This essay will examine the hostile, violent, inhumane, and unconstitutional efforts of the United States government in dealing with the American Indians during the westward expansion from 1877 to 1900s. During this time the US government attempted to contain, control and assimilate the Indians through warfare, treaties, and the reservation system. The concept of white superiority and an ethnocentric view was based upon application of Social Darwinism which support the idea and belief that white civilization and culture was superior to that of the Indians. Americans began encountering the Indians more frequently as people began to follow their dreams westward. American theorist Fredrick Jackson Turner believed that it was the American Frontier that distinguished America from other nations. He described the frontier as both a place and a process because in conjunction to being a physical place the frontier was a series of advancement . It is important to understand this idea in order to understand the American relentless drive to move west. The concept of Manifest Destiny and writings of Turner encouraged settlers to move west which created a direct and inherent conflict between the settlers aided by the government and the American Indians who resided within those lands. This conflict led to the severe mistreatment of the Indians in the expansion into “The West”. Before 1851 federal policymakers considered the region west of Arkansas, Missouri, Iowa, and Minnesota and
The debate over the legality of sovereignty and acquired lands from the native Americans, specifically the Cherokee, has long been debated. The issues involved have included treaties, land sold, and the right of the Government to physically enforce their rules on Indian land "sovereignty". This paper will examine the strategy used by the Federal Governments, the State Governments as well as those of the Cherokee Indians. The three-way relationship as well as the issues will examine how the interpretation of the Constitution changed society prior to the year of 1840.
The Indian race was not supposed to own land in America but in regard they were concentrated in slums adjacent to the cities. Here they were exposed to poor housing, lack of clean water and poor man related work that ranged from fishing and hunting thus they were regarded as second class American citizens. In response to these social status inequalities, the Indians staged demonstrations against the vices and afterwards grated accessibility to land and its resources. The land given to them was of low quality the low quality that they were classified as marginal land s that could not support farming. This shows that the American government was in support of the discrimination against these Indians. In support of the racial discrimination strategy, the state even ensured that no white citizen became poor or bankruptcy by buying their land parcels. These lands were then subdivided to the Indians who were later to be killed by the Americans in their efforts to get the land for their mining activities. The sequence of events showed how discrimination was the main agenda of the
government has unspecified and unorganized policies, which were unprotected for Native Americans who lived in the west because of all the new coming Americans. During westward expansion, a majority of who moved were whites, who didn’t know the Native Americans who already lived in the west. The Natives felt their land was being conquered, because of the U.S government policies(Louisana Purchase & Homestead Act) and the whites not wanting them to be there, which lead to fighting between the Natives and the whites. These acts and policies such as the Indian Removal Act often resulted in violated treaties and violence. The Indian Removal Act was the removal of Native American homes and tribes. “This also confines the Indians to still narrower limits, destroys that game which in their normal state, and constitutes their principal means of subsistence.” Resulting in westward expansion, Native Americans began rapidly decreasing in the area by wars and new diseases caught by new coming
There has been much documentation on the plight of Native Americans throughout the beginnings of this nation. In spite of the attempts by the early government of the United States, the culture of many Native American tribes has survived and even flourished. The Dawes Severalty Act of 1887 is just one of many examples of how our government attempted to wipe out Native American culture. This paper will discuss the Dawes Act, particularly the time leading up to the act, the act itself, and finally its failure. By understanding the past failures in the treatment of a particular race of people, the government can learn how to protect the rights of all people, especially in a day and age of cultural diversity.
Although the horrors of the American Civil War and Reconstruction within Indian Territory were fresh. Yet, the presence of Indian Territory changed drastically between 1865 and 1889, because of the “Second Trail of Tears”, the unrest of the Southern Plains tribes of western Indian Territory, and the impact of U.S. Polices on Indian Territory.
The Trail of Tears was a testament to the cruelty and disrespect we showed toward the Native Americans. This paper will show how the United States used its legislative power and brute force to remove the Indian tribes. From the election of Andrew Jackson, and the implementation of the Indian Removal Act. The Creeks, Choctaw, Chickasaw, and Seminole and their actions against the removal process. Finally, how the Cherokee used the legal process to fight evacuation of their nation.
The nineteenth century marked a period of time of growth and development for the United States. During this time, the U.S. experienced important advances in science, technology, industrialization, and civil rights. This is also the time period where the U.S. began its expansion from east coast to west coast. This is known as the conquest of manifest destiny. Unfortunately, this destiny came at a price. The price paid for this was by the Native American people who were essentially forcibly moved off of their land for the achievement of this goal. A question arises as to whether this was justified and whether there were other ways in which these goals could have been achieved
In conclusion, the time period of 1800-1850 white Americans expanded across the western side of the continent encountered conflict and different interactions with various Indian nations. Popular belief believed that that to achieve an ultimate point of rest and happiness that they should share their settlements and
On May 28, 1830 the president of the United States of America, Andrew Jackson signed the
The Jacksonian Indian Policy that was supposed to turn the west into an area of self-sufficient, landowning farmer was soon overhauled… In the end, Judge Kent and Andrew Jackson,…helped impose a system of materialism, dependence and impersonal authority over other. Although this applied to white and Native Americans alike, it is once again the experience of the Native American that provides the most excruciating illustration of the effects of westward movement…” It is the Native Americans who had to contend with greedy as well as power hungry individuals in the government. The forced migration of the Natives west was the key Jackson needed to bolster economy and send more settles out into the country to gain more territory and grow the United
“There were scores of Indian tribes living across Louisiana, but, given their lack of effective political organization, their inability to combine forces into an alliance, their utter dependence on whites for rifles, and the experience of Americans east of the Appalachians in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries and in Kentucky and Ohio in the 1790s, it could be taken for granted that the conquest of the Indian tribes would be bloody, costly, time-consuming, but certain.” The Indians’ government was no match for our government. We were and still are so far ahead of them when it came to politics, we needed to keep things in order by our government being in charge. In order for the westward expansion to be effective we needed to be in charge and take control of the land.
They could not understand how such people could live so harmoniously with the land. Their only goal was to exploit these lands of their riches by farming, ranching, and mining. The whites were extremely selfish as they dismissed the needs of the Native Americans and put their own as a priority. They acquired new lands at the expense of the Native Americans. These Americans did not care about the damage they were causing and sought no remorse in openly-stealing the Native American’s title to their lands. As the US Congress took up the confrontation over Indian Removal, the contentions of those favoring proceeded with US extension concentrated on issues of the rights and needs of states such as Georgia and the need and advantages of Removal to the US rather than the perils of existing conditions. The advocates contended that it was essential to bolster the privileges of the subjects and conditions of the US ought to overrule the rights held by Indian groups; that 51 US states' rights and pilgrim exceptionally invalidated contracted commitments and vows to Indian countries. Further they contended that Removal would advantage the US, and too, the Indians, while its thrashing would be tragic to
From the ethnic cleansing projects of Andrew Jackson’s Indian Removal Act of 1830, to the Homestead, the Morrill Acts of 1862, and the General Allotment Act of 1887, enactments of national leaders set out to strip the indigenous of their rights and land while bolstering the authority of the federal government. One of the greatest attacks on indigenous sovereignty occurred in 1871, when Congress severed the treaty-making relationship between tribes and the federal government, effectively breaching the separation of powers
Frederick Jackson Turner 's “The Significance of the Frontier” is, in his eyes, an accurate depiction of America 's development since the Colonial Period. However, Turner 's Frontier Thesis fails to discuss the involvement of two very specific groups of people, groups that certainly had too much of an effect on the progression of the country for him to safely leave out. Native Americans have a pivotal role in America 's history, yet Turner 's mentions of them in his thesis are extremely limited. For this reason, Frederick Jackson Turner 's “The Significance of the Frontier” is not an accurate depiction of the history of the United States.
Over the years, the idea of the western frontier of American history has been unjustly and falsely romanticized by the movie, novel, and television industries. People now believe the west to have been populated by gun-slinging cowboys wearing ten gallon hats who rode off on capricious, idealistic adventures. Not only is this perception of the west far from the truth, but no mention of the atrocities of Indian massacre, avarice, and ill-advised, often deceptive, government programs is even present in the average citizen’s understanding of the frontier. This misunderstanding of the west is epitomized by the statement, “Frederick Jackson Turner’s frontier thesis was as real as the myth of the west. The development of the west was, in