Summary Of Changes In The Land By William Cronon

Throughout “Changes in the Land”, William Cronon explores the dynamic relationship between the English who settled New England, the Native Americans that inhabited the region and the local ecosystem. Moreover, the Europeans brought with them a multitude of ideologies that had a disastrous impact on the New England ecosystem. However, the fascinating aspect of the arrival of the English is how they influenced the Native Americans to adopt English ways of thinking about the natural world. This adoption of thinking was, among other major factors, the result of the influx of germs on the part of the English, which decimated the Native American population and gravely damaged their social institutions. Furthermore, the perspectives on land and wealth

These two cultures had largely disparate views of the land and its purpose. The English peoples who settled New England during the 17th century came from a largely “settled”, capitalistic society composed of established cities and farms. Whereas the American Indians who lived in New England lived a nomadic lifestyle, constantly moving with the seasons and maintaining a sympathetic relationship with the ecosystem. For example, when winter ended and spring began Native Americans who lived inland moved to the coastal shores to hunt for fish. Then when summertime arrived, around July and August, the Native Americans could rely on the ripe berries that became plentiful around New England at this time. It was in this way that the Native Americans nomadic culture affected how they peacefully interacted with their environment to allow for their survival. This quote illustrates this “peaceful interaction” which the Native Americans had with the land: “By encouraging the growth of extensive regions which resembled the boundary areas between forests and grasslands, Indians created ideal habitats for a host of wildlife species”1 This cultural view of the role of the environment completely contrasted with that of the British, who being a largely capitalistic

With the arrival of the English settlers and their capitalistic ways, the American Indians were forced to change their beliefs about how one should interact with non-human nature. They had to survive and adapt to the changing world around them. Many sachems saw that they had no other choice but to cooperate with the European way of life. The American Indians began to abandon their harmonious relationship with the ecosystem and began to hunt fur-bearing animals like beavers to near-extinction in order to trade fur with the Europeans in exchange for European goods such as guns and metals. These European items became seen as a symbol of status within Native American communities. Furthermore, these same Native Americans were being forced into smaller and smaller areas by the Europeans fencing large section of land. This forced the Native Americans to abandon their nomadic lifestyle and instead set up permanent villages. This caused the animal population of New England to be decimated even more, due to the limited amount of space the American Indians had to acquire food. They had to wipe out entire populations of animals in certain areas in order to survive off the small amount of land they were confined to by the Europeans. This new way of surviving off the land,