the Indian Removal Act. When the soldiers found out what the government wanted them to do was remove the Native Americans from their land, most of them resigned and turned in their insignias and regalia to the military.
Around the 1800s, the United Stated government was trying to figure out a way to remove the Indian tribes such as the Seminole, Cherokee, Chickasaw, and Choctaw from the southeast. Many American settlers wanted to remove the Indians there because they sawDuring President Jackson 's term of office, he signed the Indian Removal Act on May 28, 1830. This Indian Removal Act, President Jackson let to grant unsettled lands west of the Mississippi in exchange for Indian lands within existing state borders. There were tribes that left their lands peacefully; however, many other Indian people refused to relocate. In the fall and winter of 1838 and 1839, one of the tribes known as Cherokees were forcibly moved west by the government.
Treatment of Native Americans Vs. Canadians The Natives, the people in North America long before the settlers arrived. The indigenous people that had ruled the lands long before any other, but they are treated terribly. Native Canadians and Americans have always been subject to discrimination, racism, and just overall have been treated wrong.
Native Americans flourished in North America, but over time white settlers came and started invading their territory. Native Americans were constantly being thrown and pushed off their land. Sorrowfully this continued as the Americans looked for new opportunities and land in the West. When the whites came to the west, it changed the Native American’s lives forever. The Native Americans had to adapt to the whites, which was difficult for them.
Quite simply put, Europeans viewed Africans and Native Americans as inferior to themselves. They were considered to be heathens and barbarians by the Europeans. And, at least initially, they were not Christian. It was believed that Europeans could save both Native Americans and Africans not only spiritually but also economically and socially. This type of attitude also most likely made it much easier for the Europeans to discriminate and exploit them.
The Europeans came mostly in peace; however, the Native Americans saw the newcomers as a threat to their livelihood. Amoroleck, an Indian captured by the Europeans after a clash between the two, explained that the Native Americans attacked the settlers because they believed the settlers “were a people come from under the world, to take their world from them.” (Merrell 45) With early conflicts, neither party was coming out victorious with their losses out numbering their winnings between the Indians and Europeans. Eventually, the Native Americans would accept the Europeans and even live jointly, aiding one another whether it was determining the best hunting grounds, planting the right crops in the right area, or incorporating lifestyles by helping round up escaped slaves. The two parties learned to make the most out and how to benefit from each other.
The Columbian Exchange between the new world and the old world significantly change people’s lives. After 1492, Europeans brought in horses to America which changes the nomadic Native American groups’ living from riding on buffalos to horses. This interchange also change the diet of the rest of the world with foods such as corns (maize), potatoes which are major diet for European nowadays. Besides all the animals from old world to the new world, Spanish also brought in the diseases that Native Americans were not immune of, such as smallpox which led to a large amount of Native Americans’ deaths.
European exploration of the West began in 1500 and continued to flourish for over three centuries. While colonizing this new land, Europeans first came into contact with the native peoples. European religious views, gender roles, and land ownership shaped their interactions with Native Americans. The English, for example, practiced Christianity, while the Native Americans possessed a more spiritual and animalistic religion. Native American societies were heavily reliant on women for not only household duties, but also agricultural responsibilities.
Upon the first colonial establishments, the Europeans viewed Native Americans as uncultured, unintelligent, and uncivilized. The first colonizers found themselves ultimately superior to the perceived rudimentary cultural and societal customs that were observed. Native Americans viewed Europeans as a strictly one sided cultural mass enforcement foreign establishment, stopping at nothing to enforce their perceived superiority in all forms of cultural and societal aspects. Differences in land use, gender roles, and societal history added to the wedging and hostility between the Native Americans and European people. Upon the European's first impression of Native American culture, the first notable aspect of their "species" and society was their promising outlook as potential slave laborers.
Compare and Contrast the Native American Culture Introduction The Native Americans were the original owners of the United States of America. However, due to the population increase in Europe, the European migrated to America in seek of land for farming, settlement, and spread their religion (Desai, n.p). The two communities lived together and interacted with each other.
During the late 15th and early 16th centuries, eExplorers from Europe had made vast advancements on traveling methods and shipbuilding and had new methods to travel the world. Due to needs for faster trade routes or access to new markets, most powers, starting with Portugal, had started sending Explorers to find different ways to trade and navigate. This would eventually lead them to the New World where they would meet people of different culture. Explorers during this period have many positive and negative effects on the natives. Europeans indirectly killed off native with diseases, enslaved natives with cruel slave methods, and tried to completely erase the native cultures in place of the typical European cultures and religion.
Before the Spanish ship that changed it all, which arrived in the “New World” in 1492, thriving organized communities of native people had centuries of history on the land. That ship, skippered by Christopher Columbus, altered the course of both Native American and European history. 1492 sparked the fire of cultural diffusion in the New World which profoundly impacted the Native American peoples and the European settlers. Prior to European contact, Native Americans lived as hunter-gatherers, living and traveling in groups of typically less than 300 people. These Native Americans spoke over 400 languages and practiced a myriad of different religions (The American Pageant).