Native Americans and European settlers had various types of interactions over the early years of the colonization of the Americas. These interactions varied in their extent and their reasons for being. One of the earliest partnerships that these two groups formed was as business partners in the fur trade. European demand for pelts meant that North American animals, such as the beaver, were in great demand. The trade motivated cooperation between these people, and allowed Native Americans to obtain European goods in exchange.
However, another less beneficial partnership was that between the Natives and the missionaries. The Missionary Movement meant that Christian priests arrived to North America with the purpose of converting the Native Americans to the Christian faith. For this to be achieved, missionaries demanded complete assimilation to European culture, which resulted in the loss of native languages, cultures, traditions and religions. It also fragmented ethnic groups and weakened their resistance against the Europeans.
