New Worlds For All

We’ve had books about the nation’s early settlers. Then came the books about the horrible things the settlers did to the natives. Now we have a book about the way in which the settlers and the natives had their lives intertwined. The first thing this book says is that Jacques Cartier’s men were stuck on the ice, dying of scurvy, until local tribesmen came along and had them drink boiled pine bark. Unfortunately, Cartier’s men brought diseases that wiped out many of these noble ecologists. But the author isn’t that sympathetic; the natives already had diseases (like tuberculosis) and genetic ones from inbreeding.

If you ever take the Long Island Railroad out into Nassau and Suffolk Counties, you’ll find lots of towns with Native American names-Massapequa, Mineola, Hapuage, Montauk, Ronkonkoma, Syosset, and Quog-despite the fact that few Native American live there anymore. As for the change to Native American life, they benefited from the introduction of metal fish hooks and tools. The people of the St. Lawrence region knew right away how to play the French for profit; one beaver useless beaver skin for a bunch of metal knives was more than a bargain to them!

This book is a thoroughly researched and rather humorous study on the Native American v European interaction in the New World. The title is appropriate for the subject, for while we call Plymouth Colony “The New World” it would have been the same for those who encountered these strange new people, with their massive boats and powerful tools. We’re apt to blame European colonization for native destruction, but keep in mind that much of the East Coast was not as densely inhabited as we think. Manhattan Island was mostly empty when Peter Minuit arrived and bought it.

The purchase of Manhattan for a bunch of cheap metal knives may have been an even bigger rip off than revisionists would like us to believe. The Native tribesmen who Peter Minuit bought it from were not native to the island at all. They were just passing through and had no right to it!