New Worlds for All: Indians, Europeans, and the Remaking of Early America The Indians were the first people to be referred to as “Americans”, but by the time of the American Revolution the name no longer referred to Indians but to the colonist. The colonist were called Americans and not Europeans because their culture became a mixture between Indian and European culture. The Europeans had no choice but to adapt to the ways of the Indians. They were outnumbered, had little or no resources and they were in a strange new environment. To cope they had to learn to survive from the people that lived on the land