Ever since the development of the Roanoke colony in 1585, the relationship between the English settlers and the Native Americans has always been unstable and dangerous. Native Americans would originally consider becoming allies with the new “intruders”, yet as time went on; a war would emerge between Native Americans and the English settlers as to control the land. This course of action -initially trying to be friends, and eventually ending up being archenemies- gives the impression of being the basic prototype that existed in the New World.
One of the best examples to demonstrate the tensions that existed among the English settlers and the Indians is the settlers’ clash with the Powhatan tribe. When the English landed in Jamestown in 1607, the dominant tribe of the area was the Powhatan, which was named so after the tribe’s leader, Chief Powhatan. At first, the Powhatan thought that these new “intruders” might be able to aid them in their struggle for land and power over the other tribes in the
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However, it is axiomatic that everything good has an ending; in 1707 the Savannah Indians ended their alliance with the English settlers. A peace treaty was signed, but it only lasted eight years. They planned to migrate to Maryland and Pennsylvania, due to the fact that both Maryland and Pennsylvania treated the Native Americans with much more respect, but the Carolinians didn't approve of such a drastic idea, so they attacked the Savannah Indians in a series of bloody raids and left the Native Americans completely whitewashed. Six hundred colonists were killed, which included about one-fifth of all the men fit for military service. Thus, the Europeans considered it just to shove the Indians out of their native land, and move westward in pursuit of their ever-growing land greed. Throughout the colonization era, the Native Americans were treated as barriers on European progression. " Although the Powhatan made one more attempt at destroying the Virginians, they were defeated again in the Second Anglo-Powhatan war. King Philip's War was a general Indian uprising in 1675-1676 to resist continued expansion of the English colonies in New England. The treaty also banished the Indians from their native lands, and shoved them into what was later known as a reservation. It was the bloodiest of the Indian wars in terms of relative casualties, and several tribes were virtually or totally eliminated.
These early failed relations between the Native Americans and the English settlers were forewarnings to what would be the miserable lives and future of the Native Americans. In 1610, any notion of alliance between the Powhatan and the Virginia settlers was instantaneously revoked when Lord De La Warr arrived with a declaration of war against all Indians in the Jamestown area. Native Americans tried to defend their culture and society, but never succeeded, and their population dropped to just a couple of thousands within the arrival of English settlers. Lord De La Warr used his "Irish Tactics" of burning houses and crops and taking prisoners to destroy the Native Americans in what was known as the First Anglo-Powhatan war.
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