During the seventeenth century four European countries—France, England, Netherlands, and Spain–established permanent colonies in the Americas. The European colonists invaded North America driven by dreams of wealth: wealth from gold, silver, and perhaps rare gems; wealth from farmlands; wealth from trade with the indigenous nations; and, finally, wealth from slaves. As the European colonies expanded, the conflicts with the Native Americans over land increased in frequency and intensity. The Dutch, whose presence was not of long duration (about 40 years), were interested primarily in trade and viewed Indians as something to be tolerated, like cold winters and hot summers. Briefly summarized below are the relationships between the Dutch and the American Indian nations.
In general, the Dutch appeared to have had little interest in learning about the Indians and their culture. In his chapter on the Dutch treatment of American Indians in Attitudes of Colonial Powers Toward the American Indian, Allen Trelease writes:
“Seventeenth-century Dutchmen, like the other colonizing peoples, assumed without question that European culture was richer, stronger, more highly developed, and closer to God than any other on earth.”
From an Indian viewpoint, the Dutch were seen as not being hospitable for they gave few presents and charged for repairing guns.
The Dutch generally followed a policy of live and let live with the Indians: they did not force assimilation or religious conversion on the them. According to Allen Trelease:
“Both at home and abroad the Dutch found it less possible and less congenial to force conformity on religious, political, and racial minorities.”
Fur Trade
The primary motivating factor for the Dutch presence in North America was the potential profit from the fur trade with the Indians. To facilitate this trade, The Dutch West India Company was formed in 1621 to exploit the resources of the Americas and to establish a colony among the intelligent natives. Regarding the powers of the new company, historian Matthew Dennis, in his book Cultivating a Landscape of Peace: Iroquois-European Encounters in Seventeenth-Century America, reports:
“It commanded the authority to maintain naval and military forces, to make war and peace with indigenous powers, to colonize and settle the lands it acquired, and to exercise judicial and administrative functions.”
Popular history writer Ted Morgan, in his book Wilderness at Dawn: The Settling of the North American Continent, reports:
“The Dutch were traders, bottom-line oriented, indifferent to imperial strategies. They didn’t develop strong Indian alliances. Nor were they particularly interested in religious conversion.”
In his book Indians, William Brandon puts in this way:
“The Dutch were also primarily in the beaver business, eager to uphold and sustain the forest nations who might act as district jobbers for them.”
Allen Trelease reports:
“The Dutch came to America for trade and empire; in seeking these they dealt with the Indians primarily as possessors of land to be acquired, as sources of trade and wealth, and political and military powers to be negotiated with, fought as enemies, or courted as allies.”
Between 1614 and 1624, it is generally estimated that the Dutch fur traders obtained about 10,000 beaver skins annually from the Connecticut Indians alone. To facilitate this trade, the Dutch traders began using wampum as a type of currency. According to historian Michael Oberg, in his biography Uncas: First of the Mohegans:
“Dutch traders acquired wampum from the Pequots and Narragansetts in exchange for European trade goods. The Dutch then carried this wampum to Indians in the interior, exchanging it for furs.”
The Dutch fur traders, like those of the other European nations, were not renowned for their elegance and refinery. From a European perspective, their manners and honesty were often lacking. It was not uncommon for them to attempt to cheat the Indians. Despite conflicts over this, dishonest trading practices did not lead to war as the trade was too profitable to both sides.
In 1626, the Dutch West India Company sent explicit instructions on dealing with the Indians:
“He shall also see that no one do the Indians any harm or violence, deceive, mock, or contemn them in any way, but that in addition to good treatment they be shown honesty, faithfulness, and sincerity in all contracts, dealings, and intercourse, without being deceived by shortage of measure, weight or number, and that throughout friendly relations with them be maintained.”
There were, of course, Dutch traders who did not adhere to all these standards.
One of the items which the Indians, particularly the Iroquois, demanded in exchange for their furs were guns and the ammunition for them. The Dutch supplied their Indian trading partners with guns and with these guns, the Indians expanded their territory, often displacing tribes which did not have access to guns.
Another important trade item was alcohol. Officially, the Dutch enacted a number of laws designed to stop the liquor traffic with Indians, but these tended to be ignored. Allen Trelease writes:
“They were willing to pay a high price for Dutch beer and brandy, and there were plenty of colonists willing to supply the demand without much regard for the consequences.”
Religion
With regard to religious conversion, only two ministers of the Dutch Reformed Church made any serious effort to convert Indians. They failed to make any converts. The Reverend Jonas Michaelius wrote in 1628:
“As to the natives of this country, I find them entirely savage and wild, strangers to all decency, yea, uncivil and stupid as garden stakes, proficient in all wickedness and ungodliness, devilish men who serve nobody but the devil, that is, the spirit which in their language they call Menetto, under which title they comprehend everything that is subtle and crafty and beyond human skill and power.”
Historian Matthew Dennis reports:
“The minister [The Reverend Jonas Michaelius] also believed that the Indian languages were very difficult to learn; communication of religious ideas with them, he suggested, would be nearly impossible. His preferred program of conversion and civilization was to separate children from parents and raise them under Dutch supervision, something never seriously considered in New Netherland.”
In his book The Island at the Center of the World: The Epic Story of Dutch Manhattan and the Forgotten Colony that Shaped America, Russell Shorto describes the missionary this way:
“The Reverend Jonas Michaelius might well have won a contest for the moodiest, bitchiest resident of New Amsterdam.”
Land
Both the Dutch and the Swedes bought Indian land to legalize their occupancy in the eyes of other Europeans. They recognized the Indians’ ownership of the land and thus the legal necessity of buying land before appropriating it. In general, the Dutch tended to be fair when buying land and cases of fraud and high-pressure tactics were the exception rather than the rule. Allen Trelease reports that:
“…much of the land which the Dutch bought around New Amsterdam was purchased so far ahead of actual need that the Indians continued to occupy it undisturbed for years after the purchase.”
Part of the conflict with the Indians over land purchases stemmed from different views of the transactions. Indians viewed the land as community property which belonged to the entire tribe or band for their use in perpetuity. They did not view it as a commodity to be bought and sold. The Indians thus viewed land purchases as simply payments for temporary use, while the Dutch looked upon these as final sales. Conflict arose when the Indians demanded from the Dutch further payments or for them to vacate the land. Allen Trelease writes:
“The Dutch were not fully aware of the reasons for these demands and reacted variously according to the troublemaking capacity of the native involved. Sometimes they refused payment, but more often they complied, as the money involved was less than the cost of coping with continuing discontent, depredations, or even war.”
Indians 101
Twice each week—on Tuesdays and Thursdays—this series explores American Indian topics. More seventeenth-century histories from this series:
Indians 101: English religion and American Indians in the 17th century
Indians 101: The Spanish and the Indians in the Seventeenth century
Indians 101: The Timucua and the Spanish
Indians 101: New Amsterdam and the Indians
Indians 101: The Dutch, the Indians, and Fort Orange
Indians 101: New Sweden and the Indians
Indians 101: The 17th Century Wampanoag
Indians 201: The Pueblo Revolt of 1680