Immigrant versus Native Americans

Paper Summary:

In this article, the writer discusses that the colonial Americans were clearly a population in conflict with a multitude of conflicting populations as well as objects. The writer notes that the colonists were in conflict with the land, which they did not yet understand, as well as the native peoples of the land, which they had chosen to become at least their temporary home, in the name of European progress and wealth. The writer points out that the conflicts, of which there were many, with native Americans were frequently difficult and bloody and in fact marked one of the greatest obstacles associated with European dominance of the new found colonies. The neighbors having been provoked by bad behavior in the past, would likely see and treat the new colonists with the same regard, tentatively trading with them to gain goods they had become dependent upon but at the same time never letting down their guard to the potential for treachery. The writer concludes that the native populations and the colonists then were in a continual dance of shaking hands at full arms length, in need of each other but unwilling to come any closer.

From the Paper:

"The colonists therefore resolved the conflict between themselves and natives, by placing the responsibility for collective communication upon the natives, and assuming all others, those who did not come to them first were in need of cajoling, either by means of warfare or dominance by dependence.
"Though in retrospect, some observers of the colonial experience, such as Raynol, recognized the error of assuming superiority over natives and removing them from the land with brute force and physical dominance was unethical at the very least, there is also a clear sense that this is retrospective and Raynol, did not have to live there. The pillage and plunder mentality and action, did not always succeed, though and there were clearly some who learned from the failings of others, in the conflict with the native populations."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Howard, S. K. (2005). Seeing Colonial America and Writing Home about It: Charlotte Lennox's Euphemia, Epistolarity, and the Feminine Picturesque. Studies in the Novel, 37(3), 273.
• McQuade, D. Atwan, R. Banta, M. Kaplan, J. Minter, D. Stepto, R. (1998) Harper American Literature, Single Volume Edition (3rd Edition) New York: Longman.
• Oberg, M. L. (1999). Dominion and Civility: English Imperialism and Native America, 1585-1685. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.
• Sayre, G. M. (1997). Les Sauvages Americains: Representations of Native Americans in French and English Colonial Literature. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press.

More papers on Immigrant versus Native Americans:

• Research Paper # 93904 : "Native Americans and the Colonists"
• Essay # 32072 : "Who Are The Native Americans?"
• Essay # 85275 : "Native Americans in Slavery"

APA Citation:

MLA Citation: