Living in Multicultural Sosieties - Essay Example

Introduction This discussion will be focused on various issues ascribed to the responses provided with Indian-American Groups in regard to their contacts with Europeans. It will provide brief and comprehensive discussion indicating the nature of the contact that occurred between the Indian-American Groups for example: The situation of the Native Indian group such as; food availability, technological advancement and population distribution. Moreover, it shall provide brief and comprehensive information in relation to the situation of the European who visited the Lands of the Native American-Indians on issues like; their purpose of visit or making the contact as well as their level of technological advancement at that particular time.

Consequently three examples shall be provided to support and give more insight to this paper; the three examples shall discuss the reaction of the native Indians towards the visiting Europeans i.e. resistance, positive reception and Native Indians that were neutral in regard to the European arrival.DiscussionThe first contact that occurred between the Native Indians and European took place in the 1500’s. Specifically, the first native Indians to greet European settlers occupied Northern parts of America and they were: The Aztects of Mexico as well as Incas of Peru.

Other native Indian tribes that greeted European settlers during the 15th century were the Carolina Indians who killed most of the European settlers.At this particular time, the Aztects of Mexico built great empires and were known for hunting and gathering. They also had greater capacities to adapt to various environmental conditions as they could easily live in forests, deserts as well as in grassy plains (http://www.history-world.org n.d). Native-Indians were also known for farming by using crude tools such as wooden hoes to cultivate their lands.

The Incas of Peru also had similar lifestyles and built great empires. On the other hand, the Carolina Indians were known for violence as they could attack villages of other natives and kill people. They were also hunters and gatherers, who performed domestic agriculture (http://www.history-world.org n.d).In relation to the European group, they felt that the Northern American was a new world; however, when they visited the native Indian lands, they brought various diseases with them for example: Influenza, chicken pox, measles and even small pox.

This killed so many Native Indians owing to the fact that they did not have immunity to such new diseases. On the other hand, European settlers had more advanced technology as compared to the Native Indians for instance; they had developed modern firearms with lead shots and gun powder. Analysis of the European-Native Indian ContactInitially, the Carolina Native-Indians resisted the visitation of the European settlers as they believed Europeans were interested in grabbing their lands. However, at a later period they began developing trade relations with the Europeans.

For example they were more than willing to exchange their dried deer hide for fire-arms and gun powder (http://ncpedia.org/history/early/contact n.d). Moreover, the desire for European materials such as metal pots led to a change of the trading structures of the Native-Indians. Increased demand for European goods for daily lives among the Native Indians led to trade involving slavery whereby; some native Carolina Indians were exchanged for goods such as rum as slaves (http://ncpedia.org/history/early/contact n.d).ConclusionFrom the discussion above, it is evident that there were different reactions among native Indian groups in regard to their contact with Europeans.

Some tribes resisted this contact as a means to protect their ancestral lands from strangers with unknown ambitions while others accepted this contact only after learning the intentions of the European settlers. However, ultimately the Native American Indians decided to engage in barter trade with the European after learning that some of the European commodities could improve their living standards for example the Carolina native Indians that exchanged dried deer hides for firearms and gun-powder.

Work Cited"American Indians at European Contact." NCpedia home page. N.p., n.d. Web. 27 Feb. 2014. ."History Of The United States Of America." History Of The United States Of America. N.p., n.d. Web. 27 Feb. 2014. .