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Spain's war captains were distributed gifts to the Chichimecas
Source: Situado and Sabana #82
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By 1600 the northern frontier had done an aboutface. At government expense and under the eye of official Franciscan observers, captains of war, renamed "captains of peace," were handing out food, clothing, iron tools, oxen, reading primers, and even games to the Chichimecas. There was little glory in the new humanitarianism, but it cost less than making war and it satisfied the king. The success of the policy of pacification by gifts discredited the military solution and virtually guaranteed that missions would be the institution to advance the North American frontier. But where the Indians rejected missionaries and the sedentary life that Christianity called for, the frontier did not advance, and where the Gospel invitation was sweetened with gifts, gift-giving must continue. In the late 17th and the first half of the 18th century, the Spanish would learn hard lessons about the meaning of material goods to Eastern Woodland Indians. (Bushnell SS)
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