Why were the local natives hostile?

Answer 1

The indigenous people of the New World were not hostile at first. In fact, some were extremely helpful to the Europeans who landed in a New World (to them), many in ill health, completely unprepared for life in a harsh climate and who failed to bring enough supplies to survive their first Winter. Remember that they were provided with food by the natives, food that enabled the colonists to survive that first Winter.

The native population was generally regarded by the incoming Europeans as being ungodly, sub-human savages. The Europeans believed that land was free for their taking as long as it was not enclosed in the manner that privately owned land was enclosed with fences, stone walls and hedges in Europe, especially England. The native population in the New World had no such practices. They roamed the land freely, although they had cleared land and planted crops for centuries. They had major meeting places and complex systems of governance. However, since they did not abide by English property law, the English assumed the land was free for their taking although some made token payments for huge tracts of land comprising thousands of acres. They paid in cheap trinkets, wampum and blankets and the natives had no comprehension of the consequences of those land transfers. The English settlers actually received their supposed legal titles for the land from royal charters granted by the Kings of England, who were assumed to be the legal owner of all the land in the New World.

Hostilities grew from the Europeans wanting to take more and more land and then not allowing the native population access to that land and from the realization on the part of the natives that they were not regarded as equals and they could not rely on promises made by the English in the form of treaties and agreements. As hostilities escalated into full scale wars, the colonists petitioned their governing bodies to wipe out the native population because they had become a constant threat in their eyes.