PAGE 19
COLONIZATION
GEOOGRAPHY
WHAT HAVE DOMINANT CULTURES DONE TO INDIGENOUS CULTURES BY: AISHU SENTHIL “I hope in God…...He will make us authors of His holy will in converting them to our true Christian faith by His own inspiring grace and knowledge of His deity”. This statement was taken from the diary of an English settler in North America in 1607. This settler explicitly reveals his wish to turn the Native Americans into Christians like him. This wish was not his alone, but shared by most colonizers; the Spanish sent expeditions during the Age of Exploration mainly to spread Christianity to the newfound lands they conquered. But what effect did this wish have on the Indigenous people of those lands? They were overshadowed by colonists who threatened their culture, health, and long-standing traditions. As evidenced by the quote above, many Europeans believed it was God’s bidding to assimilate the Native American tribes into Christian religion. Christian missionaries took this as an opportunity to spread their beliefs to these tribes. However, this did not receive the welcome response that the European colonists had anticipated. Relationships became rocky- both religiously and politically. The tribes of the eastern coast were the initial groups to experience this firsthand.The Europeans, who initially settled at the coast, were often at war with the Indigenous tribes. One major problem stood in the way of the tribes: their political structure was weaker compared to that of the Europeans.
