In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the movements to explore the new world increased rapidly. Among them was the arrival of the early Europeans on Americas. Only in a few decades this arrival has changed the land and the people of the Americas both on the physical the non-physical outcomes. On the physical outcomes, within a few decades after the arrival of European Ships on October 12, 1492, successive waves of explorers and colonists slaughtered, raped, and exploited indigenous populations who were poorly equipped to resist the bearded, white strangers invading their bays, inlets, and high plateaus.
As mentioning in The Second Voyage: The Cannibals of Columbus: Having her in my room and she being naked as is their custom, I began to want to amuse myself with her. Since I wanted to have my way with her and she was not willing, she worked me over so badly with herTo get to the end of the story, seeing how things were going, I got a rope and tied her up so tightly that she made unhearding how things were going, I got a rope and tied her up so tightly that she made unheard of cried which you wouldnt have believed.
Spears, arrow, wood, and human agility proved no match against guns, cannon, steel, and horses. Many native communities were wiped out. As a result, a large number of people were killed, European as well as Native American. As mentioned In the King Philips war, one in ten soldiers on both sides was injured or killed and it took many years for Plymouth and the other colonies to recover from damage to property. (Ms. Hamidahs lecture notes) In addition, the Spanish would soon rely on slave labor to send profitable supplies of gold, sugar, coffee, and tobacco (new human necessities) to European markets.
Hundreds of Natives who fought with Philip were sold into slavery abroad; others, especially women and children were forced to become servants locally. Columbus had this idea as soon as he came to the New Land: They ought to be good servants and of good skill, for I see that they repeat very quickly whatever was said to them. In many ways, the arrival of whites was tragic disaster for Native Americans. In the 1700s, about two thirds of the native population in Michigan died from diseases whites brought such as smallpox, cholera, yellow fever, malaria, typhus, tuberculosis, measles, influenza, and even the common cold.
The combination of slavery, disease, captivity, and brutality exacted a heavy toll throughout the Americas. Considering land as gold, the encounter between European and the Native American has given many conflicts. From the conflict in non-physical it leads to the conflict in physical aspect. To the Native Americans, land is something that they have to respect. On the contrast, the European considered land as a tool to enrich them. As a result, tribes lost massive amounts of land to the U. S. Government, for which they were often neither paid nor compensated.
By 1820, they had lost claim to over half of Michigan’s Lower Peninsula. Most Native Americans and some whites thought that the government’s relations with Native Americans were marked by dishonesty, corruption, and deception. By 1838, almost all native villages in Michigan had been abandoned. As the result of the invader of European on the physical aspect, the relationship between the natives and the invaders was clear: conquest, enslavement, the expropriation of all the wealth and resources of the land. However the Native Americans were also affected on the non-physical aspect.
As the traditional base of existence changed due to the Colonists victory, the local Native communities had to adapt certain aspects of their culture in order to survive. Rich source of misunderstanding between Indian and White Anglo-Saxon cultural analysis is the different attitude of most Native Americans to such concepts as Nature, the environment, and social values. Wolves held a special place in almost all Native American tribes. They were admired for their strength and powers of endurance, and taught the tribes many skills. And after killing the prey, a good hunter always left a piece of meat behind.
This was reflected through the dialogue between the two wolves and the man: Now we will tell you why we have helped you. Whenever you went hunting you always gave the best part of the meat to us and kept only the smallest part for yourself. For that we are thankful and help you. Contrasting with European folklore, wolves are usually depicted as evil. The Indians watched the Europeans come and kill the wolves. The Blackfoot and Lakota believe that a gun used to shoot a wolf will never shoot straight again. In addition, the two different cultures and concepts of land use had caused tension for many years.
To the Native Americans, Esdzanadkhi (probably Mother Earth) created humanity so they always respect her as well as their land. This causes the conflict with whiteman’s violent aggression towards the land. A continuing problem was the trampling of Native cornfields by colonists livestock. Increased competition for resources (particularly land for planting, hunting and fishing) caused friction between the two groups. One of the short stories that reflects the conflict is A Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson.
Because of the land conflict and the necessary to take the land back, the Native American captured Mrs. Mary Rowlandson. Moreover, the history of the interaction between American Indians and the American Government has been characterized by a number of conflicting policies. On the American Government side there have been policies of separation by which the American Indians were to be removed from the lands that the expansionist whites coveted. At the same time there was recognition of the Indians’ sovereign rights to their new territories.
This policy was historically followed by one of coercive assimilation in which Indian ways were to be replaced by the culture of white Anglo-Saxon Protestantism. Native Americans also grew increasingly distant from native culture under the influence of white schools, missions, and churches. Within a European view of the natives as barbarous, uncivilised, the European thought to a need of conversion to Christianity to save Native Americans souls as Columbuss thought when he departed to a new land: I believe that they would easily be made Christians, because it seemed to me that they belonged to no religion.
On the other hand, despite the unremitting efforts of many Christian missionaries and schools to replace the native religions with Roman Catholicism or one of the varieties of Protestantism, a diverse range of native religions survive or have been attached to Christian forms. Another result of European conquest and settlement is the language. Maybe, depending on their strength, the European imposed their language on the new land and made some languages of Native Americans disappear.
By the middle of the 20th cent. , perhaps two thirds of the many indigenous American languages had already died out or were dying out. Still other aboriginal languages are only now being discovered and investigated by researchers. Especially, The Indian contribution to America is greater than is often believed. The European languages those are official today in countries of the New World, such as English, Spanish, and Portuguese, have also borrowed a number of words from aboriginal languages.
English, for example, has been enriched by such words as moccasin, moose, mukluk, raccoon, skunk, terrapin, tomahawk, totem, and wampum from indigenous North American languages; by chocolate, coyote, and tomato from indigenous Mexican tongues , etc Last but not least, the way of life is also the effect of the encounter of the two cultures (The Europeans and Native Americans). The Navaho were a nomadic tribe. In winter they lived in earth-covered lodges and in summer in brush shelters called hogans. They farmed (corn and beans), hunted (deer, elk, and antelope), and gathered wild vegetable products.
After sheep were introduced (early 17th cent. ) by the Spanish, sheep raising superseded hunting and farming. Thus the Navaho became a pastoral people. In summary, there are many differences in culture and ideology between the Europeans and the Native Americans. The conflicts on both the physical and the non-physical outcomes are the result that we can not get rid of. And the result for those conflicts is that a completely new and different labor, religious, economic, and social regimes were imposed.
