By 1773, there were three European nations interacting with Indian nations in North America: England, France, and Spain. In general, these European nations wanted Indian lands, Indian furs, Indian labor (both as servants/peasants and slaves); Indian allies in their wars against other Indian and European nations; and Indian souls (that is, the conversion of Indians to Christianity).
Europeans, strongly believing that their religion was the only religion, were continuing in their efforts to convert Indians. Both Protestant and Catholic missionaries sought to bring about the total conversion of the Indians, which included the complete destruction of their cultures. Becoming Christian involved more than ceremonies worshipping a European god, but also required adopting European customs regarding such things as dress, housing, farming, and treatment of women.
English
The English colonies practiced a form of apartheid to prevent close interaction between American Indians and British colonists. In an article in The Indian Historian, Yasuhide Kawashima reports:
“No matter how valuable and useful the Indians might have been to the colonists as allies, dependent tribes, and servants and slaves, however, they were never considered as equal to the white settlers.”
Indians were not citizens--nor could they become citizens--and from the viewpoint of the English colonists, they were aliens.
In Connecticut, Pequot leader Daniel Quotcheath petitioned the English colonial General Assembly to have the Pequot reservation surveyed at tribal expense. While the General Assembly appointed a surveyor, no survey was done.
The Pequots also complained that the English overseers had allowed colonial encroachment on Pequot land and had concealed the boundaries established in the 1761 agreement.
The Cherokee signed a treaty with the British Superintendent of Indian Affairs in which they gave up 1,050 square miles of land in Georgia.
The Creek town of Coweta, heavily in debt to the European traders, agreed to transfer land to the British traders to settle the debt. Most of the territory transferred was land which had been conquered by the Creeks during their war with the Cherokees. The Creeks lost nearly 2.5 million acres of land to satisfy their debts.
Missionaries
In general, the British Protestant missionaries were not particularly successful in converting Indians to Christianity.
In Ohio, the Reverend David Jones, a Baptist missionary, entered Shawnee country to bring the word of God to the Indians of this region. He passed the Shawnee town of Piqua, which he called “a most remarkable town for robbers and villains” and then stopped at Blue Jacket’s town. Here he talked with Kishanosity (called Hardman by the English). He then traveled to Chillicothe where he met with chief Othaawaapeelethee (Yellow Hawk) who refused to listen to him. Yellow Hawk had little interest in what the missionary had to say. Jones was unable to find any Shawnee who was interested in his concept of God, nor was he allowed to preach.
In Pennsylvania, Presbyterian missionary Samuel Kirkland traveled to the Iroquois village of Oquaga to evaluate the impact of missionary work there. He found things not to his liking and wrote to his wife:
“I confess I was astonished & grieved to the very heart to find such inexcusable ignorance & abominable infidelity prevail to such a degree among people who whom so many hundred hath been expended for their instruction, for nigh twenty years.”
Spanish
While English colonial practices were based on segregation, the Spanish viewed Indians from a different view. The Spanish saw Indians as a form of labor which could be exploited, and the success of the Spanish colonies in the Americas was based on this exploitation.
In New Mexico, the Spanish governor made a secret pact with the Utes to provide the Spanish with Navajo children as slaves.
In Missouri, the Little Osage and the Missouri met with the Spanish to establish peace. Stolen horses were returned, and the Little Osage turned over three warriors who had murdered Frenchmen on the Missouri River. The Little Osage asked for clemency for the killers, and they were pardoned by the Spanish in an effort to assure a solid peace.
The formal agreement between the Spanish and the Little Osage and Missouri stated:
“Whoever of their villages henceforth kills some vassal of His Catholic Majesty will be delivered up to the commandant of this post ... and punished by death without remission or compassion.”
In addition, the same principle applied if a European killed an Indian.
French
In contrast to the English and Spanish policies, the French encouraged close cooperation with the Indians and, at times, attempted to influence tribal decisions. In Arkansas, when the Quapaw chief Casanonpoint died in 1773, the French intervened to influence the selection of his successor.
More eighteenth-century histories
Indians 101: Washington's Chehalis Indians and the Americans in 1792
Indians 201: Grey Lock's War in New England
Indians 201: Ute Indians and the Spanish quest for silver in 1765
Indians 201: The Iroquois Peace, 1700-1713
Indians 101: Little Turtle's War
Indians 101: Russians and Native Americans in the 18th century
Indians 101: Cherokee Government and the English
Indians 201: The Royal Proclamation of 1763