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Shahrukh Raza
Ms. Mir
Relations with the Native Americans
9/29/14
The Relationship between the Colonizers and Indians
Every single one of the colonizers that came to America had some kind of challenge
with the Native Americans that were already living there. They had some similar
problems but mostly different problems, which resulted from how they treated the
Natives. For example, the French treated them extremely nicely so that they could
become trade partners. This allowed them to get fur without forcefully taking it from
them. In contrast, the English treated them very badly and considered the Natives to be
higher than them in status. Thus they were unable to trade with them; rather there were
many battles between them because the English wanted to take the Native Indians land.
If compared to the English and the French, the Spanish had some revolts from the Indians
obviously due to their vicious behavior when they first came to the Americas. But
eventually they were accepting in a way even the English were not; they allowed intermarriage as long as the Indian converted (Doc 6). As we see, all of the colonists had
many challenges facing the Native Americans and the methods they used to handle them
reflected how many casualties they faced.

The French handled the American Indians in a very peaceful manner. They made deals
to trade goods that the American Indians were skilled in getting. It was not only limited to
trading, but they also did nothing but dance, sing, and make merry (Doc. 1) for a few
days. Both, the French and Indians were tremendously satisfied by each others
enthusiasm and fervor. The French had also increased the bonds through marriage and

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language. As we see in later years, this companionship has helped the French in later
wars such as the French and Indian War and stopped a lot of the useless violence that the
English had to face due to their hostile reactions. But there were some occurrences where
the French thought that their hometown was greater and so the Chieftain of the Micmac
tribe told them quite frankly that you might think that your hometown is a terrestrial
paradise but we are perfectly content and happy with what we have. But still compared
to the other colonizers, the French treated the Indians very courteously and so they were
able to get many benefits out of the Natives.

The Spanish relationship was quite a rocky one because they had been very cruel to the
Indians. But after the Pueblo Revolt they were more accommodating to the culture of the
Indians. There had even been marriages between some Spaniards and Indians to help fix
the relationship a bit. This kind of thing was vastly different from what was in the thirteen
colonies, which was that the Indians should just be taken out because they needed more
land. This act of allowing inter-marriage can be compared more to the French where the
people had a very good bond with each other. But the Spanish also had many similarities
with the English also, seeing as how both of them were extremely vicious with the Native
Americans. The Spaniards were people that sought to have complete control over all the
Native Americans that resided in the Mexico area and this was one of the views that
differed from the other colonizers.

The English colonizers had to face many challenges from the Native Americans
because the English wished to have more land and the only people that they could have

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taken it from were the Indians. Consequently they had relatively hostile relations with the
Indians. There were many instances where we see the Englishs brutality such as the
Pequot War in which they set the houses on fire and utterly destroyed them. They had
only one purpose for doing all these crazy actions: get more land so they could make their
economy (which was mainly comprised of agriculture) better. They also had that ideology
that they were better and greater beings than them so that also pushed them to take the
Indians out. The English considered them to be barbarous people that only knew how to
hunt and had no religion and were more interested in war. Something else that must have
enraged them was the fact that they declined being learnt things in the colleges. As they
gave an example, after some youth came back from the College they were completely
unable to do any of the normal things a Native American does in their daily lives. In
comparison with the Spanish they may seem a bit tame but when compared with the
French they may seem quite harsh. They were in the middle of both of the other
colonizers in terms of their relations with the Native Americans; not as brutal as the
Spanish but far from the friendliness that French showed. The English did not have the
worst relationships with the Natives but it was also not the best one.

The colonizers all had a different relationship with the Native Americans and they all
had different views for them. The French had very nice relations with them and so that
allowed them to trade many things and make new allies at the expense of not gaining
more territory. The Spanish treated them violently when they first came and were
eventually driven out for a few years when the Pueblo Revolt occurred. But when they
came back they were as ferocious as ever. And for the English they also had their fair

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share of attacks from the Indians because of all the times that they raided the Indians
homes. But in the end all the colonists overcame the challenges, whether similar or
different that they faced using different kinds of techniques.