During the 17th century, four European countries—France, England, Netherlands, and Spain–established permanent colonies in the Americas. As these colonies expanded, the conflicts with the Native Americans over land increased in frequency and intensity.
Concerning the reasons for the European invasion of North America, archaeologist Jerald Milanich, in his book Laboring in the Fields of the Lord: Spanish Missions and Southeastern Indians, writes:
“The driving force behind these initiatives was a desire for wealth: precious stones or metals, fertile lands suitable for productive plantations, human populations to be sold into slavery, and animals and plants that could be hunted or harvested and exported.”
While the American Indian nations had superior numbers, the Europeans had a technological advantage. Historians Robert Utley and Wilcomb Washburn, in their book Indian Wars, write:
“The disparity between the military strength of Europe, represented by gunpowder, steel, and the horse, and that of the New World, whose inhabitants fought with bows and arrows and wooden clubs, was immediately apparent to the European soldiery, who quickly saw the human population of the New World as a resource to be exploited.”
One of the things that puzzled many Europeans was the origin of American Indians. Believing that their mythology, as recounted in their many versions of the Bible, was not only a true historical account of the world, but also that it was the only true history, many scholars struggle to connect American Indians with European mythology. In noting that the Bible and Christianity limit the discussion about the origins of Indian people, David Lovejoy, in an article in the New England Quarterly, writes:
“Indians must have originally migrated from the Old World, for it was impossible to believe that they were not descendants of the first Adam by way of Noah and the Ark. Any other theory, suggesting a second creation, was promptly labeled heresy, and in the early years proponents suffered death for spreading it.”
Thus, Indians were viewed in biblical terms as a lost tribe, one of the dregs and refuse of the lost posterity of Adam. In 1622, English scholar Edward Brerewood, in his book Enquiries Touching the Diversity of Languages, and Religions, Through the Chief Parts of the World, speculated that the Tartars (now known as Mongolians) were the first people to enter the Americas.
Briefly described below are a few of the contacts between Indian events of 400 years ago, in 1622.
New England
In Massachusetts, the English settlers at Plymouth established close relations with the female Massachusett leader known as the Squaw Sachem. Archaeologist Robert Grumet, in his book Historic Contact: Indian People and Colonists in Today’s Northeastern United States in the Sixteenth Through Eighteenth Centuries, writes:
“Although her name has not yet been found in English records, the Squaw Sachem rose to prominence as the most important Massachusett leader of her era.”
In Massachusetts, Wampanoag sachem Massosoit sent a message to the Pilgrims at Plymouth through Hobamok that the Narragansett and the Massachusett had joined in a confederacy against them and that Squanto was involved with this new confederacy.
In Rhode Island, the Narragansett sent a bundle of arrows tied with a snakeskin to the Pilgrims at Plymouth. The Pilgrims interpreted this message as a challenge and returned the skin with bullets in it. Historian John Humins, in an article in the New England Quarterly, reports:
“By doing so, the Pilgrims committed a major diplomatic blunder: they ignored Hobamok’s urgings to confer with Massasoit before responding.”
In Massachusetts, Squanto led a group of Pilgrims on a trading expedition to the southeastern shore of Cape Cod. Squanto persuaded the Indians in the area to trade with the English. Then Squanto fell sick with “Indian fever” and bled a great deal through the nose. Within a few days he was dead.
From an Indian perspective at this time, Squanto may have died of witchcraft as there was profuse bleeding from the nose when the evil spirit exited from its victim. Historian John Humins writes:
“Tradition has Squanto dying of smallpox, but there is no evidence to support that contention.”
The Pequot defeated the Narragansett and took control over the hunting territory in southwest Rhode Island.
English in Virginia
In 1607, the English had established a small colony which they called Jamestown in territory controlled by the Powhatan Confederacy, an alliance of Algonquian-speaking tribes—at least 27 tribes and perhaps as many as 40 living in about 200 villages. While the English colonists depended upon Indian foods for their survival, English arrogance blocked any real understanding of Powhatan culture and political structure. As a result, peace was difficult.
In 1622, Opechancanough, brother of Chief Powhatan and the leader of the Pamunkey, carried out an attack on the English colonies, killing 350 of the settlers (one-fourth of colony’s total population). In Pocahontas: The Life and the Legend, Frances Mossiker writes:
“The plan of attack was so skillfully devised, the organization of forces so effective, the element of surprise so perfectly preserved, that the English preferred to credit the wily Spaniard with the stratagem rather than the ignorant ‘Savage,’ although no basis for such a supposition exits.”
The English retaliated with a series of raids on the Indians. Instructions from London to the Virginia colonies called for a perpetual war to exterminate the Indians, and the Governor of Virginia issued a directive to kill, rob, and hunt down the Indians of the area. Archaeologist E. Randolph Turner, in his chapter in Cultures in Contact: The European Impact on Native Cultural Institutions in Eastern North America, A.D. 1000-1800, reports:
“Retaliation by the English was immediate; the London Company ordered extermination of the Indians, forbidding commanders to make peace upon any terms whatsoever.”
In his chapter in the Handbook of North American Indians, Wilcomb Washburn writes:
“The attack provided a ready-made justification for waging perpetual war (as Christian legal theory allowed against infidels) against any and all Indians. Too often the rules of honor were abandoned in the process.”
Nemattanew (Jack of the Feathers) was the charismatic war chief of the Pamunkey, one of the tribes of the Powhatan Confederacy. Nemattanew, the nephew of Opechancanough, had been revitalizing native culture and warrior traditions, preparing the Powhatan warriors for combat against muskets. Nemattanew would go to war covered with feathers and with swans’ wings attached to his shoulders (hence his English name, Jack of Feathers). In some instances, he would bewitch enemy warriors, including the English soldiers. He was thought to be invulnerable to bullets and so the colonists shot him to put this claim to a final test. He died.
Dutch
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. In general, the Dutch appeared to have little interest in learning about the Indians and their culture. In his chapter 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.
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.”
In Connecticut, Dutch trader Jacques Elekens captured the Pequot sachem (chief) Tatobem in retaliation for raids on the trading post. Elekens threatened to kill Tatobem unless a ransom was received. The Pequot responded with a tribute of approximately 35,000 wampum beads. After receiving payment, the Dutch killed Tatobem and returned his body to the Pequot.
In response to the Pequot outrage over the murder of the captive Tatobem, the Dutch replaced Elekens with Pieter Barentsen who spoke Pequot and was popular with Indian people. Understanding the importance of wampum to the Indians, Barentsen was able to become a part of an established trade network and to trade wampum for furs.
Wampum is a collection of small white or dark purple beads which are meticulously fashioned from shells. While wampum was not really Indian money (despite what many so-called “history” texts imply), the traders begin to treat it as money. According to historian Michael Oberg, in his book 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.”
French
The French, unlike the English and the Spanish, saw Indians as trading partners. The French saw that their best opportunity for economic gain was to be found in the fur trade in which their Native American trading partners would retain their autonomy and provide them with furs. The French explorers quickly established trading relations with the Native nations. From the beginning, the French were willing to learn from their Indian trading partners.
Long before the European invasion of North America, five Iroquois-speaking nations-- the Seneca, the Cayuga, the Onondaga, the Oneida, and the Mohawk—had organized a confederacy, the League of Five Nations, also called the Iroquois Confederacy. The Huron, another Iroquois-speaking Indian nation, were not a part of the League and were often rivals of the Iroquois.
In 1622, the Iroquois Confederacy sent ambassadors to the French, proposing a general peace. The French traders opposed the peace treaty, fearing that once peace was established that the Iroquois would persuade the Huron to start trading with the Dutch.
Disease
The Europeans brought with them several epidemic diseases, such as smallpox and measles, which killed many American Indians. In 1622 these European diseases began ravage the New Mexico Pueblos. During the next 20 years half of the villages will be abandoned.
Indians 101
Twice each week—on Tuesdays and Thursdays—this series presents American Indian topics. More seventeenth-century histories from this series—
Indians 101: New Amsterdam and the Indians
Indians 101: The Timucua and the Spanish
Indians 101: The Spanish and the Indians in the Seventeenth century
Indians 101: English religion and American Indians in the 17th century
Indians 101: The Dutch and American Indians in the 17th century
Indians 101: The French and American Indians in the 17th century
Indians 101: American Indians 400 years ago, 1621
Indians 101: American Indians 400 years ago, 1620