GO rD hIll 500 Years of Indigenous resistanceThe initial English (and Dutch) settlers began the process of purchasing
land, supplemented as always with armed force against vulnerable Indig-
enous nations (such as those decimated by disease or already engaged in
wars with more powerful First Nations).
It remains unclear as to what the First Nations understood of the
local purchasing process, but some points are clear; there was no prac-
tise of private ownership of land, nor of selling land, among or between
the Peoples prior to the arrival of the colonialists; there were however
agreements and pacts between First Nations in regards to access to
hunting or fishing areas. This would indicate treaties were most likely
understood as agreements between First Nations and settler communi-
ties over use of certain areas of land, as well as nonaggressiveness pacts.
In either case, where First Nations remained powerful enough to deter
initial settler outrages the treaties were of little effect if they turned out
to be less than honourable, and there was enough duplicity, fraud, and
theft contained in the treaties that they could not be considered bind-
ing. Practises such as orally translating one version of a treaty and sign-
ing another on paper were frequent, as was taking European proposals
in negotiations and claiming that these had been agreed upon by all—
when in fact they were being negotiated. As well, violations of treaty
agreements by settlers was commonplace, particularly as, for example,
the Virginia colony discovered the profitability of growing tobacco (in-
troduced to the settlers by Native peoples) and began expanding on
their initial land base.
Gradually, First Nations along the Atlantic found themselves dis-
possessed of their lands and victims of settler depredations. One of the
first conflicts that seriously threatened to drive the colonialist forces back
into the sea broke out in 1622, when the Powhatan Confederacy, led by
Opechancanough, attacked the Jamestown colony.
Clashes continued until 1644, when Opechancanough was captured
and killed. By the mid-1600s, clashes between Natives and settlers be-
gan to increase. Tensions grew as the Europeans became more obtuse
and domineering in their relationship with the First Nations. In 1655
for example, the so-called ‘Peach Wars’ erupted between colonialists of
New Netherlands and the Delaware Nation when a Dutchman killed a
Delaware woman for picking a peach tree on the colonies ‘property’. The
settler was subsequently killed and Delaware warriors attacked several