When a new group of people arrive in an area, what first comes to my mind is new neighbors. Within the past two years we've had four different families move onto my street. And there will be another coming soon. I don't mind because it hasn't affected me at all. I didn't have any friends on my block that moved. Either the people owning the houses moved, or died, in one case. I also didn't know these people really well. They were adults and none of them were that social. Most of our neighbors I know because they come to book club meetings, block parties etc. The neighbors that moved, didn't. Actually i take back what i said about all of the neighbors that moved not affecting me. There was one family that I babysat for a lot and our parents were friends, so it was upsetting when they moved.
Anyways once people moved in then I sort of changed my mind. I did care about what was happening and it wasn't because of the new people, it was because of the houses. Think of it like this: you're used to seeing the same two houses across the street from your house for your entire life. They grow on you and you like them because they fit into the neighborhood like puzzle pieces. Then one day you come home from school and one is gone. It's been knocked down and construction workers are there already building a new frame of something that looks nothing like what you knew before. It's kind of depressing. All your memories of your childhood are suddenly changed, edited like a photograph; a big chunk deleted and replaced with something totally new, different and wrong. <----that is the reason I don't like new people coming. If they keep the original house, it is fine, but so far all of them on my block have been replaced.
So to connect this to the Europeans coming to the Native Americans' land, well I sort of think the same thing. I don't know enough to be sure of anything, but I think it's quite obvious that if the Europeans had come and didn't change anything, the Indians would be ok with it. The reason conflict started was because Europeans took the Indians' land, and changed it into something they didn't know; just like when my new neighbors came, the old houses were changed into something I didn't know.
Do you really think that if the Europeans had come to the Americas and not changed anything, the natives would have been okay with it? The Europeans were so different from the Native Americans that I think it would be hard for them to just accept the explorers into their everyday lives. I think it is hard to assume that they would have just welcomed the Europeans with open arms, when we really don't know much about their thoughts on the matter.
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