Native Americans in the United States and European Colonists Essay

Early encounters between American Indians and European colonists led to a variety of relationships among the different cultures. Analyze how the actions taken by BOTH American Indians and European colonists shaped those relationships in TWO of the following regions. Confine your answer to the 1600’s. Early relationships between American Indians and European colonists differed among the dissimilar cultures. The encounters between the American Indians and the New England Colonists ended in betrayal and bitterness while the relationships between the Indians and the Spanish Southwest was violent and hateful. In New England during November of 1620, the first European colonists arrived to establish Plymouth Colony. During the harsh winter, half of the colonists had perished. When the surviving colonists arrived, a couple of Indians came to help them. The Indians taught the colonists how to grow and fertilize corn crops. Soon, the Europeans became successful farmers and began trading with Indians for fur. As the Europeans became more self-sufficient, they turned their firearms at the Wampanoag Indians and forced them to declare English Sovereignty. For generations, the aggression toward the Wampanoag Indians from Europeans continued. After years of hostility toward the Indians, the governor or Plymouth received information that the Wampanoag chief, Metacom was planning a war against the English. The Indian who provided the information to the English was named Sassamon and was known as a â€Å"faithful Indian† to the English. He was murdered by the Indians for betraying them. Soon after in 1675, the English hung three Wampanoag Indians thus beginning King Philip’s war. This war resulted in stopping the Indian’s resistance to colonial expansion and wiped out approximately forty percent of the Native American population in New England.