Native American Resource Guide

The multiple and varied groups of Native Americans living in what would one day become the United States occupy a special place in the study of immigration history. As the original inhabitants of North America, Native Americans are not, in fact, an immigrant group. The roughly 54 million Native peoples of North America possessed markedly different cultural practices, languages, and ways of life; viewing themselves as distinct social and political entities. When the first English settlers established Plymouth colony in 1620, they did not discover an empty land. What they found instead was a declining Native population willing to tolerate and even aid the struggling European immigrants. By the time the English arrived in the Northeastern part of North America, the Native American population had already begun to decline tremendously from disease. According to Spickard, Native Americans in the area viewed Europeans with both fear and disrespect. Indians saw the Christian religion as sorcery, attributing the devastating death toll of smallpox to the power of the Christian God. Further, metal weaponry left Natives feeling vulnerable to English military attack. Despite these reservations, decreased populations caused many Native leaders to seek alliances with European immigrants. The main rationale for this strategy was for assistance in winning long standing rivalries with enemy tribes. For example, after the Pilgrims suffered through their first winter Native American individuals named and Squanto and Massasoit helped them survive in their new home. Massasoit had hopes to create an alliance with the newcomers against his enemies, the Narragansett. Early relationships between North Eastern Native peoples and the early English settlers were based on mutual benefit, not necessarily respect or understanding. As white Christians, the English felt culturally and spiritually superior to the Indians. From the beginning, the English attempted to convert Natives to English religion, dress and customs. Praying towns were established throughout Eastern Massachusetts with Natives attempting to move toward white standards of culture. This small minority of Natives began to learn English, convert to Christianity, and otherwise assimilate to the English way of life. The individuals who made up this group were called Praying Indians. In addition, institutions were created, like Harvard College, to allow Native peoples to learn English and adopt English folkways. The English viewed Natives as interchangeable, faceless, and without names or individual identities. As more English settlers migrated to Massachusetts, the white desire for land increased. According to William Cronon, English men viewed Native men as lazy because they did not develop their land by clear cutting and building fences. Instead, Native men hunted and fished while leaving the sowing, weeding and harvesting to the Native women. Further, once land was