How Did European Settlers Influence The American Indians

The quote is an explanation of the activities that European settlers carried out on arriving in New England, a region that was occupied by Indians. The region was covered with forests and had numerous wild animals. The Indians lives did not transform the land as they seemed to have a peaceful co-existence with nature, in that although they practiced farming and hunted the wild animals, they ensured that there was a balance, a situation that helped enhance the progress of the forests and the existence of wild animals. In essence, on arrival in the region, European settlers were shocked, because they were not used to regions with so much untamed land, and had not practice hunting because that was a sport only enjoyed by the large land owners …show more content…
For the European settlers, land was a property that needed to be owned, protected and utilized adequately. For the Indians land was the factor that allowed them to co-exist peacefully with the environment, because it offered them food as they practiced farming, done by women and gave them the forests in which the animals inhabited, and thereby allowed the Indian males to hunt. Unfortunately, as Cronon (1983, p33) asserts, the European settlers were astounded by the high poverty level that struck Indians yet they lived in a region of plenty and abundance. The assumption made by European settlers was that the Indians did not have the know-how regarding land utilization nor the numerous resources that the region they lived in had to offer, a situation that contributed to their high levels of …show more content…
Further, technology advancement made hunting easier for the European settlers, meaning that they did not require the supplies from the Indians. By the end of the 17th century, deer populations had diminished greatly yet they were the prime source of food for the Indians, they would not practice farming with the limited land they owned; in addition, fur trade declined a situation that pushed the Indians to the edge (Cronon, 1983 p112). In other words, Indians would not practice farming because of the hugs that were introduced by the European settlers, and which eventually became wild and destroyed farms that belonged to the Indians as they were not protected with fences. Land was the only item that the Indians owned although small portions of most of the land they previously occupied were given to the European settlers by the crown. They had no choice rather than surrender that commodity to the European settlers in an attempt to secure their survival in New