Question

Describe how the the actual lives of American Indians in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries compare to the myths perpetuated by European writers.

Answer 1

The correct answer to this open question is the following.

Native American Indians in those centuries were portrayed in Europe as only savages, primitive people that needed to be educated and evangelized. And that idea was distorted. Of course, European colonizers just transmitted the idea they wanted to convey. Their version of the reality, not the truth.

First, of all, there were hundreds of Native American Indian tribes in those years that inhabited the North American territory. Some were more tolerant than others, some were more radical, some were fierce warriors, some liked to negotiate with white people. So it was just not one single Native Indian culture, so generalizations on the part of the Europeans were a mistake.

Secondly, the Native Indians were there before the arrival of white European colonizers. It was the Indian's lands. White settlers were the "invaders." Indians just tried to defend what was theirs, Those lands were inherited by their ancestors and that is why they waged war. To defend what was theirs. White people had no right to invade and took Indian property.