Native Americans in California & the Northwest

Ostenaco - Skiagusta Uku - Mankiller of the Cherokeesby Sir Joshua Reynolds 1762 Gilcrease Museum

Native Americans and American History 

by Francis Flavin US National Park Service

Natives of the North American California & the Northwest 

One of the most poignant stories in the history of Indian-White relations is the story of Ishi, a Yahi Indian, who stumbled out of the California backcountry and into a slaughterhouse corral in the summer of 1911. Ishi’s band had eluded capture and extermination for many years, but, when all had died except for Ishi, he decided to take his chances and present himself to his American neighbors. Ishi In Two Worlds: A Biography of the Last Wild Indian in North America (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1961), is an account of Ishi’s life written by Theodora Kroeber, wife of professor Alfred Kroeber, who became one of Ishi’s caretakers. This amazing human interest story, written with a warm, empathetic intimacy, is truly a “must read.”

Another important work is Alvin M. Josephy, Jr.’s The Nez Percé Indians and the Opening of the Northwest (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1965). This well-written history explores the Nez Percé Indians and their traditional way of life, their responses to increasing pressure from Whites and the resultant conflicts, and concludes with a description of the Nez Percé war and Chief Joseph’s subsequent flight. Lowell John Bean’s Mukat’s People: The Cahuilla Indians of Southern California (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1972) and Frederica deLaguna’s Under Mount Saint Elias: The History and Culture of the Yakutat Tlingit (Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1990) are good introductory texts on the Indians of California and Alaska, respectively.

1600s European Depictions of Native Americans - More Fantasy than Fact - Virginia

1706 Account of Voyages of Martin Pring and Bartholomew Gilbert. Martin Pringe in north Virginia, 1603. Hand-colored engraving from book page, c.1625 or earlier

Martin Pringe captained a voyage to "the North part of Virginia" in 1603 for merchants of the city of Bristol, exploring the coast of New England & returning with a cargo of sassafras & a bark canoe. In this narrative illustration, the artist has adapted details freely & wholly invented the scene. The attire of the Indians & the vegetation both resemble features of more southerly regions.

16C & 17C Europeans Depict Native Americans - Llamas

1671 John Ogilby’s America, the image is based on the work of Arnoldus Montanus.  Peru

For most of the 1600s & 1700s, few first-hand images of Native Americans are known to have been created with little or no contemporary documentation. European publishers often used illustrations imagined by European artists, who had never sailed across the Atlantic.  These illustators were hired to illustrate written accounts of events in the New World without any visual evidence about how people actually lived & looked. And, so, they had to rely on European fantasy & generic landscapes to create images of America's Indiginous Peoples. For these representations, which tend to be exotic, the artists borrowed indiscriminately, mixing invented & actual details & interchanging characteristics of native groups from both American continents & from Africa.  

In the 1671 edition of John Ogilby's (1600-76) America, Being an Accurate Description of The New World, many images of Native Americans are based on the work of Arnoldus Montanus (c 1625–1683). Translated by the bookseller Ogilby from the original Dutch in 1671, the book provides an account of the newly discovered lands in the Americas. Although it is inaccurate, often including fanciful tales of mythical beasts & locations such as the Fountain of Youth, it was widely read & was a highly influential book. At its time, the publication offered the most complete cartographic records to date of North & South America & was the most accurate compendium available of the New World. In 1671 the Amsterdam printer Jacob "van" Meurs (1619-1680) published De nieuwe en onbekende weereld; of Beschryving van america en't zuid-land, or America, by Montanus, a compilation in Dutch of historical accounts from North & South America. Montanus, a Jesuit, seemed to seek illustrations emphasizing the non-Christian, heathen character of Native Americans.

16C & 17C Europeans Depict Native Americans - Hispaniola

1671 John Ogilby’s America, the image is based on the work of Arnoldus Montanus.  Hispaniola

For most of the 1600s & 1700s, few first-hand images of Native Americans are known to have been created with little or no contemporary documentation. European publishers often used illustrations imagined by European artists, who had never sailed across the Atlantic.  These illustators were hired to illustrate written accounts of events in the New World without any visual evidence about how people actually lived & looked. And, so, they had to rely on European fantasy & generic landscapes to create images of America's Indiginous Peoples. For these representations, which tend to be exotic, the artists borrowed indiscriminately, mixing invented & actual details & interchanging characteristics of native groups from both American continents & from Africa. 

In the 1671 edition of John Ogilby's (1600-76) America, Being an Accurate Description of The New World, many images of Native Americans are based on the work of Arnoldus Montanus (c 1625–1683). Translated by the bookseller Ogilby from the original Dutch in 1671, the book provides an account of the newly discovered lands in the Americas. Although it is inaccurate, often including fanciful tales of mythical beasts & locations such as the Fountain of Youth, it was widely read & was a highly influential book. At its time, the publication offered the most complete cartographic records to date of North & South America & was the most accurate compendium available of the New World. In 1671 the Amsterdam printer Jacob "van" Meurs (1619-1680) published De nieuwe en onbekende weereld; of Beschryving van america en't zuid-land, or America, by Montanus, a compilation in Dutch of historical accounts from North & South America. Montanus, a Jesuit, seemed to seek illustrations emphasizing the non-Christian, heathen character of Native Americans.

16C & 17C Europeans Depict Native Americans - Florida

Jacob van Meurs from Arnoldus Montanus (1625-1683) De Nieuwe en Onbekende Weereld  (The New and Unknown World) 1671 Indians from Florida

For most of the 1600s & 1700s, few first-hand images of Native Americans are known to have been created with little or no contemporary documentation. European publishers often used illustrations imagined by European artists, who had never sailed across the Atlantic.  These illustators were hired to illustrate written accounts of events in the New World without any visual evidence about how people actually lived & looked. And, so, they had to rely on European fantasy & generic landscapes to create images of America's Indiginous Peoples. For these representations, which tend to be exotic, the artists borrowed indiscriminately, mixing invented & actual details & interchanging characteristics of native groups from both American continents & from Africa.  

In the 1671 edition of John Ogilby's (1600-76) America, Being an Accurate Description of The New World, many images of Native Americans are based on the work of Arnoldus Montanus (c 1625–1683). Translated by the bookseller Ogilby from the original Dutch in 1671, the book provides an account of the newly discovered lands in the Americas. Although it is inaccurate, often including fanciful tales of mythical beasts & locations such as the Fountain of Youth, it was widely read & was a highly influential book. At its time, the publication offered the most complete cartographic records to date of North & South America & was the most accurate compendium available of the New World. In 1671 the Amsterdam printer Jacob "van" Meurs (1619-1680) published De nieuwe en onbekende weereld; of Beschryving van america en't zuid-land, or America, by Montanus, a compilation in Dutch of historical accounts from North & South America. Montanus, a Jesuit, seemed to seek illustrations emphasizing the non-Christian, heathen character of Native Americans.

16C & 17C Europeans Depict Native Americans - Brazil

1671 John Ogilby’s America, the image is based on the work of Arnoldus Montanus.  Brazil

For most of the 1600s & 1700s, few first-hand images of Native Americans are known to have been created with little or no contemporary documentation. European publishers often used illustrations imagined by European artists, who had never sailed across the Atlantic.  These illustators were hired to illustrate written accounts of events in the New World without any visual evidence about how people actually lived & looked. And, so, they had to rely on European fantasy & generic landscapes to create images of America's Indiginous Peoples. For these representations, which tend to be exotic, the artists borrowed indiscriminately, mixing invented & actual details & interchanging characteristics of native groups from both American continents & from Africa. 

In the 1671 edition of John Ogilby's (1600-76) America, Being an Accurate Description of The New World, many images of Native Americans are based on the work of Arnoldus Montanus (c 1625–1683). Translated by the bookseller Ogilby from the original Dutch in 1671, the book provides an account of the newly discovered lands in the Americas. Although it is inaccurate, often including fanciful tales of mythical beasts & locations such as the Fountain of Youth, it was widely read & was a highly influential book. At its time, the publication offered the most complete cartographic records to date of North & South America & was the most accurate compendium available of the New World. In 1671 the Amsterdam printer Jacob "van" Meurs (1619-1680) published De nieuwe en onbekende weereld; of Beschryving van america en't zuid-land, or America, by Montanus, a compilation in Dutch of historical accounts from North & South America. Montanus, a Jesuit, seemed to seek illustrations emphasizing the non-Christian, heathen character of Native Americans.

16C & 17C Europeans Depict Native Americans - Cannibals

Jacob van Meurs from Arnoldus Montanus (1625-1683) De Nieuwe en Onbekende Weereld  (The New and Unknown World) 1671 Indians from North America

For most of the 1600s & 1700s, few first-hand images of Native Americans are known to have been created with little or no contemporary documentation. European publishers often used illustrations imagined by European artists, who had never sailed across the Atlantic.  These illustators were hired to illustrate written accounts of events in the New World without any visual evidence about how people actually lived & looked. And, so, they had to rely on European fantasy & generic landscapes to create images of America's Indiginous Peoples. For these representations, which tend to be exotic, the artists borrowed indiscriminately, mixing invented & actual details & interchanging characteristics of native groups from both American continents & from Africa.  

In the 1671 edition of John Ogilby's (1600-76) America, Being an Accurate Description of The New World, many images of Native Americans are based on the work of Arnoldus Montanus (c 1625–1683). Translated by the bookseller Ogilby from the original Dutch in 1671, the book provides an account of the newly discovered lands in the Americas. Although it is inaccurate, often including fanciful tales of mythical beasts & locations such as the Fountain of Youth, it was widely read & was a highly influential book. At its time, the publication offered the most complete cartographic records to date of North & South America & was the most accurate compendium available of the New World. In 1671 the Amsterdam printer Jacob "van" Meurs (1619-1680) published De nieuwe en onbekende weereld; of Beschryving van america en't zuid-land, or America, by Montanus, a compilation in Dutch of historical accounts from North & South America. Montanus, a Jesuit, seemed to seek illustrations emphasizing the non-Christian, heathen character of Native Americans.

16C & 17C Europeans Depict Native Americans

Indigenous People from New England, New York, New Jersey, Delaware, & Pennsylvnia from John Ogilby's (1600-1676) book of 1671.

For most of the 1600s & 1700s, few first-hand images of Native Americans are known to have been created with little or no contemporary documentation. European publishers often used illustrations imagined by European artists, who had never sailed across the Atlantic.  These illustators were hired to illustrate written accounts of events in the New World without any visual evidence about how people actually lived & looked. And, so, they had to rely on European fantasy & generic landscapes to create images of America's Indiginous Peoples. For these representations, which tend to be exotic, the artists borrowed indiscriminately, mixing invented & actual details & interchanging characteristics of native groups from both American continents & from Africa.  

In the 1671 edition of John Ogilby's (1600-76) America, Being an Accurate Description of The New World, many images of Native Americans are based on the work of Arnoldus Montanus (c 1625–1683). Translated by the bookseller Ogilby from the original Dutch in 1671, the book provides an account of the newly discovered lands in the Americas. Although it is inaccurate, often including fanciful tales of mythical beasts & locations such as the Fountain of Youth, it was widely read & was a highly influential book. At its time, the publication offered the most complete cartographic records to date of North & South America & was the most accurate compendium available of the New World. In 1671 the Amsterdam printer Jacob "van" Meurs (1619-1680) published De nieuwe en onbekende weereld; of Beschryving van america en't zuid-land, or America, by Montanus, a compilation in Dutch of historical accounts from North & South America. Montanus, a Jesuit, seemed to seek illustrations emphasizing the non-Christian, heathen character of Native Americans. 

Early Native American Literature

American literature begins with the orally transmitted myths, legends, tales, and lyrics (always songs) of Indian cultures. There was no written literature among the more than 500 different Indian languages and tribal cultures that existed in North America before the first Europeans arrived. As a result, Native American oral literature is quite diverse. Narratives from quasi-nomadic hunting cultures like the Navajo are different from stories of settled agricultural tribes such as the pueblo-dwelling Acoma; the stories of northern lakeside dwellers such as the Ojibwa often differ radically from stories of desert tribes like the Hopi.

Tribes maintained their own religions -- worshipping gods, animals, plants, or sacred persons. Systems of government ranged from democracies to councils of elders to theocracies. These tribal variations enter into the oral literature as well.  Still, it is possible to make a few generalizations. Indian stories, for example, glow with reverence for nature as a spiritual as well as physical mother. Nature is alive and endowed with spiritual forces; main characters may be animals or plants, often totems associated with a tribe, group, or individual. 

The Mexican tribes revered the divine Quetzalcoatl, a god of the Toltecs and Aztecs, and some tales of a high god or culture were told elsewhere. However, there are no long, standardized religious cycles about one supreme divinity. The closest equivalents to Old World spiritual narratives are often accounts of shamans initiations and voyages. Apart from these, there are stories about culture heroes such as the Ojibwa tribe's Manabozho or the Navajo tribe's Coyote. These tricksters are treated with varying degrees of respect. In one tale they may act like heroes, while in another they may seem selfish or foolish. Although past authorities, such as the Swiss psychologist Carl Jung, have deprecated trickster tales as expressing the inferior, amoral side of the psyche, contemporary scholars -- some of them Native Americans -- point out that Odysseus and Prometheus, the revered Greek heroes, are essentially tricksters as well.

Examples of almost every oral genre can be found in American Indian literature: lyrics, chants, myths, fairy tales, humorous anecdotes, incantations, riddles, proverbs, epics, and legendary histories. Accounts of migrations and ancestors abound, as do vision or healing songs and tricksters' tales. Certain creation stories are particularly popular. In one well-known creation story, told with variations among many tribes, a turtle holds up the world. In a Cheyenne version, the creator, Maheo, has four chances to fashion the world from a watery universe. He sends four water birds diving to try to bring up earth from the bottom. The snow goose, loon, and mallard soar high into the sky and sweep down in a dive, but cannot reach bottom; but the little coot, who cannot fly, succeeds in bringing up some mud in his bill. Only one creature, humble Grandmother Turtle, is the right shape to support the mud world Maheo shapes on her shell -- hence the Indian name for America, "Turtle Island."

The songs or poetry, like the narratives, range from the sacred to the light and humorous: There are lullabies, war chants, love songs, and special songs for children's games, gambling, various chores, magic, or dance ceremonials. Generally the songs are repetitive. Short poem-songs given in dreams sometimes have the clear imagery and subtle mood associated with Japanese haiku or Eastern-influenced imagistic poetry. A Chippewa song runs:
A loon I thought it was
But it was
My love's
splashing oar.

Vision songs, often very short, are another distinctive form. Appearing in dreams or visions, sometimes with no warning, they may be healing, hunting, or love songs. Often they are personal, as in this Modoc song:
I
the song
I walk here.

Indian oral tradition and its relation to American literature as a whole is one of the richest and least explored topics in American studies. The Indian contribution to America is greater than is often believed. The hundreds of Indian words in everyday American English include "canoe," "tobacco," "potato," "moccasin," "moose," "persimmon," "raccoon," "tomahawk," and "totem." 

Before the late 1700s Native Americans had only oral stories. The traditions of the tribe could be accounted in stories. From a political perspective, rituals, ceremonies, & narrative stories could recount the positions held within the tribe & the structural relations of the community. Stories could also tell of past experiences with outside groups, such as the explorers. David Cusick (c1780–c1831) was a Tuscarora artist & the author of David Cusick’s Sketches of Ancient History of the Six Nations (1828). This is an early (if not the first) account of Native American history & myth, written & published in English by an Indian. David Cusick, from the Oneida Reservation in Madison County, New York, provided the “Iroquois Creation Story,” which is formed from the collected oral myths of 25 versions, & is influenced by the political threat of Andrew Jackson’s election to presidency & the forces against the Native American people, but this story is not written until the early 1800s. 

David Cusick (artist), c.1780-c.1840. Stonish Giants image published in 1828 Sketches of Ancient History of the Six Nations

The written accounts of Native American stories were also recorded by Spaniards in journals, such as Juan Mateo Mange (1670-1727?) & Pedro Font (1737-1781) a Franciscan missionary & diarist. From 1773 to 1775, he served at Mission San José de Tumacácori in Pima Country. He was the chaplain of Juan Bautista de Anza's expedition that explored Alta California from 1775 to 1776.  Font authored the diary With Anza to California, the principal account of the expedition. There are no earlier written Native American accounts, because they did not have a writing system. We can assume that the political influence of the European explorers & their monarch taking their land & enslaving them would be reflected in their stories, some of which are written about later in history when Native American literature moves to the written format, roughly around the late-1700s.

See: Outline of U.S. History, a publication of the U.S. Department of State copied from the website of the United States Information Agency, where it was published in November 2005.

16C & 17C Europeans Depict Native Americans - California

Jacob van Meurs from Arnoldus Montanus (1625-1683) De Nieuwe en Onbekende Weereld (The New and Unknown World) 1671 - June 26, 1579, Sir Francis Drake being crowned by California Indians

For most of the 1600s & 1700s, few first-hand images of Native Americans are known to have been created with little or no contemporary documentation. European publishers often used illustrations imagined by European artists, who had never sailed across the Atlantic.  These illustators were hired to illustrate written accounts of events in the New World without any visual evidence about how people actually lived & looked. And, so, they had to rely on European fantasy & generic landscapes to create images of America's Indiginous Peoples. For these representations, which tend to be exotic, the artists borrowed indiscriminately, mixing invented & actual details & interchanging characteristics of native groups from both American continents & from Africa.  

In the 1671 edition of John Ogilby's (1600-76) America, Being an Accurate Description of The New World, many images of Native Americans are based on the work of Arnoldus Montanus (c 1625–1683). Translated by the bookseller Ogilby from the original Dutch in 1671, the book provides an account of the newly discovered lands in the Americas. Although it is inaccurate, often including fanciful tales of mythical beasts & locations such as the Fountain of Youth, it was widely read & was a highly influential book. At its time, the publication offered the most complete cartographic records to date of North & South America & was the most accurate compendium available of the New World. In 1671 the Amsterdam printer Jacob "van" Meurs (1619-1680) published De nieuwe en onbekende weereld; of Beschryving van america en't zuid-land, or America, by Montanus, a compilation in Dutch of historical accounts from North & South America. Montanus, a Jesuit, seemed to seek illustrations emphasizing the non-Christian, heathen character of Native Americans.

16C & 17C Europeans Depict Native Americans - Dance

1671 John Ogilby’s America, the image is based on the work of Arnoldus Montanus.

For most of the 1600s & 1700s, few first-hand images of Native Americans are known to have been created with little or no contemporary documentation. European publishers often used illustrations imagined by European artists, who had never sailed across the Atlantic.  These illustators were hired to illustrate written accounts of events in the New World without any visual evidence about how people actually lived & looked. And, so, they had to rely on European fantasy & generic landscapes to create images of America's Indiginous Peoples. For these representations, which tend to be exotic, the artists borrowed indiscriminately, mixing invented & actual details & interchanging characteristics of native groups from both American continents & from Africa.  

In the 1671 edition of John Ogilby's (1600-76) America, Being an Accurate Description of The New World, many images of Native Americans are based on the work of Arnoldus Montanus (c 1625–1683). Translated by the bookseller Ogilby from the original Dutch in 1671, the book provides an account of the newly discovered lands in the Americas. Although it is inaccurate, often including fanciful tales of mythical beasts & locations such as the Fountain of Youth, it was widely read & was a highly influential book. At its time, the publication offered the most complete cartographic records to date of North & South America & was the most accurate compendium available of the New World. In 1671 the Amsterdam printer Jacob "van" Meurs (1619-1680) published De nieuwe en onbekende weereld; of Beschryving van america en't zuid-land, or America, by Montanus, a compilation in Dutch of historical accounts from North & South America. Montanus, a Jesuit, seemed to seek illustrations emphasizing the non-Christian, heathen character of Native Americans.

Studying Native American & White Relations and Policy

Sarah Molasses. Daughter of Governor John Neptune of the Penobscots. Copy of painting by Jeremiah P. Hardy of Bangor, Maine, ca. 1825

Native Americans and American History 

by Francis Flavin US National Park Service

Indian-White Relations and Policy

One of the leading authorities in the field of Indian-White relations is Francis Paul Prucha. His
masterful two-volume The Great Father: The United States Government and the American
Indians (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1984) examines the relationship between the
United States government and Native Americans from the colonial era through the Carter
administration. Anyone interested in U.S. Indian policy should begin with it. It is also available
in an abridged edition. Prucha has also written a short, astute, easy-to-read book entitled The
Indians in American Society: From the Revolutionary War to the Present (Berkeley: University
of California Press, 1985) that uses the concepts of paternalism, dependency, Indian rights, and
self-determination to survey United States Indian policy.

Throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, reformers, philanthropists, and
government officials wrestled with “the Indian question”—the question of what was to be done
with the Indians after they had been confined to reservations. Thomas Jefferson was the first
president to give this question significant thought. He wanted to “civilize” the Indians and
incorporate them into Anglo-American society. The best book on Jefferson’s Indian program is
Bernard Sheehan’s The Seeds of Extinction: Jeffersonian Philanthropy and the American Indian
(Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1973). It argues that Jefferson’s well-intended
reform program proved destructive of native culture—and that ultimately, “the white man’s
sympathy was more deadly than his animosity.” Anthony F. C. Wallace’s Jefferson and the
Indians: The Tragic Fate of the First Americans (Cambridge, Massachusetts: The Belknap Press
of Harvard University Press, 1999) concludes that Jeffersonian Indian policy produced “ethnic
cleansing” and laments that Jefferson and Madison did not work harder to “orchestrate diversity”
in the Early Republic.

In the late nineteenth and early twentieth century the government—believing it was
rescuing Indians from irrelevance and marginalization—again attempted to replace native
cultures with White American values. In the words of one reformer, the goal was to “kill the
Indian and save the man.” Frederick E. Hoxie’s A Final Promise: The Campaign to Assimilate
the Indians, 1880-1920 (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1984) provides a thoughtful
overview of this phase of Indian policy, examining the reformers’ evolving motives as well as
the challenges they faced.

Reformers frequently sent Indian youths to boarding schools to immerse them in
American culture while stripping away their own native culture. Several books have explored
the boarding school experience, like Devon A. Mihesuah’s Cultivating the Rosebuds: The
Education of Women at the Cherokee Female Seminary, 1851-1909 (Urbana: University of
Illinois Press, 1993). K. Tsianina Lomawaima’s prize-winning They Called It Prairie Light: The
Story of Chilocco Indian School (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1994) examines the
history of a coeducational Indian boarding school in Oklahoma, making effective use of
interviews with the school’s alumni. Lomawaima’s book explores an often-overlooked aspect of
the native response to American conquest and does so from an Indian perspective.

Franklin D. Roosevelt’s administration abandoned the policy of forced assimilation in
favor of cultural pluralism; however, as Alison R. Bernstein demonstrates in American Indians
and World War II: Toward a New Era in Indian Affairs (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press,
1991),World War II was a profoundly integrating force for many Indians. After the war, the
government once again decided to forcibly assimilate native peoples into mainstream society by
terminating the special legal status of tribes and the federal government’s accompanying
obligations to them, and also by relocating native people from rural reservation communities to
urban areas. The standard work on the subject is Donald Lee Fixico’s Termination and
Relocation: Federal Indian Policy, 1945-1960 (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press,
1986). Also of interest is Alvin M. Josephy Jr., et. al., eds., Red Power: The American Indians’
Fight for Freedom, 2d ed. (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1999), a collection of
government documents and Native American statements from the 1960s through the 1990s
dealing with a variety of social, political, and economic points of contention.

16C & 17C Europeans Depict Native Americans - Hunting

Jacob van Meurs from Arnoldus Montanus (1625-1683) De Nieuwe en Onbekende Weereld  (The New and Unknown World) 1673 Indians from North Amrica

For most of the 1600s & 1700s, few first-hand images of Native Americans are known to have been created with little or no contemporary documentation. European publishers often used illustrations imagined by European artists, who had never sailed across the Atlantic.  These illustators were hired to illustrate written accounts of events in the New World without any visual evidence about how people actually lived & looked. And, so, they had to rely on European fantasy & generic landscapes to create images of America's Indiginous Peoples. For these representations, which tend to be exotic, the artists borrowed indiscriminately, mixing invented & actual details & interchanging characteristics of native groups from both American continents & from Africa.  

In the 1671 edition of John Ogilby's (1600-76) America, Being an Accurate Description of The New World, many images of Native Americans are based on the work of Arnoldus Montanus (c 1625–1683). Translated by the bookseller Ogilby from the original Dutch in 1671, the book provides an account of the newly discovered lands in the Americas. Although it is inaccurate, often including fanciful tales of mythical beasts & locations such as the Fountain of Youth, it was widely read & was a highly influential book. At its time, the publication offered the most complete cartographic records to date of North & South America & was the most accurate compendium available of the New World. In 1671 the Amsterdam printer Jacob "van" Meurs (1619-1680) published De nieuwe en onbekende weereld; of Beschryving van america en't zuid-land, or America, by Montanus, a compilation in Dutch of historical accounts from North & South America. Montanus, a Jesuit, seemed to seek illustrations emphasizing the non-Christian, heathen character of Native Americans.

16C & 17C Europeans Depict Native Americans - Powhatan

Ralph Hamor visits Powhatan with a proposal from the book by Ralph Hamor (c 1589-1626) A True Discourse of the Present Estate of Virginia, and the successe of the affaires there till the 18 of June. 1614. A 1615.  This engraving was one of a series of images created by artist Georg Keller (1568-1634) to illustrate a 1617 German edition of Hamor's A True Discourse. The original 1615 English edition had no illustrations, so German printer Johann Abelius hired the artist Keller to illustrate his translation of Hamor's A True Discourse. Because Hamor's original 1615 London edition had no pictures, the artist drew upon earlier 1590 engravings of Virginia Indians by Theodore de Bry (1528-98) copied from John White's illustrations, as well as descriptions in Hamor's text. Only some details in the engravings are copied from the 1590 de Bry prints, but not all. Johann Theodore de Bry (1561-1623) the son & successor of Theodore, issued his translation of Hamor's Present State of Virginia in 1618. For illustrations, the younger de Bry simply copied Keller's invented pictures.

In May 1614 Ralph Hamor, the interpreter Thomas Savage, & two guides visit Powhatan's town on the Pamunkey River. In the foreground Powhatan feels Hamor's neck for "the chaine of pearle" Powhatan had given Thomas Dale to designate the English envoy. In the background at center, Hamor has an audience with Powhatan at his house, surrounded by Powhatan's guard. After presenting gifts, Hamor asks if Dale can have Powhatan's youngest daughter as "his neerest companion, wife & bedfellow." Powhatan refuses the request. Left of the house, an Englishman stands with Indian men, perhaps a representation of Hamor finding William Parker—a colonist lost for three years—among the Indians. In this image, the artist's invented details include the spear, the design & materials of the houses, & the tropical trees.

Ralph Hamor does continue to have interaction with Virginia's Natives as this Time Line published by The Encyclopedia of Virginia records: 

February 16, 1589 - Ralph Hamor is christened, probably in the Parish of Saint Nicholas Acons, London.

March 1606 - Ralph Hamor matriculates at Brasenose College, Oxford.

May 23, 1609 - Ralph Hamor's name is included on the second charter of Virginia.

June 1610 - Ralph Hamor is appointed a clerk in Jamestown. He later becomes secretary of the colony.

June 18, 1614 - Ralph Hamor likely departs Virginia for England.

1615 - A True Discourse of the Present Estate of Virginia by Ralph Hamor is published in England.

August 1615 - Ralph Hamor's father dies, leaving him a substantial inheritance.

Late 1616 - The Virginia Company of London names Ralph Hamor vice admiral of Virginia.

January 1617 - Ralph Hamor acquires 8 shares in the Virginia Company of London.

May 15, 1617 - On about this day, Ralph Hamor and probably his brother Thomas Hamor arrive in Virginia with the colony's new deputy governor, Samuel Argall.

1620 - Ralph Hamor arranges for the shipping of large numbers of immigrants and livestock to Virginia.

Early 1621 - Ralph Hamor sails for London with a cargo of tobacco and sassafras root worth more than £4,500.

July 24, 1621 - Ralph Hamor is elected to the governor's Council.

1622 - Ralph Hamor returns to Virginia aboard the Sea Flower along with about 120 immigrants, some of whom he may have sponsored.

March 22, 1622 - Despite being personally targeted, Ralph Hamor escapes death in a series of Indian attacks that kill more than 300 English colonists.

April 15, 1622 - Ralph Hamor is appointed commander of the settlement at Martin's Hundred.

April 19, 1622 - The governor commands Ralph Hamor to transport the whole population of Warrosquyoake to Jamestown.

May 1622 - The governor dispatches Ralph Hamor to the Chesapeake Bay to obtain provisions from Indians who live along its tributaries.

Autumn 1622 - Ralph Hamor commands a ship sent to the Potomac River to obtain provisions, killing Indians who refuse to sell food and then seizing their supplies.

April 1623 - The treasurer of the colony reports Ralph Hamor to be "miserablie poore."

1624 - By this time Ralph Hamor has erected a new house in Jamestown and been granted 500 acres of land.

February 16, 1624 - Sometime before this date Ralph Hamor and Elizabeth Fuller Clements marry. They are not known to have any children.

1625 - A man who accused Ralph Hamor of stealing papers is forced to apologize and is fined £20 sterling.

1626 - A man who accused Ralph Hamor of selling shoddy goods at "unreasonable rates" is sentenced to a month in jail and then to have his ears nailed to the pillory.

April 6, 1626 - Ralph Hamor attends a session of the governor's Council for the last recorded time.

October 11, 1626 - The governor and Council grant the widow of the recently deceased Ralph Hamor authority to administer his estate.

February 1628 - Elizabeth Fuller Clements Hamor relinquishes administration of the estate of her dead husband, Ralph Hamor, to George Menifee.


Eckhardt, J., & the Dictionary of Virginia Biography. Ralph Hamor (bap. 1589–by October 11, 1626). (2016, January 28). In Encyclopedia Virginia. Retrieved from http://www.EncyclopediaVirginia.org/Hamor_Ralph_bap_1589-by_October_11_1626.

Native American History

Iroquois Chiefs Montage - Charles Bird King, Young Omahaw, War Eagle, Little Missouri, and Pawnees, 1821,

1600s European Depictions of Native Americans - More Fantasy than Fact - Pocahontas

The Abduction of Pocahontas By Johann Theodore de Bry after Georg Keller 1619 from a book by Ralph Hamor (c 1589-1626) A True Discourse of the Present Estate of Virginia, and the successe of the affaires there till the 18 of June. 1614. A 1615.  This engraving was one of a series of images created by artist Georg Keller (1568-1634) to illustrate a 1617 German edition of Hamor's A True Discourse. The original 1615 English edition had no illustrations, so German printer Johann Abelius hired the artist Keller to illustrate his translation of Hamor's A True Discourse. Because Hamor's original 1615 London edition had no pictures, the artist drew upon earlier 1590 engravings of Virginia Indians by Theodore de Bry (1528-98) copied from John White's illustrations, as well as descriptions in Hamor's text. Only some details in the engravings are copied from the 1590 de Bry prints, but not all. Johann Theodore de Bry (1561-1623) the son & successor of Theodore, issued his translation of Hamor's Present State of Virginia in 1618. For illustrations, the younger de Bry simply copied Keller's invented pictures.

By Johann Theodore de Bry after Georg Keller
Engraving from book page, 1619
Plate 7 from America, Part 10

The artist has merged events of 1613 along the Potomac River, shown in the foreground, with events of 1614 on the York River, shown in the background. At lower left, Pocahontas (center) is deceived by Iopassus, holding his reward of a "small Copper kettle," & Iopassus's wife, who feigns "counterfeit tears." After Pocahontas consents to accompany them onto the English ship, they prepare to enter the boat, & then they sit at supper aboard ship, "merry on all hands." The events in the background take place following the capture of Pocahontas, & after an English offer to exchange her for captives & weapons. In March 1614, having received only a partial response from Powhatan, English ships move up the York River. Met with "great bravado" & then flights of arrows, the English attack & burn an Indian village.

Hamor's account offered the first published account of the marriage of Pocohontas & John Rolfe.  Ralph Hamor does continue to have interaction with Virginia's Natives as this Time Line published by The Encyclopedia of Virginia records: 

February 16, 1589 - Ralph Hamor is christened, probably in the Parish of Saint Nicholas Acons, London.

March 1606 - Ralph Hamor matriculates at Brasenose College, Oxford.

May 23, 1609 - Ralph Hamor's name is included on the second charter of Virginia.

June 1610 - Ralph Hamor is appointed a clerk in Jamestown. He later becomes secretary of the colony.

June 18, 1614 - Ralph Hamor likely departs Virginia for England.

1615 - A True Discourse of the Present Estate of Virginia by Ralph Hamor is published in England.

August 1615 - Ralph Hamor's father dies, leaving him a substantial inheritance.

Late 1616 - The Virginia Company of London names Ralph Hamor vice admiral of Virginia.

January 1617 - Ralph Hamor acquires 8 shares in the Virginia Company of London.

May 15, 1617 - On about this day, Ralph Hamor and probably his brother Thomas Hamor arrive in Virginia with the colony's new deputy governor, Samuel Argall.

1620 - Ralph Hamor arranges for the shipping of large numbers of immigrants and livestock to Virginia.

Early 1621 - Ralph Hamor sails for London with a cargo of tobacco and sassafras root worth more than £4,500.

July 24, 1621 - Ralph Hamor is elected to the governor's Council.

1622 - Ralph Hamor returns to Virginia aboard the Sea Flower along with about 120 immigrants, some of whom he may have sponsored.

March 22, 1622 - Despite being personally targeted, Ralph Hamor escapes death in a series of Indian attacks that kill more than 300 English colonists.

April 15, 1622 - Ralph Hamor is appointed commander of the settlement at Martin's Hundred.

April 19, 1622 - The governor commands Ralph Hamor to transport the whole population of Warrosquyoake to Jamestown.

May 1622 - The governor dispatches Ralph Hamor to the Chesapeake Bay to obtain provisions from Indians who live along its tributaries.

Autumn 1622 - Ralph Hamor commands a ship sent to the Potomac River to obtain provisions, killing Indians who refuse to sell food and then seizing their supplies.

April 1623 - The treasurer of the colony reports Ralph Hamor to be "miserablie poore."

1624 - By this time Ralph Hamor has erected a new house in Jamestown and been granted 500 acres of land.

February 16, 1624 - Sometime before this date Ralph Hamor and Elizabeth Fuller Clements marry. They are not known to have any children.

1625 - A man who accused Ralph Hamor of stealing papers is forced to apologize and is fined £20 sterling.

1626 - A man who accused Ralph Hamor of selling shoddy goods at "unreasonable rates" is sentenced to a month in jail and then to have his ears nailed to the pillory.

April 6, 1626 - Ralph Hamor attends a session of the governor's Council for the last recorded time.

October 11, 1626 - The governor and Council grant the widow of the recently deceased Ralph Hamor authority to administer his estate.

February 1628 - Elizabeth Fuller Clements Hamor relinquishes administration of the estate of her dead husband, Ralph Hamor, to George Menifee.

Eckhardt, J., & the Dictionary of Virginia Biography. Ralph Hamor (bap. 1589–by October 11, 1626). (2016, January 28). In Encyclopedia Virginia. Retrieved from http://www.EncyclopediaVirginia.org/Hamor_Ralph_bap_1589-by_October_11_1626.

Introduction to Colonial-Native American Relations before The Revolution

Sometimes friendly, sometimes hostile, the tribes Along the Atlantic coast were no longer strangers to the Europeans. Although Native Americans seemed to benefit from access to new technology & trade, the disease & thirst for land that the early settlers also brought posed a serious challenge to their long-established way of life.

At first, trade with the European settlers brought advantages: knives, axes, weapons, cooking utensils, fishhooks, & a host of other goods. Those Indians who traded initially had significant advantage over rivals who did not. In response to European demand, tribes such as the Iroquois began to devote more attention to fur trapping during the 17C. Furs & pelts provided tribes the means to purchase colonial goods until late into the 18C.

Early colonial-Native-American relations were an uneasy mix of cooperation & conflict. On the one hand, there were the exemplary relations that prevailed during the first half century of Pennsylvania's existence. On the other were a long series of setbacks, skirmishes, & wars, which almost invariably resulted in an Indian defeat & further loss of land.

The first of the important Native-American uprisings occurred in Virginia in 1622, when some 347 whites were killed, including a number of missionaries who had just recently come to Jamestown.

White settlement of the Connecticut River region touched off the Pequot War in 1637. In 1675 King Philip, the son of the native chief who had made the original peace with the Pilgrims in 1621, attempted to unite the tribes of southern New England against further European encroachment of their lands. In the struggle, however, Philip lost his life & many Indians were sold into servitude.

The steady influx of settlers into the backwoods regions of the Eastern colonies disrupted Native-American life. As more & more game was killed off, tribes were faced with the difficult choice of going hungry, going to war, or moving & coming into conflict with other tribes to the west.

The Iroquois, who inhabited the area below lakes Ontario & Erie in northern New York & Pennsylvania, were more successful in resisting European advances. In 1570 five tribes joined to form the most complex Native-American nation of its time, the "Ho-De-No-Sau-Nee," or League of the Iroquois. The league was run by a council made up of 50 representatives from each of the five member tribes. The council dealt with matters common to all the tribes, but it had no say in how the free & equal tribes ran their day-to-day affairs. No tribe was allowed to make war by itself. The council passed laws to deal with crimes such as murder.

The Iroquois League was a strong power in the 1600s & 1700s. It traded furs with the British & sided with them against the French in the war for the dominance of America between 1754 & 1763. The British might not have won that war otherwise.

The Iroquois League stayed strong until the American Revolution. Then, for the first time, the council could not reach a unanimous decision on whom to support. Member tribes made their own decisions, some fighting with the British, some with the colonists, some remaining neutral. As a result, everyone fought against the Iroquois. Their losses were great & the league never recovered.

Early European Settlements on the Natives' Lands

James Cook, A Voyage to the Pacific Ocean: Undertaken by the Command of His Majesty, for Making Discoveries in the Northern Hemisphere; Performed under the Direction of Captains Cook, Clerke, and Gore, in His Majesty's Ships the Resolution and the Discovery in the Years 1776, 1777, 1778, 1779, and 1780; Published by Order of the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty (London: G. Nicol and T. Cadell, 1785) Detail.

The early 1600s saw the beginning of a great tide of emigration from Europe to North America. Spanning more than three centuries & from one coast of north America to the other, this movement grew from a trickle of a few hundred English colonists to a flood of millions of newcomers. Impelled by powerful & diverse motivations, they built a new civilization on the northern part of the continent.

The first English immigrants to what is now the United States crossed the Atlantic long after thriving Spanish colonies had been established in Mexico, the West Indies, & South America. Like all early travelers to the New World, they came in small, overcrowded ships. During their six-to 12-week voyages, they lived on meager rations. Many died of disease, ships were often battered by storms, & some were lost at sea.

Most European emigrants left their homelands to escape political oppression; to seek the freedom to practice their religion; to start a new life after a brush with the law; or to find economic or personal opportunities denied them at home. Between 1620 & 1635, economic difficulties swept England. Many people could not find work. Even skilled artisans could earn little more than a bare living. Poor crop yields added to the distress. In addition, the Commercial Revolution had created a burgeoning textile industry, which demanded an ever-increasing supply of wool to keep the looms running. Landlords enclosed farmlands & evicted the peasants in favor of sheep cultivation. Colonial expansion became an outlet for this displaced peasant population.

The colonists' first glimpse of the new land was a vista of dense woods. The settlers might not have survived had it not been for the help of friendly Indians, who taught them how to grow native plants – pumpkin, squash, beans, & corn. In addition, the vast, virgin forests, extending nearly 2,100 kilometers along the Eastern seaboard, proved a rich source of game & firewood. They also provided abundant raw materials used to build houses, furniture, ships, & profitable items for the newcomers export.

Although the new continent was remarkably endowed by nature, trade with Europe was vital for articles the settlers could not produce. The coasts served the immigrants well. The whole length of shorelines provided many inlets & harbors. Only two areas on the East Coast  – North Carolina & southern New Jersey – lacked harbors for ocean-going vessels.

Majestic rivers – the Kennebec, Hudson, Delaware, Susquehanna, Potomac, & numerous others – linked lands between the coast & the Appalachian Mountains with the sea. Only one river, however, the St. Lawrence – dominated by the French in Canada – offered a water passage to the Great Lakes & the heart of the continent. Dense forests, the resistance of some Indian tribes, & the formidable barrier of the Appalachian Mountains discouraged settlement beyond the coastal plain. Only trappers & traders ventured into the wilderness. For the first hundred years the colonists built their settlements compactly along the coast.

Political considerations influenced many people to move to America. In the 1630s, arbitrary rule by England's Charles I gave impetus to the migration. The subsequent revolt & triumph of Charles' opponents under Oliver Cromwell in the 1640s led many cavaliers – "king's men" – to cast their lot in Virginia. In the German-speaking regions of Europe, the oppressive policies of various petty princes – particularly with regard to religion – & the devastation caused by a long series of wars helped swell the movement to America in the late 17th & 18th centuries.

The journey entailed careful planning & management, as well as considerable expense & risk. Settlers had to be transported nearly 5,000 kilometers across the Atlantic. They needed utensils, clothing, seed, tools, building materials, livestock, arms, & ammunition. In contrast to the colonization policies of other countries & other periods, the emigration from England was not directly sponsored by the government but by private groups of individuals whose chief motive was profit.

Introduction to Early Europeans Arriving in America

The first Europeans to arrive in North America – at least the first for whom there is solid evidence – were Norse, traveling west from Greenland, where Erik the Red had founded a settlement around the year 985. In 1001 his son Leif is thought to have explored the northeast coast of what is now Canada & spent at least one winter there.

While Norse sagas suggest that Viking sailors explored the Atlantic coast of North America down as far as the Bahamas, such claims remain unproven. In 1963, however, the ruins of some Norse houses dating from that era were discovered at L'Anse-aux-Meadows in northern Newfoundland, thus supporting at least some of the saga claims.

In 1497, just five years after Christopher Columbus landed in the Caribbean looking for a western route to Asia, a Venetian sailor named John Cabot arrived in Newfoundland on a mission for the British king. Although quickly forgotten, Cabot's journey was later to provide the basis for British claims to North America. It also opened the way to the rich fishing grounds off George's Banks, to which European fishermen, particularly the Portuguese, were soon making regular visits.

Columbus never saw the mainland of the future United States, but the first explorations of it were launched from the Spanish possessions that he helped establish. The first of these took place in 1513 when a group of men under Juan Ponce de León landed on the Florida coast near the present city of St. Augustine.

With the conquest of Mexico in 1522, the Spanish further solidified their position in the Western Hemisphere. The ensuing discoveries added to Europe's knowledge of what was now named America – after the Italian Amerigo Vespucci, who wrote a widely popular account of his voyages to a "New World." By 1529 reliable maps of the Atlantic coastline from Labrador to Tierra del Fuego had been drawn up, although it would take more than another century before hope of discovering a "Northwest Passage" to Asia would be completely abandoned.

Among the most significant early Spanish explorations was that of Hernando De Soto, a veteran conquistador who had accompanied Francisco Pizarro in the conquest of Peru. Leaving Havana in 1539, De Soto's expedition landed in Florida & ranged through the southeastern United States as far as the Mississippi River in search of riches.

Another Spaniard, Francisco Vázquez de Coronado, set out from Mexico in 1540 in search of the mythical Seven Cities of Cibola. Coronado's travels took him to the Grand Canyon & Kansas, but failed to reveal the gold or treasure his men sought. However, his party did leave the peoples of the region a remarkable, if unintended, gift: Enough of his horses escaped to transform life on the Great Plains. Within a few generations, the Plains Indians had become masters of horsemanship, greatly expanding the range & scope of their activities.

While the Spanish were pushing up from the south, the northern portion of the present – day United States was slowly being revealed through the journeys of men such as Giovanni da Verrazano. A Florentine who sailed for the French, Verrazano made landfall in North Carolina in 1524, then sailed north along the Atlantic Coast past what is now New York harbor.

A decade later, the Frenchman Jacques Cartier set sail with the hope – like the other Europeans before him – of finding a sea passage to Asia. Cartier's expeditions along the St. Lawrence River laid the foundation for the French claims to North America, which were to last until 1763.

Following the collapse of their first Quebec colony in the 1540s, French Huguenots attempted to settle the northern coast of Florida two decades later. The Spanish, viewing the French as a threat to their trade route along the Gulf Stream, destroyed the colony in 1565. Ironically, the leader of the Spanish forces, Pedro Menéndez, would soon establish a town not far away – St. Augustine. It was the first permanent European settlement in what would become the United States.

The great wealth that poured into Spain from the colonies in Mexico, the Caribbean, & Peru provoked great interest on the part of the other European powers. Emerging maritime nations such as England, drawn in part by Francis Drake's successful raids on Spanish treasure ships, began to take an interest in the New World.

In 1578 Humphrey Gilbert, the author of a treatise on the search for the Northwest Passage, received a patent from Queen Elizabeth to colonize the "heathen & barbarous landes" in the New World that other European nations had not yet claimed. It would be five years before his efforts could begin. When he was lost at sea, his half-brother, Walter Raleigh, took up the mission.

In 1585 Raleigh established the first British colony in North America, on Roanoke Island off the coast of North Carolina. It was later abandoned, & a second effort two years later also proved a failure. It would be 20 years before the British would try again. This time – at Jamestown in 1607 – the colony would succeed, & North America would enter a new era.

Introduction to Native American Cultures as Europeans Arrived

The America that greeted the first Europeans was far from an empty wilderness. It is now thought that as many people lived in the Western Hemisphere as in Western Europe at that time – about 40 million. Estimates of the number of Native Americans living in what is now the United States at the onset of European colonization range from two to 18 million, with most historians tending toward the lower figure. What is certain is the devastating effect that European disease had on the indigenous population practically from the time of initial contact. Smallpox, in particular, ravaged whole communities & is thought to have been a much more direct cause of the precipitous decline in the Indian population in the 1600s than the numerous wars & skirmishes with European settlers.

Indian customs & culture at the time were extraordinarily diverse, as could be expected, given the expanse of the land & the many different environments to which they had adapted. Some generalizations, however, are possible. Most tribes, particularly in the wooded eastern region & the Midwest, combined aspects of hunting, gathering, & the cultivation of maize & other products for their food supplies. In many cases, the women were responsible for farming & the distribution of food, while the men hunted & participated in war.

By all accounts, Native-American society in North America was closely tied to the land. Identification with nature & the elements was integral to religious beliefs. Their life was essentially clan – oriented & communal, with children allowed more freedom & tolerance than was the European custom of the day.

Although some North American tribes developed a type of hieroglyphics to preserve certain texts, Native-American culture was primarily oral, with a high value placed on the recounting of tales & dreams. Clearly, there was a good deal of trade among various groups & strong evidence exists that neighboring tribes maintained extensive & formal relations – both friendly & hostile.

Introduction to Mound Builders & Pueblos

The first Native-American group to build mounds in what is now the United States often are called the Adenans. They began constructing earthen burial sites & fortifications around 600 B.C. Some mounds from that era are in the shape of birds or serpents; they probably served religious purposes not yet fully understood.

The Adenans appear to have been absorbed or displaced by various groups collectively known as Hopewellians. One of the most important centers of their culture was found in southern Ohio, where the remains of several thousand of these mounds still can be seen. Believed to be great traders, the Hopewellians used & exchanged tools & materials across a wide region of hundreds of kilometers.

By around 500 A.D., the Hopewellians disappeared, too, gradually giving way to a broad group of tribes generally known as the Mississippians or Temple Mound culture. One city, Cahokia, near Collinsville, Illinois, is thought to have had a population of about 20,000 at its peak in the early 12th century. At the center of the city stood a huge earthen mound, flattened at the top, that was 30 meters high & 37 hectares at the base. Eighty other mounds have been found nearby.

Cities such as Cahokia depended on a combination of hunting, foraging, trading, & agriculture for their food & supplies. Influenced by the thriving societies to the south, they evolved into complex hierarchical societies that took slaves & practiced human sacrifice.

In what is now the southwest United States, the Anasazi, ancestors of the modern Hopi Indians, began building stone & adobe pueblos around the year 900. These unique & amazing apartment-like structures were often built along cliff faces; the most famous, the “cliff palace” of Mesa Verde, Colorado, had more than 200 rooms. Another site, the Pueblo Bonito ruins along New Mexico's Chaco River, once contained more than 800 rooms.

Perhaps the most affluent of the pre-Columbian Native Americans lived in the Pacific Northwest, where the natural abundance of fish & raw materials made food supplies plentiful & permanent villages possible as early as 1,000 B.C. The opulence of their "potlatch" gatherings remains a standard for extravagance & festivity probably unmatched in early American history.