The Inevitable War between Native Americans and Colonial English Settlers

Conflicts between the Native American Indians and English settlers was inevitable. James Axtell wrote the article, “After Columbus,” which explains the Powhatan Empire’s conflicts and wars with the English settlers in Virginia. Virginia Dejohn Anderson wrote, “King Philip’s Herds: Indians, Colonists, and the Problem of Livestock in Early New England,” which illustrates the issue of English customs, such as livestock, which was new and alien to the Native Americans. William L. Ramsey’s article, “’Something Cloudy in Their Looks’: The Origins of the Yamasee War Reconsidered,” was about the cultural and political differences between the Native Americans and the English settlers. The one thing these three articles have in common is that they consist of conflicts and wars between the Native Americans and English settlers and how it was inevitable for both sides due to two opposite cultures colliding without compromise.

The conflicts between the Powhatan Empire and the English settlers in Axtell’s article can be said that the blame for the conflicts lands on both parties laps. When the two first met, they began as friends, offering goods to each other. It did not last long until the English customs, like discovery gives anyone right to it, posed a problem for the Indians because they never claimed land, they just moved around with the flow of the world around them. With this came contempt from the Native Americans toward the English. The Native Americans outnumbered the English but their arrows were no match for the English firepower, so they hide until they could even out the weapon power. The Powhatan’s knew they needed to manage the English from expanding while trading with them in order to obtain goods to fight. As the conflict ros...

... middle of paper ...

...riculture was seen as ludicrous. Livestock has never been a part of the Native American tradition so why should they change it for the English? Eventually the lawmakers of this colony developed laws that regulated killing and domesticating livestock. Essentially, holding true to belief and tradition under the law of the English led to King Philip’s War between the Native Americans and English.

Works Cited

Anderson, Virginia DeJohn. "King Philip’s Herds: Indians, Colonists, and the Problem of Livestock in Early New England." The William and Mary Quarterly, Third Series, Vol. 51, No. 4 (1994): 601-624.

Axtell, James. "After Columbus." Essays in the Ethnohistory of Colonial North America (1988): 182-221.

Ramsey, William L. "’Something Cloudy in Their Looks’: The Origins of the Yamasee War Reconsidered." The Journal of American History, Vol. 90, No. 1 (2003): 44-75.