DISPLACING INDIGENOUS PEOPLE
1. Introduction: Europeans colonised Americas, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand from 18 th century,
natives pushed aside, colonies became states on independence, Asians later came, today Europeans and
Asians majority, natives few, absent from towns, many place names like Ohio, Mississippi, Seattle,
Saskatchewan, Wollongong, Parramatta are native.
2. European imperialism
Spanish and Portuguese empires in America stopped expanding after 17 th century.
France, Holland, and England expanded trade and colonies in America, Africa, and Asia.
Ireland was almost a colony of England with mostly English landowners.
18th century showed profit drove colonies but control varied.
In South Asia, East India Company seized political power, defeated rulers, conquered territories.
They kept old administration, collected land taxes, built railways, mined, set plantations.
In Africa, Europeans traded on coast except South Africa, entered interior late 19 th century.
Europeans divided Africa as colonies among themselves.
Settler means Dutch in South Africa, British in Ireland, New Zealand, Australia, Europeans in America.
English was official in colonies except Canada, where French is also official.
3. North America
North America runs from the Arctic Circle to the Tropic of Cancer and from the Pacific to the Atlantic.
West of the Rockies are the deserts of Arizona and Nevada and further west is the Sierra Nevada.
To the east lie the Great Plains and the Great Lakes and the Mississippi and Ohio valleys and the
Appalachians.
Mexico is in the south and forty per cent of Canada has forests.
Oil and gas and minerals are in many areas and this made big industries in the USA and Canada.
Wheat and corn and fruit are grown widely and fishing is major in Canada.
Mining and industry and large farming grew only in the last 200 years by immigrants from Europe and
Africa and China.
Native peoples lived there for thousands of years before Europeans knew the continent.
4. Native Peoples
First people came from Asia over the Bering land bridge over 30,000 years ago and moved south in the Ice Age and
the oldest artefact is 11,000 years old and numbers grew with stable climate.
They did little farming and made no surplus & had no kingdoms & rarely fought for land & did not believe land
could be owned.
They and formed alliances and friendships and received goods as gifts and not by buying.
They spoke Many unwritten languages and they saw time as cycles and shared origins and early history by mouth.
They were skilled makers and wove fine textiles and understood land and climate like reading text
Ex: wampum belts wove by them
Before Europeans came life was diverse and people spoke over a hundred tongues and lived by many mixes of
hunting and fishing and gathering and gardening and farming.
Soil and effort shaped how they lived and surplus fish or grain or plants or meat created strong societies in some
places and some cultures lasted millennia.
They lived in bands and river villages and on food and shelter ate fish and meat and maize
hunted bison and with horses travelled farther and killed only what they needed.
First people- farming & surplus- land & kingdom- weaver0 language, climate, time- live by on- hunt
A. The day before America by William MacLeish: America before Europeans had 100+ languages, lived by
hunting, fishing, gathering, gardening, farming, choices shaped by soil, effort, culture and social rules,
surpluses made strong societies, some lasted millennia
5. Encounters with the Europeans
In the 17th century Europeans reached the north coast after two tough months and felt relieved as natives
were friendly.
They came for fish and furs and natives helped because they hunted well.
The Spanish wanted gold but these Europeans only wanted trade.
South on the Mississippi the French saw natives meet to exchange tribe goods and region food.
Europeans gave blankets iron pots guns and alcohol and natives used pots and guns for hunting.
Natives became addicted to alcohol so Europeans controlled trade & Europeans got addicted to tobacco.
B. names given by European to countries of ‘new world’
America is named after Amerigo Vespucci from his published travels.
Canada comes from Kanata meaning village in Huron-Iroquois, heard by Jacques Cartier in 1535.
, Australia means south from Latin austral, used in 16 th century for land in Great Southern Ocean.
New Zealand was named by Tasman of Holland who first saw islands in 1642, zee means sea in Dutch.
C. From a talk by lee brown 1986
Hopis’ tablets said first brothers and sisters would come as turtles, human but turtle-like, they waited and
saw Spanish Conquistadores like turtles across the land.
They offered handshake, Spaniard gave trinket, word spread that hard times would come as humans forgot
sacredness and would suffer.
6. Mutual perceptions
Mutual perceptions is the way two groups/people view each other
Europeans called literate religious urban people civilised and saw American natives as uncivilised.
. Rousseau praised natives as pure & called them ‘noble savage’ though he never met them
Wordsworth said they lived close to nature with limited imagination & untouched by corruption
Natives gave goods as friendship gifts but Europeans treated fish and furs as profit goods.
Prices changed by supply which natives didn’t understand & were unhappy confused at European greed.
Europeans killed many beavers and natives feared the animals would take revenge.
Traders were followed by settlers fleeing religious persecution who moved inland
They cut forests with iron tools.
Natives saw hidden forest tracks but Europeans saw farms
Jefferson wanted a land of European small farms.
Natives grew only for needs did not sell and did not own land so Europeans called them uncivilised.
USA and Canada formed at the end of the 18th century and later expanded their areas.
The USA bought land from France and Russia and won land from Mexico without asking natives.
European migrants came to own land cleared fields and grew crops like rice and cotton for profit.
They killed wolves and lions and safeguarded the lands by barbed wire in 1873.
Southern plantations used African slaves since natives died & slavery stayed even after slave trade ended.
Northern states rejected slavery fought a war in 1861-65 and ended it.
African Americans got civil rights only in the 12 th century when segregation ended.
British won Canda in 1763 & faced French demands for autonomy
This issue continued long and seemed more urgent than the native question.
In 1867 Canada became a Confederation of autonomous states.
D. Thomas Jefferson passage
Thomas Jefferson, the third US President and Wordsworth’s contemporary, spoke about natives in a way
that would create outrage today.
He said this unfortunate group, whom they tried hard to civilise, had in his view proved that their
extermination was justified.
E. Washington Irving
Irving, who met real natives, said they were not like poems show and were silent near whites only because
they distrusted them and did not know their language.
He saw that among themselves natives were lively and mimicked whites, while whites wrongly felt
admired and often treated Indians as if they were almost animals.
7. Natives lose their land
Settlers forced or persuaded natives to sell land at low prices and often cheated them.
Officials ignored this, as in Georgia where Cherokees had no citizen rights despite learning English and
following American ways.
In 1832 Chief Justice Marshall said Cherokees were a separate community with sovereignty and Georgia
laws had no power.
President Andrew Jackson ignored this and sent the army to evict Cherokees to the Great American Desert.
Over 15,000 were forcibly displaced on the Trail of Tears and more than a quarter died.
I. Justification:-
Land takers said natives did not deserve land and criticised them for laziness and not dressing or speaking
like Europeans.
Prairies were cleared, bison killed, and natives pushed west, sometimes moved again for minerals.
II. Impact:-
Tribes shared land causing quarrels and were confined to reservations often unfamiliar to them.
Natives opposed but the US army crushed rebellions from 1865 to 1890 and in Canada Metis revolted from
1869 to 1885 called red river rebellion
After repeated defeats, natives lost revolts .
1. Introduction: Europeans colonised Americas, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand from 18 th century,
natives pushed aside, colonies became states on independence, Asians later came, today Europeans and
Asians majority, natives few, absent from towns, many place names like Ohio, Mississippi, Seattle,
Saskatchewan, Wollongong, Parramatta are native.
2. European imperialism
Spanish and Portuguese empires in America stopped expanding after 17 th century.
France, Holland, and England expanded trade and colonies in America, Africa, and Asia.
Ireland was almost a colony of England with mostly English landowners.
18th century showed profit drove colonies but control varied.
In South Asia, East India Company seized political power, defeated rulers, conquered territories.
They kept old administration, collected land taxes, built railways, mined, set plantations.
In Africa, Europeans traded on coast except South Africa, entered interior late 19 th century.
Europeans divided Africa as colonies among themselves.
Settler means Dutch in South Africa, British in Ireland, New Zealand, Australia, Europeans in America.
English was official in colonies except Canada, where French is also official.
3. North America
North America runs from the Arctic Circle to the Tropic of Cancer and from the Pacific to the Atlantic.
West of the Rockies are the deserts of Arizona and Nevada and further west is the Sierra Nevada.
To the east lie the Great Plains and the Great Lakes and the Mississippi and Ohio valleys and the
Appalachians.
Mexico is in the south and forty per cent of Canada has forests.
Oil and gas and minerals are in many areas and this made big industries in the USA and Canada.
Wheat and corn and fruit are grown widely and fishing is major in Canada.
Mining and industry and large farming grew only in the last 200 years by immigrants from Europe and
Africa and China.
Native peoples lived there for thousands of years before Europeans knew the continent.
4. Native Peoples
First people came from Asia over the Bering land bridge over 30,000 years ago and moved south in the Ice Age and
the oldest artefact is 11,000 years old and numbers grew with stable climate.
They did little farming and made no surplus & had no kingdoms & rarely fought for land & did not believe land
could be owned.
They and formed alliances and friendships and received goods as gifts and not by buying.
They spoke Many unwritten languages and they saw time as cycles and shared origins and early history by mouth.
They were skilled makers and wove fine textiles and understood land and climate like reading text
Ex: wampum belts wove by them
Before Europeans came life was diverse and people spoke over a hundred tongues and lived by many mixes of
hunting and fishing and gathering and gardening and farming.
Soil and effort shaped how they lived and surplus fish or grain or plants or meat created strong societies in some
places and some cultures lasted millennia.
They lived in bands and river villages and on food and shelter ate fish and meat and maize
hunted bison and with horses travelled farther and killed only what they needed.
First people- farming & surplus- land & kingdom- weaver0 language, climate, time- live by on- hunt
A. The day before America by William MacLeish: America before Europeans had 100+ languages, lived by
hunting, fishing, gathering, gardening, farming, choices shaped by soil, effort, culture and social rules,
surpluses made strong societies, some lasted millennia
5. Encounters with the Europeans
In the 17th century Europeans reached the north coast after two tough months and felt relieved as natives
were friendly.
They came for fish and furs and natives helped because they hunted well.
The Spanish wanted gold but these Europeans only wanted trade.
South on the Mississippi the French saw natives meet to exchange tribe goods and region food.
Europeans gave blankets iron pots guns and alcohol and natives used pots and guns for hunting.
Natives became addicted to alcohol so Europeans controlled trade & Europeans got addicted to tobacco.
B. names given by European to countries of ‘new world’
America is named after Amerigo Vespucci from his published travels.
Canada comes from Kanata meaning village in Huron-Iroquois, heard by Jacques Cartier in 1535.
, Australia means south from Latin austral, used in 16 th century for land in Great Southern Ocean.
New Zealand was named by Tasman of Holland who first saw islands in 1642, zee means sea in Dutch.
C. From a talk by lee brown 1986
Hopis’ tablets said first brothers and sisters would come as turtles, human but turtle-like, they waited and
saw Spanish Conquistadores like turtles across the land.
They offered handshake, Spaniard gave trinket, word spread that hard times would come as humans forgot
sacredness and would suffer.
6. Mutual perceptions
Mutual perceptions is the way two groups/people view each other
Europeans called literate religious urban people civilised and saw American natives as uncivilised.
. Rousseau praised natives as pure & called them ‘noble savage’ though he never met them
Wordsworth said they lived close to nature with limited imagination & untouched by corruption
Natives gave goods as friendship gifts but Europeans treated fish and furs as profit goods.
Prices changed by supply which natives didn’t understand & were unhappy confused at European greed.
Europeans killed many beavers and natives feared the animals would take revenge.
Traders were followed by settlers fleeing religious persecution who moved inland
They cut forests with iron tools.
Natives saw hidden forest tracks but Europeans saw farms
Jefferson wanted a land of European small farms.
Natives grew only for needs did not sell and did not own land so Europeans called them uncivilised.
USA and Canada formed at the end of the 18th century and later expanded their areas.
The USA bought land from France and Russia and won land from Mexico without asking natives.
European migrants came to own land cleared fields and grew crops like rice and cotton for profit.
They killed wolves and lions and safeguarded the lands by barbed wire in 1873.
Southern plantations used African slaves since natives died & slavery stayed even after slave trade ended.
Northern states rejected slavery fought a war in 1861-65 and ended it.
African Americans got civil rights only in the 12 th century when segregation ended.
British won Canda in 1763 & faced French demands for autonomy
This issue continued long and seemed more urgent than the native question.
In 1867 Canada became a Confederation of autonomous states.
D. Thomas Jefferson passage
Thomas Jefferson, the third US President and Wordsworth’s contemporary, spoke about natives in a way
that would create outrage today.
He said this unfortunate group, whom they tried hard to civilise, had in his view proved that their
extermination was justified.
E. Washington Irving
Irving, who met real natives, said they were not like poems show and were silent near whites only because
they distrusted them and did not know their language.
He saw that among themselves natives were lively and mimicked whites, while whites wrongly felt
admired and often treated Indians as if they were almost animals.
7. Natives lose their land
Settlers forced or persuaded natives to sell land at low prices and often cheated them.
Officials ignored this, as in Georgia where Cherokees had no citizen rights despite learning English and
following American ways.
In 1832 Chief Justice Marshall said Cherokees were a separate community with sovereignty and Georgia
laws had no power.
President Andrew Jackson ignored this and sent the army to evict Cherokees to the Great American Desert.
Over 15,000 were forcibly displaced on the Trail of Tears and more than a quarter died.
I. Justification:-
Land takers said natives did not deserve land and criticised them for laziness and not dressing or speaking
like Europeans.
Prairies were cleared, bison killed, and natives pushed west, sometimes moved again for minerals.
II. Impact:-
Tribes shared land causing quarrels and were confined to reservations often unfamiliar to them.
Natives opposed but the US army crushed rebellions from 1865 to 1890 and in Canada Metis revolted from
1869 to 1885 called red river rebellion
After repeated defeats, natives lost revolts .
