The Native Americans in the 18th and 19th Centuries Essay - 1

The Native Americans in the 18th and 19th Centuries - Essay Example This paper illustrates that although there is a common belief that the Native Americans came from Asia, few if any came from India. Mistakenly believing that he had landed in the Indies, Christopher Columbus gave them the name ‘Indian’. Other names accorded to them include Indigenous Peoples of America, Aboriginal Americans, American Indians, Amerindians, and First Peoples First Nations among others. For many years, these people had peacefully lived in America until the invasion of the European colonialists and explorers who brought endless problems to them. Since the European colonists landed in America in the 16th and 17th century, the Native Americans welcomed them enthusiastically. They admired their â€Å"outlandish clothes, ships as well as their superb technology including brass and copper kettles, mirrors, earrings, the fire-belching cannon and arquebus, hawk bells, steel swords and knives† among others. However, there eventually arose conflicts as the Nat ive Americans discovered their materialistic view of the land coupled with their â€Å"cultural arrogance†. In the 18th and 19th centuries, the European colonists invaded the state and colonies frontiers inexorably displacing Native Americans from the most favorable land. Largely displaced were the Native Americans in the central and eastern North Carolina portions. Often times, â€Å"the Natives resisted this process violently†. Armed conflicts such as the Tuscarora (1711–1715) and Yemassee (1715–1717) wars involved â€Å"forcefully† removing native populations onto a small number of small reservations.