Native Americans in Colonial Wars and the Revolutionary War

The 16th and 17th Centuries

Armed conflict was a staple of relations between the newcomers and Native Americans from an early date. The mid-16thcentury Spanish expeditions in the Southeast and Southwest, led by Hernando de Soto and Francisco de Coronado, respectively, terrorized the indigenous peoples they encountered, some of whom fought back effectively. Although Native Americans were generally unable to prevent the creation of permanent European settlements, they did pose serious challenges. One of the more serious came in 1622 when, after numerous English insults, the Powhatan Confederacy attacked the Virginia colony, killing about 400 colonists—fully a quarter of the total population. A thorough reorganization and reinforcement of the colony ensued. The former governor, Capt. John Smith, deployed the rhetoric of Indian treachery and savagery in describing the “massacre” at the “bloudy and barbarous hands of that perfidious and inhumane people,” whose victory he characterized as “base and brutish.” Smith ignored provocations and similar actions by the English. Depictions like Smith's became the basis of European attitudes—and policies—toward Native Americans.

Conflict flared elsewhere as well. In New England, Puritans elevated a 1636 conflict with the Pequot that was rooted in practical matters such as land, tribute, and several murders, into a religious war. Associating the Pequots with Satan, the Puritans attacked a settlement of women, children, and elders, killing as many of its inhabitants as possible and selling many survivors into Caribbean slavery. In addition to its genocidal intensity and purpose, the Pequot War is also notable because the Puritans had enlisted Mohegans, Narragansetts, and Mohawks to fight on their side. Native Americans often proved willing to work with colonial forces to settle scores among themselves or to curry favor with the colonizers. This proved to be the case again in King Philip's War, in which the English were able to enlist Mohawks from New York to fight the Wampanoags, Narragansetts, and Nipmucks in New England. Although the war took the lives of 1 in 10 New England adult males, it reduced Native American numbers by up to 40 percent. Once again, distorted print accounts of the fighting and its causes circulated widely and solidified anti-Indian sentiment among the white population. Although King Philip's War demonstrated the effectiveness of cooperation and coordination among tribes in resisting European colonization, this only underscored the permanence of European settlement. Native Americans had failed to threaten New England's existence.

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