Native Responses to Settlement in the East and Southwest in North America

Unlike the native societies of Latin America, which ranged from fully sedentary imperial peoples to groups of hunter-gatherers, the indigenous peoples of eastern North America were primarily semisedentary in their way of life, except for those in northern Canada, who were hunters and gatherers. Though the Spanish and the Portuguese established their Latin American regimes largely without challenges from other European powers, the French, Dutch, and English-and to some extent even the Spanish-vied openly against each other in the eastern half of North America. This competition enabled the indigenous peoples to play the Europeans off against each other.