In the book Resilient Cultures, the author, John E. Kicza tries mainly to communicate the emotions along with the shear reality that the Indians faced upon encountering the European colonization. .
Kicza's writing style is similar to that of a history book. The format and point of view seems to be what I would read out of a textbook. The main difference that separates a textbook and this book, is that the content is much more extensive and detailed than any text would be. .
This book begins by mainly explaining how the Indians lived in nature and amongst each other without any interruptions from Europe. So to sum that up in one main statement, the Indians stayed exclusive to themselves with a few exceptions amongst tribes that typically had some sort of rivalry. .
The first Europeans that came into contact with the Indians did impose too much on them in neither a positive nor a negative way. The explorers were mainly desiring to explore the world and not what the Indians had to offer up. These explorers were the first rocks that started the landslide that ended up in the extreme decline of the Indian civilization. Among the first explorers, there was Columbus, who lost a significant amount of his men to the Indian population when he left them alone to return to Europe and get more ships. From this we see that his men were unable to understand the Indians way of life and tension rose between the two different people groups. .
After word of the new world spread throughout Europe, talk to gold and precious metals became a highly sought after goal. This desire led to the start of expeditions to find and acquire gold and silver. Although there was some decent amounts of these precious metals found in the Americas that did not belong to anyone, the bulk of these riches belonged to the Indian people that did not have the same perspective of these elements because money did not exist in the same way to them.
