OCR Text |
Show i9oo] INDIAN INDUSTRIES attacks and to inspire fear, and thus to insure freedom from outside interference. Whatever the exciting cause of actual hostilities, when once begun it was difficult to bring them to a close.\ The universal law of blood revenge demanded satisfaction for every death, and a retaliatory act simply shifted the side of the obligation, so that, unless an understanding was reached, the only outcome was mutual extinction. N^ his principle undoubtedly v lay at the root of much of the Indian warfare. With the coming of the whites the entire aspect changed. < The common enemy encouraged intertribal alliances before undreamed of, as was shown in many of the early struggles between the colonists and the Indians in New England and other parts of the east. Rapid and violent shiftings of location were also necessitated by the new pressure, and these met determined resistance from the occupants of the territory which was thus invaded. Coalitions with the whites were sought as a means of successfully dealing with Indian enemies, and the more effective weapons thus obtained added to the de-structiveness of the wars. The history of the Indian tribes since the arrival of Europeans is the history of constant struggle, movdfnent, and change, and still remains to be written. |