ABSTRACT
This chapter begins with the Powhatan Confederacy and the English in the Algonquian homelands of Tsenacommacah, called Virginia by the English. It traces Indian and English interactions in early New England. Moving into a world in the northeast near the Great Lakes region, the chapter looks at how brewing antagonisms among the Iroquois, Huron, and surrounding Algonquian peoples became worse as the French introduced trade, disease, Catholicism, and unfamiliar diplomatic tactics. The seventeenth century was a time of radical change and disruption for both Native Americans and Europeans in the Eastern Woodlands. French and British imperialism brought disease, war, trade, diplomacy, and new religions. Native Americans from Virginia to the Great Lakes often dictated the terms of intercultural encounters. The chapter concludes by looking at two major wars involving native peoples that closed out the century: King Philip's War in New England and Bacon's Rebellion in Virginia.
