From the Native American perspective, the sixteenth century marked the beginning of the European invasion. The first Europeans to contact the Native nations were explorers, adventurers, soldiers, and missionaries who were seeking personal glory, gold, and souls for their god.
Later the European myth of the Americas, often written in the form of histories, would describe the continent as a wilderness waiting to be conquered. In reality, there was no wilderness: the Americas were settled lands, populated by people who had been developing the land for thousands of years.
As the Europeans explored the Americas, they frequently captured Indigenous people who would be displayed in Europe. In his chapter on the Eskimos in Scotland in Indians and Europe: An Interdisciplinary Collection of Essays, Dale Idiens reports:
“From the earliest days of European discovery in the Arctic it was common practice for Eskimos to be abducted for examination as ‘scientific curiosities.’”
The Atlantis Myth
In the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, European geographers and cartographers did not know the nature of the Americas—its actual size and shape, its relationship with Asia, its history. In 1576, English navigator Humphrey Gilbert (c. 1539-1583) published a book in which he asserted that North America was an island and that it had been formerly known as Atlantis.
Searching for the Northwest Passage
Sixteenth-century cartographers and geographers debated about a water route between European and Asia in the northern latitudes. In his chapter in North American Exploration. Volume 1: A New World Disclosed, David Quinn writes:
“A passage in high latitudes, but one not too firmly impeded by ice, opened the possibility of rapid and short access to Asia, which could undercut the long-route access established by the Portuguese round the Cape of Good Hope and by the Spanish through the Strait of Magellan (or more effectively through contacts between Mexico and the Far East.)”
In 1566, Humphrey Gilbert proposed a voyage in search of a Northwest Passage between England and the Far East. Such a passage would open up a relative fast and financially lucrative trade route with China and Japan. However, this idea was rejected by Queen Elizabeth I. In 1569, Mercator’s world maps showed an open passage through the Arctic waters, suggesting the potential for a shorter, faster route for trade between Europe and Asia was possible.
While Martin Frobisher (c. 1535-1594), a privateer who had expressed an interest in finding the Northwest Passage as early as 1560, it wasn’t until 1574 that he sought permission and financial support for such an expedition. In 1576, he persuaded the Muscovy Company, an English merchant consortium which held exclusive rights to any northern sea routes to the Far East, to license his expedition.
Martin Frobisher set out with three vessels and 50 men. Two of the ships were built specifically for the expedition. The ships were outfitted with the latest navigation instruments, the 1569 Mercator map, and the 1570 Ortelius map. David Quinn writes:
“Frobisher himself had little previous nautical experience, being primarily a soldier. His judgement on maritime matters was uneven, and his dependence on experienced ship’s masters, like Christopher Hall, was absolute.”
The ships proved to be only moderately seaworthy. They landed on the southern tip of Baffin Island where they made contact with the Inuits. According to William Fitzhugh, in his chapter in Cultures in Contact: The European Impact on Native Cultural Institutions in Eastern North America, A.D. 1000-1800:
“As in the case of the Norse encounters with skraelings, these encounters were initially peaceful, and items of interest were eagerly exchanged by both parties.”
The Inuits were particularly interested in obtaining iron and boats.
The explorers entered into today’s Frobisher’s Bay and, feeling that this was the Northwest Passage, claimed to have followed the passage for 150 miles.
Off the coast of Baffin Island, the English encountered a group of 19 natives. In their chapter in Indians and Europe: An Interdisciplinary Collection of Essays, William Sturtevant and David Quinn report:
“The Englishmen seemed more frightened than the Eskimos, for they escaped to their ship and quickly prepared it for defense.”
David Quinn writes:
“A man taken on board was understood to indicate that the sound continued indefinitely to the west. However, the boat that took the Inuit back to land passed out of sight and was captured by the Inuits, along with five of the crew, who were never seen again.”
Later the English enticed an Inuit man to come close to their ship by offering him a large bell. They then captured the man and his kayak. The Inuit man attempted to resist capture and bit his tongue in half during the struggle. The Inuit and his kayak were taken to England.
Before leaving the area, however, Frobisher conducted a formal ceremony taking possession of the land in the Queen’s name.
David Quinn writes:
“The Inuit man who was brought to England by Frobisher created a great deal of interest not only in the city but also at court. His clothing, his appearance—particularly the somewhat Oriental cast of his features (‘like unto a Tartar’)—and his kayak, together with the stories that the explorers told about his people, not only generated interest but also furthered the belief in the proximity of Frobisher’s discovery to Asia.”
In her book On Savage Shores: How Indigenous Americans Discovered Europe, Caroline Dodds Pennock reports:
“One of the earliest Indigenous Americans in Britain, this Inuk man was shown off as a tremendous novelty and a success of the voyage.”
In London, observers described the Inuit as having a sullen look—perhaps he was not happy about being captured and displayed. He lived for only two weeks. His body was embalmed and placed in a coffin for return to his homeland. However, this did not happen, and he was buried in an unmarked grave in St. Olave’s churchyard. Caroline Dodds Pennock reports:
“The fact that the burial went unrecorded by the parish shows the day he fell between worlds: he was registered as a person who needed Christian burial, but was not sufficiently ‘of us’ to be registered as part of the community.”
Guale Indians and the Spanish
The Guales, Muskogean-speaking peoples in Florida and Georgia, were not a single political unit. Guale villages were grouped into a number of simple chiefdoms in which the village chiefs formed an allegiance with a mico mayor or main chief.
With regard to the powers of the Guale chiefs, archaeologist Jerald Milanich, in his book Laboring in the Fields of the Lord: Spanish Missions and Southeastern Indians, reports:
“Micos could summon laborers to tend communal fields, which the chief distributed as needed, and require laborers to participate in the construction of communal buildings and earthen mounds.”
Warfare usually consisted of seasonal raids and ambush-type attacks. The goal of warfare was a surprise attack in which war spoils could be quickly obtained, with the attacking group withdrawing with minimal losses.
In 1576, the Georgia Guales realized that the Spanish were vulnerable and could be driven out. They formed an alliance with other Indian groups in the Santa Elena area. These were Indians who had been their enemies. At Uscamascu, a war party of the ad hoc alliance, attacked a group of 21 Spanish soldiers and all but one of the Spanish soldiers were killed. According to the surviving Spaniard, who was relieving himself in a thicket at the time of the attack, the dead soldiers were beheaded.
More American Indian histories
Indians 101: American Indians 450 years ago, 1575
Indians 101: American Indians and the Spanish 450 years ago, 1573
Indians 101: American Indians 450 years ago, 1570
Indians 101: American Indians and Spanish explorers 500 years ago, 1526
Indians 101 American Indian trade and farming 500 years ago, 1525
Indians 101: American Indians and Spanish explorers 500 years ago, 1525
Indians 101: American Indians encounter Christianity in the sixteenth century
Indians 101: The Calusa Indians and Spanish missionaries in 1549
