From the Indians of North America the white man has borrowed not only hosts of geographical names and many common terms of speech, but countless ideas and methods as to food, medicines, clothes and other Contact of races. items in the conduct of life. Even to-day, as G. W. James points out in his interesting little volume, What the White Race may learn from the Indian (Chicago, 1908), the end of the instruction of the “lower” race by the “higher” is not yet. The presence of the Indians and the existence of a “frontier” receding ever westward as the tide of immigration increased and the line of settlements advanced, have, as Prof. Turner has shown (Ann. Rep. Amer. Hist. Assoc., 1893), conditioned to a certain extent the development of civilization in North America. Had there been no aborigines here, the white race might have swarmed quickly over the whole continent, and the “typical” American would now be much different from what he is. The fact that the Indians were here in sufficient numbers to resist a too rapid advance on the part of the European settlers made necessary the numerous frontiers (really “successive Americas”), which began with Quebec, Virginia and Massachusetts and ended with California, Oregon, British Columbia, Yukon and Alaska. The Indians again are no exception to the rule that one of the fundamentally important contributions of a primitive people to the culture-factors in the life of the race dispossessing them consists of the trails and camping-places, water-ways and trade-routes which they have known and used from time immemorial. The great importance of these trails and sites of Indian camps and villages for subsequent European development in North America has been emphasized by Prof. F. J. Turner (Proc. Wisconsin State Histor. Soc., 1889 and 1894) and A. B. Hulbert (Historic Highways of America, New York, 1902-1905). It was over these old trails and through these water-ways that missionary, soldier, adventurer, trader, trapper, hunter, explorer and settler followed the Indian, with guides or without. The road followed the trail, and the railway the road.
The fur trade and traffic with the Indians in general were not without influence upon the social and political conditions of the European colonies. In the region beyond the Alleghanies the free hunter and the single trapper flourished; in the great north-west the fur companies. In the Mackenzie region and the Yukon country the “free hunter” is still to be met with, and he is, in some cases, practically the only representative of his race with whom some of the Indian tribes come into contact. J. M. Bell (Journ. Amer. Folk-Lore, xvi., 1903, 74), from personal observation, notes “the advance of the barbarous border civilization,—the civilization of the whaler on Hudson’s Bay, of the free trader on the Athabasca Lake and river, of the ranchers and placer miners on the Peace and other mountain rivers,” and observes further (p. 84) that “the influx of fur-traders into the Mackenzie River region, and even to Great Bear Lake within the last two years, since my return, has, I believe, very much altered the character of the Northern Indians.” In many parts of North America the free trapper and solitary hunter were often factors in the extermination of the Indian, while the great fur companies were not infrequently powerful agents in preserving him, since their aims of exploiting vast areas in a material way were best aided by alliance or even amalgamation. The early French fur companies, the Hudson’s Bay Company, the North-West Company, the American Fur Company, the Missouri Fur Company, the Russian-American Company, the Alaska Commercial Company, &c., long stood with the Indians for the culture of the white man. For two centuries, indeed, the Hudson’s Bay Company was ruler of a large portion of what is now the Dominion of Canada, and its trading-posts still dot the Indian country in the far north-west. The mingling of races in the region beyond the Great Lakes is largely due to the fact that the trading and fur companies brought thither employés and dependants, of French, Scottish and English stock, who intermarried more or less readily with the native population, thus producing the mixed-blood element which has played an important rôle in the development of the American north-west. The fur trade was a valuable source of revenue for the early colonists. During the colonial period furs were sometimes even legal tender, like the wampum or shell-money of the eastern Indians, which, according to Mr Weeden (Econ. Hist. of New England), the necessities of commerce made the European colonists of the 17th century adopt as a substitute for currency of the Old World sort.
In their contact with the Indians the Europeans of the New World had many lessons in diplomacy and statecraft. Alliances entered upon chiefly for commercial reasons led sometimes to important national events. The adhesion of the Algonkian tribes so largely to the French, and of the Iroquoian peoples as extensively to the English, practically settled which was ultimately to win in the struggle for supremacy in North America. If we believe Lewis H. Morgan, “the Iroquois alliance with the English forms the chief fact in American history down to 1763.”
The whites in their turn have influenced greatly the culture, institutions and ideas of the American aborigines. The early influence of the Scandinavians in Greenland has had its importance exaggerated by Dr Tylor (Journ. Anthrop. Inst., 1879). French influence in Canada and Acadia began early and was very marked, affecting the languages (several Algonkian dialects have numerous loan-words, as have the Iroquois tongues still spoken in Quebec) and the customs of the Indians. French authorities, missionaries and traders seemed to get into more sympathetic relations with the Indians, and the intermarriage of the races met with practically no opposition. Hence the French influence upon many tribes can be traced from the Atlantic past the Great Lakes and over the Plains to the Rocky Mountains and even beyond, where the trappers, voyageurs, coureurs des bois and missionaries of French extraction have made their contribution to the modern tales and legends of the Canadian north-west and British Columbia. In one of the tales of the North Pacific coast appears Shishé Tlé (i.e. Jesus Christ), and in another from the eastern slope of the Rockies Mani (i.e. Mary). Another area of French influence occurs in Louisiana, &c. The English, as a rule, paid much less attention than did the French to the languages, manners and customs and institutions of the aborigines and were in general less given to intermarriage with them (the classical example of Rolfe and Pocahontas notwithstanding), and less sympathetically minded towards them, although willing enough, as the numerous early educational foundations indicate, to improve them in both mind and body. The supremacy of the English-speaking people in North America made theirs the controlling influence upon the aborigines in all parts of the country, in the Pacific coast region to-day as formerly in the eastern United States, where house-building, clothing and ornament, furniture, weapons and implements have been modified or replaced. Beside the Atlantic, the Micmac of Nova Scotia now has its English loan-words, while among the Salishan tribes of British Columbia English is “very seriously affecting the purity of the native spech” (Hill-Tout), and even the Athabaskan Nahané are adding English words to their vocabulary (Morice).
The English influence on tribal government and land-tenure, culminating in the incorporation of so many of the aborigines as citizens of Canada and the United States, began in 1641. The first royal grants both in New England and farther south made no mention of the native population of the country, and the early proprietors and settlers were largely left to their own devices in dealing with them, the policy of extinguishing their titles to land being adopted as needed. Later on, of course, due recognition was had of the fact that certain parts of America were inhabited by “heathen,” “savages,” &c., and the chiefs of many of the tribes were looked upon as rulers with prerogatives of princes and royal personages (e.g. the “Emperor” Powhatan and the “Princess” Pocahontas, “King” Philip, the “Emperor” of the Creeks, &c.). The method of dealing with the Indian “tribes” by the Federal government as autonomous groups through treaties, &c., lasted till 1871, when, by act of Congress, “simple agreements” were favoured in lieu of “solemn treaties.”
Meanwhile no consistent purpose was shown in dealing with the Indian problem. At one time the American policy was to concentrate all the Indians on three great reservations, an expansion of the plan adopted early in the 19th century which set aside the former “Indian country” (afterwards restricted to the Indian Territory). The sentiment in regard to great reservations, however, gradually weakened, till in 1878 it was proposed to concentrate the Indians on smaller reservations; but the entire reservation system became increasingly unpopular, and finally in 1887 Congress enacted the Land Severalty Law, paving the way for abolition of the reservation and agency system; at the same time it emphasized the government policy of gradually (the reservation system was a preliminary step in the way of bringing the Indians more under government control) bringing about the cessation of all “tribes” as independent communities and securing their ultimate entrance upon citizenship with the white population. This certainly was far removed from the declaration of the Virginia Assembly in 1702 that “no Indian could hold office, be a capable witness, or hunt over patented land”; and at this time also, “an Indian child was classed as a mulatto, and Indians, like slaves, were liable to be taken on execution for the payment of debt.” As Miss Fletcher (Handb. of Amer. Inds., 1907, pt. i. p. 501) notes, the ordinance of Congress passed in 1787 respecting the duty of the United States to the Indian tribes, which was confirmed by the act of 1789, was reaffirmed in the organizing acts of Alabama, Colorado, Dakota, Idaho, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, Oregon, Wisconsin and Wyoming.
The Land Severalty Law of 1887 (amended 1890) provided for the survey of reservations and the allotment to each person of a tract ranging from 40 to 160 acres, the remainder being sold to white settlers. The process of dividing the Indian lands into individual allotments and disposing of the remainder for the benefit of the tribe or the nation has been very successful in many cases. This policy has culminated in a recent decision of the United States Supreme Court, by virtue of which all Indians living upon their own allotments were declared to be citizens, on the same terms and subject to the same laws as the whites.
During the period 1609-1664, from the visit of Hudson to the surrender of New Amsterdam to the English, the Dutch exercised not a little influence upon the aborigines of the present state of New York and some of the regions adjoining. Hudson’s harsh treatment of the natives caused the Dutch trouble later on. Through their trading-post of Fort Orange (now Albany) they came into contact with both Iroquoian and Algonkian tribes, carrying on an extensive trade in furs with some of them, including the New England Pequots. They sided with the Iroquois against the northern Algonkian tribes, but also aided the Mohegans against the Mohawks. Farther south they helped the Senecas against the Munsees. Their quarrels with the English involved many of the Indian tribes on one side or the other. They have been generally condemned for their readiness to furnish the Indians with fire-arms and intoxicating liquors, though some of these actions were doubtless performed by individual traders and settlers only and cannot be charged to a deliberate policy of the government. The modern title of Kora, given by the Canadian Iroquois to the governor-general (also to the king of England), is a corruption of Corlaer, the name of a trusted Dutch manager of Rensselaerwyck (cf. the Iroquois name for the French governor, Onontio = Montmagny).
German influence among the American Indians north of Mexico has made itself felt among the Eskimo (particularly in Labrador), the Delawares and Mohegans, the Iroquois and the Cherokee, where the Moravian missionaries did much good work. They influenced the Indians for peace and good conduct during the great wars. In Labrador the dress, habitations and beliefs of the Eskimo have been considerably modified. It is said by some that Sequoyah, the inventor of the “Cherokee alphabet,” had for father a German settler.
The great influence of the Spaniards upon the American Indians has been treated by Blackmar in his Spanish Institutions in the South-west, and by Lummis, Bourke, Hodge and other authorities. The results of Spanish contact and control are seen in the loan-words in the various languages of the region, the consequences of the introduction of domestic animals (horse, mule, sheep, goat, fowls), the perfection of the arts involved in the utilization of wool, the planting of wheat, the cultivation of peaches and other exotic fruits. The difference between the Navaho and their close kinsmen the Apache may be largely attributed to changes wrought by the coming of the Spaniards. The “Mission Indians” of California represent another great point of contact. In California thousands and thousands of Indians were converted and brought under the control of the able and devoted missionaries of the Catholic Church, only to become more or less utterly helpless when Spanish domination ceased and the missions fell into decay. Traces of Spanish influence may be found as far north as the Saskatchewan, where personal names implying origin from a Mexican captive occur; and there is not a little Spanish blood in some of the tribes of the Great Plains, who often took with them from their border raids, or acquired from other tribes, many white prisoners from Mexico, &c.