Essay: Relationship between American colonies and Native Americans

Efforts from the American colonies to create and maintain peaceful relations with Native Americans were largely ineffective, resulting in strained relationships and situations which ultimately made conditions worse for the Native Peoples. Conventional political/leadership approaches were largely the preferred method of both tribes and Colonial Governments, while on a smaller scale, individuals belonging to several protestant and evangelical movements/ denominations attempted to push for peace through propagation and conversion of the Native Peoples into the Christian faith. A notable example of a solely political based effort to create a healthy relationship between Native Americans and Colonists was The Treaty of Lancaster, which was signed in 1748 to set up boundaries between the tribes and Colonial settlement while diffusing past hostilities between the two groups. The interaction and exchange from both parties marked a significant point in history, where both Native Americans and Colonists would attempt to normalize relations with one another, mainly through assimilation and meeting of standards/ expectations. Native Americans in the case of religious propagation would have varied responses to the extended hand of protestant ministers, meeting little to no success in normalizing relations while political approaches made in an effort to achieve/sustain peace were based on hunting land and territory holdings. Both approaches to create positive relations were met with limited success on several occasions, but ultimately failed thanks to cultural, language, and social differences between the various Native American tribes and the American Colonists. This clash and conflict of differing interests and cultural backgrounds would later evolve and continue on through the United States and neighboring/domestic Native tribes.
1
During the early 1700s, Colonial America was largely well established, as healthy trade and liberal freedoms along the American coast gave British colonists a comfortable standard of living. Such freedoms included taxes in the British colonies being lower than that of taxes being paid in Great Britain, relative religious freedom and diversity, and the luxury of being under protection of British troops.1 Fish on the coast was a staple, while furs and tobacco turned huge profits for hunters and southern colony land owners respectively.1 Through Mercantilism, Colonies profited from Great Britain and their trade at the cost of being required to only exclusively trade with Britain, though this wasn’t heavily enforced and followed until later on. By 1733, Georgia was founded and the Colonies stretched all across the east coast of the United States (excluding where Maine and Florida are today, which would come later in time).1 Birth rates were rapid at the time in comparison to Europe, as the abundance of women meant more spouses and children.2 Married women in the colonies had on average a child every two to three years making for large families.2 Life was not 100% perfect however as the Colonies expanded and their borders conflicted with the territories and stomping grounds of the surrounding Native American tribes. A significant example of this problem was in Pennsylvania, where British Colonists grew weary of random attacks, armed conflict, and territorial disputes, pushing forth for peace through an agreement with the Iroquois Confederacy in 1744. As such, interpreters and officials from Pennsylvania met with the Confederacy to sign the Treaty of Lancaster.3
1. Loretta Hall. Gale Encyclopedia of Multicultural America. Edited by Jeffery Lehman. 2nd ed. Gale Group, 2000.
2. David Emroy Shi. America The Essential Learning Edition. Edited by Jon Durbin. 2nd ed. Vol. 1. New York, NY: W.W.Norton & Company, 2018. 84-84
3. Benjamin Franklin. A Treaty Held by Commissioners, Members of the Council of the Province of Pennsylvania, at the Town of Lancaster: With Some Chiefs of the Six Nations at Ohio, and Others, for the Admission of the Twightwee Nation into the Alliance of His Majesty, &c. in the Month of July, 1748 Treaties, Etc. 1748. Philadelphia, PA: Benjamin Franklin, 1748.
2
The Treaty of Lancaster was a pivotal point in Colonial/American-Native American relations, as warm cultural exchanges and peace talks helped to create a situation in which the Native Americans could dissolve the hostilities with the Colonists without having to assimilate. The Native Ohio tribes extended their hands in friendship, apologizing for previous episodes and incidents in which tribe members conducted acts of violence against American Colonists.4 Prior interactions were largely negative, thanks to the rivalry and violence between the Iroquois, their rival tribes, and European settlers over land and hunting grounds, as “around 1640, they began waging total war to wipe out their competition”.5 Violence was largely directed towards rival tribes, however any Europeans/Colonists unfortunate enough to trespass or overlap their own territory, French or English were subject to conflict with the Iroquois. Despite the Treaty being enacted, Pennsylvania Colonists were also largely mixed within their opinions regarding the neighboring tribes, many Frontiersmen considering “all Indians (as) treacherous”, also believing that “easterners, especially quakers, had long protected them”6. The stance of Pennsylvanian leaders towards the Native peoples was not a popular one, despite the peace which came with having and understanding with the surrounding tribes. Prior religious efforts with tribes further east were not a failure, but were not necessarily large successes either. The fruits bore from the efforts of Pennsylvania leaders to diffuse the conflict while not bountiful, but were still sweet in the fact that relative stability could be held in the region, even if the people did not agree with their leadership’s wish for peace.
4. Benjamin Franklin. A Treaty Held by Commissioners, Members of the Council of the Province of Pennsylvania, at the Town of Lancaster: With Some Chiefs of the Six Nations at Ohio, and Others, for the Admission of the Twightwee Nation into the Alliance of His Majesty, &c. in the Month of July, 1748 Treaties, Etc. 1748. Philadelphia, PA: Benjamin Franklin, 1748.
5. Zimmerman, Robert. “Escape from the Iroquois.” American History, US History Collection, Apr. 2001, p. 1
6. Vaughan, Alden T. “Philadelphia under siege.” American History, Feb. 1999, p. 26+
3
In an effort to promote peace and collaborate with the American Colonists, some Native American tribes voluntarily partook in cultural exchanges, adding to, modifying, or out right rejecting their own traditional practices and beliefs in order to work and make peace with the Colonists. Many Native Americans were legitimate converts, accepting the gospel preached by protestant evangelicals in search of salvation, but many would instead integrate Christian doctrines and or practices into their own culture, be it out of personal spiritual choice, or to simply make peace with the Colonists and/or Europeans. The Nanicoke-Lenape tribes were of many tribes to be exposed to Christianity, however many of them integrated the faith into their own existing beliefs, rather than convert over. To the Nanicoke-Lenape people, “Superstitious practices, rituals, and requirements (were) viewed as necessary for salvation and within the capacity of the believer to provide satisfactory, or supplementary, atonement.”7 These beliefs would continue on in tradition within the tribes for generations, and “Christian practices and beliefs that were adopted, even by second and third generation Indian Christians, were done so alongside other, more traditional elements of Native culture and religion.”8 However the faith itself would never play a role within diplomacy between the Native peoples and the Colonists, considering the negative sentiment Colonists had against Native Americans, even if they did adopt the Christian faith. Converts would face heavy racial and cultural discrimination, as “no matter how well they conformed to what missionaries considered “civilized,” were destined never to be viewed as quite white.”9 Religious missions and conversions were ultimately almost meaningless to relations, as many tribes did not embrace Christianity in the way ministers envisioned, while full converts would not receive the same respect as a white believer.
7.Norwood, John R. and Buys PJ (Flip).”Contextualized Worship Amongst the Nanicoke-Lenape American Indians.” In Die Skriflig 51, no. 1, 2017
8.Fisher, Linford D. “Native Americans, Conversion, and Christian Practice in Colonial New England,” 1640–1730.” Harvard Theological Review 102, no. 1
9. McNally, Michael D. “The Practice of Native American Christianity.” Church History 69, no. 4
4
Exchanges such as those made in Pennsylvania through the “Treaty of Lancaster” were corner stones of later encounters/exchanges between Colonists and Native Americans. American Colonists would adopt and modify some of the native tribal government theories and systems, many of which would be found in democracy in the United States. The Iroquois Confederacy were a multitude of nations, all serving under one banner/tribe. The Iroquois were “grounded in a concept of natural rights, consensus oriented decision making, consent not coercion, a sophisticated system of checks and balances, public debate, discussion and deliberation, and the protection of individual rights and liberties”10 Native tribes of the area consisted of the Confederacy, while neighboring peoples would also be assimilated and accepted with the federation. Throughout the North East, “tens of thousands of Iroquois along with refugees from dozens of other nations. Pequots, Nanticokes, French, English, Africans, Conestogas, Lenni Lenape, Hurons, Abenakis, Tutelos and many others built their communities within Haudenosaunee territory or immigrated to the Confederacy as families and individuals.”11 The Confederacy was largely respected, and the government model which the upheld was smiled upon by the Colonists12, however this positive light unfortunately did not normalize relations between the native peoples, and the colonists.
10. Genovese, Michael A. “Unearthing the buried foundations of the American presidency: what the native Americans taught the framers about political leadership, and what they can teach us (1).” White House Studies, vol. 4, no. 4, 2004, p. 453+
11. George-Kanentiio, Doug. “The loss of ancestral homeland: Iroquois total land holdings are 88,716 acres of original 25,000,000.” Indian Life, May-June 2015, p. 1+
12. Starna, William A. “Retrospecting the Origins of the League of the Iroquois.” Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society 152, no. 3 (09, 2008): 279-321
5
Efforts were made during the 17th and 18th centuries to secure peace between Native American tribes and the American Colonists, however these efforts were largely only successful at the individual level, and if successful in bringing peace to a region, said peace would last up until more land was desired or sought out for through expansion by the Colonies. Faith largely only played an individual role for Native Americans, while some converted to the pleasure of protestant ministers, racist and intolerant sentiments held by American Colonists prevented religion from being a factor within normalizing relations between tribes and the Colonies. Native Americans adopted and/or modified the Christian faith, while the Colonists took a liking to the Iroquois Confederacy’s government model, adapting it to the democracy which we now know today in the US. Taking influence from one another, be it through faith or government, both parties were not able to maintain peaceful relations on a wide scale thanks to the cultural differences between the Colonists and Native tribes, and differing interests and understanding of one another leading to discrimination fueling anti-Native sentiments by American Colonists.