Early Attempts of Europeans To Occupy Native American Homelands

Tobacco cultivation at Jamestown, c 1615. from 1878

The early 1600s saw the beginning of a great tide of emigration from Europe to North America. Spanning more than 3 centuries, 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 6-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, or for adventure & 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 Industrial 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 Native Americans, 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 cargoes for export.

Although the new continent was remarkably endowed by nature, trade with Europe was vital for articles the settlers could not produce. The coast served the immigrants well. The whole length of shore provided innumerable inlets & harbors. Only two areas -- 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 & into the heart of the continent. Dense forests, the resistance of some Native American tribes & the formidable barrier of the Appalachian Mountains discouraged settlement beyond the coastal plain. Only trappers & traders ventured into the wilderness with the Native Americans. 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 (1600-1649) gave impetus to the migration to the New World. The subsequent revolt & triumph of Charles' opponents under Oliver Cromwell (1599-1668) 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 17C & 18C.

The coming of colonists in the 17C entailed careful planning & management, as well as considerable expense & risk. Settlers had to be transported nearly 5,000 kilometers across the sea. 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.

From 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.

Eyewitness John White 1585 - Man & Woman Eating Together

1585 John White (English artist, c 1540-1593) Man and Woman Eating

A man on the left and a woman on the right are seated facing each other on a strip of matting, which appears to be stitched across at about one foot intervals. It extends beyond the left-hand edge but the end on the right is finished with a double row of stitches. They are eating with their right hands from a large circular dish containing large grains of food. The man has his hair shaved at the side, with a roach running from front to back in which he wears a feather. A small knot of hair is gathered at the back of the neck. His ear ornament is apparently a piece of skin, passed through a hole in the right ear lobe and hanging down several inches on either side. Each end is marked with a streak of yellow, perhaps representing cylindrical pieces of shell or bone. Lines of red paint are visible on his face and forehead. His fringed deerskin mantle is worn over the left shoulder, the top folded over, showing the hair on the inside. The woman's hair is worn long, with a low fringe in front, perhaps hiding a headband or tattooing, and is tied in a knot at the neck. She also wears a three-string bead or pearl necklace, and a fringed skin robe over her left shoulder. 

Inscribed in dark brown ink, at the top, "Theire sitting at meate. "

John White (English artist, c 1540-1593) was an English artist & early pioneer of English efforts to settle North America. He was among those who sailed with Richard Grenville to the shore of present-day North Carolina in 1585, acting as artist & mapmaker to the expedition. During his time at Roanoke Island he made a number of watercolor sketches of the surrounding landscape and the native Algonkin peoples. These works are significant as they are the most informative eyewitness illustrations of an early Native American society of the Eastern seaboard.

European Invaders vs Native Americans - Ponce de Leon

In May of 1513, Juan Ponce de Leon (1460?-1521) encountered Calusa Indians while exploring the Gulf Coast of Florida. In a fight with the Calusa, Juan Ponce de Leon captured 4 warriors. Ponce de León was typical of the Spanish conquistadors. A military officer by training, he served in the campaign that drove the Moslems from Spain in 1492, before joining Columbus’ 1493 expedition. After helping to conquer Hispaniola in 1502-1504 (now the Dominican Republic), he was made governor of its eastern province. Discovering gold in Puerto Rico in 1508, he invaded that island, too, & as its governor enriched himself by trading in real estate, gold, & slaves.  Ponce de León obtained permission in 1512 to explore & colonize Bimini, an island reported to contain a river whose waters had a rejuvenating effect. It did not. (The origins of the “fountain of youth” myth are given in the opening pages of Chapter one of Francis Parkman's (1823-1893) 1897 Pioneers of France in the New World.) 

Ponce de León's vessels left Puerto Rico on March 3, 1513, reaching the east coast of Florida on April 2, 1513. For 6 weeks he skirted the coastline southward past Cape Canaveral, Palm Beach, & Biscayne Bay to the Keys & Tortugas. He then coasted up the west side of the peninsula as far as the site of present city of Naples, before turning back to Puerto Rico, arriving on September 21, 1513.  No eyewitness accounts survive from the 1513 voyage, but two archival documents related to the expedition survive. The earliest description of Ponce de León’s explorations was written 70 years later, when Antonio de Herrera (d 1625) compiled his Historia de las Indias, which contains his account of the 1513 exploration voyage of Juan Ponce de Leon, published in 1601. He wrote, "On the 20th of April, they discovered some huts of Indians, where they anchored: the day following, all three vessels following the seacoast, they saw such a current that, although they had a strong wind, they could not go forward, but rather backward, & it seemed that they were going on well; & finally it was seen that the current was so great it was more powerful than the wind. The two vessels that found themselves nearest the land anchored, but the current was so strong that the cables twisted; & the third vessel, which was a brigantine, which was farther out to sea, could find no bottom, or did not know of the current, & it was drawn away from land, & lost to their sight, though the day was clear with fair weather.
"Here Juan Ponce went ashore, called by the Indians, who immediately tried to take the boat, the oars, & the arms. In order not to break with them, they suffered it to cause trouble in the land. But, because they struck a seaman in the head with a stick, from which he remained unconscious, they had to fight with them; they, with their arrows & armed shafts — the points of sharpened bones & fish spines — wounded two Spaniards, & the Indians received little hurt. The night separating them, Juan Ponce regathered the Spaniards after hard work. He set out from there to a stream where he took water & firewood, & stayed awaiting the brigantine. Sixty Indians went there to hinder him. One of them was taken for a guide, & so that he might learn the language. He gave this stream the name of La Cruz & he left by it a cross hewn from stone, with an inscription; & they did not finish taking water, because it was brackish."

Theodor de Bry and sons, Americae Frankfurt

By some estimates, at that time Florida was home to as many as 300,000 Native Americans. The only identifiable tribe that played a documented role was the Calusa, a now-extinct tribe that Ponce de Leon encountered on the southwest coast. Ponce de Leon served as governor of the Spanish colony of San Juan (now Puerto Rico). There, he was known as a conquistador with a reputation for taking Native Americans as slaves.  Herrera also recorded Ponce de Leon's method of quelling Native American unrest in Peurto Rico. "He had a dog, called Bezerillo, that made wonderful havock among these people, & knew which of them were in war & which in peace, like a man; for which reason the Indians were more afraid of 10 Spaniards with the dog, than of 100 without him, & therefore he had one share & a half of all that taken, as was done to one that carried a crossbow, as well in gold as slaves & other things, which his master received. Very extraordinary things were said of this dog.”

Combating Native American revolts on various islands occupied his attention for several years, but in 1521 Ponce de León organized a large-scale colonial expedition to settle Florida. When they landed near present-day Tampa Bay, however, Native American resistance was so fierce, that it drove the 200 Spanish colonists back to their vessels. Ponce de Leon entered the Calusa village in an effort to establish a Spanish colony. When the Calusa attacked, Ponce de Leon was hit with an arrow & suffered a mortal wound. He died in July of 1521, in Cuba. 

Within 80 years of Ponce de Leon’s landing in the New World, much of the indigenous Calusa population had succumbed to slavery, disease, or death in combat against the invaders.  Before Ponce de Leon, Willie Johns, a historian for the Seminole Tribe of Florida, notes that there were 8 groups of Native Americans in the region. They all had their own distinct languages & cultures. None of them remain. 

See 
American Journeys Eyewitness accounts of Early American Exploration & Settlement. University & Historical Society of Wisconsin 

The Saint Augustine Record article on Ponce de Leon by Sam Turner Apr 28, 2013

Native History: Ponce de Leon Arrives in Florida; Beginning of the End. Indian Country Today by Alysa Landry. April 2, 2017

Eyewitness John White 1585 - Native Americans Praying around the Fire with Rattles

John White (English artist, c 1540-1593) Praying around the fire with rattles 1590

Ten Indians, apparently six men and four women, are seated or kneeling in a circle round a spoke-shaped log fire. Five are holding gourd rattles. Four of the men wear feathers in their hair which is cut short at the side to leave a roach in the middle. The women wear their hair somewhat longer and looser. The figure (a man?) seen behind the flames apparently has long, untrimmed hair. Several men and women are wearing one-, two-, or three-strand necklaces and there is a suggestion that some have ear ornaments. One man clearly wears a breech-clout, one is evidently entirely unclothed, and two wear skin mantles draped over one shoulder. One woman wears a single apron-skirt, one has either a single or double apron-skirt, and one seems to be wearing only a cord around her waist. One woman is painted or tattooed on her arms and one leg, and another on one arm.

John White (English artist, c 1540-1593) was an English artist & early pioneer of Britain's efforts to settle North America. He was among those who sailed with Richard Grenville to the shore of present-day North Carolina & Virginia in 1585, acting as artist & mapmaker to the expedition. During his time at Roanoke Island he made a number of watercolor sketches of the surrounding landscape and the native Algonkin peoples. These works are significant, as they are the most informed, eyewitness contemporary illustrations of an early Native American society of the North America's Eastern seaboard.

1519 Spanish Invasion & Fall of the Native Aztec Empire

Aztec Feast by Spanish Franciscan missionary & ethnographer Bernardino de Sahagún (1499–1590) in the Florentine Codex. 1540 & 1585 

The Aztecs, who probably originated as a nomadic Native American tribe in northern Mexico, arrived in Mesoamerica (as the south-central region of pre-Columbian Mexico is known) around the beginning of the 13C. From their capital city, Tenochtitlan, the Aztecs emerged as the dominant force in central Mexico, developing an intricate social, political, religious & commercial culture that brought many of the region’s city-states under their control by the 15C. Invaders led by the Spanish conquistador Hernan Cortes overthrew the Aztecs by force & captured Tenochtitlan in 1521, bringing an end to Mesoamerica’s last great Native American civilization.

Aztec Feast by Spanish Franciscan missionary & ethnographer Bernardino de Sahagún (1499–1590) in the Florentine Codex. 1540 & 1585 

The exact origins of the Aztec people are uncertain, but they are believed to have begun as a northern tribe of hunter-gatherers whose name came from that of their homeland, Aztlan (or “White Land”). The Aztecs were also known as the Tenochca (from which the name for their capital city, Tenochtitlan, was derived) or the Mexica (the origin of the name of the city that would replace Tenochtitlan, as well as the name for the entire country). The Aztecs appeared in Mesoamericain the early 13C. Their arrival came just after, or perhaps helped bring about, the fall of the previously dominant Mesoamerican civilization, the Toltecs.

Mexica (Aztec) Farmer by Spanish Franciscan missionary & ethnographer Bernardino de Sahagún (1499–1590) in the Florentine Codex. 1540 & 1585

Tradition relates that when the Aztecs saw an eagle perched on a cactus on the marshy land near the southwest border of Lake Texcoco, they took it as a sign to build their settlement there. They drained the swampy land, constructed artificial islands on which they could plant gardens & established the foundations of their capital city, Tenochtitlán, in 1325 A.D. 

Storing Maize. by Spanish Franciscan missionary & ethnographer Bernardino de Sahagún (1499–1590) in the Florentine Codex. 1540 & 1585

Typical Aztec crops included maize (corn), along with beans, squashes, potatoes, tomatoes & avocadoes; they also supported themselves through fishing & hunting local animals such as rabbits, armadillos, snakes, coyotes & wild turkey. Their relatively sophisticated system of agriculture (including intensive cultivation of land & irrigation methods) & a powerful military tradition would enable the Aztecs to build a successful empire.

Aztec Food by Spanish Franciscan missionary & ethnographer Bernardino de Sahagún (1499–1590) in the Florentine Codex. 1540 & 1585

In 1428, under their leader Itzcoatl, the Aztecs formed a 3-way alliance with the Texcocans & the Tacubans to defeat their most powerful rivals for influence in the region, the Tepanec, & conquer their capital of Azcapotzalco. Itzcoatl’s successor Montezuma (Moctezuma) I, who took power in 1440, was a great warrior who was remembered as the father of the Aztec empire. By the early 16C, the Aztecs had come to rule over up to 500 small states, & some 5 to 6 million people, either by conquest or commerce. Tenochtitlán at its height had more than 140,000 inhabitants.

Aztec Merchants selling feather articles, jewelry, textiles and furs by Spanish Franciscan missionary & ethnographer Bernardino de Sahagún (1499–1590) in the Florentine Codex. 1540 & 1585

Bustling markets such as Tenochtitlan’s Tlatelolco, said to be visited by some 50,000 people on market days, drove the Aztec economy. The Aztec civilization was also highly developed socially, intellectually & artistically. It was a highly structured society with a strict caste system; at the top were nobles, while at the bottom were serfs, indentured servants & slaves. 

Aztec Ceremonial Eagle Warrior (left) & Jaguar Warrior (right)  by Spanish Franciscan missionary & ethnographer Bernardino de Sahagún (1499–1590) in the Florentine Codex. 1540 & 1585

The Aztec faith shared many aspects with other Mesoamerican religions, like that of the Maya, notably including the rite of human sacrifice. 

Aztec Ceremonial Drums at the One Flower Ceremony, by Spanish Franciscan missionary & ethnographer Bernardino de Sahagún (1499–1590) in the Florentine Codex. 1540 & 1585

In the great cities of the Aztec empire, magnificent temples, palaces, plazas & statues embodied the civilization’s unfailing devotion to the many Aztec gods, including Huitzilopochtli (god of war & of the sun) & Quetzalcoatl (“Feathered Serpent”), a Toltec god who served many important roles in the Aztec faith over the years. 

 Aztec Merchants delivering pipes with scented tobacco, ashtrays, floral arrangements and aromatic staffsby Spanish Franciscan missionary & ethnographer Bernardino de Sahagún (1499–1590) in the Florentine Codex. 1540 & 1585

The Aztec calendar, common in much of Mesoamerica, was based on a solar cycle of 365 days & a ritual cycle of 260 days; the calendar played a central role in the religion & rituals of Aztec society.

Aztec Women by Spanish Franciscan missionary & ethnographer Bernardino de Sahagún (1499–1590) in the Florentine Codex. 1540 & 1585

The 1st European to visit Mexican territory was Francisco Hernandez de Cordoba (c1475-1526), who arrived in Yucatan from Cuba with 3 ships & about 100 men in early 1517. Cordobars reports on his return to Cuba prompted the Spanish governor there, Diego Velasquez (1465-1524), to send a larger force back to Mexico under the command of Hernan Cortes. 

In March 1519, Cortes landed at the town of Tabasco, where he learned from the natives of the great Aztec civilization, then ruled by Moctezuma (Montezuma) II. Defying the authority of Velasquez, Cortes founded the city of Veracruz on the southeastern Mexican coast, where he trained his army into a disciplined fighting force. Cortes & some 400 soldiers then marched into Mexico, aided by a native woman known as Malinche, who served as a translator. Thanks to instability within the Aztec empire, Cortes was able to form alliances with other native peoples, notably the Tlascalans, who were then at war with Montezuma.

In November 1519, Cortes & his men arrived in Tenochtitlan, where Montezuma & his people greeted them as honored guests according to Aztec custom (partially due to Cortes’ physical resemblance to the light-skinned Quetzalcoatl, whose return was prophesied in Aztec legend). Though the Aztecs had superior numbers, their weapons were inferior, & Cortes was able to immediately take Montezuma & his entourage of lords hostage, gaining control of Tenochtitla. 

The Spaniards then murdered thousands of Aztec nobles during a ritual dance ceremony, & Montezuma died while in custody. Cuauhtemoc, his young nephew, took over as emperor, & the Aztecs drove the Spaniards from the city. With the help of the Aztecs’ native rivals, Cortes mounted an offensive against Tenochtitlan, finally defeating Cuauhtemoc’s resistance on August 13, 1521. In all, some 240,000 people were believed to have died in the city’s conquest, which effectively ended the Aztec civilization. After his victory, Cortes razed Tenochtitla & built Mexico City on its ruins.  See History.com
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The contemporary illustrations are from the Florentine Codex (c 1540 & 1585) which consists of 12 illuminated books of Aztec codices, created in the Viceroyalty of New Spain (Colonial México) by Spanish missionary Bernardino de Sahagún (1499–1590).  Bernardino de Sahagún was a Franciscan friar, missionary priest, & pioneering ethnographer who participated in the Catholic evangelization of colonial New Spain (now Mexico). Born in Sahagún, Spain, in 1499, he journeyed across the Atlantic Ocean to New Spain in 1529, & spent more than 50 years conducting interviews regarding Aztec beliefs, culture & history. Though he primarily dedicated himself to his religious missionary task, his extraordinary work documenting indigenous worldview & culture has earned him the title “the first anthropologist.” He also contributed to the description of the Aztec language Nahuatl, into which he translated the Psalms, the Gospels & a basic manual of religious education.

Eyewitness John White 1585 - Women already on the Atlantic coast of America when the English arrived

1585 John White (English artist, c 1540-1593) One of the Wives of Wyngyno, John White Painting of Algonquian Indians of Virginia (now North Carolina)

A woman stands facing half-left, with the right foot crossed behind the left and her arms bent, her hands resting on her shoulders so that her forearms partly cover her breasts. She is wearing an apron-skirt of fringed deerskin. Her hair has a fringe in front and is caught at the neck behind, while beneath the fringe, a headband is visible. Her ear ornament consists of two or more blue beads hanging from the lobe. She wears a short, two-string necklace of alternate black and blue beads from which hangs a large bead (with two others) to form a pendant. She is tattooed or painted on the forehead, cheeks, chin, wrists, the left upper arm and the calves. Her left foot, as drawn, has the toes on the wrong side.


Inscribed in dark brown ink, at the top, "One of the wyues of Wyngyno. "

John White (English artist, c 1540-1593) was an English artist & early pioneer of English efforts to settle North America. He was among those who sailed with Richard Grenville to the shore of present-day North Carolina in 1585, acting as artist & mapmaker to the expedition. During his time at Roanoke Island he made a number of watercolor sketches of the surrounding landscape and the native Algonkin peoples. These works are significant as they are the most informative illustrations of a Native American society of the Eastern seaboard.

Native American Culture when Europeans Arrived in The New World

1876 A Popular History of the United States by William Cullen Bryant (1794-1878) & Sydney Howard Gay (1814-1888)

The America that greeted the first Europeans was, thus, 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 2 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 Native American population in the 1600s than the numerous wars & skirmishes with European settlers.

Native American 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. Native American 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, their 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.

From 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.

Eyewitness John White 1585 - Body Paint

Watercolor drawing Indian in Body Paint by John White (created 1585-1586)

A man stands to the front, his face half-left, his feet well apart, the back of his right hand resting on his right hip. He is wearing a single apron-skirt of fringed deerskin and a grayish (puma?) tail which hangs down at the back and is seen between his legs from the thighs almost to the ankles. His hair is worn short at the sides leaving a central roach and is caught up at the back. Two feathers are stuck in his hair by his left ear and one is visible by his right, while a tall feather stands upright from his forehead. From his right ear protrudes what seems to be a bone ornament, and from his left hangs an ornament which appears to consist of a stone (or bead) enclosed by a strip of yellowish metal from which depend three small metal balls; one ball may also be seen above the stone. Around his neck he wears a long six-string necklace of blue or near black pearls or beads of even size, and two bracelets of the same materials are worn round his right wrist. He is elaborately painted in reddish-brown and white on the face, neck, chest, upper arms and calves. Around the neck the painting simulates a necklace from which hang three circular plaques with double outlines, the lowest of these having a central boss. Round the nipples and on the shoulders are similar circular designs, from the latter of which stripes are carried down to the forearm. He is armed with a strung bow somewhat taller than himself which he holds upright in his left hand. On his left wrist is a folded band or wrist-guard of skin, secured with a button, while from his left side projects a basketry quiver inside which the tips of arrows are visible. This is supported by a string or thong probably suggested by the line on his left shoulder.

Inscribed in dark brown ink, in the upper left-hand corner, "The manner of their attire and | painting themselues when | they goe to their generall | huntings, or at theire Solemne feasts."

John White (c 1540-1593) was an English artist & early pioneer of English efforts to settle North America. He was among those who sailed with Richard Grenville to the shore of present-day North Carolina in 1585, acting as artist & mapmaker to the expedition. During his time at Roanoke Island he made a number of watercolor sketches of the surrounding landscape & the native Algonkin peoples. White had been commissioned to "draw to life" the inhabitants of the New World & their surroundings.  During White's time at Roanoke Island, he completed numerous watercolor drawings of the surrounding landscape & native peoples. These works are significant as they are the most informative illustrations of a Native American society of the Eastern seaboard.  They represent the sole-surviving visual record of the native inhabitants of America encountered by England's first settlers.

Native Americans in the Ice Age

At the height of the Ice Age, between 34,000 and 30,000 B.C., much of the world's water was contained in vast continental ice sheets. As a result, the Bering Sea was hundreds of meters below its current level, and a land bridge, known as Beringia, emerged between Asia and North America. At its peak, Beringia is thought to have been some 1,500 kilometers wide. A moist and treeless tundra, it was covered with grasses and plant life, attracting the large animals that early humans hunted for their survival.

The first people to reach North America almost certainly did so without knowing they had crossed into a new continent. They would have been following game, as their ancestors had for thousands of years, along the Siberian coast and then across the land bridge.

Once in Alaska, it would take these first North Americans thousands of years more to work their way through the openings in great glaciers south to what is now the United States. Evidence of early life in North America continues to be found. Little of it, however, can be reliably dated before 12,000 B.C.; a recent discovery of a hunting lookout in northern Alaska, for example, may date from almost that time. So too may the finely crafted spear points and items found near Clovis, New Mexico.

Similar artifacts have been found at sites throughout North and South America, indicating that life was probably already well established in much of the Western Hemisphere by some time prior to 10,000 B.C.

Around that time the mammoth began to die out and the bison took its place as a principal source of food and hides for these early North Americans. Over time, as more and more species of large game vanished -- whether from overhunting or natural causes -- plants, berries and seeds became an increasingly important part of the early American diet. Gradually, foraging and the first attempts at primitive agriculture appeared. Indians in what is now central Mexico led the way, cultivating corn, squash and beans, perhaps as early as 8,000 B.C. Slowly, this knowledge spread northward.

By 3,000 B.C., a primitive type of corn was being grown in the river valleys of New Mexico and Arizona. Then the first signs of irrigation began to appear, and by 300 B.C., signs of early village life.

By the first centuries A.D., the Hohokum were living in settlements near what is now Phoenix, Arizona, where they built ball courts and pyramid-like mounds reminiscent of those found in Mexico, as well as a canal and irrigation system.

From 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.

Eyewitness John White 1585 - Village of Secoton

Watercolor drawing Indian Village of Secoton by John White (created 1585-1586)

A bird's-eye view of an unenclosed Indian village of thirteen houses of light pole and mat construction. At the top, a path leads from water (a stream or pond) to the main group of houses where it widens into a central thoroughfare running down through the settlement. On the street, in the center of the main group of houses, a spoke-shaped fire attended by two Indians is burning and below, further down the path, are shown mats spread out on which are three large circular eating vessels and six small objects of indefinite form. One squatting and two sitting figures are seen eating and one man armed with a bow stands by. To the right of the path and street are three cornfields each at a different stage of growth. The top field of ripe maize contains a small hut, open at one side, which may shelter a seated figure and is mounted on a platform with four legs. A path to the right separates this field from the two lower ones in which crops of unripe and very young maize are growing. The last has faint indications perhaps representing hills around the bases of the plants. To the left of the unripe maize is a house with a small fenced yard before the door which is in the center of the end wall. The houses to the left of the road are set among (or near to) birch-like trees. Among the trees to the left are two houses with three figures nearby, two of them apparently carrying bows. Four other figures are to be seen among the main group of houses, which are shown with open ends, several revealing the pole framework and side platforms, while a few have small window-like openings. At the bottom right a path separates the lowest cornfield from the ceremonial area and is bordered by a row of seven posts. Below this is a circle of seven posts, the tops of which are possibly carved in the form of human heads, and on a path around it nine Indians (apparently all men), with feathers in their hair and waving gourd rattles, are dancing. Some wear a single apron-skirt and others apparently are naked or wear breech-clouts only. One Indian crouches beside a post outside the circle to the right and six others squat or sit in line on the roadway to the left. A further path is indicated at the bottom right, below the dancers. To the left of the roadway, opposite the circle, a path surrounds four posts within which a spoke-shaped log fire is burning, a fifth post being seen to the right near where the path joins the road. The heads of the posts are again possibly carved like the others. To the left of the fire is a but with the end covered and below, at the bottom left, is a house taller than the rest which may have openings in the end wall. A short path leads from it to the road.

Inscribed in dark brown ink, in the top right-hand corner, on the first field of maize, "Their rype corne" .; below, on the second field, "Their greene corne" .; on the third field, "Come newly sprong" . In the centre, below the eating figures, "their sitting at meale" . In a semi-circle about the fire, near the bottom left-hand corner, "The place of solemne prayer" and below, above the hut, "The house wherein the Tombe of their Herounds standeth" . To the right, on the street, below the line of squatting figures, "SECOTAN" ., and to the right again, below the dancing figures , "A Ceremony in their prayers wth | strange iesturs and songs dansing | about post carved on the topps | lyke mens faces" 

John White (c 1540-1593) was an English artist & early pioneer of English efforts to settle North America. He was among those who sailed with Richard Grenville to the shore of present-day North Carolina in 1585, acting as artist & mapmaker to the expedition. During his time at Roanoke Island he made a number of watercolor sketches of the surrounding landscape & the native Algonkin peoples. White had been commissioned to "draw to life" the inhabitants of the New World & their surroundings.  During White's time at Roanoke Island, he completed numerous watercolor drawings of the surrounding landscape & native peoples. These works are significant as they are the most informative illustrations of a Native American society of the Eastern seaboard.  They represent the sole-surviving visual record of the native inhabitants of America encountered by England's first settlers.

1492 Christopher Columbus vs. Native Americans

Christopher Columbus landing on Hispaniola being Greeted by the local Natives, the Arawaks. The print was made by 2 Flemish artists: Joos van Winghe (1544-1603) was the designer and Theodor de Bry (1528-1598) the engraver.  When Christopher Columbus (1450-1506) came in contact with Native Americans, he wrote: “They all go around as naked as their mothers bore them; and also the women.” He also noted that “they could easily be commanded and made to work, to sow and to do whatever might be needed, to build towns and be taught to wear clothes and adopt our ways,” and, “they are the best people in the world and above all the gentlest.”

Christopher Columbus by Ridolfo del Ghirlandaio(1483–1561)
The son of a weaver, Columbus left Spain for the world on the other side of the Atlantic with 3 ships and 39 crew members in the hopes of gaining fame and wealth. As Columbus approached land, the local Natives, the Arawaks, swam out to greet the ships. Columbus later wrote, and “They do not bear arms, and do not know them, for I showed them a sword, they took it by the edge and cut themselves out of ignorance… They would make fine servants… With 50 men we could subjugate them all and make them do whatever we want.” 

In a search for gold, which proved to be very little, Columbus enslaved, murdered, and inflicted misery upon those "gentle" people. With 17 additional ships and 1,200 men, Columbus promised to bring back to Spain  gold and slaves. In 1495, they “rounded up” 1,500 Arawak men, women and children, chose 500 of the best, of which 200 died en route to Spain. When the Arawaks could not produce enough gold, he cut off the hands of all those 14 years and older, and enslaved them on estates where they were worked to death. 

Depiction of Spanish atrocities committed in the conquest of Cuba in Bartolomé de Las Casas's "Brevisima relación de la destrucción de las Indias." The print was made by 2 Flemish artists (who did not actually witness these brutalities) Joos van Winghe was the designer and Theodor de Bry the engraver. 

Dominican Friar Bartolomé de Las Casas  (1484-1566) wrote, “The Spaniards think nothing of knifing Indians by tens and twenties and of cutting slices off them to test the sharpness of their blades.” He wrote of 2 "Christians" who met up with two Arawak boys and beheaded them for fun. “Mothers drowned their babies from sheer desperation, husbands died in the mines, women died at work, children died from lack of milk… my eyes have seen acts so foreign to human nature, and now I tremble as I write,” de Las Casas lamented.  He was a Spanish historian & social reformer who wrote A Short Account of the Destruction of the Indies and Historia de Las Indias, chronicling the first decades of colonization of the West Indies focusing on the atrocities committed by the colonizers against the indigenous peoples.  One of the earliest European settlers in the Americas, he initially participated in, but eventually opposed the atrocities committed against the Native Americans by the Spanish colonists. In 1515, he advocated, before King Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor, on behalf of rights for the Native Americans. However, his early writings advocated the use of African slaves instead of Natives in the West-Indian colonies; consequently, critics see him being partly responsible for the beginning of the Transatlantic slave trade. Later in life, he retracted those early views, as he came to see all forms of slavery as equally wrong.

Depiction of Christopher Columbus' Soldiers Chopping the Hands off of Arawak Indians who Failed to Meet the Mining Quota in Bartolomé de Las Casas's "Brevisima relación de la destrucción de las Indias." The print was made by 2 Flemish artists (who did not actually witness these atrocities) Joos van Winghe was the designer and Theodor de Bry the engraver.  "They would cut an Indian's hands and leave them dangling by a shred of skin ... & they would test their swords and their manly strength on captured Indians and place bets on the slicing off of heads or cutting of bodies in half with one blow. ... [One] cruel captain traveled over many leagues, capturing all the Indians he could find. Since the Indians would not tell him who their new lord was, he cut off the hands of some and threw others to the dogs, and thus they were torn to pieces."

According to Boston University professor Howard Zinn’s (1922-2010) 1980 book The People’s History of the United States, over 3 million people perished at the hands of Columbus from 1494 to 1508. By 1515 there were only 50,000 left. By 1550, there were 500. Zinn said, "There is no flag large enough to cover the shame of killing innocent people."

16C & 17C Europeans Depict Native Americans - Mixing with the Natives

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.

16C & 17C Europeans Depict Native Americans - Group Fantasy

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

Frontispiece made by Jacob van Meurs, a Dutch printmaker, for Arnoldus Montanus’ 1671 The New & Unknown World: or Description of America & the Southland, Containing the Origin of the Americans & South-landers, remarkable voyages thither, Quality of the Shores, Islands, Cities, Fortresses, Towns, Temples, Mountains, Sources, Rivers, Houses, the nature of Beasts, Trees, Plants & foreign Crops, Religion & Manners, Miraculous Occurrences, Old & New Wars: Adorned with Illustrations "drawn from the life in America," & described by Arnoldus Montanus. Frontispiece seems to be  a representation of the Americas as a location of plentiful resources where Europeans can take part in expanding trading networks & accumulating wealth. Rather than depicting differences between the various regions of the New World, this frontispiece instead presents a unified “America.” Rather than being portrayed in an inland environment separated from European influence, the figures are shown at a busy port set before a large & menacing European fort, with canons poking through the windows. Despite the fearsome & strange people & animals in the foreground, the immense fort in the background reinforces the European’s stable position & ability to maintain order in the region. In the distant background, beyond the fort, a fleet of European ships seems to be approaching the shore, revealing that European & American economic & cultural exchange will continue.

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.

1492 Columbus & New World Natives

Plate 4 from Le Costume Ancien et Moderne, Volume I, by Jules Ferrario.  Christopher Columbus with Native Americans, 1492-1503 (c1820-1839). Columbus (1451-1506) made four voyages to the New World between 1492 and 1504, exploring the Caribbean and the coasts of Central and South America. He claimed the territories he discovered for Spain. 

1492
From their nakedness, Columbus inferred the native people to be an inferior race. Columbus wrote of the Indians he encountered, "They all go around as naked as their mothers bore them; & also the women." However, he noted that "they could easily be commanded & made to work, to sow & to do whatever might be needed, to build towns & be taught to wear clothes & adopt our ways." Although Columbus also wrote that "they are the best people in the world & above all the gentlest," his record of the first encounter between Europeans & New World Indians was filled with accounts of enslavement, murder, & rape.

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

The Chickahominy become "New Englishmen" 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.

Seated on a mat, Captain Samuel Argall negotiates a treaty with the Chickahominy, who were somewhat independent of Powhatan & ruled by a council of elders. One of the elders speaks to the gathered Chickahominy about the treaty, & a killed deer & two birds are presented at lower right. In the background, the colonists receive the benefits of peaceful relations, tribute & trade.

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.

A Summary of Early Europeans Encountering Native Americans

America or the New World. Map by Theodor de Bry 1596

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 claims the Norse sagas make.

In 1497, just five years after Christopher Columbus (1450-1506) landed in the Caribbean looking for a western route to Asia, a Venetian sailor named John Cabot (1450-1498) arrived in Newfoundland on a mission for the British king. Although fairly 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, of course, never saw the mainland United States, but the first explorations of the continental United States 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 Leon (1474-1521) 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 (1454-1512) , 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 (1500-1542), a veteran conquistador who had accompanied Francisco Pizzaro (c 1471-1541) during 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 Coronado (1510-1554), 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, Coronado's party did leave the peoples of the region a remarkable, if unintended gift: enough horses escaped from his party 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 (c 1485-1528). 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 (1491-1547) 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 foundations 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 Menendez de Avilés (1519-1574), 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 which poured into Spain from the colonies in Mexico, the Caribbean & Peru provoked great interest on the part of the other European powers. With time, emerging maritime nations such as England, drawn in part by Francis Drake's (c 1540–1596) successful raids on Spanish treasure ships, began to take interest in the New World.

In 1578 Humphrey Gilbert  (c 1539–1583), the author of a treatise on the search for the Northwest Passage, received a patent from Queen Elizabeth (1533-1603) to colonize the "heathen & barbarous landes" in the New World which 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 (c 1554-1618) , 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.

From 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 - Sacred Cow

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

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.