During the seventeenth 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.
The reasons for the European invasion of North America are described by archaeologist Jerald Milanich in his book Laboring in the Fields of the Lord: Spanish Missions and Southeastern Indians:
“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.”
Briefly described below are a few of the American Indian events of 400 years ago, 1626.
Spanish
When the Spanish invaded the Southwest, particularly in what is now New Mexico, they encountered village agriculturists whom they called Pueblos (the Spanish word for town or village). In his book Cycles of Conquest: The Impact of Spain, Mexico, and the United States on the Indians of the Southwest, 1533-1960, Edward Spicer reports:
“What the Spaniards found in this 350-mile stretch of river valley was a large number of villages of very similar character. No village was large, the largest probably being less than two thousand inhabitants. Most of them were not over four hundred people. The villages were compactly built, often containing several two- or three-story houses. Well-developed agriculture, carried out by irrigation methods, was the mainstay of life.”
In New Mexico, Fray Zárate Salmerón noted that the Apache del Nabaju (Navajo) were northwest of Jemez Pueblo. The Navajos occupied the Chama Valley and a portion of the San Juan Basin.
Navajo is a Tewa word meaning “great planted fields.” The term “Apache del Navajo” means “Apaches of Navajo” or “farmer Apaches.”
In New Mexico, the Spanish established a mission at Galisteo Pueblo.
In New Mexico, Spanish missionaries arrived in the pueblos of Quarai and Gran Quivira.
English
Edward Spicer summarizes the English approach to American Indians this way:
“In contrast with Spain, England had conceived of the Indians of North America as continuing to exist as separate nations outside the political organization of Britain. The British government organized no campaign for conversion of Indians to Christianity. It proposed to acquire land for colonization by purchase, by simple appropriation of unoccupied or sparsely settled areas, or by conquest and treaty where necessary.”
The English claimed sovereignty over New England and thus the right to govern all people there, whether European or Native American. Regarding the English right to rule, historian Francis Jennings, in his book The Creation of America: Through Revolution to Empire, writes:
“It decreed that Indian peoples were subject to the king of England because earlier subjects had ‘discovered’ Indian territories—had looked at their coasts from shipboard. (I am not inventing this; American courts still appeal to this rationale.)”
In New York, a small group of Wickquasgecks travelled south to trade furs. They were attacked by an English group, robbed, and murdered. One twelve-year-old boy managed to escape and vowed revenge.
In Connecticut, Mohegan sachem Uncas married the daughter of Pequot sachem Tatobem in an attempt to tighten the bonds of friendship between the two nations. It was felt that this alliance could better resist the English invasion.
Dutch
The Dutch, whose presence in North America was not of long duration (about 40 years), were interested primarily in the beaver 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 on the Dutch 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 because they gave few presents and charged for repairing guns.
In New York, the Mahicans and the Iroquois brought in about 8,000 beaver and otter skins to the Dutch trading posts at Fort Orange and New Amsterdam.
In New York, the Susquehannocks attempted to establish trade with the Dutch. The aboriginal homeland of the Iroquoian-speaking Susquehannocks was in present-day Pennsylvania. The Algonquian-speaking tribes of the Delaware Valley objected to Susquehannock-Dutch trading and attempted to stop the trade.
French
The French in the early seventeenth century encountered two Iroquois-speaking confederacies—the League of Five Nations (also called the Iroquois Confederacy) and the Hurons. The territory of the original Iroquois Five Nations is called Iroquoia and that of the Huron is called Huronia. In his chapter in the Handbook of North American Indians Volume 15: Northeast, William Fenton describes the geography of Iroquoia:
“That of the League of the Iroquois, which comprised its confederated village bands, greeted the sunrise on the Schoharie and saw the sunset west of the Genesee River; the Adirondacks and Lake Ontario were its northern flank, the headwaters of the Delaware, Susquehanna, and Allegheny invited expansion to the south.”
The Hurons were a confederacy of four major tribes: Bear, Rock, Barking Dogs, and White Thorns (also known as Canoes). The people called their confederacy Wendat or People of the Peninsula. The major reason for the formation of the Huron confederacy was protection against common enemies. They were given the name Huron meaning “rough” or “boorish” by the French.Huronia lay just north of Lake Ontario and was centered at Georgian Bay.
The French applied the name Neutral to a number of allied Iroquoian-speaking groups who lived between Huronia and Iroquoia. These groups remained neutral in the hostilities between the Huron and the Iroquois. The Neutral groups included Attiragenrega, Niagagarega, Antouaronons, Kakouagoga, and Ahondihronon.
In Ontario in 1626, the French made contact with the Neutrals in an attempt to form a trading alliance with them. However, the Hurons opposed this alliance.
In New York, Jesuit missionaries visited the Neutral towns. The Jesuits, a Roman Catholic order, carried out missionary work in what the French knew as New France. In her book Chain Her by One Foot: The Subjugation of Native Women in Seventeenth-Century New France, Karen Anderson writes:
“In the Jesuits’ view, because Satan was particularly powerful in the New World, it was their task to struggle on behalf of God and Jesus against him and his legions.”
In Ontario, Récollect priest Joseph Daillon was guided to the Neutrals by a Petun chief and was assisted by Petun baggage carriers. The Récollects were a reform order of the Roman Catholic Franciscans.
Mohawks
The Mohawks are a part of the League of Five Nations. The Mohawks generally call themselves Kaniengehaga which is often translated as meaning “people of the place of the flint.” However, there are some people who feel that the word actually refers to “crystal” rather than “flint” and is a reference to the clear quartz crystals which are found in their homeland.
While the Mohawks lived in permanent villages, meaning that these villages were occupied year-round, villages tended to move on a regular basis. According to anthropologist Wendell Oswalt, in his book This Land Was Theirs: A Study of the North American Indian:
“Any particular community was likely to exist for about ten years, after which the adjacent farmlands were exhausted, firewood scarce, and the dwelling fell into decay.”
In his book Historic Contact: Indian People and Colonists in Today’s Northeastern United States in the Sixteenth Through Eighteenth Centuries, Archaeologist Robert Grumet puts it this way:
“No matter how hard householders tried to keep things up, continuously occupied bark-covered homes lived in by large numbers of people for long periods of time ultimately became harder to keep clean, more difficult to repair, and increasingly flammable.”
In New York in 1626, the Mohawks living at the Martin site (NYSM 1143) moved their town south of the Mohawk River to the Cromwell site (NYSM 1121 and NYSM 2340).
More American Indian histories
Indians 101: American Indians and the Dutch 400 years ago, 1626
Indians 101: American Indians 400 years ago, 1625
Indians 101: Iroquois Indians and the French 400 years ago, 1624
Indians 101: American Indians and the Dutch 400 years ago, 1624
Indians 101: American Indians 400 years ago, 1623
Indians 101: American Indians and Europeans 400 years ago, 1622
Indians 101: American Indians 400 years ago, 1621
Indians 101: American Indians 400 years ago, 1620
