Policies of Oppression in the Name of “Democracy”

Continued from last week.

Champlain, accompanied by his newly found business partners, marched into the center of Mohawk territory. This war party encountered about 200 Mohawks. The first volley of gunfire killed three men, and the second created such confusion that the Mohawks retreated, leaving twelve men who were taken captive.

The period of warfare which follows this incident has come to be known as the “Beaver Wars.” The introduction of trade in beaver pelts inevitably triggered a long series of colonial wars. It represented the escalation of disputes among neighbors into a full-scale struggle for survival in the forests of the Native people of North America.

The European penetration affected every facet of the Native Way of Life from the very moment of contact. The natural economies, culture, politics, and military affairs become totally altered. Nations learned that to be without firearms meant physical annihilation. To be without access to beaver pelts meant no means to buy firearms.

The trade in beaver pelts, and the now necessary weaponry, introduced factors never before encountered by the Native people. Trade meant that long routes over which goods were to be transported had to be secured. The only way that was possible was for the entire area to be in friendly hands. Any potential disruptor of the trade routes must either be pacified or eliminated.

With the introduction of firearms, war became a deadly business. It was made more deadly because the European strategy of economic penetration was to stimulate warfare among the native nations over which would have the good sfor trade. Out of necessity, to protect themselves from annihilation, the People of the Longhouse entered the beaver trade. The pelts were used to buy more firearms and goods that made it possible for more men to trap more beaver efficiently. The marketplace of France, Holland, and England were eager for the “New World” merchandise.

Shortly after the encounter on Lake Champlain, the Haudenosaunee began trading with Holland, which had established posts along the Hudson River. A large part of the trade involved firearms. French historians recount that the People of the Longhouse were very skillful at the strategies of battle, and within a short time, the Algonquin people were defeated. Their defeat was aided by the fact that the French had not taken seriously their pledges of aid to the Algonquin.

So intense become the need for European goods, especially firearms, that by 1640 the beaver were becoming scarce in the Haudenosaunee territories. Pressure from the newly created European frontiers was steadily increasing. Warfare was also common between the various colonizers. The Haudenosaunee were well aware of what was occurring to the East. The Dutch, shortly after their arrival, began a series of genocidal wars that ended in the utter annihilation of the Native people of the Lower Hudson River Valley. In New England, the Pequot Nation was nearly obliterated by the Puritan and English colonists there.

Knowledge of these massacres greatly influenced Haudenosaunee defense policy. To the East were the Dutch and English, whose presence was necessary as a source of firearms. Yet, they represented a constant potential of movement of their frontiers westward into the Longhouse. To the North was the colony of France, which was supplying arms to the Western Native nations. France also threatened to gain a monopoly over the beaver trade which was increasingly centered to the north and west of Lakes Erie and Ontario.

France made repeated attempts to send missionaries, especially Jesuits, among the nations of the Haudenosaunee. These missions were the major tool of propaganda for the European nations. Missionaries then, as today, are expected to carry more than the message of Christianity. They serve as lay ambassadors of their culture, splitting off individuals from families, families from villages, villages from nations, one by one. Some priests even served as the leaders of troops going into battle.

The missionaries made persistent attacks on the economic structures of the People of the Longhouse. They specifically attacked the spiritual ceremonies as “pagan,” and thereby sought to end the practice of giveaways and public feasts. In addition, they sought to break the power of the clans by causing division which would split the people into nuclear households.

Continued next week.