Introduction and Early Contact European explorers typically viewed Native Americans and Inuit (formerly called “Eskimo”) peoples as uncivilized savages who could be ignored, treated as curiosities, or manipulated to meet the goals of businessmen, clerics, scientists, or politicians. Civil interaction with native peoples was pursued only when it was critical to the success of European ventures such as procuring gold, silver, fur, and land. These exploitative or antagonistic relationships with native groups arose from ethnocentric attitudes which to some degree still persist in both public and private arenas. But today, we understand the importance of looking at primary sources, both written and archaeological, for a richer and more complete narrative about what such earlier encounters meant to the participants. The first documented contact between New World and Old World people took place when the Norse colonized the American Arctic in A.D. 985. The demanding Arctic environment required that European explorers and indigenous Inuit people share a mutual interest in maintaining friendly relationships for reasons of economy and survival. Subsequent European-Inuit contacts across the American Arctic played out along similar lines, with Inuit people quickly adopting new materials and technologies (especially firearms), but maintaining their language and their Arctic-adapted culture to this day. The British Subsequent European colonization pursued rather different settlement
In the article, written by Bruce G. Trigger, a professor of anthropology at McGill University, Early Native North American Responses to European Contact: Romantic versus Rationalistic Interpretations, Trigger thoroughly explains the relativist and rationalist viewpoints of European contact with the Native North Americans. The author argues that the rationalist view is more significant than the relativist view. Although, he believes cultural beliefs were important, the reasoning and knowledgeable views overpowered the outcomes of Native American responses towards the Europeans.
The diplomatic agreements between First Nations and Europeans were built on pre-contact foundations. Europeans inherited sets of relationships and rivalries among Aboriginal peoples into which the newcomers had to fit themselves. But, as in the case of commercial relations, the insertion of the Europeans, with their different interests and strengths, into pre-existing political systems complicated and modified indigenous alignments. This relationship between the Europeans and the First Nations was a very important development in both European Western development and First Nations attempt to expand their technological expansion. From the very first days of their presence in northeastern North America, Europeans encountered First Nations well versed in creating political agreements among themselves by means of kinship and ritual. The Europeans were not the only people who had their own way to get through the treaties; the First Nations people did too.
The history of the Native Americans after the arrival of the Europeans is a history of wars, treaties and agreements, and broken treaties and broken agreements. As late as 1994 the governing bodies of tribal communities have signed treaties and agreements with the U.S. (Niles, 1996). As recently as 1999 the U.S. Supreme Court almost overturned treaty rights of the Chippewa Indians of Minnesota.
There are many similarities and differences between Inuit, Eastern Woodlands Hunters, and Eastern Woodlands Farmers. They are different because they had different regions, environment, and history. They are have similarities like where in the world they lived and came from.
The long history between Native American and Europeans are a strained and bloody one. For the time of Columbus’s subsequent visits to the new world, native culture has
Canada as a nation is known to the world for being loving, courteous, and typically very welcoming of all ethnicities. Nevertheless, the treatment of Canada’s Indigenous population over the past decades, appears to suggest otherwise. Indigenous people have been tormented and oppressed by the Canadian society for hundreds of years and remain to live under discrimination resulting in cultural brutality. This, and more, has caused severe negative cultural consequences, psychological and sociological effects. The history of the seclusion of Indigenous people has played a prominent aspect in the development and impact of how Indigenous people are treated and perceived in today’s society. Unfortunately, our history with respect to the treatment of Indigenous communities is not something in which we should take pride in. The Indian Act of 1876 is an excellent model of how the behavior of racial and cultural superiority attributed to the destruction of Indigenous culture and beliefs. The Indian Act established by the Canadian government is a policy of Aboriginal assimilation which compels Indigenous parents under threat of prosecution to integrate their children into Residential Schools. As a nation, we are reminded by past actions that has prompted the weakening of the identity of Indigenous peoples. Residential schools has also contributed to the annihilation of Indigenous culture which was to kill the Indian in the child by isolating them from the influence of their parents and
The Lenape Indians are the natives of New Jersey and were around well before any of the explorers or our ancestors came to the area. They had a society rich of culture, traditions, beliefs and customs. They are one of the largest Indian tribes on the east coast, containing three primary divisions or clans. Frederick Hodge (1907) worked for the Bureau of American Ethnology and has done extensive research on the topic of Native Americans. Hodge compiled a detailed reference book called The Handbook of American Indians North of Mexico, which gives detailed histories on many of the American Indian tribes. According to Hodge, the Lenape or Delaware Indians were an Indian society based from the Delaware area all the way to southern New York in
European explorers first landed on the shores of what would later become North America more than 500 years ago. Not long after the first explorers had entered the "New World" they found out that they were not alone on this new frontier. Their neighbors in this new land were the Native Americans who had been there for centuries, virtually unaware of life outside the continent. Thus began an inconsistent and often times unstable relationship between the European settlers and the North American Indians. Two nations who had particularly interesting relationships with the Native Americans were the British and the French, both of whom took different approaches to their relations with the Indians economically as well as culturally. Neither nation had complete trust for the Indians, nor did the Indians ever completely trust the men who arrived on "floating islands with many tall trees". Nonetheless, they did interact with one another in their daily lives. Both economically and culturally the French and British went about their interactions with the Native Americans differently. Through first hand writings and documents as well as observations by historians, it is evident that the British and French interacted with the Indians of North America in different ways.
Chapter two of Atlantic Canada A History covers the life of Aboriginal people in the Atlantic region from 1500-1860. The aboriginal people needed to be very resourceful; they had to use everything they could from the animals that they killed in order to survive. They used bones, skin, brains and even tendons from moose, caribou, deer and other animals to craft tools and make clothing. Before the Europeans arrived the Aboriginals relied solely on the environment to survive. During the 1500’s when Europeans started to arrive the Mi’kmaq people traded fur with them in exchange for tools and weapons; this tactical advantage allowed the Mi’kmaq to expand their control over other regions.
The Inuit People The word Eskimo is not a proper Eskimo word. It means "eaters of raw meat" and was used by the Algonquin Indians of eastern Canada for their neighbours who wore animal-skin clothing and were ruthless hunters. The name became commonly employed by European explorers and now is generally used, even by them. Their own term for themselves is Inuit which means the "real people."
Over the course of the expedition, Lewis and Clark developed a ritual that they used when meeting a tribe for the first time. The captains would explain to the tribal leaders that the their land now belonged to the United States, and that a man far in the east – President Thomas Jefferson – was their new “great father.” They would also give the Indians a peace medal with Jefferson on one side and two hands clasping on the other, as well as some form of presents (often trade goods). Moreover, the Corps members would perform a kind of parade, marching in uniform and shooting their guns. Fifty years before Lewis and Clark, the Blackfeet Indians had a reputation of being hospitable to Europeans, who occasionally even
The Canadian Arctic are known as the Inuit, which they are commonly known as Eskimos. The Inuit is a subculture of a Native American culture and they are losing their homelands due to weather changes. Even though the Inuit were the last Native American people to arrive they were one of the first people in Canada. They settled in Canada and they made their own customs. They have many different types of elements like of religion, art, clothings, and customs and traditions.
Eventually, the Europeans and Native Americans learned many things about each other’s cultures as time continued. As more and more European explorers arrived to the New World in the sixteenth century, their general attitudes and beliefs of the Native Americans evolved from ignorant, to impressed, to surpassed in society and culture.
American Indians and Alaskan Natives have a relationship with the federal government that is unique due to the “trust relationship” between the US and American Indians/Alaskan Natives (AI/ANs) who are entitled to health care services provided by the US government by virtue of their membership in sovereign Indian nations. In order to contextualize the complex nature of Indian health programs it is necessary to become versed in the political and legal status of Indian tribes. Through numerous constitutional, legislative, judicial, executive rulings, and orders that were largely associated with the succession of land and subsequent treaty rights; the health care of AI/ANs has been one of many responsibilities guaranteed by the federal government. The foundations of which can be traced back to the year 1787. The ceded land has been interpreted in courts to mean that healthcare and services were in a sense prepaid by AI/AN tribes and 400 million acres of land. The misconception of “free healthcare” and a conservative political disdain from so called entitlement programs have also led to misconceptions regarding the federal government’s responsibility to provide health care and services to AI/ANs. Rhoades (2000) has argued that tribal sovereignty is the overarching principle guiding Indian health care on a daily basis.1 This paper will examine the history surrounding federally mandated healthcare to AI/ANs, pertinent issues of sovereignty, as well as case studies in tribal
The beothuk people were first nations group from Newfoundland who lived in the late 15th and 16 centuries how ever the lives of beothuk changed forever, now the beothuk are now extinct as a people. At first, contact between the beothuk and the europeans were limited. On each side was very wary of the others. However, each side had also had things the other side had wanted, the beothuk wanted the iron and the copper, pots, knives, and utensils the europeans had. And the europeans wanted the valuable of the animal fur the beothuk hunted and trapped. The achieve and their goals, the two sides entered into a trading system of silent bartering.