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Question by Leilani Briggs: What was the early relationship like between Europe and the variuos North American Indian Tribes?
In general there seemed to be relatively sophisticated political and economic relationships that allowed many eastern Tribes to keep European settlers bottled up along the Eastern seaboard for many years. How was this early relationship between Europe and the various North American Indian Tribes like? That is, how and why did the relationships evolve as they did. Additionally, how did these relationships affect the relationships between various Indian Tribes?

Best answer:

Answer by Augustus Brooks
The French weren’t much interested in the land per se, they were more interested in pelts and fish. With that in mind, they did not clear land. Instead, they built their forts and trading posts along the waterways. When it came to evangelism, the French did not insist the Native Indians learn to red so that they could read for themselves the “Word of God.” Nor did they insist that the Native Indians give up their own belief systems and adopt Christianity in order that their souls could be saved.

The English colonists were under the false assumption that they were building an empire upon the land. As such, they viewed land uncleared and uncultivated as land gone to waste, even if it was prime hunting ground for the Native Indians. Unlike the French, they also insisted that the Native Indians learn to read English (and Latin), forsake their own belief systems and adopt instead the Christian beliefs.

England did not have a policy on emigration and so the colonies along the eastern sea board became over crowded and with that, a westward push which ultimately displaced Native Indians. Those that resisted were simply massacred.

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