Throughout history, the clash of contrasting cultures has never resulted in a positive conclusion, but rather racial segregation and the arrogant use of stereotypes in all aspects of life.
Long before the white man set foot on Canadian and Saskatchewan soil, the Indians, or rather the Native Canadians had been living in North America. When the Europeans came here, there were more than 10 million Indians populating North America and they had been living here for quite some time. It is believed that the first Native Americans arrived during the last ice age, approximately 20,000 - 30,000 years ago through a land bridge across the Bering Sound, from northeastern Siberia into Alaska.
So, when the Europeans started to arrive in the 16th- and 17th-century they were met by Native Americans, and enthusiastically so. The Natives regarded their white-complexioned visitors as something of a marvel. They enjoyed the white mans clever technology and outlandish dress, such as steel knives and swords, guns and cannons, mirrors, hawksbills and earrings, copper and brass kettles, and so on.
However, conflicts eventually arose. As a starter, the arriving Europeans seemed attuned to another world. They appeared to be oblivious to the rhythms and spirit of nature. Nature to the Europeans, and the Indians detected this, was something of an obstacle, even an enemy. It was also an opportunity. A forest was so many board feet of timber, a beaver colony so many pelts, and a herd of buffalo so many robes and tongues. Even the Indians themselves were a resource, being souls ripe for the Christian plucking.
It was the Europeans' cultural arrogance, combined with their materialistic view of the land and its animal and plant beings, that the Indians found repellent. Europeans were regarded as mechanical, soulless creatures that wielded evil tools and weapons to accomplish mad ends. They believed that the Indian's rightful land belonged to the Queen, and ignored the fact that the Natives had initially lived in North America for thousands of years before settlers even knew the continent existed.
