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Question: Why didn't Native Americans enslave white settlers or just kill them all off!?
when they had the chance!? I have been told that this is what superior humans do, as it is supposed natural human nature, so why didn't natives do this when Europeans were still the minority!?Www@QuestionHome@Com


Best Answer - Chosen by Asker:
well now, i guess that settles the question about who was the civilized ones!.

ETA: dee and others!.!.!.you really believe that!? unreal!. the facts are so very different from what you have written!. my nation and 4 others formed a confederacy with a constitution over 700 years before there was a united states!. in fact, it was so good YOUR constitution borrowed from it heavily! thats right!. jefferson and franklin et al invited MY people to albany for the first constitutional convention!. and it wasn't to perform at half-time either!. they consulted us!

really it seems as if many people never moved past 2nd grade social studies in their understanding of native people!. you do know columbus did not discover america and no one during his times believed the world was flat anymore, right!?

we were not constantly at war with each other (that was europe)!. we freely traded both material and cultural items with tribes thousands of miles away!. my nation (mohawk nation) is located in upstate new york and canada and we regularly traded with the seminole in what's now florida as well as all the tribes/nations along the way!.

we cultivated and grew crops that today are grown all over the world and make up 70% of the worlds food crops!. so much for everyone saying we were all "hunter gatherers"!. i'm not sure most people even know the difference!.

the disease factor is interesting!. not that it happened but that i rarely see anyone question WHY the europeans carried such diseases with them and why we were not immune to them!. the fact is, we bathed regularly and europeans didn't!. don't believe me!? read up about it and while you are at it find out why the french invented perfume and brides carried flowers!. same reason for both!.

the civilizations here in north america were complex!. your insistance that we were somehow stuck in the stone age until europeans showed up with their blackberries and laptops is no longer amusing!. it's just sad!. you are the ones stuck in a childish understanding of your own history!. grow up already!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

There were so many diverse tribes living throughout the United States who met the white settlers at different times and under different conditions, so it was hard for them to really have a unified movement!. You should also factor in new diseases and the fact that the settlers had more advanced weaponry (not biased, it's kinda the truth)!. When the first English settlers came, the Indians helped them until they realized the English were here to take their land!. Then they fought back!. They were pretty successful until more and more white settlers came, slowly pushing them Westward!. Some tribes had no chance: by the time the Plains Indians were met with white resistance, the US was an established country with a large and experienced army!.

also, I think it is important to remember that not ALL whites tried to annihilate the Indians!. The French, who settled around the Canadian Border, were actually very friendly with the Indians and traded with them in a prosperous fur industry!. There was a lot of intermarriage and stuff going on!.

And, if you do become a teacher, just remember that not everything has to be all PC and those-darn-whites-took-their-land sorta thing!. No one was more superior than the other, but it was just all circumstance!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

Originally, we had greeted many Indian tribes as friends!. They would help us survive and we would promise not to expand any further!. By the time the Native Americans realized that the white men were lying to them, it was to late to form any formidable defense!. Native Americans did not have the kind of military organization as Europeans, who had essentially been fielding armies for two thousand years before they engaged the native Americans!. Indians had no armies, only tribal warriors!. Indians didn't wage war against each other is the same way either, more like small skirmishes between quarreling tribes!. It was near impossible to gather more than a few thousand warriors at any one time to fight off American Cavalry units!. Finally, the Europeans fielded weapons (rifles, cannons and Small Pox), and that the natives did not have!.

It was a route, over and over again!. All of this is hind sight, the Indians made the mistake of trusting our leaders!. Oops!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

Some of our ancestors did take captives and enslave them!. Many of the white captives didn't want to go back to their own people when the army came to "rescue" them!. Children were usually raised up as tribe members, imagine, no roll number or BIA papers required in those times!. Adults were slaves until they learned to speak, then they were sometimes married into the tribe!. Historically!. men were usually not taken captive, unless it was to test their courage, and see if we could make them cry!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

Native Americans had their hands full worrying about other Native Americans!. Each tribe was very territorial and serious hostilities would break out if one tribe hunted in the lands controlled by another tribe!. The Native Americans understood that concept and knew the consequences!. There was no concept like "The United Tribes of North, South or Central America!." Each tribe acted in it's own best interest based upon tradition!.

When the European settlers showed up the game was different and the Native Americans had no rules or experience dealing with the white intruders!. The Native Americans were not organized and coordinated in their dealings with other tribes so each tribe had its own response ranging from accommodation to hostitlity!.

In North America, early James Town in Virginia dealt constantly with Native American hostitlity and the colony probably disappeared for that reason!. Further north, relations between the Europeans and Native Americans were better for a while until settlement began to move west!.

Why not enslave or kill off the Europeans!? Europeans invading the Americas had body armor, gun powder, guns, iron and steel implements and cannons and for defense lived in forts in ever increasing numbers!. The Native Americans had crude knives, spears, stone hatchets, bows & arrows and tended to live in small tribes, with the exception of Central America!. In addition the Europeans brought "germ warfare" to the Native Americans--diseases common in Europe that the Europeans had built up resistance to, but the Native Americans were very suseptible to those diseases and died in large numbers, particularly in Central and South America!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

I don't think the white settlers became a problem until they *weren't* the minority anymore!. This is evident in that they taught the whites how to survive in what was the wilderness, and also the fact that!.!.!. they didn't fight them!. Besides that, the Native Americans didn't have technology as advanced as the white settlers did!. And they didn't believe that land was owned by people, either by whites OR Native Americans!. I mean, they did fight later but while the white settlers were still a minority, it probably didn't seem to the Native Americans as if the settlers thought they owned the land!.

At least that's what I think!. I could be wrong; U!.S!. history isn't my best subject!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

Because the Native Americans weren't the type to just slaughter all who came to their land!. They didn't expect the European settlers would eventually overpower them and completely uproot their culture!.Www@QuestionHome@Com