Indians and Europeans on the Northwest Coast, 17741812

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Indians and Europeans on the Northwest Coast,
17741812
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PNW Contact Lecture Series

• Imagining
• Meeting
• Living Together

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Imagining - European Perspective

• Inside Passage
• Apostolos Valerianos
• Juan De Fuca
• Greek
• 1592 Voyage across N. America
• Myths of Gold, Silver and Pearls
• Mercantilism

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Imagining - Native Perspective

• Originally, no knowledge OR no impact
• Confusion about first contacts
• Interest in European goods, especially metals.

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European Objectives

• Claim Territory
• Make a Profit
• Win Intellectual Glory
• Convert Souls
• Maintain Peace with Neighbors
• ALL AT THE SAME TIME!

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Meeting!The First Explorers

• Vitus Bering - Russia - 1728
• Several trips, establish fur trading posts in
  Alaska
• Perez - Spanish - 1774
• Doesnt touch land
• Meets Nuu-Chah-Nulth/
• Haida
• Bodega-Hezeta -
• Spanish - 1775
• Plant Crosses to mark Spanish land
• Spanish Dominance being threatened world wide

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Explorers continued

• James Cook - English - 1778
• Surveys land around Vancouver Island
• Enters the Strait of Juan de Fuca
• John Meares - English - 1789
• Supposedly buys land from Nuu-chah-nulth chief
  Maquinna.
• Robert Gray - 1790
• First American ship to NW Coast

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Living TogetherNootka Controversy, 1789

• Eng. Cpt. James Colnett imprisoned for
  trespassing
• Spanish claim to own waters
• Spanish Cpt. Jose Martinez shoots Nuu-Chah-Nulth
  Chief Callicum

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1792