It is commonly accepted today that perceptions form the views of reality. Our perceptions shape our world view. "It is the gift that enables you to become acquainted with the world around you." What happens when people who perceive things differently meet? Their realities collide and conflict often results unless the gap which exists between their worlds is bridged. This has never been truer than in the case of the Native Americans. In this essay, I will not be looking specifically at the conflicts which took place between Native Americans and the Europeans, but rather looking to see what the causes of these conflicts were, in order to establish if conflict was, indeed, inevitable. .
There is an abundance of reasons that explain the inevitability of the conflict, but the different philosophies that confronted each other at that time, the sudden feeling of superiority that grew on Europeans toward the Native Americans, and also the "clash of cultures" which occurred when Europeans reached America, were the ones I consider most relevant and influential to the inability of stopping "the war".
One of the fundamental differences between the two peoples" philosophies lay in the question of land ownership. "The Europeans, taking their preconceived views with them to America, believed in the concept of land ownership. They believed that a land that is not owned could be claimed, and from then on could be sold at will." The Indians, on the other hand, had a limited concept of private ownership. It would be wrong to suggest that they did not believe in the concept at all, "since often Indian chiefs would allot a piece of land to a particular family, on which they could build their home and farm with almost the same private property rights as the Europeans." The Indian viewpoint was that land is supposed to be beneficial to all of them. .
This proved to be the largest cause of problems between the Native Americans and the Europeans.