Powhatan Indians Relationship

English and the North Americans traded, negotiated, cooperated, and intermarried with each other. The settlers came into conflicts over land and their demand for the Native’s land. They also excluded the Powhatan people from their society. Eventually the New World started to flourish once the English accepted the Powhatan people. They became a key factor to the new tobacco economy in colony, changing it to a cash crop in 1613.

Before the arrivals of the Europeans, the Powhatan Indians were a tribe that lived on the coastal parts of Virginia. Their native language was Algonquian, which was used by various tribes along the east coast. The Powhatan tribe had an interesting culture compared to the Europeans. They were a powerful tribe at the time and had control most areas of what is now today Virginia. They were called the Powhatan Confederacy which was a league with over 30 Algonquian speaking tribes. It took one man named Powhatan, as known as Wahunsonacock, to build the most powerful tribes in Eastern America.

The European nation that came to the Powhatan territory were the Spanish people. A lot of things brought them to the American territory, the Queen of England specifically was interested in the possibility of the colonies providing gold, a passage to Asia and challenging Spain in a world totally different from what they were used to ( the new world) (Source 1). The Spanish wanted to trade, establish new townships and plantations (source 2). They basically wanted to take over the Powhatan land and own it even if it was to be done by force. The Spanish invaded the Powhatan territory because they believed that it would make them richer then what they already were, the routes, the trade, the goods that the Native Americans had and the land of course. All of those things would help boost the Europeans economy bringing not only money but even more development to the countries there. They also wanted to settle and develop the place as their own homes.

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.

During the sixteenth century European pilgrims migrated across the Atlantic Ocean to settle in North America. North America had just been introduced to the Western Civilization. The America’s were home to the indigenous people, that were made up of several tribes that were called Indians by the early settlers. Together the Indians and settlers began to thrive. Growth and development in the new world was made possible by the abundant amount of natural resources.

Native Americans were somehow powerful and had everything that English colonists wanted. They were seeking wealth and they had the answers in Jamestown. When tobacco start growing, the English colony became powerful and expanded their colony over Jamestown peninsula. Powhatan Indians were disappointed when English did not maintain a trading way with them. In 1622 Native Americans took a step forward by attacking the colony. They killed 347 colonists. As it is stated on the second chapter of the book, The American Yawp, “The colonist retaliated and revisited the massacres upon Indian settlements many times over. The Massacre freed the colonist to drive the Indians off their land.” Once the English colony gained power, they forgot about the people who kept them alive, they forgot about Native Americans. English colonists were so ungrateful and blind because they had one goal in mind, and that was to be wealthy. They didn't care how they would gain wealth. The only thing that mattered to them was gaining

The colonists couldn’t get all the necessities for life, so they had to ask their only neighbors for help, the natives. Francis West and his men sailed up the Chesapeake Bay to trade corn with the natives. In the novel “The Virginia Adventure,” Ivor Noel Hume wrote about how the colonists received the grain in exchange for corn. He writes, “Though West was able to load his (small ship) with grain, the success involved ‘some harshe and Crewell dealinge by cutting off towe (two) of the Salvages heads and other extremetyes.” In order to get food, they cut off two natives heads. This sparked anger in the natives and it caused a dispute between the colonists and natives. The natives were angry with the colonists for killing their men, so they started to kill the colonists in return. Another reason the natives played a role in the death rate of the colonists was because the colonists planted themselves right in the middle of all the Powhatan tribes. The Jamestown settlement was surrounded by Powhatan settlements, meaning that Jamestown would be surrounded and have nowhere to go during native attacks. The last reason the natives contributed to the decline of the colonists was because the natives started to threaten the colonists. The natives said that anyone who left the settlement would be killed on sight. The evidence on the topic of the native’s relationship helps explain

In reality, if it were not for the Native Americans, the Pilgrims would have been wiped out in a short period of time. The first relationship dealt with economics. In the Pilgrims first winter, many died from disease and starvation because they had no idea about how bad the winters are in New England. They didn’t understand how to grow crops successfully until the Native Americans helped them out, resulting in less death from starvation. Since the Pilgrims were in need of food fast in order to survive, they would have no choice but to steal corn from the group called the Nausets. “The snow made it difficult to find the corn, but eventually they located 10 catches of it.” They educated the Pilgrims about some of their practices such as how to build warm and protected shelters. But in a short period of time this ended up hurting the Native Americans. There was a native man by the name of Squanto who did not mind helping out the Pilgrims at all. Squanto showed the Pilgrims everything he knew about building crops, fishing, building shelters and basically how to survive. Squanto was a very talented eel fisherman and he provided eels to the Pilgrims so that they would have something to eat. “That night the Pilgrims at the eels with relish, praising them…” He also explained to the Pilgrims that if you plant fish in the soil next to your crops, the soil will get richer and the plants will grow better. Even though the Native Americans

The Native Americans offered them succour, which led to new adaptations Colonialism changed the lives of colonists due to harsh climate, new adaptation, and illnesses. In the historical document “ from of Plymouth Plantation,” William Bradford

Native Americans have played an important role in the United States for over thousands of years. The Native Americans once lived on their land with little disturbance, having made their own meals and lived in a traditional culture up until Columbus had discovered their land. From their first arrival into the Native land, the Spanish mistreated and disrespected the Indians by trying to enforce their way of life and their beliefs upon them.

Our unnamed brutality in the new world started in 1607 when the first colony was founded and religious matters were thrown aside. Survival, Starvation,and attacking the Powhatan Tribe became almost as normal as milking your cow. The choices of my ancestors still affect me today after all history repeats itself and split blood is spread like wildfire throughout mass numbers of family trees. The american people are as cold and as self- righteous as the romans once were, they see something they want and they take it. My generation has yet to see war and hasn’t yet had the “privilege” to join the invasion of land, property, and soul. We feel responsible blood dripping from predecessor to predecessor our right’s flowing throughout the triumphant fluid in our veins. We have yet to pay the pied piper, some insist it’s a simple debt one must

In the early 1600’s, when the European settlers arrived in Jamestown, there were already around 15,000-25,000 Indians living around the area. The leader of the most prominent tribe in the area, Powhatan, stayed in a neutral relationship with the English in the area for the first couple of years after Jamestown following the start of the colony. During the time the Indians

Before reading Colin Calloway essay “The Aftermath of the Revolution in Indian Country”, I had grown on the belief that the American Revolution was only a good thing. Believing that we just won our Independence from the British and becoming the great nation that we are today, but being the naïve young kid not really knowing about the Natives that lived in the areas of the battles that were totally destroyed by the ongoing conflict for Independence in North America. Calloway shows the reader three great points throughout the essay on the specific areas in which the Natives were affected by the American Revolution. The first one was the trust that was broken by the British and all of a sudden they were handed over to the Americans and the

The Powhatans were a native american tribe that lived in Virginia. They also spoke an eastern-Algonquian language, so they were often referred as Virginia Algonquians. The Powhatan Indians lived in the towns by rivers for easy ways to get food and for transportations, they also always bathed in the river every day. The Powhatans lived in houses called Yehakins. “The yehakins were made from saplings bent and lashed together at the top to form a barrel shape. Woven mats or bark were placed on top of the saplings and space left for an entrance at each end of the house and an open hole at the center of the roof for smoke to escape.” (http://www.nps.gov/jame/learn/historyculture/the-powhatan-indian-world.htm)

As the pilgrims arrived to the new continent they started to take on the land. At the beginning the Indians and pilgrims had no trust, but that soon changed. Massasoit, “the most powerful Native leader” (48), saw the pilgrims as they were settling in and decided that for the safety of his tribe and for trading purposes to become allies with the Pilgrims. The pilgrims would not have survived without the help of Massasoit and his tribe. Both the Pilgrims and the Native Americans benefited from one another learning and experiencing new things.