Native Americans Interactions

Before the English ventured to Roanoke Europeans explored and settled the New World. The Spanish were the most successful in settling the New World. They conquered most of Central and South America. Their main objective was to convert all of the Indians to Christianity. “Spain’s claim to posses the Americas was based on discovery, conquest, and settlement, but even more important, it was founded on the sacred enterprise of extending the Catholic faith to (in Spanish eyes) “barbarous” native peoples” (Horn 12).

Throughout the course of history there have been numerous accounts regarding Native American and European interaction. From first contact to Indian removal, the interaction was somewhat of a roller coaster ride, leading from times of peace to mini wars and rebellions staged by the Native American tribes. The first part of this essay will briefly discuss the pre-Columbian Indian civilizations in North America and provide simple awareness of their cultures, while the second part of this essay will explore all major Native American contact leading up to, and through, the American Revolution while emphasizing the impact of Spanish, French, and English explorers and colonies on Native American culture and vice versa. The third, and final, part of this essay will explore Native American interaction after the American Revolution with emphasis on westward expansion and the Jacksonian Era leading into Indian removal. Furthermore, this essay will attempt to provide insight into aspects of Native American/European interaction that are often ignored such as: gender relations between European men and Native American women, slavery and captivity of native peoples, trade between Native Americans and European colonists, and the effects of religion on Native American tribes.

During the 15th, 16th, and 17th centuries, the Europeans decided to embark on many journeys that would change their way of life forever. These journeys and the exchange of people, ideas, animals, food, and diseases between the two groups shaped history for the next five hundred years. When the Europeans arrived at this new-found land, they discovered what they considered to be an entirely new species of humans, the Native Americans. These two newly encountered groups of people had a few of the same characteristics and way of living, but overall the differences between them were extremely immense.

The European colonists and the Native Americans of North America had very different views on nearly everything they encountered in their lives. Living in vastly different cultures lead both groups to have two extremely different outlooks on four main topics; religious beliefs, the environment, social relations, and slavery, differences which the colonists used to their advantage when conquering the peoples of the New World.

Native Americans lived on the North American continent centuries before the arrival of Europeans. These native groups developed and preserved cultural traditions. Many European explorers traveled to the New World around the 1500s in search for God, gold, and glory. This brought them into contact with the Native Americans, and led to a complete change in their lifestyle. Europeans brought the Natives diseases, forced them to relocate, and altered their cultures. All in all, the Europeans left a devastating impact on the Native Americans.

The Native Americans, at the time of the first encounter, were still very culturally and socially primitive compared to the Europeans. They moved a lot, lived mainly of fishing and hunting, spent their time cultivating and used primitive tools and equipment in their daily activities.

An important aspect of Todorov's thesis is his well-supported claim that it was precisely the claim to European racial superiority that Christianity strongly reinforced and provided justification for the actions of the Spanish, even in its most severe manifestation. In fact, Todorov invokes the unimaginably horrible image of Catholic priests bashing Indian baby's heads against rocks, allegedly to save them from damnation to hell, which their "savage" culture would have otherwise consigned them to. The logic of this deed and others like them illustrates the destructive influence of Christianity in the Colonial project, which lies at the root of the hegemonic self-image of Western experience--first defined from the perspective of Columbus and Cortes.

When Christopher Columbus discovered the new world, it caused the two different worlds (The Americas and Europe, Asia, Africa) to collide hence creating the Colombian Exchange. The Columbian Exchange is

Economics, religion, and politics shaped European and Native American contact in a positive way for the Europeans, and a negative way for the Native Americans. The Europeans brought materials such as horses and wheat, which the Native Americans used and circulated into their economy. The Europeans got grains and maize in return. Diseases brought by the Europeans killed up to 90% of Native Americans, which brought trade and other economic activities down. Before the Native Americans met with the Europeans they only believed in animism and spirits as their religion, after the Europeans came, they tried to convert the Native Americans by force. Many Christian leaders such as Pope Paul III rejected the harsh treatment of Native Americans, but still supported the conversion of them en masse. Christianity in the Americas developed into a mix of Christianity and animism, in Europe people solely believed in Jesus as their lord.

This country is known for two horrific acts against mankind, the inhumane treatment of the American Indians and the enslavement of African-Americans. Both groups are still affected today and this essay will look at how White Americans are still reaping benefits today. The number of slaves brought to North America, South America, and the Caribbean was off the wall as between 1619 and the end of slavery approximately 9.6 and 10.8 were forcibly brought over from Africa (Mintz, 2009). The numbers rose from 36,000 a year in the early 1700s to almost 80,000 a year during the 1780s, the peak of the tragic importation (Mintz, 2009). Most were not brought to the United States, but by 1825 the United States and a quarter of the slaves because the death rate was much higher in other areas of the Americas (Mintz, 2009). The slaves in this country were more removed from their African roots as by 1850, most of the slaves in the Caribbean were born in Africa where those in the United States had been there for several generations (Mintz, 2009). Many of their traditions and customs were taken away or forgotten. Maybe this is why it has taken African-Americans in this country longer to discover their roots than those of other areas.

As the Europeans set up colonies in America, they brought the plantation ideas with them, which led to the need for labor hence they tried to enslave the Native Americans to work in their mines and fields. The Native Americans were prone to diseases hence most of them died as a result of diseases and overworking. Apart from the ones who died, a number rebelled and formed alliances forcing the Europeans to look for other sources of labor. They started to acquire African slaves due to a number of reasons: The African slaves were more stronger and immune to a number of diseases in Europe and America; the Africans had no friends and family in America hence it was not easy for them to form alliances or to escape; they provided a permanent and a cheap source of labor; and most of them had worked on farms before in their

In the colonial history of the Americas there have been many people have drastically impacted the growth of slavery. Majority of the time stories have been told of African Americans being mistreated as slaves but the truth of the matter is that Indians and African Americans both underwent slavery for a very long time; both of them underwent severe repression, which gave them no choice but to fight back. One person that caused Indian slavery to inflate drastically is now seen today as both a hero and a mass murder; his name is Christopher Columbus. Christopher Columbus played a huge roll in colonial history due to his discovery of the Americas and the damage that he caused towards Native Americans. Christopher Columbus and his army of men enslaved many Native American tribes from the West Indies; he then forced them all to convert to Christianity in which then led towards resistance of the Indians this was all due to his effort to find gold.

The natives in Spanish America believed that if their country were to get taken over, then they would take on the new cultures of the conquer. Millions of people accepted Christianity and even got baptized. The natives loved the Christian’s customs and tradition, but the rules of Christianity didn’t allow the blending of religions, so they had to get rid of all others. This was fairly easy because of the native’s dislike of earlier gods. The Europeans went around destroying religious images, spiritual objects, and remains of ancestors. They urinated on idols and whipped idolaters. Not only did the Europeans get rid of old customs, but also the Mexicans helped, like in 1535 the bishop of Mexico claimed he had destroyed 20,000 idols and 500 pagan shrines. Women on the other hand could not take part in Christianity even though in their old religions they were priests, shamans, or ritual spiritualists.

Latin America had a larger population of native Americans and Africans than in the English-speaking North America. Around nine million African slaves had been brought to Latin America, while only around one million Europeans had immigrated. An enormous portion of native Americans died off from the diseases brought over from the Old World, which gives reason to believe that European impact was greater than what the original numbers of immigrants implies. The import of Africans ended with the end of slavery and European immigration increased after that. During their control of Latin America, Spanish and Portuguese settlers had also exploited the native Americans of the area whereas the European settlers in North America pushed them aside; the sexual exploitation of native Americans led to mixing of people (Findley & Rothney, 2011). The populations of native Americans, Africans, and Europeans caused the mixing of cultures and peoples.

For my cultural awareness paper I am writing about Native American’s. I do not understand why America acts as if there were nobody on this land before Christopher Columbus discovered it. How come we never hear about them on T.V.? The people who owned this land that the country sits on has no right’s to claim it. Shockingly, nobody ever talks about them as if they are nonexistent. When I heard that they do not even own their reserves or any land at all my heart dropped. I feel as if we should inform our country about how some of us acknowledge their artifacts but not acknowledge them personally. Do they consider themselves as Native American’s? How do they feel about America? How come people steal their culture, and think