Explorers constructed a complex narrative about the people they encountered. This included claims that they were devil-worshippers, as if American Indians were lapsed Christians. American Indians were also identified with Muslims. These New Moors were “imagined as extensions of either the defeated Moors or the still-troublesome Moriscos.” They were also punished as if they were Muslims.

Sophia Rose Arjana, Muslims in the Western Imag…, loc. 584