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The Cultural Differences Of Native Americans

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Many different Native American groups lived on the East Coast of what would become United States. They spoke many different languages. Some were farmers, some were hunters. Some fought many wars, others were peaceful. These groups are called tribes. Their names are known to most Americans...the Senecas, the Mohawks, the Seminole, the Cherokee to name only a few. These tribes had developed their own cultures many years before the first European settlers arrived. Each had a kind of religion, a strong spiritual belief. On page 10-11 Foner mentions how the Europeans expressed the natives as “noble savages”, gentle, friendly and superior to Europeans, but then over time they described them as barbaric because they did not live under an established …show more content…
Both groups found this to be a successful relationship. Several times different groups of fishermen tried to establish a permanent settlement on the coast, but the severe winters made it impossible. These fishing camps were only temporary. The first permanent settlers in New England began arriving in 1620. They wanted to live in peace with the Indians. They needed to trade with them for food. The settlers also knew that a battle would result in their own, quick defeat because they were so few in number. The problems began immediately. Possibly the most serious was the different way the American Indians and the Europeans thought about land. This difference created problems that would not be solved during the next several hundred years. Land was tremendously important to the European settlers. In England, and most other countries, land meant prosperities. Owning large quantities of land meant a person had great riches and political power. Many of the settlers in this new country could never have owned land in Europe. They were too poor. And they belonged to minority religious groups. When they arrived in the new country, they discovered no one seemed to own the huge amounts of

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