Struggle and Survival in Colonial America Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Struggle and Survival in Colonial America - Essay Example The harsh natural environment in which the native American Indians had lived upon at that time required them to band together for their ultimate survival. This communal basis of society in the native Americans had remained, while the settlers disintegrated. Their concept of a community hinged on common ownership of their lands and common membership in the sacred natural order (Sweet & Nash 18). On the other hand, the European concepts of private property (or termed as a private enterprise) and the individual exploitation of nature for one's own profits, did not allow for the collective modes of behavior observed in native American Indians. The settlers forced the natives to adapt to this lifestyle and forgo community living. The arrival of the first white settlers at the tidewaters of Virginia had divided a tribe of Indians termed collectively as Powhatans. The tribe at Virginia at that time were known as the Algonquian Indians the most famous of which is Pocahontas who had been immortalized in history and literature. Her tribe welcomed the new arrivals, as exemplified by her father but this generosity ushered the decline of their tribe, eventually. It weakened the formerly strong and politically stable Indian settlements of the Powhatan tribes such that they were displaced and marginalized to the point of near extinction (Fausz 21). Some natives tried to resist the Europeans but were soon defeated by the superiority of the white settlers weaponry. The Algonquians were not unanimous in their acceptance into their midst the new settlers like what Opechancanough did.