Native American communities maintained connections through well-established trade and communication networks. Kinship ties, trading relationships and political alliances sustained a complex web of interactions. When newcomers from Europe entered this network, inter-tribal alliances were affected, and often upset, by new alliances and interactions with European colonists. New trade goods such as European textiles, worked metals, ammunition, and guns traveled along pre-existing trade routes. Old World diseases like measles and smallpox traveled unseen with those goods, taking a horrific toll on Native Americans who had never before been exposed to such illnesses.
The seemingly insatiable European demand for furs quickly depleted animal populations in settled areas, forcing Native hunters to travel farther inland. Conflicts between competing hunters upset older agreements concerning family and tribal hunting areas. Strained relations eroded alliances and sometimes led to warfare between tribes. By the mid-1600s, a growing trade imbalance with their European trading partners forced Native groups into an increasingly weakened negotiating position. This set the stage for disputes over territory when English traders and fur brokers “bought” land from vulnerable Native people to settle trading debts.
Trade was the earliest and often the only point of contact between Native Americans and Europeans. White people who would never set foot in North America began smoking tobacco and wearing hats made from beaver felt. Throughout this period of change, dislocation, and invasion, Native Americans retained their cultural autonomy. They became eager consumers of European goods but used them in ways that reflected their own cultural preferences and assumptions. The white glass beads that decorate this finger-woven sash demonstrate how elements from different cultures were integrated: European glass beads and wool from English sheep were woven together by a Native artisan, using a traditional finger-weaving technique to create a chevron design.
