Laura Ingalls's Influence On The American Indians

During the nineteenth century, the government opened up more land for settlement, and pioneers began to make their way across America to “empty” prairies in the Midwest. These “empty” lands were not actually empty—they contained many different tribes of American Indians—but the white Americans saw this as an opportunity for cheap land and a new, better life. The pioneers lived among the American Indians, but it was not a harmonious relationship. Laura Ingalls Wilder in her Little House series talked about her parents’ attitudes toward the Osage. Most of the time, her parents either made fun of the Osage people or feared them, which, in turn, instilled fear and stereotypes in Laura and her sisters. Such was the case for the majority of

the nineteenth century pioneers. However, these negative attitudes toward American Indians did not begin with the pioneers; rather, they began all the way back in the sixteenth century when Europeans were just beginning to explore and settle in the Americas. The oppression of the American Indians by the Europeans began with Hernándo Cortés and continued on through the settlement of the New England colonies during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.
In 1519, Cortés, a Spanish conquistador, led his army into what is now known as Mexico.

There, he convinced a rival tribe, the Nahua of central Mexico, to join his forces against the Aztec people. When the conquistadors finally arrived at Tenochtitlán, the capital of the Aztec empire, the Natives were convinced that he was one of their gods. Cortés abused this misbelief and used it to receive a portion of the Aztec gold. He eventually began to force the Aztecs to supply him with more riches, and the Aztecs rebelled. While the Natives successfully forced the conquistadors out of their area, many Aztecs had succumbed to the foreign diseases, such as smallpox and measles, brought over by the Spanish. Using this to their advantage, the conquistadors and the Nahua attacked the Aztecs again in 1521. Months of fighting and the final looting and destruction of Tenochtitlán forced the Aztecs to surrender. With their opponents gone, the Spanish began to carry out their plans for New Spain. To build up this colony and take the land’s resources, the conquistadors forced the natives into a system called encomienda. In this system, the Natives were forced to do physical labor for the Spanish, such as farming, ranching, and mining. In the mid-1500’s, priests pushed for the system to be abolished, which led the Spanish without the Natives’ labor and looking for a

replacement.
Other Spanish began to push into the Southwestern area of North America. The Catholic missionaries that settled there tried to convert the American Indians and also force them into living a Spanish lifestyle. In doing this, the Spanish destroyed sacred Native objects and smother dances and other rituals. Eventually, to financially support the Christian missions, the Natives were forced to offer up their goods and other services, such as forced labor. During this process, the Natives were often physically abused, and those who refused to practice Christianity or support the missions were beaten. After some time of experiencing this, an American Indian Popé spoke out. He organized an uprising that about 17,000 people participated in. They destroyed Spanish places of worship, killed priests, and eventually drove the Spanish conquistadors back to New Spain. For the next fourteen years, the American Indians of the area had their home again.
During the seventeenth century, a group of English people, known as the Virginia Company, came over to Virginia to settle a colony called Jamestown. The English colonists were not familiar with living a life of labor, so they were unwilling to do necessary activities to keep the colony going, such as clear fields, plant crops, and collect fish from the river. After some time of this, John Smith took over control and said that those who do not work will not be allowed to eat. To acquire more food, he talked to the Powhatan people and asked them to provide for the colonists.
A couple years later in 1609, more colonists arrived, and the Powhatan people began to destroy the colonists’ livestock and farms in an attempt to scare the English away. Unlike the Spanish conquistadors, the English colonists did not wish to live among the Powhatan or have a harmonious relationship with them. In retaliation, the colonists required the American Indians to supply them with corn and labor. Some colonists went as far as setting villages on fire or kidnapping people. Peace was foreign among these two groups, and soon the English began to seize more of the American Indian land. Chief Powhatan’s brother and successor, Chief Opechancanough, organized raiding parties and killed more than 340 colonists. The Virginia Company’s counterattack left the area known as Virginia bankrupt, so King James I seized it and turned it into a royal colony. More English colonists came to live in Virginia, and the Powhatan population dwindled severely.
The Puritans and the American Indians of the Massachusetts area had their disputes as well.

Their disputes were ones of land use. The Puritans drew up treaties to buy the land off the American Indians, but since the belief was that the land was there for everyone to use, the Natives believed the treaties were only an agreement to share the land for a limited period of time. However, this was no the case for the Puritans, who saw the treaties as the American Indians permanently selling off their land. In Connecticut, the Pequot nation attempted to rebel against the Europeans. This war nearly destroyed the Pequot population. The end of the war happened in May of 1637, when English colonists and Native allies of the Narragansett tribe surrounded a fort and set it on fire. They also shot at the Pequot people who tried to escape the burning fort. Only a few out of the 600 people that were in the fort survived. Another rebellion against European expansion into American Indian territory came about with the chiefdom of Metacomet, or King Philip as the English called him. Chief Metacomet was the son of Massasoit of the Wampanoag tribe, who originally aided and interacted with the Puritans. However, as the English settlers gained their footing in New England, they began to seize land from the Wampanoag. The Puritans made the Natives work for them to earn a living, and the Wampanoag were also prohibited to hunt or fish on the Sabbath. Metacomet organized an alliance of

the Wampanoag and other tribes to fight back. The alliance used hit-and-run tactics to sack the settlements, which turned into King Philip’s War, a brutal battle full of destruction. The American Indians finally succumbed to food shortages, diseases, and injuries. Among those who were killed was Metacomet, and his disembodied head was exhibited at Plymouth for the next twenty years. This battle marked the end of American Indian power in New England forever.
Luckily, the American Indians who came into contact with the English settlers of Pennsylvania faced much friendlier experiences. William Penn, a member of the Society of Friends, or the Quakers, traveled to North America from Holland in search of freedom from religious persecution. The Quakers, and the general population of Dutch settlers, were not interested in conquering the American Indians or angering them—they were more interested in trading for furs. Before coming to settle in Pennsylvania, Penn, who believed that those approached in friendship would respond the same way, wrote a letter addressing the Lenni Lenapi, the tribe that already lived in the area. He wrote this letter to alert the tribe of his arrival, and he arranged for it to be read to them. Penn also made sure that the court of his colony was comprised of both colonists and American Indians, and for over fifty years, there were no major disputes between the two.
It is plain to see that while settling the European colonies in America, harmful stereotypes of American Indians and deep-rooted arguments between the two groups that continue to this day were also settled. In the wrongful seizure of land and constant battles, the Europeans created an unresolvable wound in the relationship of the area’s first inhabitants and its new inhabitants. Although Penn’s approach to the tribes was ideal, it was an uncommon route, and many colonists resorted to wars and battles in search of food, riches, and land. The hunger to be looked upon as above other people drove the colonists to force American Indians into forced labor and immersion into white culture. Because of this, the populations of the first tribes in the Americas greatly decreased, and the land was changed forever.