The Relationship between Native Americans and English Settlers

 

An Overview

An Overview

The first English settlers and Native Americans tried to be good neighbors. They shared an interest in trade and in spiritual life. But problems like disease and fighting hurt their relationship. Before too long, the two sides went to war.

Complex History

Thanksgiving is one of America's earliest legends. In 1621, pilgrims sat down with the Wampanoag Indians. They celebrated the first successful harvest. It sounds like a great story. Two culture came together. They shared the riches of the land. However, the real history was not so simple.

Finding Common Ground

Image 2. Massasoit creates treaty with pilgrims, 1621. Massasoit Sachem or Ousamequin was born in 1581 and died in 1661. He was the leader of the Wampanoag Confederacy. Massasoit helped the Pilgrims from starvation when they started their colony. Photo from: Science Source / British Library.

The first English settlers arrived in New England in the 1600s. About 60,000 Native Americans were already living there. At first, the two sides fought over territory. Still, colonists built successful colonies with the help of the tribes.

At first, trade connected the two peoples. The colonists needed help to thrive in the New World. The Native Americans wanted to build alliances. Within five years, Plymouth Colony did not have to depend on England.

Both sides gained from trade and bartering. The Native Americans provided skins, hides, food and knowledge. The settlers traded beads and other money substitutes.

Ideas were also exchanged. Wampum was a type of currency, or money substitute. It sometimes carried religious meaning, as well. The first Bible printed in the New World was in the Algonquin language.

Image 3. Henry Hudson trading with Native Americans on the shore, 1609. Hudson was an explorer who traveled the Hudson River. It is named after him. Photo from: Science Source / Library of Congress.

Puritan Christianity was the main religion among the colonists. Over time, some colonists began to move away from Puritanism. Their ideas about Native Americans also changed. A famous example of this is Roger Williams. He rebelled against Puritanism and began the colony of Rhode Island. Williams believed that the colonists had to pay the Native American for the land. They had no right to take it for free.

Over time, the relationship between the tribes and the colonists fell apart. The colonists carried diseases with them from England. The Native Americans had no natural defenses to them. Many died.

Some Colonial leaders said the diseases were an act of God. It showed that God supported their right to the land. They converted the Indigenous people to Christianity and move them to reservations called "praying towns."

The First Indian War

The First Indian War began in 1675. The government of the Plymouth Colony killed three members of the Wampanoag tribe. The Wampanoag leader, Philip, also known as Metacom, fought back. An army of Wampanoags and other tribes attacked settlements. Other tribes fought on the side of the colonists.

The war lasted 14 months, ending in late 1676. Thousands of Native Americans died in war or from illness. Many others were taken as slaves. More than 600 colonists died. Dozens of settlements were destroyed.

The history of the colonies is like the history of America itself. It has two sides. On one side, Indigenous and immigrant cultures came together. They helped create the modern United States. On the other side, they clashed. In these clashes, many places and lives were destroyed.