Who Are These People?:

First Contacts between Europeans and Native Americans

A Live, Online Professional Development Workshop

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© The New Yorker Collection 2006 Gahan Wilson from cartoonbank.com All Rights Reserved.

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WHO ARE THESE PEOPLE?:FIRST CONTACTS BETWEEN EUROPEANS AND NATIVE

AMERICANS

A LIVE, ONLINE PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT WORKSHOP

Framing Questions

What generalizations can we make about first contacts?

Why do first contacts matter?

Kathleen DuVal

Associate Professor of HistoryUniversity of North Carolina

at Chapel Hill

National Humanities Center Fellow2008-09

Early America, particularly cross-cultural relations on North American

borderlands

The Native Ground:Indians and Colonists in the Heart of

the Continent(2006)

Interpreting a Continent:

Voices from Colonial America (ed.)(2009)

First Contacts

• What makes a first contact?• Norse-Beothunk Contact, c. 1000• Columbus & His Motivations• Spanish-Taino Contact, 1492-3• Montagnais-French Contact, early 1500s• Mexico, Peru Cities of Gold in the North?• Mississippian Societies • Spanish-Mississippian Contact, 1539-43• French-Timucuan Contact, 1564

What makes a first contact?

Discussion: Norse-Beothunk Contact, c. 1000

Discussion: Norse-Beothunk Contact, c. 1000

Greenlanders’ Saga: The Norse party “then returned to the ship,

and discovered on the sands, in beyond the headland, three mounds; they went up to these, and saw that they were three skin-canoes, with three men under each. They thereupon divided their party, and succeeded in seizing all of the men but one, who escaped with his canoe. They killed the eight men . . .”

Columbus & His Motivations

Discussion: Spanish-Taino Contact, 1492-3

• What does Columbus notice?

Discussion: Spanish-Taino Contact, 1492-3

Columbus to Santángel, 1493:• “naked as the day they were born”• “neither iron nor steel, nor any arms”• not “warlike”• “wondrously timid”• “artless”• “generous” • “giving back whatever they had like dumb beasts”• “well disposed to the love and service of their Highnesses”• “try to be close with us and give us things that we need”• “no acquaintance with religious sects or idolatry”• “believe that power and goodness is in the heavens”• “believed that I came down with these people and these ships from the sky”• “very subtle minds and navigate these seas so well”• “an island without danger for those who know how to govern it”

Discussion: Spanish-Taino Contact, 1492-3

Columbus to Santángel, 1493:“In conclusion, speaking only of this one voyage, which was

just a rapid run, their Highnesses can see that I will give them however much gold they need with what little aid they give me now: spices and cotton as much as they call for, and as much as they order to be shipped to them of mastic . . . and aloe as much as they order to be shipped, and slaves as many as they order to be shipped (from among those who worship idols), and I think I have found rhubarb and cinnamon, and I will find a thousand other significant things. . . . Even though other people had spoken about these lands, it was all conjecture and nothing seen. Rather than understanding, as long as people were hearing about them, most people were listening and making up their minds according to fable more than anything else.”

Discussion: Montagnais-French Contact, early 1500s

• How do the Montagnais react to the arrival of the French?

• What do they think of the French?

Discussion: Montagnais-French Contact, early 1500s

Montagnais Account in Paul le Jeune:

• “moving island”

• “drank blood”

• “ate wood”

Mexico, Peru Cities of Gold in the North?

Mississippian Societies

Discussion:Spanish-Mississippian Contact, 1539-43• What was de Soto’s motivation?

Discussion:Spanish-Mississippian Contact, 1539-43Gentleman of Elvas Account of de Soto Expedition:Malapaz [north central Florida] “was so called because one,

representing himself to be its Cacique [chief], came peacefully, saying that he wished to serve [de Soto] with his people, and asked that he would [order] the twenty-eight men and women, prisoners taken the night before, to be [freed]; that provisions should be brought and that he would furnish a guide for the country in advance of us; whereupon, the Governor having ordered the prisoners to be [set free] and the Indian put under guard, the next day in the morning came many natives close to a scrub surrounding the town, near which the prisoner asked to be taken that he might speak and satisfy them, as they would obey in whatever he commanded; but no sooner had he found himself close to them than he boldly [ran] away and fled so swiftly that no one could overtake him, going off with the rest into the woods.”

Discussion:Spanish-Mississippian Contact, 1539-43• What news of de Soto spread, do you think?• What sorts of reactions did Mississippians

have?

Discussion: Spanish-Mississippian Contact,

1539-43Gentleman of Elvas Account :

“The natives were asked if they had knowledge of any great [Indian leader] farther on, to which they answered that twelve days’ travel [in that direction] was a region called Chiaha, subject to a chief of Coça”

Discussion: Spanish-Mississippian Contact, 1539-43

De Soto & Quigaltam Cacique (Elvas acct):

“The Governor sank into a deep despondency at sight of the difficulties that presented themselves to his reaching the sea; and, what was worse, from the way in which the men and horses were diminishing in numbers, he could not sustain himself in the country without [help]. . . .

[H]e sent a messenger to the Cacique of Quigaltam to say that he was the child of the Sun and from where he came all obeyed him, [offering] their tribute; that he besought him to value his friendship and to come where he was, that he would be rejoiced to see him, and in token of love and his obedience he must bring him something from his country that was in most esteem there.

By the same Indian, the Chief returned this answer: ‘As to what you say of your being the son of the Sun, if you will cause him to dry up

the great river, I will believe you: as to the rest, it is not my custom to visit any one, but rather all, of whom I have ever heard, have come to visit me, to serve and obey me, and pay me tribute, either voluntarily or by force: if you desire to see me, come where I am; if for peace, I will receive you with special good will; if for war, I will await you in my town; but neither for you, nor for any man, will I set back one foot.’”

Discussion:Spanish-Mississippian Contact, 1539-43• Death of de Soto• What stories might each side have told?

Discussion: French-Timucuan Contact, 1564

Discussion: French-Timucuan Contact, 1564

Laudonnière Account : “Then the chief suggested going to see the stone column that we

had erected during the voyage of Jean Ribault. . . . It was a thing to which they ascribed great significance. Having granted their request to go to the place where the stone was set up, we found it to be crowned with magnolia garlands and at its foot there were little baskets of corn. . . . They kissed the stone on their arrival with great reverence and asked us to do the same. As a matter of friendship we could not refuse, and when this was done the chief took me by the hand as if he had a great secret to tell me, and showed me by signs how far up the river his dominion lay. He said that he was called . . . King Satouriona. . . . After I had spent a little time with them, the chief asked one of his sons to present a slab of silver to me, which he did willingly. As a reward, I gave a knife and some other more expensive presents with which he seemed to be very well pleased.”

Discussion: French-Timucuan Contact, 1564

Laudonnière Account : “Chief Satouriona sent several Indians to

ask me if I would make good the promise that I had made when I first came to this country, that is, to show myself to be a friend to his friends and to be an enemy to his enemies and also to accompany him with ample men with guns at the time when he thought it expedient and found occasion and opportunity to go to war.”.”

Fort Caroline & St. Augustine

First Contacts

• What generalizations can we make about first contacts?

• Why do they matter?

Final Slide.