The opposite side of the story

The first European explorers, guided by Indian guides, traveled rivers and lakes in the same boats, shared food and experienced the same environmental difficulties.

When the natives first saw the Europeans, they were surprisingly surprised. In an ancient micmac story about the arrival of the white man, it is said that the first European ships saw floating islands on the horizon, with some trees being cut down, and some even thought they had seen bears climbing through the branches. The early European merchants fascinated the natives with already known objects, although made from wonderful and novel materials: knives that were not of stone but of sharp steel, copper furnaces that did not break in contact with fire and glass counts in a wide range of magnificent colors. Obviously, they felt that the weapons were magical. The noisy, heavy, annoying firearms that the early white men carried with them were more useful for the tactics of secrecy and surprise of the Indian warriors than the silent arrows and the bow for quick launches. While a firearm magically ended an enemy or animal from afar in an open and closed eye, the bow was only effective on short distances.

The great European discovery journeys were hardly ever driven by the desire to explore new lands and cultures. The main reason for the adventurers was the opportunity to expand Europe’s markets and resources. When Spanish, French, English and Russian explorers, merchants and settlers met with North American indigenous peoples, they did not think of the possibility of reaching an agreement with them. They did not see the rich cultural diversity when they arrived with the attitude of conquerors, but a people who seemed to lead a rudimentary life in the midst of poverty. Moreover, they saw it as an opportunity to exploit the land and its many resources.

The idea that European material civilization represented the culmination of world achievements influenced the perception of the natives as economically poor people, despite having lived well on their lands for countless generations. Other peoples were lagging behind, because they lived on the margins of divine punishment or because they were considered inferior beings. Until well into the eighteenth century, both the Spanish and the English Puritans had an attitude towards the North American Aborigines based on this perspective. Christian doctrine believed that nature should be subordinated to humanity, controlled and conquered rather than imitated or treated on an equal footing; therefore, Europeans were not impressed by the way in which the natural world was an inseparable part of the culture and spirituality of the Indians. In the 19th century, Charles Darwin's evolutionary theory reinforced European beliefs that Indians were considered "low". Thus, they were regarded as degraded beings who survived a once great race or a slowly evolving people.

Thus, there was no shared language and a shared worldview at the base of relations between the Aborigines and the Whites, and the feeling that everyone was human barely developed, at least on the part of the Europeans. As more settlers moved to the “New World”, the lack of understanding between them resulted in a tragedy for the Native Americans. The Indians owned some resource-rich areas, but did not believe that the land was a personal possession. Indians, be they hunters or gatherers, learned to share to survive and make the most of their effectiveness, following the rhythm of seasons and moving from place to place to meet their needs. As a result, the exchange of land for commercial goods and, subsequently, for money must have generated in them a great sense of unreality. Per they rejoiced that Europeans were willing to pay for the right to take advantage of lands they considered free.

The optimism, based on a lack of knowledge of European legal norms, soon turned against the Aborigines with whom territorial negotiations were carried out. In addition to staying, the white refused to share the land from the moment they signed an agreement or treaty. As for the whites, if the Indians could not prove that they possessed the land legally, they were forced to surrender it by force or by agreement.