Native Americans: Initial contacts with Europeans

Northeast and Great Lakes
The Indians of the north-east coast were the first to have been in contact with the Europeans. The first meetings took place during the Middle Ages and were very punctual. Vikings from Iceland crossed the Atlantic from the north and established camps at various points along the coast. This would be the Vinland described in their sagas. A reconstruction of one of these bases can be found at L'Anse aux Meadows on the Canadian island of Newfoundland.

Ignoring this first "discovery", other adventurers then touch the American soil. Unlike the Vikings, Christopher Columbus and his successors settled there. In the islands they own, peoples are present. Their history and ways of life remain unknown. Arawaks, Tainos or the Caribbean have disappeared or have melted into populations of European and African origin.

After a century of exploring the coasts and land along the course of the rivers, the Europeans began to settle on the east coast of the continent towards the end of the sixteenth century. The French in the north, the English in the center (with Dutch and Swedish settlements) and the Spaniards in Florida create small counters. Few, they usually content themselves with trade with the Indians. Beaver furs are widely sought on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean.

The arrival of families in the early seventeenth century in New England - located above the present-day New York - is changing the situation. Often they are members of Protestant sects whose attitude towards the Indians is variable. If the Quakers regard them with respect, the Puritans judge them as savages - the best known are the "pilgrim fathers" of the Mayflower. Rather well received by the natives, these settlers are in a situation of weakness. They do not know the specificities of the earth and the climate, which is rough in winter. Ties are being formed, but distrust and, above all, the desire to acquire land will, in half a century, cause the destruction of local peoples.

There are several reasons for this: wars of conquest of land by settlers, conflicts between French and English who make alliance with disunited Amerindian peoples, enslavement ... Epidemics wreak havoc, sometimes causing the disappearance of entire groups. Having no immune defense against diseases such as smallpox, pertussis, measles, influenza or chicken pox.

In the present Canada and the United States then lived several confederations.

To the north were the Algonquian peoples: Mohican, Pequot, Narragansett, Wampanoag, Massachusetts, Penacock, Abenaki, Maliseet, Micmacs, Betsiamites, Atikamekw, Algonquins, Montagnais, Beothuk ... By advancing inland, Lakes, live Chippewa, Cree, Miami, Delaware, Mohegan, Powhatan, Pamlico, Nanticoke, Montauk, Menominee, Shawnee, Fox, Potawatomi, Sauk, Ottawa, Kickapoo, Arapaho, Blackfoot, Cheyennes ...

The Iroquois confederation stretched in the same geographical area. Six nations constituted it: Cayugas, Mohawks, Onneiouts, Onondagas, Tsonnontouans (Senecas) and Tuscarora. The Iroquois sought to take advantage of their alliance with the English to eliminate their Algonquian neighbors and the Hurons who had joined the French camp. But they ended by knowing the same fate as their enemies.

Characters like Massasoit and Pocahontas have remained in the legend. One for saving the Mayflower settlers from famine and participating in the first Thanksgiving. The other had married a settler and had gone to live in England.

Along the "frontier"
After a first phase of conquest of the entire East Coast and the Great Lakes region, Europeans moved westward in the first decades of the nineteenth century, beyond the Mississippi frontier. Trappers and runners have long been in direct contact with Indians on the other side. Villages are made up of half-breeds, often of French origin. They will try to organize themselves into nations but will fail. One of the most famous attempts will be in 1885 in Saskatchewan (western central Canada) and will end tragically.

At the end of the eighteenth century, the French lost their wars in Canada. They have abandoned their claim to land between the Great Lakes and the Gulf of Mexico. The Emperor Napoleon I even sold Louisiana, the last French possession on the continent, to the young United States who, for their part, defeated the English during the War of Independence. Little by little, the United States decreed the annexation of the Indian territories whose permanence was nevertheless guaranteed by treaties. This nibbling provokes guerrillas and entails deportations as well as massacres. The arable land and the richness of the subsoil, in particular gold, give rise to this desire for expansion.
This policy is formalized at the highest level. In 1830, President Andrew Jackson passed the Indian Removal Act, which legalizes the deportation of the Amerindians from the east to the west of the Mississippi. The Cherokee Nation, which played the game of integration - it is part of the "Five Civilized Tribes" with the Chickasaws, Choctaws, Creeks and Seminoles - some of whose representatives have been educated in Anglo-Saxon, Which is declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court.

The president disregarded, resulting in armed conflict and expulsion of the Cherokee families during the winter of 1838-1839. This event has remained in history as the "Trail of Tears": at least 4,000 people died of cold, disease and exhaustion during the transfer of their lands from the southeastern United States to Oklahoma where they are now settled - their descendants strongly support the memory of this tragedy. The Seminoles, Creeks, Choctaws, Chickasaws are also displaced at the same time.