Squanto Last Of The Patuxet Analysis

In the 17th century, the Native Americans had been living peacefully in their own little world, until suddenly, the British come upon this land. Little did the British know, tribes of natives already lived there. The countenance of the Native Americans did not go over very well. There was tension between the English and the Native Americans. For example, they fought over the land of the “New World”. As expected, the Natives were fearful and angry when foreigners showed up and proposed new religious beliefs. The British and the Native Americans’ relationship changed due to those coming over for religious freedom and economic prosperity.

Before the Spanish ship that changed it all, which arrived in the “New World” in 1492, there was a vast population of native people who had lived on this land for centuries prior. That ship, skippered by Christopher Columbus, raised arguably one of the most influential turning points in Native American and European history. It sparked the fire of cultural diffusion in the New World which profoundly impacted the Native American peoples and the European settlers.

The helping hands the Native Americans provided for the Englishmen was building crude huts for the Pilgrims. Common houses were provided on the shores of Plymouth Bay for the pilgrim. Squanto played the interpreter of the Indians for the Englishman. He had been kidnapped a decade before the pilgrimage and help translate for communication between the Natives and the Englishmen. Squanto played a teacher and fatherly role and taught the natives to farm with the soil the way he learned during the decade he had spent in the United Kingdom by using dried and decomposing fish to produce a stellar corn crop. This was a huge benefit the Natives served for the Englishmen.

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.

One day, a lone Indian man walked into the settlement. He raised his hand in friendship to the settlers. The Pilgrims welcomed this stranger named Samoset. Samoset introduced the Pilgrims to his chief, Massasoit, and his interpreter, Squanto. Squanto spoke English because he had been captured as a boy by traders who had come to the New World in search of slaves. Squanto was taken to England and lived there many years before returning to the New World. He alone understood that the Pilgrims did not know how to hunt or fish - that they would die without help in the New World.

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.

It proves not solely that this "common law" wedding between history and anthropology works, however conjointly that in several respects, it appears almost indispensable to a full understanding of early american history itself. The essays specialize in, and are for the most part held together by, the sole factor that mattered on the first yankee frontiers: the social and cultural interactions and competition between white and red peoples. And here we mean mostly between French, English, (and to a way lesser extent, Spanish), and eastern Native

The colonisation of North America by the Europeans became one of the most crucial points for the native North Americans. The differing experiences of contact between both cultures had overwhelmingly disastrous impacts on the normal way of life. From such contact arose the issue of land disputes, in turn resulting in massacres and frontier wars which could have otherwise been unnecessary. The factors stated above provide a suitable stimulus for a discussion in regards to the varying encounters of the Indigenous North Americans.

No written history means much of Native American history is unknown, causing misconceptions and stereotypes about Native Americans to exist. Royal also discusses the name of this group that people label today as “Native Americans.” He questions, “ ‘America’ was a name formed in the wake of another Italian explorer, Amerigo Vespucci. It is difficult to see how being named after an Italian is less Eurocentric than being named after an East Native American” (Royal 46). The discussion about their name shows Europe’s influence on the Americas; it also shows that Native Americans yearn for their own identity without Europe’s input.

Throughout early history, beginning with 1492, exploration was well on its way. European nations began heading west towards the New World in search of new trade routes to the East Indies. With support from kings through financial aid and moral guidance, a new peak was reached upon the arrival of Columbus in the Caribbean islands off the mainland of the Americas. Such an extraordinary event, future voyages were sent off to explore the rest of the New World by Spanish, French, and English ships and explorers. During these times of exploration, traveling nations encountered the Natives among the lands where they would then determine their future through alliances and conflicts. The settlement patterns, along with the attitudes of the American Indians that were encountered with by the Spanish, French and English exploration, can be compared and contrasted through the goals of these nations culturally and socially, and even through the opportunity for economic growth .

18.Squanto- A Native American from the Patuxet tribe who helped interpret and guide Pilgrims from Plymouth through their first

“The Indian presence precipitated the formation of an American identity” (Axtell 992). Ostracized by numerous citizens of the United States today, this quote epitomizes Axtell’s beliefs of the Indians contributing to our society. Unfortunately, Native Americans’ roles in history are often categorized as insignificant or trivial, when in actuality the Indians contributed greatly to Colonial America, in ways the ordinary person would have never deliberated. James Axtell discusses these ways, as well as what Colonial America may have looked like without the Indians’ presence. Throughout his article, his thesis stands clear by his persistence of alteration the Native Americans had on our nation. James Axtell’s bias delightfully enhances his thesis, he provides a copious amount of evidence establishing how Native Americans contributed critically to the Colonial culture, and he considers America as exceptional – largely due to the Native Americans.

Closely followed by Columbus’ “discovery” of the New World in 1492 were the establishments of European colonies with the French primarily in the north and down the Mississippi, and with the British along the east coast. As a result, the Native Americans’ lives changed drastically. Before 1750, in terms of economically, French responded mutually in terms of economy, culturally befriended them and in terms of religion, responded benignly by encouraging Catholicism through missionaries and on were on the best terms with the Natives; the British by contrast, economically

In a time when Spanish and New England colonies journeyed to explore and to colonize the New World in the 1600’s. The colonies both looked to gain more power and wealth. It is in this context that the ways of the Spanish and English colonies varied when it came to settlement and survival on the land in the New World. The difference between the Spanish and New England colonies in the New World between 1492 to 1700 differed considerably in religious beliefs, economy, and treatment of the indigenous people because of the significant change that occurred when the colonies migrated into the New World.

The founding of the New World fascinated many Europeans because of the possibilities of the economic, political, and social growth. Europeans packed their belongings and boarded the boat to new beginnings. Arriving in the Americas was not what they had expected. Already pre-occupied in the land, were the Native Americans. The Native Americans refused the Europeans colonization in the America’s, but not all colonies in the Europe just wanted to colonize with the Natives. The intentions of the Europeans colonies were all different, as the Dutch solely came for business transactions. The Dutch business transactions resulted in the change of economic, political, and social movements, changing the lives of the Native’s.