Nowadays, people tend to develop a romanticized picture of life in early America, where colonists and Native Americans are in a constant struggle over control of vast areas of fertile land, large pastures, and various types of natural resources. While the history of the struggle itself continues to fascinate modern people, a vast majority of modern Americans do not realize how brutal the confrontation between Europeans and American Indians was (Foreman, 2013). That is why there is an ongoing debate on the reasons for such hostility. I strongly believe that violence, which was an important feature of early European colonialism, undoubtedly, shaped the future relationships between Native Americans and white settlers.
Many Indian American tribes rarely acted violently during their first contact with Europeans. Moreover, according to Way (2020), diplomatic relationships established between white settlers and American Indians during the French and Indian War, for example, vividly show a high degree of complexity. Nevertheless, early European colonialism gradually changed the originally normal relationships with many Native American tribes. For instance, when they first met Europeans, the Hopi, like many other representatives of the Pueblo people, sought to establish a long-lasting peaceful relationship that could be beneficial for both sides. Nevertheless, in the 16th century, Spaniards quickly began to exploit the Hopi, which eventually led to unnecessary violence and Native American riots.
Without a doubt, white settlers had to deal with a lot of Indian raids, which often featured killings and torture. Therefore, knowing the facts makes it impossible to use the popular “noble savage” image to describe some groups of American Indians. Moreover, it explains why European settlers sometimes responded with the same level of brutality. Nevertheless, the Hopi example helps us understand that the brutality of the first European colonists was the original factor behind most of the violent conflicts European settlers had to take part in while moving further to the West in the 19th century.
References
Foreman, J. (2013). The truth Johnny Depp wants to hide about the real-life Tontos: How Comanche Indians butchered babies, roasted enemies alive and would ride 1,000 miles to wipe out one family. Daily Mail. Web.
Way, P. (2020). The cutting edge of culture: British soldiers encounter Native Americans in the French and Indian war. Routledge.