Religion and Theology

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(February 14, 2012)
The Nature of Early Relations between the Native Americans and the Euro-Americans
Introduction
The landing of Christopher Columbus in North America around 1492 initiated interactions between two very ancient civilizations. He symbolized Europe which was slowly moving from the middle ages. Queens and kings consolidated both land bases and power. In America, Christopher Columbus and other European explorers who followed found the Native Americans in rivalry with the European civilizations. The exact date in which the first contact between the Native Americans and the Euro-Americans took place still remains anonymous. Although there is no adequate evidence, some people hold a belief that Celtic people from Europe might have reached North America within the period that the Monks from Irish explored the east coast of North America approximately 400 A.D. On the contrary, Scandinavia’s Norse-or Vikings arrived in North America prior to Columbus. Others might have reached as early as 985 A.D.
Additionally, the explorer from Viking Leif Erikson gave a description of “Vinland” around 1003. Vinland forms the present Massachusetts. The Norse closely associated and regularly skirmished alongside Native Americans. They referred to the Native Americans as SKraelings. This meant “shriekers or “shouters”. They also founded a short spanned Newfoundland colony at L’Anse aux Meadows. The Norse tried several times to explore and settle North America for the coming years. On the contrary, when the colony of Scandinavia in Greenland was left within early 1400s, the explorations in Vinland stopped. Thus, all the knowledge was left to Europeans (Kline, 2011).
The next group of Europeans to reach was most probably the fishermen from Bristol and Basque. This was because the north Atlantic water’s contained a lot of fishes. The few fishing canoes left records for their activities. On the other hand, the English fishermen made some contacts with the Native Americans around 1440s prior to the first voyage of Christopher Columbus.
A lot of Europeans from other different European countries also arrived around 15oos. They halted to carry out trade with the Native Americans. The Native Americans received goods from Europe in exchange for furs. The trade brought high prices in Europe. Around 1608, Samuel de Chaplain formed the New France Colony including the Quebec City in Canada. He continued his exploration of the Great Lakes region and ensured profitable business associations with the speaking tribes of Algonkian and Huron along the eastern border of Lake Huron. Afterwards, Henry Hudson, an English sea captain who was at that time working for the Dutch formed the new colony of Netherland in 1614 at what is called New York City today.
The word Indian referring to the Native Americans was an imposed concept by the Europeans. There never existed a single Indian mono...