Colonists and Indians Fight for Mutual Interests on the American Frontier

Frontiersmen have existed throughout America’s history. According to Turner’s hypothesis, they push forwards for civilization and have shaped America. The stories All the Pretty Horses, The Gift of Cochise, and The Martian are all works of frontier literature. Each in their own way show frontiersmen during different times in America’s history with characters that interact with their respective frontiers in different ways. Through these three books one can see how the core interactions between frontiersmen and the frontiers call out the qualities of frontiersmen stated in Turner’s frontier hypothesis.

With different cultures and beliefs, it is very hard for groups of people to avoid conflict with one another. One of the biggest factors of the clash between Native Americans and Europeans is that they are coming from completely different lifestyles. Europeans had very poor diet, which consisted of mostly bread and soup. Those who did not starve were malnourished. Europe was filled with many diseases that killed much of Europe’s population. Native American survival was based on hunting and gathering. If they killed an animal they ate, if they failed to do so they went hungry. Native Americans lived under a democratic system and were separated into tribes and lived in tents. There was no such thing as rich or poor between tribes, which eliminated competition to move up the social ladder. Some tribes were very small, and to avoid being outrun by larger tribes, the

Much of European criticism of Native American was based on differences in religion, land use, and gender relations. Most Europeans reasoned that Indians needed to be converted to the “true religion” of Christianity (Give Me Liberty, 11). In fact, Verrazano concluded that the Indians had “no religion or laws” (Voices of Freedom, 10). The Europeans did not understand the Indians’ use of the land and thus justified overtaking it, reasoning that they did not truly “use” it. Some Europeans criticized gender relations, claiming that women lacked freedom due to their work in the fields (Give me Liberty, 12-13). Others, like Verrazano, criticized the Indians for having “absolute freedom” in which they did not abide to any laws due to ignorance (Voices of Freedom, 10). Regardless of

The relationship between the English and the Native Americans in 1600 to 1700 is one of the most fluctuating and the most profound relationships in American history. On the one side of the picture, the harmony between Wampanoag and Puritans even inspires them to celebrate “first Thanksgiving”; while, by contrast, the conflicts between the Pequots and the English urge them to antagonize each other, and even wage a war. In addition, the mystery of why the European settlers, including English, become the dominant power in American world, instead of the indigenous people, or Indians, can be solved from the examination of the relationship. In a variety of ways, the relationship drastically alters how people think about and relate to the aborigines. Politically, the relationship changes to establish the supremacy of the English; the English intends to obtain the land and rules over it. Socially, the relationship changes to present the majority of the English settlers; the dominating population is mostly the English settlers. Economically, the relationship changes to obtain the benefit of the English settlers; they gain profit from the massive resource in America. Therefore, the relationship does, in fact, change to foreshadow the discordance of the two groups of people.

The massacre at Mystic was an attack by English white puritans in a colony called the Massachusetts Bay Colony, on a group of Native Americans called the Pequot Indian Tribe. It was the sudden influx of immigrants from England that ultimately resulted in repeated contacts with Native populations. Upon meeting the natives, they set about trying to convert the Indians into Christianity which turned out to be unsuccessful. On May 26, 1637, John Mason and his fellow colony members went ahead and burned down a Pequot fort, setting the tone for future encounters with Native Americans. What continues over the next hundred years is the steady degradation of the Native’s relationship such as the Indian Removal Act.

Europeans tore through America in the 1700s and destroyed the lives of Native Americans, and yet their culture remained principled with a high level of respect and honor. This is shown in a meeting that was held by the six nations of the Iroquois, where Chief Red Jacket gave a speech on the Native Americans view on missionary stations that the Europeans wanted to set up. Red Jacket explained their past with the first settlers, “We gave them corn and meat; they gave us poison in return” (1). These first Europeans set the tone for how these new colonist treated the natives. They took what they wanted and left a trail of death and destruction in their path. However, the natives acted in return with upstanding respect and treated these missionaries

During the years between 1607 and 1611, many colonists died due to the following: Enviromental issues, settlers skills, and the Relationships with the Indians. In those years many colonists were traveling and seeking me lives but little did they know, their skill level was very low. As a result, many of the colonists ended up dead. Most of the colonists that traveled were gentlemen. However, these are not the nice men you're thinking of. These gentlemen are men that are usually to used to be useful or doing any work at all. Other than mainly gentlemen, the only colonists they brought were barrel makers, druggists, and people with jobs other than FARMING! Now let's dig deeper into why so many colonists died between the years of 1607 and 1611.

Beginning in the Sixteenth Century, Europeans sought to escape religious and class persecution by engaging on a journey to the New World. However, they were unaware that this “New World” was already inhabited by many groups of Native Americans, who had been established on the continent for thousands of years. At first, the two ethnic groups lived in relative peace. The colonists of Jamestown survived due to Powhatan’s tribe teaching them how to cultivate the land. However, things took a twisted turn as the colonists grew greedy. Due to cultural differences, there was stark tension between the Indian groups and European settlers in New England prior to 1750, which tremendously influenced early political means, social life, and the economy.

Many prominent historians argue a clash between culture and religious philosophy was the primary cause of conflict between European settlers in North America and Native Americans. However, a closer analysis of American history suggests otherwise. While a clash in cultures and religious differences did exist, the European domination of Native Americans was primarily fueled by European economic motivations, a desire for valuable natural resources and a craving to expand the American colonial system. Due to this, the conflict was inevitable.

The Indians had an identity all their own, and were in many ways reluctant to open up to the English settlers, fearing the effects of their highly controversial way of life. Regardless, despite the devastating bouts with foreign disease that accompanied the settlers, and issues regarding the land the colonists claimed in the name of the king, the Indians were still relatively accepting and hospitable to the setting Puritans. (Drake 3) They traded openly, worked together in establishing villages, and notoriously, the Indians aided the Puritans in teaching them the ways of the land, and in guiding them through the difficult New England winters. Over several years, the two cultures began to mesh, and the bits and pieces

The Native American 's encounters with European colonists led to different interactions between the two, as well as a development of varied relationships. America had been home to Native Americans since around 13,000 B.C. The Europeans arrived in America around 1492 to find that the land was already inhabited. Before the Europeans arrived, the Native Americans had lived in harmony with nature and with each other in communities, having strong family ties. When the Europeans arrived, they held different values than the Native Americans. As the Europeans settled in New England, Chesapeake and New York/New France, these differences shaped the relationships between the Native Americans and the European colonists.

The relationships between the two were somewhat composed, but many conflicts and tensions rose between the two regularly. When the colonists arrived, the Native Americans were able to help by teaching their lifestyles to the new travelers, training them to effectively grow crops and build canoes. Also, the textbook states that one of the primary reasons they were able to survive in the harsh conditions was because of Indian's guidance in creating a livable colony. The Indians were joining settlers with trading activities as well as being educated with religion and culture. But when conflicts arose, including the colonist's desire for land, tensions grew more and more. The Native Americans were now though as a "threat" to the colonists' hopes

Although white European settlers and the native Indians had existed moderately peaceful for around 40 years pressures rose in the mid-seventh century. Conflict arose due to decline in Indian territories, population, and their cultural integrity. These differences ultimately lead to conflicts in which collectively became known as King Philip’s War. What types of complaints did the Indians have against the settlers? How were the Indians expected to survive if the settlers kept taking their land? The primary sources in this collection of source documents touch upon on what each group (Indian or white settlers) did to survive: an excerpt from a narrative written by John Easton, a second hand account written by Thomas Church, a report written to the English leaders by Edward Randolph, a petition written by an Indian named William Nahton, and an excerpt of an account from a book written by Mary Rowlandson. These documents illustrate the main causes that sparked the war between the Native Indians and the white English settlers, narratives written by both sides to find peaceful solutions, and actual accounts of people who survived the conflict. The second hand account written about Benjamin Church’s meeting with the Indian group known as the Sakonnet Indians displays that the Indians knew their only chance of survival was to fight while the report written to English leaders by Randolph suggest that the settlers who viewed the Indians as uncivilized had ultimately forced the Indians

had sold only the right to use the land, not the land itself. They did

The nineteenth century was a period of rapid westward expansion for the United States due to the publicly held belief that Manifest Destiny would bring greater independence and upward mobility for all its citizens. However, with the legions of pioneers venturing into the American frontier came the upheaval between the frontiersmen and the Indians. Artists such as Alfred Jacob Miller (1810-1874) sought to capture the beauty of the untamed wilderness and life in the American frontier. Moreover, Miller also sought to demonstrate that positive interactions between the Indians and European Americans were possible despite tensions on both sides. Trapper’s Bride, painted in the early 1840s by Alfred Jacob Miller is a small oil on canvas painting that measures 19 x 16 inches; the painting is currently located in the Hunter Museum of American Art in Chattanooga, Tennessee. When this painting was first displayed, the viewer of the nineteenth century must have felt humbled and compassionate towards the suffering that the Indians endured at the hands of the frontiersmen. Nonetheless, there probably was also a sense of hope for both peoples to live together in harmony and to lay aside the violence after seeing Miller’s painting. In this paper I will argue that Miller sought to illustrate that the reconciliation between the Indians and Americans was possible as suggested by the colors and interactions between figures.