American Indians Dbq Essay

There are many different portrayals of how the American Indians behaviors, attitudes, and how they interact with other people, changed over time. Many did not like the way the American Indians lived because it was not how they themselves lived, which was a modernized lifestyle compared to the American Indians. Historians once assumed that the American Indians once lived in an unchanging state, which was not true. This view the historians had was far too simplistic because of the fact that history shows that people’s culture is always changing. The Natives had many different beliefs, one of them being about their god. The American Indians believe in a God by the name of Cudouagny. This God, Cudouagny, tells them the weather forecast. The Natives

He is much celebrated today as he published universally read histories on the colonial era. He became the Secretary of the Navy Bancroft in 1845, and eventually became the Secretary of war. During this time, there were countless conflicts between the government and American Indians. Bancroft states “Its only inhabitants were a few scattered tribes of feeble barbarians, destitute of commerce and of political connection.” When Bancroft says this, he is stating that the only people there were some tribes who were far spread from everything else happening. He also says that “In the view of civilization, the immense domain was a solitude.” Bancroft supports that they live in a place that was not yet populated greatly. Outside of Jamestown, no more than sixty miles outside, there were no more than five thousand people and about fifteen hundred warriors (Document C). This shows that the land was hardly populated. Conflicts arose because the American Indians inhabited the land first, so when the Europeans and others came, they wanted to take the land that belonged to the Natives. Bancroft also states “The whole territory of the clans which listened to Powhatan as their leader or their conqueror, comprehended about eight thousand square miles, thirty tribes, and twenty-four hundred warriors, so that the Indian population amounted to about one inhabitant to a square mile.” This explains how many tribes were in and around the area, also supporting and proving it was not greatly inhabited