How The West Treated Native Americans

Before, during, and after the Civil War, American settlers irreversibly changed Indian ways of life. These settlers brought different ideologies and convictions, such as property rights, parliamentary style government, and Christianity, to the Indians. Clashes between the settlers and Indians were common over land rights and usage, religious and cultural differences, and broken treaties. Some Indian tribes liked the new ideas and began to incorporate them into their culture by establishing written laws, judicial courts and practicing Christianity, while other tribes rejected them (“Treatment”). Once the United States purchased Louisiana from the French in 1803, Americans began to encroach into the Indian lands of the south and west

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

The colonizers also had similar opinions about Native Americans, the colonizers ignored Native Americans religious beliefs, they thought they lacked knowledge about God and wanted Native Americans to be Christians (Takaki, 34). The colonizers did this because they couldn’t accept both the Irish and the Native Americans, they believed they could either get rid of them by killing them or by changing them completely. The colonizers didn’t want other cultures or groups of people, and sadly these groups were forced to forget their beliefs and practices. In conclusion, I believe that their policies were harsh, not only did they take away from these people what was theirs, but also wanted to strip them of their

The Indians had many complaints against the English including the English cheating them out of land prices, English livestock eating corn on their land, and the English selling Indians alcohol, causing them to be drunk. The most grievous offense to the Indians was the unfair land prices because it caused them to lose land without fair compensation which decreased the amount of crops they were able to grow. Overall, these complaints showed that the English didn’t care about the well-being of the Native Americans. Cheating them out of land and selling them alcohol allowed the English to make a profit in unethical ways. By letting their livestock graze on Indian territory they were being destructive without caring about the impact their actions had on the Indians (Hewitt and Lawson 2013).

To begin with, whites were against the Native American ways of life. In the 1700 and 1800’s, native tribes were given the worst land for how the needed to survive with their lifestyle (Urban Relocation Program). Most were forced to live on reservations where most of the people were at or below poverty levels. The urban relocation programs were set in place to move more natives off reservations to nearby cities for better job opportunities, where they were supposed to receive stipends to live while they found work, which was not always given (Urban Relocation Program). Many natives did not prosper in the city and resort to drugs and alcohol, in which some ended in death. The idea behind relocation was to turn the natives into “urban Indians”. By

Many prominent historians argue a clash between culture and religious philosophy was the primary cause of conflict between European settlers in North America and Native Americans. However, a closer analysis of American history suggests otherwise. While a clash in cultures and religious differences did exist, the European domination of Native Americans was primarily fueled by European economic motivations, a desire for valuable natural resources and a craving to expand the American colonial system. Due to this, the conflict was inevitable.

Native Americans were seen as savage societies when it was newly "discovery" by the Europeans. European societies labeled people who were not only different in language, but also those who lived by the laws of nature, or without any laws, learning, religion or morals as “savage.” Not only did Europe’s discovery of the America’s opened a new source of prosperity to the commercial part of Europe, but the fall of the native when introduced to the violence and sickness brought over from the Old World.

For generations the Native Americans were forcefully removed from their lands, enslaved and murdered. The harsh treatment of Native Americans by both the Europeans and the Americans led to a change in how the native people acted and to their subsequent distrust of the white races.

By 1650 the spanish empire in the American had grown to some 3 to 4 million people native Americans made up about 80 percent of the population.The rest were white Africans and people of mixed racial background .Settlers who came from spain were called peninsulares and usually held the highest government positions.To reward settlers for their service to the crow spain esttlers for the encomienda systrem.It gave settlers the right to tax local native americans or to make them work. In exchange theses settlers were supposed to protect the Native American people and convert them to christianity.Instead most spanish treated the native Americans as slaves.

Native Americans were treated rather unfairly. Casting Native Americans out of their homes was not only robbing them of their land, but their basic human rights as well. Many colonist refused to bond with Native Americans out of fear, eventually they got so scared of the Natives that they called for the “Indian Removal Act.” Andrew Jackson was the man behind the

Native Americans thrived from nature and their way of life depended on the land of the grassy Great Plains. Their life changed due to horses, and then afterward guns, being introduced to them by the Spanish; which made it easier for them to move and hunt. As settlers moved in, the Native nations were treated poorly and had little to no ability to stand up for what they believed in and how they wanted to live with all the restrictions laid upon them. The federal government made policies towards them when settling in the west such as The Concentration Policy, “relocation”, and The Dawes Severalty Act, which lead to many warfares.

American western expansion made the conflict with Native Americans practically inevitable. Henry Clay even went as far as stating that their complete “disappearance from the human family would be no great loss to the world”. The westward movement and territorial expansion from the Louisiana Purchase created a devastating loss to the indigenous peoples. The settlers were ignorant and mistreated the natives and their entire culture. It was assumed by the settlers that any land they may stumble upon that seemed “empty” or “unsettled” by their own colonized standards was up for the taking and now theirs to have. They forced their religious beliefs

The westward expansion was a fresh start for white emigrants, not so much for the Native Americans who were already living there. From the late 1800’s to the early 1900’s the Native Americans were mistreated by the US Government by being forced from their home, from their way of living. By 1881 white emigrants killed off the majority of the buffalo simply for their hides or just for sport. Even though treaties were signed battles still broke out between white settlers and the Native Americans. Many Indian Tribes battled the US Army for control of the West.

The Americans didn’t adventure out west until after the Civil War. First, most Americans had never seen the land before and didn’t know if it was habitable. Second, Americans didn’t believe that moving out west would be profitable to them. Third, they didn’t have an easy way to get other their. Lastly, Americans were not familiar with the Indians. The values of the Americans and Indians would ultimately clash resulting in conflict.

After this lesson, I now know that Natives Americans were treated in ways we couldn't even imagine, more than most, the cherokees. Americans did not treat the natives well, they wanted their land that they were settled on, so the americans forced the natives to leave their land, and everything they had. Natives couldn't take much, because they had such little time to leave their homes. I also recognized that the Cherokees were moved very fast, they had many differences with the Americans. With all this conflict, this forced the natives, mostly the cherokees to travel the route that we know as The Trail of Tears. Americans in the present time look back at these actions or events, and feel disappointed in themselves and think that they did the