Did the Native American tribes on the East Coast know that Europe and Europeans existed by the 1600s?

They sure did.

Sorry for the delay. I just found this.

I finished high school in 2005, so I can’t say I’m entirely current on how the genesis of the United States of America is portrayed in public schools in the US right now, but dollars to doughnuts it’s Jamestown (1607) and Plymouth (1620) or the French and Indian War. This isn’t a good thing. Even from a strictly Eurocentric viewpoint this isn’t a good thing. While finding a starting point isn’t always easy, this is a teleological perspective that loses context in its attempt to find clarity. Starting in these places treats colonial history as “The U.S. of A in the Womb.” John Smith was just tidying up the place for George Washington’s arrival. Considering another starting point, the founding of Saint Augustine (definitely the East Coast) in 1565 (definitely before 1600) by the Spanish (definitely European), answers your question. Let’s just pull from Wikipedia for a second: “Founded in 1565 by Spanish explorers, it is the oldest continuously occupied European-established settlement within the borders of the continental United States.”

Continuously occupied.

All of these settlements have something in common that’s important to remember when we look at early contact periods in North America. They survived. You probably know about Roanoke, but what about Popham, at Sagadahoc? It was founded the same year as Jamestown. The focus on the colonies that lasted has helped to give rise to an idea of instant European dominance in the “New World”, to what William Denevan called the “Pristine Myth,” and to the noble savage. By ignoring the many failures of European conquest, we lose out on a view of the Americas that includes a vast array of polities with ambitions (very often conflicting) of their own. We lose sight of stratified societies with civic architecture, martial strife, learning and innovation. We are given an untrammeled landscape of automatons-in-stasis, coaxed into animation only by the appearance of European sails on the horizon. Let me borrow from my favorite non-historian historian, Charles Mann. In the first third of 1491, Mann explicitly gives us his thesis while referencing Peter Stearns’s World History: Patterns of Change and Continuity:

Referring exclusively to the ‘four initial centers’ of civilization [the Tigris-Euphrates Valley, the Nile Delta, the Indus Valley, and the Yellow River valley], this ‘world history’ allocated just nine pages to the pre-Columbian Americas. The thesis of the book in your hands is that Native American history merits more than nine pages.

Anyway, let’s expand on “They sure did.”

It wasn’t long after Columbus’s voyage to the Americas that Spanish rivals attempted to find a foothold in the New World. The East Coast of North America had no shortage of European interlopers prior to 1600. To say that the Peruvian silver Spain was sending back to Europe had not gone unnoticed is an understatement. In 1524, Giovanni de Verrazzno had located the Hudson River in an attempt to connect Staten Island to Brooklyn compete with Spain at the behest of France’s King Francis I. He sailed as far north as Nova Scotia. In 1535, Jacques Cartier’s expedition made it all the way to where Montreal sits today. Hernando de Soto’s fleet of nine ships landed off the Florida Gulf Coast in 1539. For about five years his expedition cut a bloody route of torture, slavery, and kidnapping deep into the interior of the present day United States in search of comparable riches to what the Spanish had extorted from elsewhere in the Americas. French missions failed throughout the 1560s, most notably at Charlesfort (South Carolina) and Fort Caroline (Florida).

From Florida to Canada, Europeans and Indians had extensive, and often brutal, contact in the 16th century. All the time Indian populations interacted with Europeans, they assessed their capabilities and desires, used them in power struggles against competing societies. By the 1560s, Algonquian and Iroquoian Indians had prolonged contact with European (especially French) traders.

The Powhatans of the Chesapeake Bay region had seen Europeans as early as 1549, when either a French or Spanish ship traded with them. Verrazano had been here as well, on his 1524 expedition. The area had been surveyed by the English even before the Roanoke colonization attempts (beginning in July 1584). English New World efforts for most of the 16th century had been attempts at disrupting Spanish success. Privateers like Thomas Stukely made efforts at establishing ports to refit along the coast of the Carolinas in the 1560s.

Not only did 16th century Europeans come to the North American east coast, but Americans went to Europe. In 1561, Paquinquineo (called Don Luis by his Spanish captors) voyaged from Virginia to Spain, from Spain to Havana, from Havana to Mexico City, and finally back to Virginia. His journey took nine years, all that time spent in the presence of Europeans.

In 1584, Manteo and Wanchese traveled to England from Roanoke.* Each saw it in a different light, and their experiences would help to shape the fate of the Roanoke colonists. They worked with Thomas Harriot to exchange languages. They first landed at Plymouth, then made their way by river to London, where they were given quarters at Durham House by way of Walter Raleigh. The language studies of Harriot, Manteo, and Wanchese were often interrupted by visitors coming to gaze up the Indian arrivals. While the English looked upon them, Manteo and Wanchese looked back. Each man had a different interpretation of England, from what we can gather. The first English expedition to Roanoke was small, and the Englishmen like Arthur Barlowe and Philip Amadas who landed in Manteo’s and Wanchese’s home, did so with great trepidation, understanding they were vastly outnumbered. The England Manteo and Wanchese saw was vastly populated. Shortly after their return to Virginia, Wanchese fled English control, perhaps seeing the writing on the wall. The English would return to Roanoke in droves; they represented an existential threat to the people of Ossomocomuck. Manteo, on the other hand, remained by the side of the English. He took up their clothing and practices, and by the end of his life he was indistinguishable from any other Englishman.

You’re question gave room for a broad answer. Please let me know if you have follow-up questions. I’d be happy to answer what I can.

For some sources:

If you’d like a very broad overview of Colonial America, I’d recommend Richard Middleton’s Colonial America: A history to 1763

For more on the Roanoke Indians see The Head in Edward Nugent’s Hand: Roanoke’s forgotten Indians by Michael L. Oberg

I also can’t shill for Charles Mann’s 1491: New revelations of the Americas before Columbus enough. Please keep in mind though, that as excellent as it is, Mann isn’t a historian. However, you can get the book in Barnes and Noble (or some other commercial bookstore). His bibliography is a great resource in and of itself.

I can recommend other reading if you have specific requests.

^*Manteo ^and ^Wanchese ^were ^not ^the ^first ^Indian ^arrivals ^to ^England. ^The ^English ^had ^kidnapped ^many ^Indians; ^English ^records, ^however, ^give ^us ^a ^very ^detailed ^account ^of ^Wanchese ^and ^Manteo.

Edit: I know I'm linking TVTropes for "Noble Savage", but look at the "Films-Live Action" list and you'll get it. See especially Dances With Wolves, Avatar. Or Disney's Pocahontas. Another great example is The Last Samurai.