History of Southern New England The first peoples of Southern New En

The first peoples of Southern New England was essentially unified by a single cultural group. The lives of these American Indians would be radically altered during the 17th century as their culture came into conflict with that of the Europeans. This paper examines that original culture of the area, then looks at what made this region attractive to the Europeans who displaced the natives and then explores how the final outcome of European incursions into this area was the result of the traditional native settlement patterns and the ways in which these interacted with the specific goals of the Europeans. While the displacement (and often murder) of Native Americans by European and later white Americans tends to be treated as if it were all a single phenomenon, in fact the displacement of natives by whites varied from place to place and across time depending on the specific cultures that came together with the desire to occupy the same land.

Indigenous Culture of Southern New England

At the time of earliest European contact with Indians in the 16th and 17th century, Southern New England was a distinct cultural zone set off from its neighbors. Tribes to the north of this region were substantially less invested in horticultural practices (and so less inclined toward an entire range of cultural and political practices associated with horticulture). Moreover, the entire cultural group was marked by speaking one of five Eastern Algonquian languages, and so were dist

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here are examples of 17th century palisaded villages. These may not be truly native structures, resulting instead from the need of the natives to protect themselves against the Europeans. Or they may have been native responses to the economic pressures these groups were feeling to full sedentism (Trigger, 1978, p. 166). The Indians of this area engaged in trade in beads (that trade that is generally called wampam) before contact, although the rate of trade was probably increased afterward (Trigger, 1978, p. 166). Finally, the social system of the natives was structured mostly through the villages, each of which was headed by a chief or sachem, who was likely to be a man but could be a woman. Although early European observers characterized the sachems as monarchical leaders (seeing in the New World what they themselves had left behind in the old), the sachems apparently had little power to coerce others into action but relied instead primarily on powers of persuasion, personal generosity and personal charisma. Multivillage alliances did exist, but were perhaps more ad hoc and temporary than enduring (Trigger, 1978, p. 167). This was the state of native culture and use of resources at the time of contact, although no doubt much o

Category: History - H