What roles did the Indians play in the creation of the European colonies?

Especially in North America, Natives played a major role in the creation of European colonies. Early in the colonial period, most colonies could not survive without Indian support, or at least tolerance. Many colonies, notably New Netherland, were formed with the express purpose of monopolizing trade (furs, in the case of this region) with area Native peoples. Some colonies survived through their early years only because Native peoples saw benefits in forming alliances with them. For example, when the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth, they were seen by the area Wampanoags as potential allies against their Narragansett enemies. Depleted by smallpox and threatened by potential invasion, they saw the Pilgrims as partners. In Jamestown, the surrounding Powhatan Confederacy allowed the colony to exist for similar reasons, at least at first (they, like the Wampanoags, eventually realized their error). In modern North and South Carolina, area natives engaged in a trade for guns, deerskins, and Indian slaves that essentially allowed South Carolina in particular to survive before the turn to a plantation economy. So Indian peoples were instrumental in  the development and growth of the colonies.