How Did The U.s. Expand Westward And What Was Its Impact On Native Americans?

Before the white men had moved west Native Americans occupied the land west of the Mississippi River. The Plains Indians were nomadic tribes that moved around throughout western North America. Then in the mid-1800s the east of the United States was starting to get crowded; the idea of moving west was beginning to look very entertaining. There were a lot of natural resources out west such as, precious metals, wood, In 1849 gold was discovered in California and the 1849 Gold Rush occurred. Hundreds of thousands of men moved west to pan and mine for gold. Some of the Americans moved west because they thought it was their God given right to expand throughout the entire continent; no matter who lived there already. Now the settlers were walking right through Native American territory and that angered the natives. This caused skirmishes between the two peoples. On top of that the United States government was passing all sorts of acts to isolate Native Americans. All of these things affected Native Americans. Western expansion and government affected Native Americans by depletion of resources, assimilations, and governmental actions.

The native population declined and their well being was not a priority. The US settlers became obsessed with this notion of westward expansion even if it meant that natives were going to be mistreated and oppressed. The creation of the railroad was the final nail in the coffin to the natives’ fate. The railroad allowed easy access and transportation to the new land. As stated in the text, “… Between 1790-1840, some 4.5 million people crossed the Appalachian Mountains – more than the entire U.S population at the time of Washington’s first inauguration.” (Pg. 336) This shows the dramatic increase in population and demand for westward expansion. Since natives occupied the land that was needed for building such infrastructure, the European settlers

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

During westward expansion, the Native Americans got kicked to the side. The settlers coming west often saw the Indians as a threat to them and their families. However, this was not the main reason the Indians were pushed aside. The settlers saw the Indians had fertile land and wanted it for themselves. The Indians were the opposite of what the settlers thought they were. The Indians often helped the people moving west across the plains; giving them food, supplies, and acting as guides. However, the U.S. Government did not see this side of the Indians, instead they forced the Indians onto reservations. During the time of the expansion of the United States to the present, the Native Americans went through many things so that the United States could expand; they were pushed onto reservations, and forced to give up their culture through the Ideas of Manifest Destiny and Social Darwinism.

Native Americans were primarily affected by westward expansion in the sense that it was the reason they not only lost their land, but they lost their culture and rights. The words of Santana, Chief of the Kiowas, are a perfect description for this, “These soldiers cut down my timber; they kill my buffalo...”.

Westward expansion was a time of successes and failures, a time celebrations and grief, a time full of life and death but in the end it shaped how America is the way is today. Westward expansion was put in action because of the belief of Manifest Destiny, the belief that it is America fate to expand from the Atlantic to Pacific ocean. The economical, political and humanitarians impacts were necessary to achieve the goal of manifest Destiny and Westward Expansion.

America’s westward expansion really affected the lives of the Native Americans in several ways. Since Americans were wanting land for farming, ranching, and mining, it took away the Native Americans land for hunting and gathering. In general, this dramatically changed the face of American history.

Before the Eastern World knew that the America’s were there, natives to the American lands were already here and thriving. As the land was discovered, more and more people from the European side of the Hemisphere traveled across the Atlantic Ocean to stake a claim for land in this newfound world. Throughout these Europeans settling in, and making new homes and lives for themselves these natives stayed to their own ways, and were slowly pushed westward. The problems between the Indians and now Americans were brought to the forefront as the population of the states grew, and there was a need for expansion. When the Louisiana Purchase was struck between the United States and France, the land previously inhabited by the natives were now under the control of the United States government. As the population continued to climb in numbers, individuals along with the United States government decided to take actions for the removal of these natives. Throughout the book, The Long, Bitter Trail, Andrew Jackson and the Indians by: Anthony F.C. Wallace, the events leading up to, during, and the effects of the Indian Removal Act of 1830. Individuals such as Andrew Jackson along with the government used different methods to remove these Indians from the southeastern lands of the United States. Starting in the beginning of the 1800’s,

Since Europeans came to the United States, the existing population of natives has always been an obstacle to expansion. American’s thirst for free and new land could not be quenched. For example, the British with the Proclamation of 1763

“Evolution is a process of constant branching and expansion.” That quote, once said by Stephen Jay Gould, can represent the Westward Expansion of the United States. In the early 1800s, the United States started trying to expand west. The U.S. acquired Florida, Texas, the Gadsden Territory, the Mexican Cession, the Oregon Territory, and the Louisiana Territory. All of those acquisitions helped evolve the United States into what it is today. Almost all of the land we own is from the Westward Expansion. Unfortunately, the United States were greedy and had to keep branching and expanding out west in order to become a more powerful country. The actions that the U.S. chose to expand were not just to harm others. In fact, none of the acquisitions in the Westward Expansion were through war. The reason for the United States’ actions was to acquire more land, and some of the time, the opposing country would refuse a treaty, and the U.S. showed their greed by attacking those pieces of land, trying to force the opposing country to cede the land. Therefore, the U.S. was greedy and would use any way that it could to acquire land from other countries

The idea of Manifest Destiny influenced America’s Westward Movement, Manifest Destiny helped shape America in many different ways in politics, economics, social reasons, gender roles, and religion. It was said that they were destined by God and that it was their God given right to expand their territory. This confident and forceful behavior led to the Westward movement. In the early 1800’s the United States was much smaller than it is now. The whole country extended from the Atlantic ocean to what we now call, the Midwest. According to the textbook Making America: A History of the United States, “the main thing that drew men like Johnston Meek into the far West was an innovation in the fur business instigated by long-time entrepreneur William Henry Ashley.” (267-268) Often the first people to join the former fur trappers in settling the West were highly organized and well-financed land speculators and developers and not rugged yeomen farmers. Another group of people were lured into the Southwest because of gold. Americans have been hunting precious metals since the colonial times, but were never very successful. The first successful step in the Westward movement was the Louisiana purchase. The president at the time, Thomas Jefferson, bought the Louisiana territory from France. He was eager to find out what the new territory had so he sent out two explorers, Lewis and Clark. In the spring of 1804 they traveled up the Missouri River and arrived in North Dakota with the Mandan Indians. They ended up staying the winter with the Indians and learned all they could about the fur trade, the nature of military alliances, and the tribes that lived farther west. One person they ran into was Sacajawea. He helped

Westward Expansion in the United States created controversy about the admission of new states into the union. The first provision of the Westward Expansion was the Compromise of 1850. This compromise was designed to settle disputes among the North and South states about slavery expansion. Senator Henry Clay proposed that California be admitted as a free slave in a trade-off for tougher fugitive slave laws for runaways.

Before becoming the Unite States of America, one of a massive country in the world. There were many stories behind its successful. Controversies, violences, tragedies, rebellions, and wars were the combination of expansion of the United States. In U.S. history, a story began from the east coast where the game players from. The competition between the north and the south was intense, and to occupy a piece of land was a prize that worth to fight for.

Throughout the years, following the civil war (1860’s-1900’s), the United States was guilty of genocide on the behalf of the Native Americans. The Natives were discriminated against and were pressured into abandoning the Midwest and the Great Plains due to excruciating circumstances. The Homestead and Pacific Railroad Acts pushed the Native Americans to the brink of existence. The policies within the acts targeted these tribes in order to pursue the goals of the government. The Homestead Act of 1862 allowed the selling of hundreds of acres of land to families, therefore tripling the amount of farms from two million to six million in a matter of decades. This led to over 500,000 natives migrating westward, while families inhabiting the former

The westward expansion both impacted the lives of the pioneer children and Native Americans in a good and bad way.For one,they both had to leave home probably the only place they knew like home onto a new other place they were unfamiliar with.This impacted the Indian group badly by making them move to a bigger area (west),they didn't know as good as they did then their original home.This impacted pioneer children and Indians badly when migrating westward because they both suffered from disease and lack of food and cattle.Mostly all would eat ham,eggs,bacon,and bread.Occasionally they'd eat fish and hunted food if they stayed in a certain area for a while.