What major indigenous groups lived in the areas where england claimed lands?

Native people’s story began long before Europeans arrived. For thousands of years, the ancestors of Maine’s present-day Native Americans have made their lives here. Known today as Abenaki, Maliseet, Micmac, Passamaquoddy, and Penobscot, these tribes are collectively called the Wabanaki.

Maine State Museum, 2016.38.1

Wabanaki people developed alliances with European traders who arrived on Maine’s shores. By the late 1500s, the Wabanaki had an expansive trade network with Europeans that sent furs across the Atlantic. Once both France and England claimed vast lands and established competing colonies, their settlers worked to draw the Wabanaki into their own trade networks.

Initially, a mutually beneficial trade centered on furs. Europeans most prized beaver fur. The Wabanaki especially valued woven cloth, copper pots, and firearms, which became vital for hunting.

War – Disease – Displacement

Wabanaki peoples strategically protected their way of life in the midst of international conflicts in their homelands.

Flintlock Musket, Paris, France, ca. 1725, Maine State Museum, 2003.35.1

The English need for land pushed Native people of New England to war. When Metacom’s War (King Philip’s War) began in 1675, most Wabanaki groups tried to remain neutral. The English demanded that the Wabanaki give up their guns or be declared enemies. This forced Wabanaki leaders to choose between war or letting their families starve without the weapons to hunt. When the English killed or kidnapped Wabanaki people to sell into slavery, many Wabanaki groups in Maine chose to join the war multi-tribal military effort to drive the English out of New England.

Penobscot Powder Horn, ca. 1750, Maine State Museum, 79.43.1

For nearly the next hundred years, the Wabanaki allied with the French to limit English settlement in Maine. Beginning in 1689, war between France and England spilled over to their North American colonies and involved their Native allies. The English were not easily forgiven for past behavior and the French continued to provide muskets and supplies, such as the musket and powder horn seen here. After the 1763 Treaty of Paris ended the Seven Years War (known by the English as the French and Indian War), the French largely withdrew from North America. Weakened by widespread death from wars and disease, the Wabanaki faced repeated waves of English settlements deeper into their lands.

Those living in the area where Jamestown was settled must have had mixed feelings about the arrival of the English in 1607. One of their first reactions was hostility based on their previous experience with Spanish explorers along their coastline. They attacked one of the ships before the English actually landed. Yet they soon began to offer food and hospitality to the newcomers. At first, Powhatan, leader of a confederation of tribes around the Chesapeake Bay, hoped to absorb the newcomers through hospitality and his offerings of food. As the colonists searched for instant wealth, they neglected planting corn and other work necessary to make their colony self-sufficient. They therefore grew more and more dependent on the indigenous people for food.

As the colony's fortunes deteriorated during its first two years, Captain John Smith's leadership saved the colony. Part of this leadership involved exploring the area and establishing trade with local people. Unfortunately for the Native Americans, Smith believed that the English should treat them as the Spanish had: to compel them to "drudgery, work, and slavery," so English colonists could live "like Soldiers upon the fruit of their labor." Thus, when his negotiations for food occasionally failed, Smith took what he wanted by force.

By 1609, Powhatan realized that the English intended to stay. Moreover, he was disappointed that the English did not return his hospitality nor would they marry Native American women. He knew that the English "invade my people, possess my country." Native Americans thus began attacking settlers, killing their livestock, and burning such crops as they planted. All the while, Powhatan claimed he simply could not control the young men who were committing these acts without his knowledge or permission. Keep in mind, however, that Powhatan's reactions and statements were reported by John Smith, hardly an unbiased observer.

In the next decade, the colonists conducted search and destroy raids on Native American settlements. They burned villages and corn crops (ironic, in that the English were often starving). Both sides committed atrocities against the other. Powhatan was finally forced into a truce of sorts. Colonists captured Powhatan's favorite daughter, Pocahontas, who soon married John Rolfe. Their marriage did help relations between Native Americans and colonists.

With the reorganization of the colony under Sir Edwin Sandys, liberal land policies led to dispersion of English settlements along the James River. Increasing cultivation of tobacco required more land (since tobacco wore out the soil in three or four years) and clearing forest areas to make land fit for planting. Expanding English settlements meant more encroachment on Native American lands and somewhat greater contact with Native Americans. It also left settlers more vulnerable to attack. By this time, the Native American fully realized what continued English presence in Virginia meant--more plantations, the felling of more forests, the killing of more game--in sum, a greater threat to their way of life. The self-proclaimed humanitarian efforts of people like George Thorpe--who sought to convert Indian children to Christianity through education--did not help either. Finally, the deaths of Powhatan and Pocahontas further hastened hostilities.

The Native Americans, led by Powhatan's brother Opechancanough, bided their time. Pretending friendship, they were waiting for an opportunity to strike the English and dislodge them from Virginia. In early 1622, they struck. In all, nearly 350 colonists were killed; Jamestown itself was saved only by the warning of an Native American Christian convert. One result was an ever-hardening English attitude toward the Native American. Another was bloody reprisals against local tribes.

What major indigenous groups lived in the areas where France claimed lands?

What Native American tribe fought with England during the War?

What is the name of 1 Native American tribe who sided with the British?

Who was the indigenous American kidnapped by the British?