Colonial experience of intercultural interaction on the example of Indian wars of the 17th century

This paper discusses European and American Indian responses to intercultural murders in colonial America in the seventeenth century. The main differences between the legal traditions of European settlers and American natives are identified. The main thing among them was the lack of institutionalized structures among Indian tribes and the existence of collective responsibility for the crime when the whole clan of the offender was punished. In this historical period many Indian tribes tried to replace the principle of blood feud by the cost of various commodities, arbitrage on the part of the sachems, «condolence ceremonies» etc. The main problem of responses to intercultural murders was the unwillingness of the parties to agree on one common jurisdiction. In this regard, any murder involving any Indian or European had an opportunity to turn into a mass conflict or even a war. The first case was the murder of the English captain John Stone, gave rise to the beginning of the Pequot War. The second case was the murder of the Indian Christian John Sassamon. In this case the colonists first declared that they had the right to judge and condemn the Indians in accordance with the English standards of justice. All this led directly to the conflict known as the King Philip’s War. These intercultural murders were one of the ways to expand the territories of the European colonies and strengthening of the settlers’ power in the region.