American Inidians, 1600s

American Inidians, 1600s. . , Arrival of Europeans , The colonization of North America began with the Spanish colony at St. Augustine, Florida in 1565. Other European powers, including the English, French, and Dutch, soon followed. Relations between American Indians and Europeans were highly complex. Some groups entered into strategic military and trading alliances with competing colonial powers. Europeans married into American Indian societies, and Indians incorporated European fabrics, tools, and other goods into their daily lives. But this interaction took an enormous toll on Indian populations, as huge numbers died from disease, warfare, and enslavement at the hands of European colonizers. American Indians struggled to maintain their way of life as waves of European immigrants encroached on their lands., Trade in Hides and Furs , Relations between Europeans and American Indians were initially defined by trade. Indians provided European traders with animal hides and furs in exchange for goods such as cloth, firearms, and steel tools. Trade was not one-sided. Deerskins and other animal furs were a resource highly valued by European leatherworkers and hat-makers. Control of this commodity allowed American Indians to manipulate the Europeans and led to a decline in Indian-made goods. The demand for deerskins and beaver furs also led to declines in these animal populations, altering local ecosystems., Encounters on the Virginia Frontier , As a consequence of European colonization, the Five Nations of the Iroquois League (Haudenosaunee) sought control of the region and its fur- and hide-bearing animals that were vital to Indian-European trade. Most Native inhabitants abandoned the region as the Iroquois resumed old conflicts with southeastern Indians, and the Iroquois claimed the region by right of conquest. When European settlers arrived in the 1720s, they encountered many Indians who were traveling along the Great Indian War and Trading Path that ran through the Shenandoah Valley. The Catawba, Cherokee, Delaware, Shawnee, and Iroquois fought, hunted, and traded along this important north-south route.