The early settlers had an amicable relationship with Indians, who shared their knowledge of hunting, fishing, and farming with their uninvited guests. The stereotyped stealthy, wicked Indian of modern Western movies was created by indifferent, faithless white men; the Indian was born friendly.
Disgust developed between the Indians and the settlers, whose encroachment on Indian lands provoked an era of turbulence. As early as 1745, Indian tribes joined together to drive the French off their land. The French and Indian War did not end until 1763. The Indians had succeeded in destroying many of the Western settlements. The British, superficially submissive to the Indians, promised that further migrations west would not extend beyond a specified boundary.
Evicted from their lands or, worse still, frankly ceding their property to the whites for a few baubles, Indians were ruthlessly pushed west. The battle in 1876 at Little Big Horn River in Montana, in which Sitting Bull and the Sioux tribes massacred General Custer's cavalry, caused the whites to intensify their campaign against the redmen. The battle at Wounded Knee, South Dakota, in 1890 put an end to the last vestige of hope for amity between Indians and whites.
Although the Bureau of Indian Affairs has operated since 1842, presumhbly for the purpose of guarding Indians' interests, Indians on reservations lead notoriously deprived lives. In recent times Indians have taken a militant stand and have appealed to the courts and the American people to improve their substandard living conditions.
According to the passage, the early settlers in America______.

A. had to fight Indians
B. went hunting and fishing
C. found the Indians very helpful
D. thought the Indians were mean