Chapter 3, Section 1 Early European Explorers
The Vikings are believed to be the first Europeans to set foot in North America. They were from Scandinavia, a region in northern Europe. They were skilled sailors and arrived in Canada about 1000 A.D.
The Viking settlement in Canada was called Vinland. Its purpose was to grow grapes for making wine. Unfortunately, the climate was too cold to grow grapes successfully.
Also, the Native Americans did not approve. After 25 years, the Vikings abandoned their settlements.
The Heavener Runestone was discovered by the Choctaw Indians in 1830. It was originally thought to be the date November 11, 1012 A.D. Lost Vikings may have sailed around Florida, then up the Mississippi River, up the Arkansas River, and then the Poteau. The stone is a mile from the river.
But current research shows that the language may be much earlier, perhaps around 800 A.D. In the earlier script, it might read G L O M E D A L which loosely translates as Glome Valley. Glome was either a man s name or a variation of the Viking word for Gloomy.
There is no other evidence that the Vikings traveled across the Atlantic before 1000 A.D. The origin and true meaning of the Runestone may never be known.
The Vikings stopped further travels to the west. European exploration started again in the 1400s as merchants sought new trade routes. Products that traveled to Europe from India and China had to go through middlemen, traders who bought at a low price and sold at a higher price. China ~ 25 cents India ~ 50 cents Persia ~ $1.00 Jerusalem ~ $2.00 Venice ~ $4.00 London ~ $8.00
A young merchant named Marco Polo began the Age of Exploration in 1295 with an overland expedition to China. As an ambassador and trader for the Chinese emperor Kublai Khan, he worked in Asia more than 20 years before returning home to write tales of his great adventures.
The Travels of Marco Polo, his book about his journey to Cathay (the medieval name for China), was translated into many languages and sparked further explorations. He also described an island kingdom east of Cathay called Cipangu. Legend says that Christopher Columbus carried a copy of the book in his pocket.
This was The World, before the Age of Exploration. Most sailors believed Asia was only 3,000 miles west of Europe.
Christopher Columbus, an Italian sea captain, set out in 1492 to reach India by sailing west across the Atlantic. His expedition (a journey for a specific purpose such as exploration) had been financed by the King and Queen of Spain.
Columbus returned to the Spanish Court, with gifts including people he called Indians.
Columbus would make four voyages in all: in 1492, in 1493, in 1498, and in 1502.
The first Europeans in America were explorers. The second wave were conquistadors, Spanish warriors who defeated the native Central and South Americans and took control of their lands and resources. Conquistador is Spanish for conqueror.
Hernando Cortes landed in Mexico in 1519. His army destroyed the native Aztecs and killed their leader, Montezuma. In 1535, Francisco Pizarro crossed Panama and marched southward to defeat the empire of the Incas.
Spain now controlled a major portion of the New World. The lands north of Panama were called New Spain, with Mexico City as their capital. The lands south of Panama were called Peru, with Lima as their capital.
In 1527, Panfilo Narvaez set out to conquer the lands of the Gulf Coast. The expedition ended badly. The terrain was extremely difficult and the Natives resisted fiercely.
All but four men in the Narvaez expedition died. One survivor was Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca. His account of the disastrous expedition nevertheless sparked Spanish interest in acquiring native lands.
Reports of great cities of gold and turquoise, known as The Seven Cities of Cibola, led to even more Spanish expeditions.
In 1540, Francisco Coronado led a long but ultimately disappointing expedition to find Quivira, rumored to be one of the lost cities.
A captured Pawnee Indian called El Turco first led the Spanish expedition through Arizona and New Mexico. Coronado became the first European to see the Grand Canyon.
The trek across Texas and Oklahoma and into the Great Plains exhausted the Spanish soldiers. The water they found was muddy. There was no wood for fires, so they had to burn cow dung. His men frequently got lost. They would find no gold or other treasures Outraged, they killed their guide and returned to Mexico.
A priest named Juan de Padilla traveled back to Quivira after Coronado left. As a missionary, he preached Christianity to the natives. He lived in the Wichita village in Kansas for two years. Unfortunately, he was killed in an ambush by another tribe.
Juan de Onate was given the task of settling New Mexico. He also searched for treasure but didn t find it. Santa Fe was founded in 1607. Despite their failures, these expeditions increased interest in the lands of Oklahoma.
While the Spanish came looking for gold, the French came looking for fur.
The French weren t interested in taking land. Instead, they treated the natives with dignity.
France sent explorer Louis Joliet and Father Jacques Marquette down the Mississippi from their colony in Canada. They were looking for a passage across the continent. When it became obvious they hadn t found it, they returned home.
Rene Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle owned a trading post in Canada. He hoped to expand his business southward. With a small party, he sailed down the Mississippi. Reaching the mouth of the river, he claimed all the land surrounding it for King Louis XIV.
La Salle marked the event with a large wooden cross. The land was named for the king and would be called Louisiana. French traders later established the the city of New Orleans in 1718.
Bernard de La Harpe explored eastern Oklahoma and was impressed with the land and its people. The Indians welcomed the trading partnership with the French and made an alliance, or close association to advance their common interests.
Other French explorers entered the territory from the north and established trade routes along the Canadian River. This early influence is still evident today in the names of rivers, geographical features, communities, and family names.
In 1588, an English fleet defeated the Spanish Armada, and England became the most powerful country in Europe. They finally began sending explorers to the New World.
The first permanent English settlement was Jamestown, Virginia ~ May 14, 1607. One of the Native Americans living nearby was a young girl named Pocahontas.
The descendants of Pocahontas and John Rolfe: John Rolfe and Pocahontas Thomas Rolfe and Jane Poythress Jane Rolfe and Robert Bolling John Fairfax Bolling and Mary Kennon John Kennon Bolling and Elizabeth Blair Robert Bolling and Susannah Watson Rebecca Bolling and Joseph Cabell Benjamin Cabell and Sarah Doswell William Lewis Cabell and Harriet Rector John Cabell and Phoebe Lee Shingo Cabell and Richard Lemin Joseph Lemin and Violet Mansfield Richard Lemin II
By the late 1600s, England had established 13 colonies along the Atlantic coast. Their influence would change the lives of the Native Americans forever.
Chapter 3, Section 2 European-Indian Contact
Most Natives had developed economies based on barter. An economy includes the production, distribution, and consumption of products and services. Many tribes had extensive trade networks, and often were dependent on the items they traded for: food, tools, and weapons.
The natives used the fur trade as a way to get guns and ammunition for protection and fighting. There was a great European demand for fur, which was very fashionable.
The European trade item with the most significant impact on Indian life was the horse. It would become an essential part of life on the Great Plains.
A horse could transport many times what a person or a dog could carry. Tribes could venture further in search of food before returning to their villages. It also led to more intertribal wars.
The natives acquired other domestic animals: pigs, chickens, sheep, and goats. They reduced the Natives reliance on wild game.
Explorers brought New World foods back to Europe. Potatoes, corn, squash, tomatoes, and turkey were unknown in Europe, as was a new dessert made from the cacao plant: Chocolate
Old World plants were brought to America, where they adapted well. These included sugar cane, peaches, oats, onions, coffee, and wheat. This back-and-forth trade was known as the Columbian Exchange.
Another native tradition brought to Europe was the use of tobacco. The natives used a long pipe called a calumet in many of their ceremonies.
Tobacco quickly became the number one non-food export from the New World. It would later be overtaken by cotton.
European illnesses killed millions of natives. They had no immunity, or resistance, to diseases like Smallpox. By some estimates, 9 out of 10 Indians may have been killed.
The Indians continued to bury their dead, and became a minority in their own lands.