There Goes The Neighborhood

I imagine that being a Native American and seeing the first people sail to shore would be shocking and intimidating.  The Natives would have never seen a ship that size before, ever, and they would have also never seen sails, which must have seemed almost magical.  The men that came off those ships would be the first white men that anyone on that continent had ever seen.  If I was one of the natives to first see the settlers arrive, I would not immediately grab my bow and fight off the newcomers, I would try to make contact with the mysterious new people. Native Americans did not believe in land ownership, so I would not mind if they used some land that the rest of the tribe did not use.  I would enjoy the technology and trade the settlers brought with them.  I would have even liked the settlers, until they began overstepping their bounds.  As they began to take more and more land,  begin to hunt down other natives, and try to force conversion to a new religion that completely disrespected the belief system the natives had, all trust and respect would vanish and only resentment would be felt.  The natives would hate the settlers for ruining their way of life.

This process of invasion and forced assimilation is similar to what is happening in the Ukraine.  Russia, the larger, more powerful "settler", is trying to take over the Ukraine, the "natives".  For years Russia and the Ukraine existed without any major issues, until Russia wanted more, just like when the settlers wanted more.  Now what is happening is that the Ukraine is fighting a doomed defensive war, just as the natives did, while Russia takes what it wants without regarding Ukrainian authority at all, exactly what the settlers did.