When colonization began the eastern seaboard of North America was inhabited by many Native American peoples, but historians link them into four groups according to the type of language they spoke. In the northeast, the tribes spoke Algonquian languages. Siouan peoples inhabited the area that was to become the Carolinas. South of them were Muskogeans, and inland were Iroquoian peoples. Within each of these groups were numerous nations, each individually governed and varying widely in dialect and culture. Though they were sometimes joined in loose confederacies, these nations did not see themselves as a united group of "Indians," as the Europeans did. The Native American nations were often at war with one another, disputing the territory in which they hunted and fished.

Competing Civilizations

Perceiving their own way of life as superior, English colonists expected Native Americans to be impressed by their...