Effects of Contact.

European contact permanently altered the nature of communication in early America. While the intruders often found existing native systems and networks of exchange essential in establishing communication with native North Americans, in adopting them for their own use they also manipulated and changed them. Initial short-term relations were relatively easy to establish by allowing human nature and natural mutual curiosity between disparate peoples to forge basic understandings and connections. Once encounters became prolonged, however, deeper, more sophisticated communication was necessary to navigate the potentially treacherous waters of coexistence and cooperation on common ground. The explorers needed accurate, trustworthy information in order to penetrate the continent and establish effective control over the newly discovered territories, resources, and peoples. Language, like the gun, horse, smallpox, and influenza, became a tool of conquest.

New Communication Methods.

As the explorers'...