History | Class XI | NCERT

Chapter 06

Displacing Indigenous
Peoples

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Chapter 6 – Displacing Indigenous Peoples | CBSE Notes

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1. Learning Objectives

After reading these notes, you will be able to:

Understand what ‘indigenous peoples’ means and how European colonialism affected them in America and Australia.

Describe the life, culture, and traditions of the native peoples of North America before European arrival.

Explain how Europeans and natives saw each other differently — their ‘mutual perceptions’.

Understand how native peoples lost their land through treaties, force, and displacement.

Explain the history of Australia’s Aboriginal peoples and how European settlement affected them.

Describe the ‘Winds of Change’ — reforms and recognition given to native peoples in the 20th century.

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2. Introduction — The Big Picture

This chapter covers the histories of the native peoples of America and Australia. From the 18th century, large areas of North America, South America, South Africa, Australia, and New Zealand came to be settled by immigrants from Europe. This led to native peoples being pushed out of their lands. European settlements were called ‘colonies’. When these colonies became independent, they became ‘states’ or countries. Today, Europeans and Asians form the majority in these countries, and the native peoples are very few in number.

💡 Did You Know?

Till the middle of the 20th century, American and Australian history textbooks described how Europeans ‘discovered’ these lands — barely mentioning native peoples except to say they were ‘hostile’. It was only from the 1960s that native peoples were encouraged to write their own histories (called oral history).

Many rivers, towns, and places in the USA and Canada have native names — e.g., Ohio, Mississippi, Seattle (USA), Saskatchewan (Canada), Wollongong and Parramatta (Australia).
From the 1840s, native peoples were studied by anthropologists in America.
Today, visitors to museums can see galleries of ‘native art’. The new National Museum of the American Indian in USA has been curated by American Indians themselves.

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3. European Imperialism

📌 Key Point

The Spanish and Portuguese empires in South America did not expand after the 17th century. After that, France, Holland, and England extended their colonies to America, Africa, and Asia. Even Ireland was virtually a colony of England, as most landowners there were English settlers.

🗺️ Different Forms of Colonial Control

South Asia (India): Trading companies like the East India Company made themselves into political powers — defeated local rulers, annexed territories, retained the administrative system, and collected taxes. Later, they built railways, excavated mines, and established plantations.
Africa: Europeans first only traded on the coast. Only in the late 19th century did they venture into the interior. Then several European countries agreed to divide up Africa as colonies among themselves.
Settler Colonies: The word ‘settler’ is used for the Dutch in South Africa, the British in Ireland, New Zealand and Australia, and the Europeans in America. The official language in these colonies was English (except in Canada, where French is also official).

📖 Names Europeans Gave to Countries
‘America’ — First used after the travels of Amerigo Vespucci (1451–1512) were published.
‘Canada’ — From kanata (= ‘village’ in Huron-Iroquois language, heard by explorer Jacques Cartier in 1535).
‘Australia’ — 16th-century name for land in the Great Southern Ocean (austral = Latin for ‘south’).
‘New Zealand’ — Named by Tasman of Holland, who first sighted these islands in 1642 (zee = Dutch for ‘sea’).

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4. North America — The Native Peoples

The continent of North America stretches from the Arctic Circle to the Tropic of Cancer, from the Pacific to the Atlantic Ocean. Forty per cent of Canada is covered with forests. Mining, industry, and agriculture were developed only in the last 200 years by immigrants — but native peoples had been living there for thousands of years before Europeans even knew the continent existed.

🏹 Origins of Native Peoples

The earliest inhabitants of North America came from Asia over 30,000 years ago on a land-bridge across the Bering Straits.
During the last Ice Age (10,000 years ago), they moved further south.
The oldest artefact found in America — an arrow-point — is 11,000 years old.
Population started to increase about 5,000 years ago when the climate became more stable.

🏕️ Life of Native Peoples (Before Europeans)

They lived in bands, in villages along river valleys. They ate fish and meat, and cultivated vegetables and maize.
They went on long journeys in search of bison (wild buffalo). From the 17th century, they started riding horses (bought from Spanish settlers).
They only killed as many animals as needed — they never over-hunted.
They did not practice extensive agriculture, so they did not produce a surplus — and thus did not develop kingdoms and empires as in Central and South America.
Land was not seen as something to ‘own’ — they were content with what the land gave them.
An important feature of their tradition: making formal alliances and exchanging gifts. Goods were obtained as gifts, not by buying.
They spoke numerous languages (not written down). They believed time moved in cycles.
They were skilled craftspeople and wove beautiful textiles. They could read the land — understanding climates and landscapes in the way literate people read written texts.

🏹 Native Peoples of North America — Key Features

Native Peoples of North America

🐃 Hunters
Hunted bison;
only what they needed

🏕️ Village Life
Villages in river
valleys; grew maize

🤝 Gift Exchange
Goods obtained
as gifts, not bought

🗣️ Oral Tradition
Many languages;
history passed orally

🚫 No Land Ownership
Land was shared,
not ‘owned’

🧶 Skilled Crafts
Beautiful textiles;
reading the land

📖 Terms Used for Native Peoples
Aborigine — Native people of Australia (Latin: ab = from, origine = the beginning)
American Indian / Amerind / Amerindian — Native peoples of North, South America and the Caribbean
First Nations peoples — Organised native groups recognised by the Canadian government (from the 1980s)
Indigenous people — People belonging naturally to a place
Native American — The term now commonly used for the indigenous people of the Americas
‘Red Indian’ — The brown-complexioned people whose land Columbus mistook for India

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5. Encounters with Europeans

📌 First Contact

In the 17th century, European traders who reached the north coast of North America found the native peoples friendly and welcoming. Unlike the Spanish in South America (who came for gold), these adventurers came to trade in fish and furs — and got willing help from the natives, who were expert hunters.

🪙 What Europeans Gave the Natives

Blankets, iron vessels (used in place of clay pots), guns (useful supplement to bows and arrows).
Alcohol — something natives had never known before. They became addicted to it. The Europeans used this to dictate terms of trade.
In return, Europeans acquired an addiction to tobacco from the natives.

📦 Different Views of Trade

To the natives, goods exchanged with Europeans were gifts given in friendship.
To Europeans, fish and furs were commodities — to be sold for a profit in Europe.
The natives were confused by the fact that Europeans sometimes gave a lot, sometimes very little — they had no concept of a ‘market’ in faraway Europe.
Natives were also saddened by the greed of Europeans who slaughtered hundreds of beavers — natives feared the animals would take revenge.

“The Indians I have had an opportunity of seeing in real life are quite different from those described in poetry… When the Indians are among themselves, they are great mimics, and entertain themselves excessively at the expense of the whites… The white men are prone to treat the poor Indians as little better than animals.” — Washington Irving, American writer (who had actually met native people)

🛖 Settlers Move Inland

From the 17th century, religious refugees (Protestants and Catholics persecuted in Europe) came to America to begin a new life.
As long as there was vacant land, this was fine — but gradually Europeans moved further inland near native villages.
They used iron tools to cut down forests and lay out farms.
Natives and Europeans saw forests differently — natives identified hidden tracks; Europeans imagined forests cut down and replaced by cornfields.
Thomas Jefferson’s dream: A country populated by Europeans with small farms. Natives who grew crops only for their own needs and did not ‘own’ the land were seen by Jefferson as ‘uncivilised’.

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6. Mutual Perceptions — How They Saw Each Other

🇪🇺 How Europeans Saw Natives

In the 18th century, western Europeans defined ‘civilised’ people in terms of literacy, organised religion, and urbanism. Native Americans appeared ‘uncivilised’ to them.
To some like French philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau, natives were to be admired as untouched by civilisation’s corruptions — the popular term was ‘the noble savage’.
English poet William Wordsworth (who had never met a native American) described them as having limited powers of imagination and emotion.
US President Thomas Jefferson (third president) called the native peoples an ‘unfortunate race’ and spoke of ‘justified extermination’ — words that would cause public outrage today.

🪶 How Natives Saw Europeans

Many folk tales of natives mocked Europeans, describing them as greedy and deceitful — but told as imaginary stories so Europeans understood only much later.
When the Hopi tribe saw Spanish Conquistadores covered in armour, they thought these were the ‘turtle brothers’ mentioned in their stone tablet prophecy — and went out with a welcoming handshake, only to receive a trinket.
Natives were deeply troubled by European greed — especially the mass slaughter of beavers for fur trade.

📌 Key Contrast
Natives → Goods exchanged were gifts given in friendship.
Europeans → Fish and furs were commodities to sell for profit.

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7. Native Peoples Lose Their Land

📌 How Land Was Taken

As European settlement expanded in the USA, natives were induced or forced to sign treaties selling their land. Prices paid were very low — and Americans often cheated by taking more land or paying less than promised. The native peoples’ consent was never considered important.

⚖️ The Cherokee Case — 1832

The Cherokee tribe had made the most effort to learn English and understand the American way of life — yet they were not allowed the rights of citizens.
US Chief Justice John Marshall (1832) declared the Cherokees were ‘a distinct community, occupying its own territory’ with sovereignty in certain matters.
But President Andrew Jackson refused to honour this judgment and ordered the US Army to evict the Cherokees and drive them to the Great American Desert.
Of the 15,000 people forced to march, over a quarter died along what became known as the ‘Trail of Tears’.

🦬 Clearing the Land

Those who took native land justified it by saying natives did not use the land to its maximum — calling them ‘lazy’ and ‘uncivilised’.
The prairies were cleared for farmland; wild bison were killed off by 1890, ending the natives’ centuries-old way of life.
Natives were pushed westward and locked in small areas called ‘reservations’ — often land with which they had no earlier connection.
Many tribes were forced to share the land of one tribe, causing quarrels between them.
The US army crushed a series of native rebellions from 1865 to 1890. In Canada, armed revolts by the Metis (people of native-European descent) occurred from 1869 to 1885.

“How can you buy or sell the sky, the warmth of the land?… Every part of the earth is sacred to my people. Every shining pine-needle, every sandy shore, every mist in the dark woods… The shining water that moves in the streams and rivers is not just water but the blood of our ancestors.” — Chief Seattle’s reply to the US President who asked him to sign a treaty (1854)

🌾 European Immigrants and Land

European immigrants — from Britain, France, Germany, Sweden, Italy, and Poland — came eager to own land.
They introduced crops like rice and cotton, cleared forests, and developed large-scale agriculture.
To protect farms from wolves and mountain lions, these were hunted to extinction.
Barbed wire (invented 1873) made Europeans feel totally secure on their large farms.
In the hot southern states, African slaves were brought in for plantation work, since the climate was too harsh for Europeans to work outdoors.
After protests, the slave trade was banned, but enslaved Africans in the USA remained enslaved. The American Civil War (1861–65) ended with the abolition of slavery.

📊 Population Data (For Exam Questions)

Group	USA (1820)	Spanish America (1800)
Natives	0.6 million	7.5 million
Whites	9.0 million	3.3 million
Mixed Europeans	0.1 million	5.3 million
Blacks	1.9 million	0.8 million
Total	11.6 million	16.9 million

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8. Gold Rush and Growth of Industries

In the 1840s, gold was found in California, USA → this led to the ‘Gold Rush’, when thousands of Europeans rushed to America hoping for quick fortune.
This triggered the building of railway lines across the continent, for which thousands of Chinese workers were recruited.
USA’s railway completed: 1870; Canada’s: 1885.
Andrew Carnegie — a poor immigrant from Scotland who became one of the first millionaire industrialists of the USA — said: “The old nations creep on at a snail’s pace; the Republic thunders on at the speed of an express.”
Industries developed in North America to manufacture railway equipment and produce machinery for large-scale farming.
In 1860, the USA was an undeveloped economy. By 1890, it was the leading industrial power in the world.
By 1890, bison had almost been exterminated, ending the centuries-old hunting life of the natives.
In 1892, the USA’s continental expansion was complete — the entire area from Pacific to Atlantic was divided into states. The ‘frontier’ was gone.
Within a few years, the USA set up its own colonies — in Hawaii and the Philippines. It had become an imperial power.

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9. Constitutional Rights & Winds of Change — USA & Canada

📌 Democratic Rights — For Whom?

The USA’s constitution celebrated ‘democratic rights’ and the ‘right to property’. But both these rights were only for white men. Native peoples had NO voting rights and NO right to property.

📈 Things Begin to Improve — 1920s Onwards

Meriam Report (1928): The survey The Problem of Indian Administration (directed by Lewis Meriam) painted a grim picture of the terrible conditions of native health and education in reservations.
Indian Reorganisation Act (1934): A landmark law that gave natives in reservations the right to buy land and take loans.
In the 1950s–60s, US and Canadian governments thought of ending all special provisions for natives, hoping they would ‘join the mainstream’ (adopt European culture). But natives refused.
Declaration of Indian Rights (1954): Native peoples accepted US citizenship — but only on the condition that their reservations would not be taken away and their traditions would not be interfered with.
Canada (1969): Government announced it would ‘not recognise aboriginal rights’. Natives held well-organised demonstrations and debates.
Canada’s Constitution Act (1982): Accepted the existing aboriginal and treaty rights of the natives. Many details remain to be worked out.
Today, native peoples of both countries have been able to assert their right to their own cultures and, particularly in Canada, to their sacred lands.

📅 Important Dates — USA & Canada

1763

Quebec conquered by the British

1781

Britain recognises USA as an independent country

1783

British give Mid-West to the USA

1803

Louisiana purchased from France by USA

1825–58

Natives in USA moved to reserves

1832

Chief Justice Marshall’s judgment on Cherokees — ignored by President Jackson

1849

American Gold Rush (California)

1861–65

American Civil War — ends with abolition of slavery

1865–90

American Indian Wars — native rebellions crushed

1867

Confederation of Canada — federal structure established

1869–85

Red River Rebellion by the Metis in Canada

1870

USA’s Transcontinental Railway completed

1876

Canada Indians Act

1885

Canada’s Transcontinental Railway completed

1890

Bison almost exterminated in America

1892

End of American frontier — USA continental expansion complete

1928

Meriam Report exposes terrible conditions in reservations

1934

Indian Reorganisation Act — natives get right to buy land & take loans

1982

Canada’s Constitution Act — accepts aboriginal and treaty rights

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10. Australia — The Aboriginal Peoples

As in the Americas, human habitation in Australia has a long history. The ‘Aborigines’ (a general name for many different societies) began arriving on the continent over 40,000 years ago. They came from New Guinea, which was connected to Australia by a land-bridge. In native tradition, they did not come to Australia — they had always been there.

📖 Key Facts About Australian Aborigines

Past centuries were called the ‘Dreamtime’ — a concept difficult for Europeans to understand, as the distinction between past and present is blurred.
In the late 18th century, there were between 350 and 750 native communities in Australia, each with its own language. Even today, 200 of these languages are still spoken.
There is another large group of indigenous people in the north — the Torres Strait Islanders (the term ‘Aborigine’ is not used for them).
Together, they make up 2.4% of Australia’s population (as of 2005).
Australia is sparsely populated; most towns are along the coast because the central region is arid desert.

🚢 Europeans Reach Australia — Timeline

1606

Dutch travellers sight Australia

1642

Tasman lands on the island later named Tasmania

1770

James Cook reaches Botany Bay — names it New South Wales

1788

British penal colony formed; Sydney founded

💡 Penal Colony — What Was It?

Most early European settlers in Australia were convicts deported from England. When their jail term ended, they were allowed to live as free people in Australia — on condition they did not return to Britain. With no other option, they had no hesitation in ejecting natives from land they took over for cultivation.

😢 Impact on Aboriginal Peoples

In the 19th and 20th centuries, nearly 90% of Aboriginal peoples died — from exposure to germs, loss of lands and resources, and battles against settlers.
Initial encounters were friendly, but British feelings reversed sharply when Captain Cook was killed by a native (not in Australia, but in Hawaii). This single incident was used to justify subsequent violence.
British settlers destroyed sacred places and cut down trees — behaviour the Daruk people found completely inexplicable.
Some natives were employed in farms under conditions little different from slavery.
Later, Chinese immigrants provided cheap labour — but fear of dependence on non-whites led the government to ban Chinese immigration.
Till 1974, there was a ‘White Australia’ policy — a government policy to keep ‘non-white’ people out.

🏛️ Development of Australia — Timeline

1850

Self-government granted to Australian colonies

1851

Chinese immigration begins; stopped by law in 1855

1851–1961

Gold Rushes

1901

Formation of Federation of Australia with six states

1911

Canberra established as capital (= kamberra, native word for ‘meeting place’)

1948–75

Two million Europeans migrate to Australia

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11. Winds of Change — Australia

📌 The Great Australian Silence

In 1968, anthropologist W.E.H. Stanner gave a landmark lecture called ‘The Great Australian Silence’ — pointing out the complete silence of historians about the Aboriginal peoples. This electrified public opinion and began a process of change.

From the 1970s, there was a growing eagerness to understand natives not as ‘anthropological curiosities’ but as communities with distinct cultures — unique ways of understanding nature, vast bodies of stories, textile, painting, and carving skills.
The book Why Weren’t We Told? by Henry Reynolds condemned the practice of writing Australian history as though it had begun with Captain Cook’s ‘discovery’.
University departments were set up to study native cultures; galleries of native art were added to art galleries; natives began writing their own life histories.
From 1974, ‘multiculturalism’ became official Australian policy — giving equal respect to native cultures and to immigrant cultures from Europe and Asia.
Australia realised (unlike USA, Canada, and New Zealand) it had no treaties with the natives. The government had always termed Australia terra nullius (= ‘belonging to nobody’).
A long and painful history of children of mixed blood (native-European) being forcibly separated from their native families also came to light.

✅ Major Legal and Political Milestones — Australia

1974

‘White Australia’ policy ends — Asian immigrants allowed

1992

Mabo Case — Australian High Court declares terra nullius legally invalid; recognises native land claims from before 1770

1995

National Enquiry into the Separation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children from their Families

1999

‘A National Sorry Day’ (26 May) — public apology for children ‘lost’ from their families between 1820s to 1970s

📖 About Judith Wright (1915–2000)

An Australian writer and champion of the rights of Australian Aborigines. She wrote many moving poems about the loss created by keeping white and native peoples apart. Her poem ‘Two Dreamtimes’ is a famous example.

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12. Quick Chapter Summary

From the 18th century, European settlers displaced native peoples in North America, Australia, and elsewhere — turning colonies into independent states where Europeans and Asians now form the majority.

Native peoples of North America arrived 30,000+ years ago. They lived in villages, hunted bison, wove textiles, had rich oral traditions — and saw land as something to use, not own.

Early encounters between Europeans and natives involved trade in fish and furs. Europeans introduced alcohol, which natives became addicted to — and Europeans used this to control terms of trade.

Europeans saw natives as ‘uncivilised’. Natives saw Europeans as greedy and deceitful. The key difference: natives saw goods as gifts; Europeans saw them as commodities for profit.

Natives were forced to sign treaties giving up land at very low prices. The Cherokee’s ‘Trail of Tears’ (1832) is a famous example — President Jackson defied the Supreme Court to evict them.

By 1890, bison were nearly exterminated. Natives were confined to ‘reservations’ — often moved again if minerals were found there. The US Army crushed all native rebellions by 1890.

The Gold Rush (1840s) and subsequent industrialisation made the USA the world’s leading industrial power by 1890. Chinese labour built railways; African slaves worked the southern plantations.

In Australia, Aboriginal peoples had been there for 40,000+ years. Most early settlers were deported convicts. Nearly 90% of Aboriginal peoples died from disease and displacement in the 19th–20th centuries.

The Meriam Report (1928) and Indian Reorganisation Act (1934) began improvements in the USA. Canada’s Constitution Act (1982) recognised aboriginal and treaty rights.

Australia’s Mabo case (1992) overturned the concept of terra nullius. A ‘National Sorry Day’ (1999) marked the public apology for separating children from their families. From 1974, multiculturalism became official policy.

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13. Important Terms to Remember

Indigenous Peoples

People who originally belong to a place — the ‘native’ inhabitants, before colonisers arrived.

Colony / Settler

A colony is a territory under foreign control. A ‘settler’ is a person who comes from elsewhere and establishes themselves on native land.

Reservation

Small areas of land to which native peoples were confined by European governments — often with no previous connection to those lands.

Trail of Tears

The forced march of 15,000 Cherokee people from Georgia to the Great American Desert (1838) — over a quarter died on the way.

Oral History

History passed down through spoken word rather than written records — the main form of history-keeping among native peoples.

Terra Nullius

Latin for ‘belonging to nobody’. The Australian government used this term to declare the land of Australia empty — ignoring Aboriginal peoples.

Dreamtime

The Aboriginal Australian understanding of the past — where the distinction between past and present is blurred. Sacred and difficult for Europeans to understand.

Gold Rush

Mass migration of thousands of people to a region where gold has been found. The 1840s Gold Rush in California, USA dramatically changed North America’s development.

Metis

People of mixed native and European descent in Canada. They led the Red River Rebellion (1869–85) against the Canadian government.

Multiculturalism

Official policy in Australia from 1974 — giving equal respect to native cultures and all immigrant cultures from Europe and Asia.

Noble Savage

A popular European term (from Rousseau’s thinking) for native peoples — seen as admirable because untouched by civilisation’s corruptions.

First Nations

The term used in Canada (from the 1980s) for organised native groups — replacing the word ‘bands’ used in the earlier Indians Act of 1876.

📌 Remember — Anthropology

From the 1840s, the subject of ‘Anthropology’ (developed in France) was introduced in North America — to study differences between native ‘primitive’ communities and ‘civilised’ European communities. Some anthropologists argued that just as there were no ‘primitive’ people in Europe, native Americans too would ‘die out’. This was later shown to be wrong and deeply biased.

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14. Comparison — USA & Australia

Aspect	USA / Canada	Australia
Native peoples	Native Americans (Amerindians, First Nations)	Aboriginal peoples & Torres Strait Islanders
Arrival of natives	30,000+ years ago via Bering Straits from Asia	40,000+ years ago from New Guinea
First European contact	1497 (Cabot); 1607 (British colony in Virginia)	1606 (Dutch); 1770 (Captain Cook); 1788 (Penal colony)
Type of early settlers	Religious refugees, merchants, younger sons	Mainly convicts deported from England
Treaties with natives	Yes — though often violated	No treaties; land termed terra nullius
Key reform law	Indian Reorganisation Act (1934); Constitution Act Canada (1982)	Mabo case (1992); National Sorry Day (1999)
Key change in history	1960s: Natives encouraged to write own histories	1968: Stanner’s ‘Great Australian Silence’ lecture

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15. Important Questions for Exam

📝 Short Answer (2–3 marks)

What did the ‘frontier’ mean to the Americans? (The shifting western boundary of settlement — as it moved west, natives were forced to move back. By 1892 it was gone.)
Why was the history of Australian native peoples left out of history books? (Historians wrote as though Australian history began with Captain Cook. This was called the ‘Great Australian Silence’.)
What were ‘reservations’? Why were natives often moved from them too? (Small areas of land assigned to natives — often moved again if minerals or oil were found there.)
What was terra nullius? (Latin for ‘belonging to nobody’ — Australia’s legal fiction that the land belonged to no one before the British came.)
What was the Trail of Tears? (The forced march of 15,000 Cherokee people in 1838 — over a quarter died.)

📝 Long Answer (5–6 marks)

Discuss the ‘Mutual Perceptions’ of Europeans and Native Americans — how did each side see the other, and how did they view nature differently?
How did native peoples of North America lose their land? Discuss with specific examples.
Describe the changes brought by the Gold Rush and Industrialisation on North America and its native peoples.
Write a note on the ‘Winds of Change’ for native peoples in Australia. What legal and political changes took place from the 1970s onwards?
Compare the experiences of native peoples in the USA and Australia under European colonialism.

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