Pokanokets Research Paper

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.

From the very first interaction, the social and political relations between the Native Americans and the Europeans had begun with much tension. Many Europeans came to the Americas with the intention of discovery. However, when it became apparent that these new lands were inhibited the motives changed, and then the natives were colonized, abused, and in many cases killed. From then and throughout the impending periods of time, the relations between the natives and the Europeans had a few points of mutual peacefulness, but were overall negative.

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 Englishman's encounters with the Native Americans were almost never mutual or positive. The first encounter with the people of the “new world” was a defeat at best, the Native Americans drove the Englishmen back upon the ships they had come from, but the English were determined that they would be here to stay. They moved farther down the James River and found a suitable location for settlement. Through poor leadership, however, brought the true demise of the possible friendly relations between the Natives and English unlike their French counterparts further north. Innocent Native Americans coming into Jamestown with food and gifts were often treated like spies and taken hostage by the colonists.This understandably gave the natives of the region a common goal, it was the English versus them. Though the first encounter

Treaties were then created, forced and passed to try and help stop the problems, but the treaties only cause more problems because the treaties were always one-sided for the Americans. More fights broke out between the Natives and the Americans because the Natives were forced to give up their homes and lands, they were restricted to reservations that the Americans created for them. There the Indians was forced to give up their rights and freedom, they was not allowed to continue their original traditions and were forced to live life as an

On November 8th, of 1785 the Hopewell Treaty was signed to constrict the Indians from their own hunting lands for new American people and their own gain. This treaty took away their land that they have had for many years. And in this “treaty” it concludes that they have now buried “the hatchet,” and peace and friendship between Americans and Indians will be re-established.

During the seventeenth century, colonists in Virginia engaged in numerous conflicts with the neighboring Native Americans, the Powhatans. The three major wars with the Powhatans, the First, Second, and Third Anglo-Powhatan wars, were caused in part, by cultural misunderstandings that began, and grew, when the English colonists settled in Virginia. These conflicts cannot be understood apart from the cultural differences between the Powhatans and the English, because the growing differences between both societies caused and influenced how and why these wars were fought. The cultural differences pertinent to this discussion are the differences between the English and Powhatan views of religion, world order and government, war, and trade prior

Before the English settlers moved to New England, over one hundred thousand Indians were already living in this area. The Indians relied on natural resources the land and water around them could supply them with. They were hunters and gatherers, which means, they hunted animals and gathered the supplies they needed. The Indians were very good about only taking what they needed, and they using the entire thing if they could. When the English settlers moved in, many Indians did not know how to respond. Some did not like the English settlers at all and refrained from helping them or receiving help from the settlers. Other Indians tried to aid the settlers and in turn the English settlers tried to aid the Indians. In time, some of the Indians

The English were the only other group to somewhat match the peace with the Natives. This was because they depended on them for food, trade, and technology. The English would not last very long, as the English settlement patterns were destructive to the Natives. The English desire for land ripped this relationship apart, and would eventually lead to war. The Pequot tribe, for example, were hit hard by European

There were four main reasons why the Native Americans and the British colonists could not live harmoniously. First, the English colonists could not help themselves when it came to encroaching on the Indian’s land. Next, vast differences in cultures lead to problematic disagreements. Then, differences in worship and religion created misunderstanding between the two groups. Finally, the most significant reason was alliances made between the colonies. These alliances formed one common enemy as the colonists no longer feuded with one another because England was becoming the dominating force of the New World. Wars and rebellions followed, eventually pushing the Native Americans farther inland toward the

From the very beginning of the exploration of the New World, relationships between the Native Americans and settlers were uncertain at best. Slowly becoming strained after various circumstances, especially those including betrayal. In Chief Powhatan’s Address to Captain John Smith, the betrayal felt by the Native American from the settlers (those lead by Captain John Smith) can be clearly portrayed. In the speech Chief Powhatan makes a claim for peace, mainly through the rhetorical elements those including selection of detail, diction and word choice Powhatan’s speech demonstrates a selection of detail due to the fact that the conclusions are drawn from his own experience. Personal in nature and subjective, demonstrates Powhatan’s treatment of the subject manner.

A series of events with the Native Americans soon developed into serious conflicts, ending any hope of a friendly partnership with them. “Nothing but fear and force can teach duty and obedience” (29). This forced the settlers into close quarters, and limiting their ability to farm the area and trade with other Indian tribes. Different attempts at farming led to capturing and killings by the Powhatans. The combination of disease, killings, and capturing someone by the use of force almost destroyed the first English population.

The new English settlers wanted to reshape the Indian society and culture. The “ settlers spread over the land, threatened Indians’ ways of life “(Foner 56). The settlers were changing the agriculture and hunting techniques that the Indian people used to have. Some of the Indian people did not agree with them and a group of Indians confronted settlers in Chesapeake. The Indians stated “ you should rather conform yourselves to the customs of our country , than impose yours on us “ (Foner 56). Settlers were changing drastically the lives of the Indian people. The Englishmen arrived in Jamestown with “ epidemics that decimated Indians populations”(Foner 56). The Indians traded goods with the settlers and the settlers did the same. But the settlers were also spreading the diseases that they had brought from Europe. The Indians had never been exposed to diseases , their immune system was weak and the disease were more powerful than them and killed many Indians. The Indian people thought that the English settlers were just interested in establishing a trading post but “ once it became clear that the English were interested in establishing a permanent and constantly expanding colony... conflict with local Indians was inevitable” (Foner 59). The Indians attacked Virginian settlers which resulted in a massacre for Indians . Thus after many fights the settlers won and continued their expansion in America and they formed

The English brought animals which trampled their land and the English acquired territory to a greater extent. England felt entitled to the land because they thought the native people weren’t using it and they had a charter which granted them permission to utilize the area. The native people lived on the land for generations and they felt that they were entitled to the land. The natives were also distressed because the English stole crops and massacred their people. The English also began farming tobacco, which required acquiring more land therefore, the settlers pushed further and further into the interior of the colony. Tobacco farming also destroyed the soil in the process and this brought the settlers into further conflict with the indigenous people. In 1610 there is the first in a series of Anglo-Powhatan wars as the indigenous people rebel against the infringement upon their land and it ends with a truce. In 1622, Chief Opechancanough of the Powhatan tribe led a rebellion against them, which almost annihilated the whole colony. On March 18, 1644, there was another uprising of the Powhatan people and they fail to achieve their goal of removing the colonists from their land. The population of the native people is decimated through and the remaining Native Americans are forced to sign a treaty that consigned them to reservations in the West of

In this essay, I will discuss why the conflict between Europeans and Native Americans was inevitable based on cultural differences and interactions with one another. I will explain why greed played a major role in the conflict between both groups, based on the information provided by two authors with differing opinions.