Among these people are the Hivites (the stone carving above depicts a Hivite), who - like the others - asked if they can be included among the tribes of Israel. The leaders of the tribe were against this, and suggested to Joshua that they take these people as slaves. In their words, "hewers of wood and carriers of water", meaning "Let's keep these guys to do all the dirty work." And that's what Joshua decided to do.
Imagine. A lot of these people traveled a long, long, looooooooooongg time. One of the travelers said they left with clean clothes and now there clothes are falling apart, they had wine and now the wine is rank, they had bread and now it was moldy; he offered this as evidence for their long trek. So, these people traveled long and far under the hopes they could be in the good graces of the Israelites, and then they become their slaves.
Whether or not this is true, the mere fact that someone would write this down is proof of how alien a world these people lived in.
