The writings of the settlers had always showed the indians to be crazy savages and that they were a worse level of human. In John Smith's journal about Jamestown, they were always a threat and never any help. The indians helped them to survive the terrible conditions they were in, not because they were savages, but because they were reaching out. It has been proven that over the years of settlers taking over the continent, that they took the land with no respect for those who already owned it. I thought about if the settlers of Jamestown to find native americans with a written language, would things be different? When it comes to the issue of lad ownership and who had rights to the resources, the indians were there first. Yet, the new invaders believed they were entitled to everything they wanted. If the natives would have had a written language to prove in document form that they owned that land, do you think things would have been different? Or do you believe that they would have taken the land they wanted anyway? Do you think the indians would have been less "savage" if they had ways to prove civilized documentations of land ownership?
http://www1.webng.com/InteractiveLearning/NAIndians/what_was_the_attitude_of_the_whi.htm
The Native Americans believed the land was property of the Great Spirit so no one could own land. The colonists believed they had claimed the land for the King. Thus was created the culture clash. I really like the link you provided here so much that I put it in my favorites. Thank you.
ReplyDeleteNeat point about the documentation. The Europeans, and even us today put so much in store by physical proof, and this shows us the huge difference between the cultures. I think it is neat how you compared who should own the land, because the Indians were there first, the English were more or less foreign invaders who had no right in Virginia (Even though we're all glad they did)
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