Are there pieces to collect after the collision of two worlds? As glaciers retreated and melted to fill the Gulf of Maine, sea creatures multiplied and diversified. The land dried up, produced vegetation and proved amenable to cultivation. Native Americans migrated to the area and created highly structured, successful methods to survive and thrive. At the same time, Europeans sought lands overseas to merge with their current possessions. A strong desire to increase holdings, power and finances were the driving forces of European exploratory expeditions. With this setting, imagine yourself as an uninvested third person observing the impending collision between the two worlds. By the early seventeenth century, Native Americans were firmly entrenched around the Gulf of Maine. At least nine different tribes, from the Narragansetts in present-day Massachusetts to the Passamaquoddies in Downeast Maine, and the Micmacs in Nova Scotia, surrounded the Gulf. For the most part all tribes, and the clans within them, lived in harmony with each other. Native tribes were composed of several families or clans, each working as an independent, but also somewhat dependent, unit. Annual meetings and gatherings were held, usually in the spring months. These meetings were places to exchange information, opportunities to resolve disputes, as well as chances to meet future partners or spouses. The rest of the year was spent on the coast fishing and gathering shellfish or farming inland and collecting wood for cooking and heating during the winter. The Gulf provided seafood in the form of haddock, cod, lobsters, whales, clams, and herring. Inland food sources included deer, moose, caribou... middle of paper... Europeans more than two to one. But with the loss of an independent and sustainable life, they had no choice but to become “colonized.” A very sad end to a long and illustrious lineage. Works Cited1. Prins, Harald EL and McBride, Bunny. "Asticou Island Dominion: Wabanaki Peoples on Mount Desert Island 1500-2000." Ethnographic Overview and Evaluation of Acadia National Park, Volume 1. Second Printing 2007. Boston: Northeast Region Ethnographic Program National Park Service.2. Russell, Howard S. New England Indian before the Mayflower. 1980. Hanover, NH: University Press New England.3. Wise, Federico Matteo. The voice of dawn; A self-history of the Abenaki nation. 2001. Hanover, NH: University Press New England.4. Woodard, Colin. The rebels of the Lobster Coast, the rusticators and the fight for a forgotten frontier. 2004. New York: Penguin Books.