Final answer:
The ancestors of early Native Americans who traded with European fishermen in the 16th century are today known as peoples of various Native American tribes and cultural groups. They had diverse cultures and were significantly affected by European colonization, economic changes, and forced relocation to reservations.
Step-by-step explanation:
Ancestors of early Native Americans who traded with European fishermen in the 16th century are today known as peoples of various tribes and cultural groups. The Iroquois-speaking peoples like the Oneida and Seneca, as well as the Algonquian-speaking peoples such as the Pequot and Shawnee, were some of those who engaged in early trading with Europeans. This era was far removed from the pre-Columbian times noted for diverse cultures such as the Paleo-Indians, hunter-gatherers, and agriculturalist groups like the Puebloans and Creek. European contact and subsequent colonization significantly changed the Native American ways of life, economies, and territories. Over the 17th century, indigenous groups developed economic dependency on European goods, and by the 1800s, they were largely relocated to reservations.
The cultural heritage of these groups evolved through periods like the Paleo-Indian era, the Archaic, and the Woodland periods, leading up to the time of European encounters. The ancestors of today's Native Americans built a rich tapestry of societies, each with its subsistence strategies, kinship relations, and political structures. The trading partnerships established in the 16th and 17th centuries with Europeans were an element of the transformational interaction between the old and new world civilizations.