NCERT Textbook - Displacing Indigenous Peoples Humanities/Arts Notes | EduRev

 Page 1


  213
Displacing Indigenous
Peoples
THIS chapter recounts some aspects of the histories of the
native peoples of America and Australia. Theme 8 described
the history of the Spanish and Portuguese colonisation of
South America. From the eighteenth century, more areas of
South America, Central America, North America, South Africa,
Australia and New Zealand came to be settled by immigrants
from Europe. This led to many of the native peoples being
pushed out into other areas. The European settlements were
called ‘colonies’. When the European inhabitants of the
colonies became independent of the European ‘mother-
country’, these colonies became ‘states’ or countries.
In the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, people from
Asian countries also migrated to some of these countries.
Today, these Europeans and Asians form the majority in
these countries, and the number of the native inhabitants
are very small. They are hardly seen in the towns, and people
have forgotten that they once occupied much of the country,
and that the names of many rivers, towns, etc. are derived
from ‘native’ names (e.g. Ohio, Mississippi and Seattle in
the USA, Saskatchewan in Canada, Wollongong and
Parramatta in Australia).
Till the middle of the twentieth century, American and
Australian history textbooks used to describe how
Europeans ‘discovered’ the Americas and Australia. They
hardly mentioned the native peoples except to suggest that
they were hostile to Europeans. These peoples were,
however, studied by anthropologists in America from the
1840s. Much later, from the 1960s, the native peoples were
encouraged to write their own histories or to dictate them
(this is called oral history).
 Today , it is possible to read historical works and fiction
written by the native peoples, and visitors to museums in
these countries will see galleries of ‘native art’ and special
museums which show the aboriginal way of life. The new
National Museum of the American Indian in the USA has
been curated by American Indians themselves.
THEME
10
2020-21
Page 2


  213
Displacing Indigenous
Peoples
THIS chapter recounts some aspects of the histories of the
native peoples of America and Australia. Theme 8 described
the history of the Spanish and Portuguese colonisation of
South America. From the eighteenth century, more areas of
South America, Central America, North America, South Africa,
Australia and New Zealand came to be settled by immigrants
from Europe. This led to many of the native peoples being
pushed out into other areas. The European settlements were
called ‘colonies’. When the European inhabitants of the
colonies became independent of the European ‘mother-
country’, these colonies became ‘states’ or countries.
In the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, people from
Asian countries also migrated to some of these countries.
Today, these Europeans and Asians form the majority in
these countries, and the number of the native inhabitants
are very small. They are hardly seen in the towns, and people
have forgotten that they once occupied much of the country,
and that the names of many rivers, towns, etc. are derived
from ‘native’ names (e.g. Ohio, Mississippi and Seattle in
the USA, Saskatchewan in Canada, Wollongong and
Parramatta in Australia).
Till the middle of the twentieth century, American and
Australian history textbooks used to describe how
Europeans ‘discovered’ the Americas and Australia. They
hardly mentioned the native peoples except to suggest that
they were hostile to Europeans. These peoples were,
however, studied by anthropologists in America from the
1840s. Much later, from the 1960s, the native peoples were
encouraged to write their own histories or to dictate them
(this is called oral history).
 Today , it is possible to read historical works and fiction
written by the native peoples, and visitors to museums in
these countries will see galleries of ‘native art’ and special
museums which show the aboriginal way of life. The new
National Museum of the American Indian in the USA has
been curated by American Indians themselves.
THEME
10
2020-21
214  THEMES IN WORLD HISTORY
European Imperialism
The American empires of Spain and Portugal (see Theme 8) did not
expand after the seventeenth century. From that time other countries
– France, Holland and England – began to extend their trading activities
and to establish colonies – in America, Africa and Asia; Ireland also
was virtually a colony of England, as the landowners there were mostly
English settlers.
From the eighteenth century, it became obvious that while it was
the prospect of profit which drove people to establish colonies, there
were significant variations in the nature of the control established.
In South Asia, trading companies like the East India Company
made themselves into political powers, defeated local rulers and
annexed their territories. They retained the older well-developed
administrative system and collected taxes from landowners. Later they
built railways to make trade easier, excavated mines and established
big plantations.
In Africa, Europeans traded on the coast, except in South Africa,
and only in the late nineteenth century did they venture into the interior.
After this, some of the European countries reached an agreement to
divide up Africa as colonies for themselves.
The word ‘settler’ is used for the Dutch in South Africa, the British
in Ireland, New Zealand and Australia, and the Europeans in America.
The official language in these colonies was English (except in Canada,
where French is also an official language).
Names given by Europeans to Countries of the ‘New World’
‘AMERICA’ First used after the publication of the travels of
Amerigo Vespucci (1451-1512)
‘CANADA’ from kanata (= ‘village’ in the language of the
Huron-Iroquois, as heard by the explorer Jacques
Cartier in 1535)
‘AUSTRALIA’ Sixteenth-century name for land in the Great
Southern Ocean (austral is Latin for ‘south’)
‘NEW ZEALAND’ Name given by Tasman of Holland, who was
the first to sight these islands in 1642 (zee is Dutch
for ‘sea’)
The Geographical Dictionary (pp 805-22) lists over a hundred place-
names in the Americas and Australia which begin with ‘New’.
2020-21
Page 3


  213
Displacing Indigenous
Peoples
THIS chapter recounts some aspects of the histories of the
native peoples of America and Australia. Theme 8 described
the history of the Spanish and Portuguese colonisation of
South America. From the eighteenth century, more areas of
South America, Central America, North America, South Africa,
Australia and New Zealand came to be settled by immigrants
from Europe. This led to many of the native peoples being
pushed out into other areas. The European settlements were
called ‘colonies’. When the European inhabitants of the
colonies became independent of the European ‘mother-
country’, these colonies became ‘states’ or countries.
In the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, people from
Asian countries also migrated to some of these countries.
Today, these Europeans and Asians form the majority in
these countries, and the number of the native inhabitants
are very small. They are hardly seen in the towns, and people
have forgotten that they once occupied much of the country,
and that the names of many rivers, towns, etc. are derived
from ‘native’ names (e.g. Ohio, Mississippi and Seattle in
the USA, Saskatchewan in Canada, Wollongong and
Parramatta in Australia).
Till the middle of the twentieth century, American and
Australian history textbooks used to describe how
Europeans ‘discovered’ the Americas and Australia. They
hardly mentioned the native peoples except to suggest that
they were hostile to Europeans. These peoples were,
however, studied by anthropologists in America from the
1840s. Much later, from the 1960s, the native peoples were
encouraged to write their own histories or to dictate them
(this is called oral history).
 Today , it is possible to read historical works and fiction
written by the native peoples, and visitors to museums in
these countries will see galleries of ‘native art’ and special
museums which show the aboriginal way of life. The new
National Museum of the American Indian in the USA has
been curated by American Indians themselves.
THEME
10
2020-21
214  THEMES IN WORLD HISTORY
European Imperialism
The American empires of Spain and Portugal (see Theme 8) did not
expand after the seventeenth century. From that time other countries
– France, Holland and England – began to extend their trading activities
and to establish colonies – in America, Africa and Asia; Ireland also
was virtually a colony of England, as the landowners there were mostly
English settlers.
From the eighteenth century, it became obvious that while it was
the prospect of profit which drove people to establish colonies, there
were significant variations in the nature of the control established.
In South Asia, trading companies like the East India Company
made themselves into political powers, defeated local rulers and
annexed their territories. They retained the older well-developed
administrative system and collected taxes from landowners. Later they
built railways to make trade easier, excavated mines and established
big plantations.
In Africa, Europeans traded on the coast, except in South Africa,
and only in the late nineteenth century did they venture into the interior.
After this, some of the European countries reached an agreement to
divide up Africa as colonies for themselves.
The word ‘settler’ is used for the Dutch in South Africa, the British
in Ireland, New Zealand and Australia, and the Europeans in America.
The official language in these colonies was English (except in Canada,
where French is also an official language).
Names given by Europeans to Countries of the ‘New World’
‘AMERICA’ First used after the publication of the travels of
Amerigo Vespucci (1451-1512)
‘CANADA’ from kanata (= ‘village’ in the language of the
Huron-Iroquois, as heard by the explorer Jacques
Cartier in 1535)
‘AUSTRALIA’ Sixteenth-century name for land in the Great
Southern Ocean (austral is Latin for ‘south’)
‘NEW ZEALAND’ Name given by Tasman of Holland, who was
the first to sight these islands in 1642 (zee is Dutch
for ‘sea’)
The Geographical Dictionary (pp 805-22) lists over a hundred place-
names in the Americas and Australia which begin with ‘New’.
2020-21
  215
NORTH AMERICA
The continent of North America extends from the Arctic Circle to the
Tropic of Cancer, from the Pacific to the Atlantic Ocean. West of the chain
of the Rocky Mountains is the desert of Arizona and Nevada, still further
west the Sierra Nevada mountains, to the east the Great Plains, the Great
Lakes, the valleys of the Mississippi and the Ohio and the Appalachian
Mountains. To the south is Mexico. Forty per cent of Canada is covered
with forests. Oil, gas and mineral resources are found in many areas,
which explains the many big industries in the USA and Canada. Today,
wheat, corn and fruit are grown extensively and fishing is a major industry
in Canada.
Mining, industry and extensive agriculture have been developed only in
the last 200 years by immigrants from Europe, Africa and China. But there
were people who had been living in North America for thousands of years
before the Europeans learnt of its existence.
The Native Peoples
The earliest inhabitants of North America came from Asia over 30,000
years ago on a land-bridge across the Bering Straits, and during the
last Ice Age 10,000 years ago they moved further south. The oldest artefact
found in America – an arrow-point – is 11,000 years old. The population
started to increase about 5,000 years ago when the climate became
more stable.
‘Native’ means a
person born in the
place he/she lives in.
Till the early
twentieth century,
the term was used by
Europeans to describe
the inhabitants of
countries they had
colonised.
DISPLACING INDIGENOUS PEOPLES
‘At sunset on the day before America [that is, before the Europeans
reached there and gave the continent this name], diversity lay at
every hand. People spoke in more than a hundred tongues. They
lived by every possible combination of hunting, fishing, gathering,
gardening, and farming open to them. The quality of soils and the
effort required to open and tend them determined some of their choices
of how to live. Cultural and social biases determined others. Surpluses
of fish or grain or garden plants or meats helped create powerful,
tiered societies here but not there. Some cultures had endured for
millennia…’ – William Macleish, The Day before America.
These peoples lived in bands, in villages along river valleys. They
ate fish and meat, and cultivated vegetables and maize. They often
went on long journeys in search of meat, chiefly that of bison, the
wild buffalo that roamed the grasslands (this became easier from
the seventeenth century, when the natives started to ride horses,
which they bought from Spanish settlers). But they only killed as
many animals as they needed for food.
2020-21
Page 4


  213
Displacing Indigenous
Peoples
THIS chapter recounts some aspects of the histories of the
native peoples of America and Australia. Theme 8 described
the history of the Spanish and Portuguese colonisation of
South America. From the eighteenth century, more areas of
South America, Central America, North America, South Africa,
Australia and New Zealand came to be settled by immigrants
from Europe. This led to many of the native peoples being
pushed out into other areas. The European settlements were
called ‘colonies’. When the European inhabitants of the
colonies became independent of the European ‘mother-
country’, these colonies became ‘states’ or countries.
In the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, people from
Asian countries also migrated to some of these countries.
Today, these Europeans and Asians form the majority in
these countries, and the number of the native inhabitants
are very small. They are hardly seen in the towns, and people
have forgotten that they once occupied much of the country,
and that the names of many rivers, towns, etc. are derived
from ‘native’ names (e.g. Ohio, Mississippi and Seattle in
the USA, Saskatchewan in Canada, Wollongong and
Parramatta in Australia).
Till the middle of the twentieth century, American and
Australian history textbooks used to describe how
Europeans ‘discovered’ the Americas and Australia. They
hardly mentioned the native peoples except to suggest that
they were hostile to Europeans. These peoples were,
however, studied by anthropologists in America from the
1840s. Much later, from the 1960s, the native peoples were
encouraged to write their own histories or to dictate them
(this is called oral history).
 Today , it is possible to read historical works and fiction
written by the native peoples, and visitors to museums in
these countries will see galleries of ‘native art’ and special
museums which show the aboriginal way of life. The new
National Museum of the American Indian in the USA has
been curated by American Indians themselves.
THEME
10
2020-21
214  THEMES IN WORLD HISTORY
European Imperialism
The American empires of Spain and Portugal (see Theme 8) did not
expand after the seventeenth century. From that time other countries
– France, Holland and England – began to extend their trading activities
and to establish colonies – in America, Africa and Asia; Ireland also
was virtually a colony of England, as the landowners there were mostly
English settlers.
From the eighteenth century, it became obvious that while it was
the prospect of profit which drove people to establish colonies, there
were significant variations in the nature of the control established.
In South Asia, trading companies like the East India Company
made themselves into political powers, defeated local rulers and
annexed their territories. They retained the older well-developed
administrative system and collected taxes from landowners. Later they
built railways to make trade easier, excavated mines and established
big plantations.
In Africa, Europeans traded on the coast, except in South Africa,
and only in the late nineteenth century did they venture into the interior.
After this, some of the European countries reached an agreement to
divide up Africa as colonies for themselves.
The word ‘settler’ is used for the Dutch in South Africa, the British
in Ireland, New Zealand and Australia, and the Europeans in America.
The official language in these colonies was English (except in Canada,
where French is also an official language).
Names given by Europeans to Countries of the ‘New World’
‘AMERICA’ First used after the publication of the travels of
Amerigo Vespucci (1451-1512)
‘CANADA’ from kanata (= ‘village’ in the language of the
Huron-Iroquois, as heard by the explorer Jacques
Cartier in 1535)
‘AUSTRALIA’ Sixteenth-century name for land in the Great
Southern Ocean (austral is Latin for ‘south’)
‘NEW ZEALAND’ Name given by Tasman of Holland, who was
the first to sight these islands in 1642 (zee is Dutch
for ‘sea’)
The Geographical Dictionary (pp 805-22) lists over a hundred place-
names in the Americas and Australia which begin with ‘New’.
2020-21
  215
NORTH AMERICA
The continent of North America extends from the Arctic Circle to the
Tropic of Cancer, from the Pacific to the Atlantic Ocean. West of the chain
of the Rocky Mountains is the desert of Arizona and Nevada, still further
west the Sierra Nevada mountains, to the east the Great Plains, the Great
Lakes, the valleys of the Mississippi and the Ohio and the Appalachian
Mountains. To the south is Mexico. Forty per cent of Canada is covered
with forests. Oil, gas and mineral resources are found in many areas,
which explains the many big industries in the USA and Canada. Today,
wheat, corn and fruit are grown extensively and fishing is a major industry
in Canada.
Mining, industry and extensive agriculture have been developed only in
the last 200 years by immigrants from Europe, Africa and China. But there
were people who had been living in North America for thousands of years
before the Europeans learnt of its existence.
The Native Peoples
The earliest inhabitants of North America came from Asia over 30,000
years ago on a land-bridge across the Bering Straits, and during the
last Ice Age 10,000 years ago they moved further south. The oldest artefact
found in America – an arrow-point – is 11,000 years old. The population
started to increase about 5,000 years ago when the climate became
more stable.
‘Native’ means a
person born in the
place he/she lives in.
Till the early
twentieth century,
the term was used by
Europeans to describe
the inhabitants of
countries they had
colonised.
DISPLACING INDIGENOUS PEOPLES
‘At sunset on the day before America [that is, before the Europeans
reached there and gave the continent this name], diversity lay at
every hand. People spoke in more than a hundred tongues. They
lived by every possible combination of hunting, fishing, gathering,
gardening, and farming open to them. The quality of soils and the
effort required to open and tend them determined some of their choices
of how to live. Cultural and social biases determined others. Surpluses
of fish or grain or garden plants or meats helped create powerful,
tiered societies here but not there. Some cultures had endured for
millennia…’ – William Macleish, The Day before America.
These peoples lived in bands, in villages along river valleys. They
ate fish and meat, and cultivated vegetables and maize. They often
went on long journeys in search of meat, chiefly that of bison, the
wild buffalo that roamed the grasslands (this became easier from
the seventeenth century, when the natives started to ride horses,
which they bought from Spanish settlers). But they only killed as
many animals as they needed for food.
2020-21
216  THEMES IN WORLD HISTORY
They did not attempt extensive agriculture and since they did not
produce a surplus, they did not develop kingdoms and empires as in
Central and South America. There were some instances of quarrels
between tribes over territory, but by and large control of land was not
an issue. They were content with the food
and shelter they got from the land without
feeling any need to ‘own’ it. An important
feature of their tradition was that of
making formal alliances and friendships,
and exchanging gifts. Goods were obtained not by buying them, but
as gifts.
Numerous languages were spoken in North America, though these
were not written down. They believed that time moved in cycles, and
each tribe had accounts about their origins and their earlier history
which were passed on from one generation to the next. They were skilled
craftspeople and wove beautiful textiles. They could read the land –
they could understand the climates and different landscapes in the
way literate people read written texts.
Encounters with Europeans
Wampum belts, made
of coloured shells
sewn together , were
exchanged by native
tribes after a treaty
was agreed to.
A woman of the Winnebago tribe of Wisconsin.
In the 1860s, people of this tribe were moved to
Nebraska
Names of native
tribes are often given
to things
unconnected with
them: Dakota (an
aeroplane),
Cherokee (a jeep),
Pontiac (a car),
Mohawk (a haircut)!
Different terms are used in English for the native peoples of the
‘New World’
aborigine – native people of Australia (in Latin, ab =
from, origine = the beginning)
Aboriginal – adjective, often misused as a noun
American Indian/Amerind/Amerindian – native
peoples of North and South America and the
Caribbean
First Nations peoples – the organised native
groups recognised by the Canadian
government (the Indians Act of 1876 used the
term ‘bands’ but from the 1980s the word
‘nations’ is used)
indigenous people – people belonging naturally
to a place
native American – the indigenous people of the
Americas (this is the term now commonly used)
‘Red Indian’ – the brown-complexioned people
whose land Columbus mistook for India
2020-21
Page 5


  213
Displacing Indigenous
Peoples
THIS chapter recounts some aspects of the histories of the
native peoples of America and Australia. Theme 8 described
the history of the Spanish and Portuguese colonisation of
South America. From the eighteenth century, more areas of
South America, Central America, North America, South Africa,
Australia and New Zealand came to be settled by immigrants
from Europe. This led to many of the native peoples being
pushed out into other areas. The European settlements were
called ‘colonies’. When the European inhabitants of the
colonies became independent of the European ‘mother-
country’, these colonies became ‘states’ or countries.
In the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, people from
Asian countries also migrated to some of these countries.
Today, these Europeans and Asians form the majority in
these countries, and the number of the native inhabitants
are very small. They are hardly seen in the towns, and people
have forgotten that they once occupied much of the country,
and that the names of many rivers, towns, etc. are derived
from ‘native’ names (e.g. Ohio, Mississippi and Seattle in
the USA, Saskatchewan in Canada, Wollongong and
Parramatta in Australia).
Till the middle of the twentieth century, American and
Australian history textbooks used to describe how
Europeans ‘discovered’ the Americas and Australia. They
hardly mentioned the native peoples except to suggest that
they were hostile to Europeans. These peoples were,
however, studied by anthropologists in America from the
1840s. Much later, from the 1960s, the native peoples were
encouraged to write their own histories or to dictate them
(this is called oral history).
 Today , it is possible to read historical works and fiction
written by the native peoples, and visitors to museums in
these countries will see galleries of ‘native art’ and special
museums which show the aboriginal way of life. The new
National Museum of the American Indian in the USA has
been curated by American Indians themselves.
THEME
10
2020-21
214  THEMES IN WORLD HISTORY
European Imperialism
The American empires of Spain and Portugal (see Theme 8) did not
expand after the seventeenth century. From that time other countries
– France, Holland and England – began to extend their trading activities
and to establish colonies – in America, Africa and Asia; Ireland also
was virtually a colony of England, as the landowners there were mostly
English settlers.
From the eighteenth century, it became obvious that while it was
the prospect of profit which drove people to establish colonies, there
were significant variations in the nature of the control established.
In South Asia, trading companies like the East India Company
made themselves into political powers, defeated local rulers and
annexed their territories. They retained the older well-developed
administrative system and collected taxes from landowners. Later they
built railways to make trade easier, excavated mines and established
big plantations.
In Africa, Europeans traded on the coast, except in South Africa,
and only in the late nineteenth century did they venture into the interior.
After this, some of the European countries reached an agreement to
divide up Africa as colonies for themselves.
The word ‘settler’ is used for the Dutch in South Africa, the British
in Ireland, New Zealand and Australia, and the Europeans in America.
The official language in these colonies was English (except in Canada,
where French is also an official language).
Names given by Europeans to Countries of the ‘New World’
‘AMERICA’ First used after the publication of the travels of
Amerigo Vespucci (1451-1512)
‘CANADA’ from kanata (= ‘village’ in the language of the
Huron-Iroquois, as heard by the explorer Jacques
Cartier in 1535)
‘AUSTRALIA’ Sixteenth-century name for land in the Great
Southern Ocean (austral is Latin for ‘south’)
‘NEW ZEALAND’ Name given by Tasman of Holland, who was
the first to sight these islands in 1642 (zee is Dutch
for ‘sea’)
The Geographical Dictionary (pp 805-22) lists over a hundred place-
names in the Americas and Australia which begin with ‘New’.
2020-21
  215
NORTH AMERICA
The continent of North America extends from the Arctic Circle to the
Tropic of Cancer, from the Pacific to the Atlantic Ocean. West of the chain
of the Rocky Mountains is the desert of Arizona and Nevada, still further
west the Sierra Nevada mountains, to the east the Great Plains, the Great
Lakes, the valleys of the Mississippi and the Ohio and the Appalachian
Mountains. To the south is Mexico. Forty per cent of Canada is covered
with forests. Oil, gas and mineral resources are found in many areas,
which explains the many big industries in the USA and Canada. Today,
wheat, corn and fruit are grown extensively and fishing is a major industry
in Canada.
Mining, industry and extensive agriculture have been developed only in
the last 200 years by immigrants from Europe, Africa and China. But there
were people who had been living in North America for thousands of years
before the Europeans learnt of its existence.
The Native Peoples
The earliest inhabitants of North America came from Asia over 30,000
years ago on a land-bridge across the Bering Straits, and during the
last Ice Age 10,000 years ago they moved further south. The oldest artefact
found in America – an arrow-point – is 11,000 years old. The population
started to increase about 5,000 years ago when the climate became
more stable.
‘Native’ means a
person born in the
place he/she lives in.
Till the early
twentieth century,
the term was used by
Europeans to describe
the inhabitants of
countries they had
colonised.
DISPLACING INDIGENOUS PEOPLES
‘At sunset on the day before America [that is, before the Europeans
reached there and gave the continent this name], diversity lay at
every hand. People spoke in more than a hundred tongues. They
lived by every possible combination of hunting, fishing, gathering,
gardening, and farming open to them. The quality of soils and the
effort required to open and tend them determined some of their choices
of how to live. Cultural and social biases determined others. Surpluses
of fish or grain or garden plants or meats helped create powerful,
tiered societies here but not there. Some cultures had endured for
millennia…’ – William Macleish, The Day before America.
These peoples lived in bands, in villages along river valleys. They
ate fish and meat, and cultivated vegetables and maize. They often
went on long journeys in search of meat, chiefly that of bison, the
wild buffalo that roamed the grasslands (this became easier from
the seventeenth century, when the natives started to ride horses,
which they bought from Spanish settlers). But they only killed as
many animals as they needed for food.
2020-21
216  THEMES IN WORLD HISTORY
They did not attempt extensive agriculture and since they did not
produce a surplus, they did not develop kingdoms and empires as in
Central and South America. There were some instances of quarrels
between tribes over territory, but by and large control of land was not
an issue. They were content with the food
and shelter they got from the land without
feeling any need to ‘own’ it. An important
feature of their tradition was that of
making formal alliances and friendships,
and exchanging gifts. Goods were obtained not by buying them, but
as gifts.
Numerous languages were spoken in North America, though these
were not written down. They believed that time moved in cycles, and
each tribe had accounts about their origins and their earlier history
which were passed on from one generation to the next. They were skilled
craftspeople and wove beautiful textiles. They could read the land –
they could understand the climates and different landscapes in the
way literate people read written texts.
Encounters with Europeans
Wampum belts, made
of coloured shells
sewn together , were
exchanged by native
tribes after a treaty
was agreed to.
A woman of the Winnebago tribe of Wisconsin.
In the 1860s, people of this tribe were moved to
Nebraska
Names of native
tribes are often given
to things
unconnected with
them: Dakota (an
aeroplane),
Cherokee (a jeep),
Pontiac (a car),
Mohawk (a haircut)!
Different terms are used in English for the native peoples of the
‘New World’
aborigine – native people of Australia (in Latin, ab =
from, origine = the beginning)
Aboriginal – adjective, often misused as a noun
American Indian/Amerind/Amerindian – native
peoples of North and South America and the
Caribbean
First Nations peoples – the organised native
groups recognised by the Canadian
government (the Indians Act of 1876 used the
term ‘bands’ but from the 1980s the word
‘nations’ is used)
indigenous people – people belonging naturally
to a place
native American – the indigenous people of the
Americas (this is the term now commonly used)
‘Red Indian’ – the brown-complexioned people
whose land Columbus mistook for India
2020-21
  217
*The Hopis are a
native tribe who
now live near
California.
‘It was indicated on the stone tablets that the Hopis* had that the
first brothers and sisters that would come back to them would come
as turtles across the land. They would be human beings, but they
would come as turtles. So when the time came close the Hopis
were at a special village to welcome the turtles that would come
across the land and they got up in the morning and looked out at
the sunrise. They looked out across the desert and they saw the
Spanish Conquistadores coming, covered in armour, like turtles
across the land. So this was them. So they went out to the Spanish
man and they extended their hand hoping for the handshake but
into the hand the Spanish man dropped a trinket. And so word
spread throughout North America that there was going to be a
hard time, that maybe some of the brothers and sisters had
forgotten the sacredness of all things and all the human beings
were going to suffer for this on the earth.’
– From a talk by Lee Brown, 1986
In the seventeenth century, the European traders who reached the north
coast of North America after a difficult two-month voyage were relieved to
find the native peoples friendly and welcoming. Unlike the Spanish in South
America, who were overcome by the abundance of gold in the country,
these adventurers came to trade in fish and furs, in which they got the
willing help of the natives who were expert at hunting.
Further south, along the Mississippi river, the French found that the
natives held regular gatherings to exchange handicrafts unique to a tribe
or food items not available in other regions. In exchange for local products
the Europeans gave the natives blankets, iron vessels (which they used
sometimes in place of their clay pots), guns, which was a useful supplement
for bows and arrows to kill animals, and alcohol. This last item was
something the natives had not known earlier, and they became addicted
to it, which suited the Europeans, because it enabled them to dictate
terms of trade. (The Europeans acquired from the natives an addiction
to tobacco.)
Quebec American colonies
1497 John Cabot reaches 1507 Amerigo de Vespucci’s Travels
Newfoundland published
1534 Jacques Cartier travels
down the St Lawrence river
and meets native peoples
1608 French found the colony 1607 British found the colony of
of Quebec Virginia
1620 British found Plymouth
(in Massachusetts)
DISPLACING INDIGENOUS PEOPLES
2020-21