Cronon states, "Toward the middle of the month, Indian populations moved inland to smaller creeks, where eels could be caught as they returned from their spawning in the sea." ( Cronon, 40 ). From there , ". . . villages broke into small family bands that subsisted on beaver, caribou, moose, deer, and bear." ( Cronon, 40 ). The main idea of the Native Americans was simply that there were certain times of the year for particular crops. This is something that the colonists had a hard time understanding. Probably due to some cultural differences.
Land and its resources and the way it was used differently by the Native Americans and the European was perhaps a product of considerable cultural differences. The view that Native Americans upheld about the land was, that no one person owned the land, but rather that they just used it. This explains why the Native Americans moved when the seasons started to change. Cronon construes this when he says, " To take advantage of their land's diversity, the Indian villagers had to be mobile." ( Cronon, 54). The English settlers on the other hand, had delusions of grandeur about the new world which fueled their insatiable desire for claiming land. They wanted to, in essence, create their own vast, perennial estates, which was a part of the culture from their native land but was reserved for the most prominent of members of the society. The colonists also adopted the idea that the failure of the Native Americans to "improve" the land was attributed to their laziness and not their culture. This only further justified the colonists expropriation the land. "Colonists were moved to transform the soil by a property system that taught them to treat the land as capital." ( Cronon, 77). A system, that was shaped by a culture that was largely influenced by economic elements.
Europeans settlers put great emphasis on the "commodities" of New England. Cronon stated that " What was a merchantable commodity' in America was what was scarce in Europe.