Facing East from Indian Country: A Native History of Early America

Chapter 2 discusses the new world of material things and forces that the European colonists brought to the Native Americans, along with changes both related to Europeans, like new types of goods used for trade, and unrelated, such as disturbances in the natural environment that affected agriculture and hunting. This latter factor included the deadly viral infections that “scythed through one Native community after another and reshaped the human landscape in the most potent way of all” (41).

First, Richter discusses economics and trade. Objects like glass beads and metal tools brought by the newcomers “provided most Indian people their first evidence of Europe’s existence” (42) and fit in naturally with already established Indian trading customs. At first, these tools often served as raw materials to refashion into objects more familiar and useful to the Indians. Later, European goods came to be accepted on their own terms as more practical or aesthetically pleasing replacements for traditional Indian items—e.g., brass kettles for ceramic pots, woolen blankets for animal skins, and new kinds of weapons tipped with metal. In return, Europeans greatly coveted Indian beaver pelts for manufacture into furs and hats. Wampum, already important to Indian ceremonies, became repurposed as currency and came into extremely wide use after the colonists developed the means of mass-producing it.