The indigenous peoples of the two "American" continents on the Western Hemisphere were pastoral hunter-gatherers. No matter the existence of communal settlements for local concentrations of indigenous populations (which would be best translated as "towns" according to the natives' own conceptualization of their communities), no town existed in perpetuity; each and every town was temporary. Once a locally-anchored population base grew beyond the sustainability of the local food sources (some of which were farmed), the community would pack up and tear down and move to a new location--often nearby, along the same river bank--where they would start over.
As the Europeans came to the end of their patience with bargaining policies like tolerance, co-existence, trade agreements, land use treaties, and paternal acculturation (religious and cultural education), the "final solution" that they turned to became unconditional warring conquest with subsequent forced relocation. This aggressive assignation of native peoples to "permanent" reservations where they were forced to follow European-style lifestyles like farming, trading, and mining was quite eviscerating for the natives. These European occupations were all quite unnatural to the indigenous peoples, especially to the men. (Yes: even after a couple centuries of being taught by example). Farming was women's work. The various practices of trading Native Americans had willingly worked with since first contact with the white barbarians had served them in the capacity of providing an "buffer zone" of safety and respectful interdependence between the two cultures. The local aboriginals used this safety zone to study their new interlocutors while benefitting from the improvements in their lives that were offered through European technological devices and systems. In fact, the indigenous leaders quickly began to understand that their own survival and self-preservation depended upon peaceful coexistence with the Colonists--something that involved cooperation and, unfortunately, bending to the will of their ruthless and, admittedly, superior "guests."
Since men were often absent for long stretches of time in order to pursue and gather game along seasonal river trade routes or, for shorter periods, as war parties (usually in the form of small guerilla-type raiding parties who sought surprise attacks and quick skirmishes in order to settle small, often family-initiated disputes and slights), the duties of running, growing, heating, and processing foods, clothing, agriculture, education, and governance fell largely upon the women and elders. Thus, women within the town communities were often given as much power and voice as men.
As the Europeans came to the end of their patience with bargaining policies like tolerance, co-existence, trade agreements, land use treaties, and paternal acculturation (religious and cultural education), the "final solution" that they turned to became unconditional warring conquest with subsequent forced relocation. This aggressive assignation of native peoples to "permanent" reservations where they were forced to follow European-style lifestyles like farming, trading, and mining was quite eviscerating for the natives. These European occupations were all quite unnatural to the indigenous peoples, especially to the men. (Yes: even after a couple centuries of being taught by example). Farming was women's work. The various practices of trading Native Americans had willingly worked with since first contact with the white barbarians had served them in the capacity of providing an "buffer zone" of safety and respectful interdependence between the two cultures. The local aboriginals used this safety zone to study their new interlocutors while benefitting from the improvements in their lives that were offered through European technological devices and systems. In fact, the indigenous leaders quickly began to understand that their own survival and self-preservation depended upon peaceful coexistence with the Colonists--something that involved cooperation and, unfortunately, bending to the will of their ruthless and, admittedly, superior "guests."
With European incursion, native populations were expected to value things--like "property," "ownership," writing, and money--concepts which the humble, nature- and community-centered aboriginal psyche found abhorrent, even laughable, due to the fact that they did not exist in their culture before White people showed up. Even today, the concepts of "property" and "ownership" are ones that native peoples, traditions, and beliefs have been reluctant, even unable, to find comfort, value, or honor. They have, however, learned how to use these concepts for their survival and for their benefit.
Despite all attempts to eradicate all Native American cultural ways--including the very religious/spiritual perspectives and traditions upon which their very existence is fabricated--they have managed to preserve a beliefs and values system in which they think of themselves as interconnected with the totality of Life, of Nature, as integral participants within the "web of life" whereas the European beliefs, values, and perspectives require a (totally arrogant) mindset of separation from or even existence "above," superior to, the laws and cycles of Nature. Judeo-Christian European indoctrination even goes so far as to assert a pre-destined "mastery" over Earth and all its life and resources, a perspective that a Native American person would find incongruous, incompatible, "foreign," and disturbingly unsettling to his or her own understanding of the world. Such is the metaphor of the land reservation to the Native American psyche: it is a near-incomprehensible attempt to entrap and confine the universally-free human spirit.
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