Europeans and Native American Societies

The Native Americans lived a different lifestyle from what the Europeans were used to, and it was very different. Native Americans were considered to be a viciously barbaric people by the Europeans, who were primarily Spanish and English. For instance, the Europeans promoted property ownership and held a monotheistic belief. Native Americans opposed European policy that proposed a system in which people could own land because they were polytheists and thought that land belonged to everyone and should be shared by all people. The Europeans were not accustomed to the way of life of the Native American, and because of this they viewed them as barbaric and savages (Miller & Smith, pp 678). The Native Americans accepted nature the way it was and did not try to change it; this was entirely different when compared to the Europeans who were bit modernized. They directed their energy towards controlling nature and building new structures that were meant to control nature.

When the Europeans entered America, they came as messengers who were preaching the word of God and wanted to convert the native Americans from worshiping the gods that they were worshiping. The natives worshiped wooden sculptures and painted images. The native Americans were polytheists as they worshiped sun gods, spirits of nature, corn gods, bear gods, birds, wolves and even bears. Because of their religion, the Europeans referred to them as barbaric; the Europeans spread Christianity. Many Native Americans were converted to Christianity by the Spanish missionaries. However, those Native Americans who refused to be converted to Christianity were captured, killed or imprisoned (Wurm, pp. 1048). During the late 19th century all native Americans who had not converted to Christianity were forced to live in reserves, this was because of their religion.

The native Americans had a traditional form of government; they had a common form of government. They had no central ruler like the Europeans, members of the society were devoted to each other and took care of each other. However, the native Americans had chiefs who oversaw the running of various chiefdoms and ensured that there were good relations amongst the people who lived in their chiefdoms. On the other side, the Europeans had a modern form of government, most of the Europeans were under the rule of the crown of England (Stannard, 1993). The Europeans wanted to introduce such a system in America. The members of the tribes of Native Americans did not own land, the land was shared and everyone could use land as he/she wanted, they cleared and burned down forests when moving to new areas this practice was necessary to allow regrowth of the areas where they had lived. They depended on hunting for food, and whenever a hunting reserve became depleted, they limited hunting on the reserve and moved to another reserve. The way of life and worship of the native Americans made land valuable and spiritually connected to humans, because of this they practiced methods of preserving land (Britannica).

The Europeans, on the other hand, implemented a policy of land ownership, the land was stripped and the parcels given to individuals. No one was allowed to use the land that had not been allocated to them. The Europeans believed that owning land was their unending right and they did not put any efforts towards the conservation of land. They cleared land by cutting down trees, and they also killed all animals without minding regrowth.

The native Americans and the Europeans were different in the way that they treated their women and men. The Native Americans respected their women and gave them important positions in the society (Barker & Deanna). Women controlled some of the factions within the tribe, and their contributions were taken into consideration before decisions were made. Women were also involved in making some of the economic decisions in the tribe. On the other hand, the Europeans did not treat their women as the native Americans.

The European women were left at home, and they were not consulted in the decision-making decisions. The women were subjected to childbirth and house chores only; the Europeans were against the way the native Americans had powers, they tried to have this changed and forced them into submission (Takaki, 2008). There was a cultural difference between the native Americans and the Europeans, because of this differences the two groups clashed often. There was the loss of lives and destruction of property during these confrontations. The clashes led to many deaths of the Native Americans, and many of them got assimilated into the culture of the Europeans, and they migrated to the west where there were reserves. Many native Americans lost their lives through the warfare that the Europeans put up. Because of the many lives that were lost this is referred to the American Holocaust. The cultural differences between the two groups led to the clashes that are known as the American Holocaust.

Works Cited:

“Encyclopædia Britannica’s Guide to Black History.” Britannica.com. Retrieved 11. June 2017. Web.

Barker, Deanna. “Indentured Servitude in Colonial America.” National Association for Interpretation, Cultural Interpretation and Living History Section. Retrieved 11. June 2017. Web.

Miller and Smith, eds. Dictionary of American Slavery (1988)

S. A. Wurm; Peter Mühlhäusler; Darrell T. Tyron (1996). Atlas of Languages of Intercultural Communication in the Pacific, Asia, and the Americas. Walter de Gruyter

Stannard, D. (1993). American Holocaust (1st ed.). New York: Oxford University Press.

Takaki, R. (2008). A different mirror (1st ed.). New York: Back Bay Books/Little, Brown, and Co.