Daniel Richter in Facing East from Indian Country well describes the relations between Native Americans and Newcomers from the old world. Reading Richter's book and analyzing different situations from the story, myself as a recent immigrant can feel what they were about. However some actions of Native Americans as well as of those of immigrants challenge my own imagination and knowledge on this topic.
One of the first quotes that drew my attention was "Indians must either surrender gracefully to a superior Christian civilization or die in a futile attempt to resist" (p. 108). It is a very controlling phrase and even though from previous education I know that Immigrants tried to control Indians as much as they could it sounds very unfair and brutal to give native people such choice. In this part of the story Daniel Richter confirms but also challenges my own understanding of Indian history. It is very tragic how the life and culture of Indians was going through a sudden change imposed by Europeans. .
Another phrase that brought my attention was "Carolina colonists almost immediately began encouraging Indian trading partners to raid their Native neighbors for slaves" (p. 162). This passage challenged my knowledge, as I was not aware that Indians sold their own people for slavery. Europeans destroyed Natives" culture by paying more money for people than for crops. Similar sentence "what began as a trade for the skins of deer was transformed almost immediately into a trade for the skins of Indians" (p. 162). This sentence confirms the above quote where Indians sold themselves to Europeans. Again Europeans disturb all the values and destroy Indian culture by imposing on them trading their own brothers.
Richter well confirms my understanding as he talks about the fact that the more Europeans on American land the more Indian culture keeps disappearing. .
"Like eighteenth-century Native people everywhere, their lives were profoundly shaped by colonial experience in the transatlantic world" (p.