The Decline of
the Relationship between Europeans and Native Americans.
(The beginnings of bad blood)
(The beginnings of bad blood)
During the time of the North American Frontier society,
there were many different societies coexisting in order to maximize profit. At
first, it was namely the French and British trade empires that negotiated and
exchanged goods with the local natives of the Ohio River Valley. The initial
relations between the Europeans and the Native Americans were positive and
beneficial to the two groups. The Native Americans would hunt and scavenge for
the highest bidder and then the Europeans would provide jewelry, munition, and
other goods that were indigenous to Europe and created a friendlier environment
between the different cultures at this point in time. Although the relationship
between the French and the Indians were close, the relationship between the British
and the natives took its toll. The Natives’ cultures drastically changed as a
result of these relations. Although the relationships with the trade empires
were beneficial to the natives and allowed the different society’s to coexist,
the emergence of the settlement empire and the rise of the American society led
to a collapse in the favorable affiliation between the Native Americans and
Europeans.
At the beginning of the colonization of America, both the
French and British Empires dominated the East Coast. Both empires were more
interested in profit and trade rather than settlement—the diplomacy between the
European nations and the Indians began in an attempt to exploit the New World
to yield positive return for the countries from which they came. The French had
a slightly better relationship with the Natives because they would marry into
native families in order to create a bond with them. Despite this, the Natives
favored the British when it came to trading goods because they believed that
the British had higher quality of goods than that of the French (Wood 223). Regardless,
both the French and the British realized how imperative it was to maintain a
healthy relationship with the Ohio River Indians because both relied on these
Indians when it came to trade, American merchandise, and protection. The British
and the French were also bitter rivals, and so they both wanted whatever
advantage they could get on the other. Both the French and British set up forts
in various areas in order to create a cooperative atmosphere, thus decreasing
the risk of Indian raids and increasing trade as a whole. It is
because the main objective of the empires was profit that made it realtively
easy to cultivate and maintain mutually beneficial relationships between the
Europeans and the Indians; however, as soon as the interest shifted from trade
to settlement, all of that changed.
During the time of the empires of trade, The Ohio River
Indians were exposed to many Europeans and as a result, the native’s culture
began to change. Before they came into contact with the different groups of
Europeans, the Indians were in tune with nature. They did not kill animals
just for the sake of killing; instead hunting was a very spiritual practice
where the hunter paid his respects to the animal he killed and asked for it to
sustain him and his family. After making contact with the Europeans, many
Indians lost sight of this deep spiritual connection to the Earth and instead
killed many animals for their pelts for profit, perverting a once holy ritual
(Wood 120). Contact with the Europeans did not only change the hunting practices of these
Native Americans. Missionaries would travel from tribe to tribe to spread the
Good Word and teach the Indians about Christ in order to convert them. Most
tribes did not fully convert, but adapted and merged some Christian ideals to
their previous ones. The only tribe that completely converted
was that of the Kaskaskia tribe who respected and loved the chief’s daughter
who was a convert and was likened to the blessed Virgin herself. As a result of
their exposure to the Europeans—at the time of the trade empires—their culture
changed and adapted to become more European-esque and as a result, created a near total dependence on the Europeans to maintain wealth and for some spiritual
guidance.
The close relationship with the Europeans drastically
changed as time went on. This was a result of the emergence of the settlement
empire that the Americans had quickly adopted into. This was a result of the
change from being an empire run by the monarchy to an empire that was ruled by
the people, which would be known as the empire of liberty. Unlike the empire of
trade whose main objective was a quick profit, the empire of settlement relied
on land and taking it for people to build communities to permanently stay. The settlers had no regard for the Natives
and sent land speculators out to appraise and divide the land up for the
English/Americans. Many settlers no longer had a desire to trade with the
Indians, creating tension between the two groups because the Natives had come
to depend on the trade lifestyle. Conflict arose and the once relatively
positive affiliation between the two groups declined dramatically. Many
settlements took land before asking permission first. As a result, politicians
would “negotiate” after the fact. However, the talks over land were not fair
towards the Indians and usually resulted in outrage. One example of this
occurring was the Fort Stanwix Treaty. Sir William Johnson preferred meeting
with the Iroquois Indians and drafted up a treaty claiming the majority of the
land within the Ohio River Valley. The Iroquois accepted this because it did
not affect them, their tribes did not occupy too much of the land that was
being negotiated and were grateful for the pay-off . This of
course enraged the other tribes like the Miami Confederacy, who actually did
reside within the discussed area and created a rift between the two peoples.
It was at this time when America was beginning to become
its own country that the rise of Indian-Hating began to ensue. The Indians were
enraged that time and time again the settlers would take their land and break
their treaties with the Natives, resulting in the Indians disregarding their
peace chiefs and instead declared war on the settlers. They crushed the
settlers in Eastern KY, at St. Claire’s defeat, which resulted in the deaths of
many settlers. This hurt the pride of many Kentuckians which made them hate the
Indians more than ever (Faragher loc 3554). Many different bands of Indians
would raid the settlers and their settlements to try and take back what they
thought was theirs. It is because of this that many settlers harbored a hatred
for all of the Indians, not understanding that there were different tribes—some
more violent than others—and would blindly kill whatever Indian they could find
to avenge the death of their comrades and the destruction of their homes. An
example of this misplaced anger would be the murder of the peace chief
Cornstalk. Cornstalk was of the Shawnee and wanted to wait and see what the
settlers were up to despite the fact that the war chief Blackfish believed that
the only way to preserve their land would be through inevitable conflict. The
Shawnee were divided and as a result did not attack the Kentuckians. However, a
couple of settlers who had loved ones killed by Indians targeted came across
Cornstalk one day and killed him thinking that he was one of the Indians responsible.
This of course pushed the Shawnee to declare war on the settlers and sent 400
warriors to fight 27 settlers (Faragher loc. 3566). This resulted in what
seemed like a never changing cycle of war between the two groups.
It was during the time where the Europeans were looking solely for
profit that there was a friendly relationship with the Native Americans. Both
British and French relied upon the Indians to provide them with goods that
resulted from hunting in the wild. The empire of trade allowed for this
cohabitation to exist because both Natives and Europeans needed each other for
profit. This only changed when the Europeans began to settle in the territories
dominated by the Natives and the empire of settlement ruled by the empire of
liberty came into being. The Americans could not peacefully coexist with the
Indians because the settlers needed land to live on and that land was the
controlled by the Indians which resulted in inevitable conflict and war.
Works Cited
Faragher, John. Daniel Boone: The Life and Legend of an American Pioneer. Kindle Edition
Wikipedia
Wood, Gordon. The Idea of America: Reflections of the United States. Kindle edition
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