Religion and Theology

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(February 14, 2012)
The Nature of Early Relations between the Native Americans and the Euro-Americans
Introduction
The landing of Christopher Columbus in North America around 1492 initiated interactions between two very ancient civilizations. He symbolized Europe which was slowly moving from the middle ages. Queens and kings consolidated both land bases and power. In America, Christopher Columbus and other European explorers who followed found the Native Americans in rivalry with the European civilizations. The exact date in which the first contact between the Native Americans and the Euro-Americans took place still remains anonymous. Although there is no adequate evidence, some people hold a belief that Celtic people from Europe might have reached North America within the period that the Monks from Irish explored the east coast of North America approximately 400 A.D. On the contrary, Scandinavia’s Norse-or Vikings arrived in North America prior to Columbus. Others might have reached as early as 985 A.D.
Additionally, the explorer from Viking Leif Erikson gave a description of “Vinland” around 1003. Vinland forms the present Massachusetts. The Norse closely associated and regularly skirmished alongside Native Americans. They referred to the Native Americans as SKraelings. This meant “shriekers or “shouters”. They also founded a short spanned Newfoundland colony at L’Anse aux Meadows. The Norse tried several times to explore and settle North America for the coming years. On the contrary, when the colony of Scandinavia in Greenland was left within early 1400s, the explorations in Vinland stopped. Thus, all the knowledge was left to Europeans (Kline, 2011).
The next group of Europeans to reach was most probably the fishermen from Bristol and Basque. This was because the north Atlantic water’s contained a lot of fishes. The few fishing canoes left records for their activities. On the other hand, the English fishermen made some contacts with the Native Americans around 1440s prior to the first voyage of Christopher Columbus.
A lot of Europeans from other different European countries also arrived around 15oos. They halted to carry out trade with the Native Americans. The Native Americans received goods from Europe in exchange for furs. The trade brought high prices in Europe. Around 1608, Samuel de Chaplain formed the New France Colony including the Quebec City in Canada. He continued his exploration of the Great Lakes region and ensured profitable business associations with the speaking tribes of Algonkian and Huron along the eastern border of Lake Huron. Afterwards, Henry Hudson, an English sea captain who was at that time working for the Dutch formed the new colony of Netherland in 1614 at what is called New York City today.
The word Indian referring to the Native Americans was an imposed concept by the Europeans. There never existed a single Indian monolithic culture. Additionally, the diverse Native Americans never thought themselves as a people who were single. They were sharply aware of their differences in terms of customs, cultures, and beliefs. On the other hand, the European colonialists never understood or appreciated the enormous diversity of the Native Americans. They made an assumption the Indian people constituted a single unit which was not differentiated. However, this was not the case. The Europeans classified all the Native Americans as “Indian”. They gave the description of their color as red. On the basis of their religion, they took the Indians as being pagans. They also thought the Indians had an incomprehensible language. They thought the politics of the Indians lacked any organization and that their agricultural practices including land use were primitive. To make matters worse, Montaigne, a French philosopher ignorantly proclaimed that the Indians lacked knowledge on letters, intelligence of numbers including other diverse areas.
The Europeans became shocked by the differences between the cultures mostly in child upbringing practices and gender roles. They constantly made comments on the important economic roles played by the Native American women as builders of houses, farmers and sachems. The Euro-Americans also made a discovery that the Native Americans never punished their children physically. The young Indians were given encouragement to behave and act properly through public rewards and praise for their various achievements. These kids were rarely spanked. This was because the Indian parents had a belief that corporal punishment made their kids dependent and timid. Hence, parents praised their kids after they performed well and ashamed them publicly after they misbehaved.
The Native Americans gave a screen on which the Euro-Americans made a projection of the old fears of the world and fantasies. A lot of Euro-Americans took Indians as “natural men’. They believed the Indians were devoid of restraints of civilization. On the basis of the above stereotype, the Native Americans carried freedom and innocence. They lacked law, private property, and sexual restraints. The Euro-Americans described them as the nobility of nature. The Native Americans were found to be loving, faithful and gentle. They were devoid of treasure and guile.
The other stereotype was the Indians were somber and ready to help the whites in civilizing them. However, this was not the case. Some Euro-Americans took the Native Americans with a lot of fascination. Others looked at them with a lot of fear and hatred. They thought that the natives had to be reformed according to the image of the whites. If this failed, they were to be removed. The perspective was never taken well in the future associations between the Euro-Americans and the Native Americans.
The relationship between the Euro-Americans and the Native Americans within the 16th and 17th centuries was founded upon the spectrum of accommodation and cooperation to a very fierce conflict. Although the population of colonists was low, the relationship was found...