Native American Civil War Essay

The U.S Army and the desire for warfare with the Indians was one of the reasons

The two main actions that the United States government issued towards the Plains Indians were the Homestead Act and the Dawes Act. The Homestead Act correlated with the trend of Manifest Destiny and encouraged settlers to migrate west. The Homestead Act encouraged western migration by providing 160 acres of public land. In exchange, homesteaders paid a small filing fee and were required to complete five years of continuous residence before receiving ownership of the land. After six months of residency, homesteaders also had the option of purchasing the land from the government for roughly $1.25 per acre. (Primary Documents in American History) The land that the government was distributing belonged to various tribes of the Plains Indians. By having the Homestead Act in effect and encouraging settlers to migrate west, Plains Indians were forced into reservations. The real impact of Manifest Destiny was that it sent many settlers west, without realizing that the settlers were taking land from the Indians. The Indians that lived in the reservations had just enough food to keep their population alive, as well as living in unsanitary conditions with bacteria and diseases everywhere. The two options that the Indians had was to either live in the reservations with little to no food or to face genocide. Some Indian tribes tried to make amends with American troops who ushered the natives to reservations, but some American troops turned on the Indians. One incident of the American troops killing Indians was the Nez Perce war. This war was over a conflict of land and how some US troops did not agree on the settlement of the land. The war resulted in over 100 casualties towards the Indians and was stated as a genocide of and Indian tribe. The second act that was passed by the United States government was the Dawes Act. The Dawes Act authorized the President to survey American

The Lakota and Northern Cheyenne Indians along with a few other defiant tribes, joined forces under the Lakota holy man, Sitting Bull, in an active resistance to U.S. expansion (Gregory, 2016). In 1876, federal troops were dispatched to force the noncompliant Indians onto their reservations and to pacify the Great Plains (Powers, 2010).

Native Americans are a central pillar in the history of Texas. Texas is one of the most critical states to them. Their story revolves around the exploitation of the natural resources in their places of origin, and it shapes their interactions with the European colonialists and subsequent governments. The acquisition of the Indian lands by the American colonial government through treaties was the first type of contact that the Indian communities had with the government. The primary treatment of Native Americans by their government subjected them to duress, pressures, undue influence, and policies that produced uncertainty, despair, and frustration.

Introduction The Native American’s were the first known settlers in North America, ten thousand years before Columbus came to the continent. Their origins completely unclear, anthropologists believe there were three to five million Native Americans in North America in the year 1492 (Hoxie and Iverson, 1997). As early as the Revolutionary War in 1775, European settlers started taking note of the Native Americans. Unfortunately, the Native American population plunged significantly in the first decades after their first contact with Europeans. Native Americans were now unprotected and exposed to deadly diseases like smallpox, influenza, and measles which did not previously exist in their society (North American Natives, 2016).

Indian Removal Act In 1830, the Jackson administration instated the Indian Removal Act. This act removed the Native Americans from their ancestral lands to make way for an increase of additional American immigrants. This act forced many Native American tribes from their homes including five larger tribes, Cherokees, Chickasaws, Choctaws, Creek, and Seminole. These tribes had populations were estimated to be around 65,000 people strong that lived in North Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, and Mississippi. (Foner, 2012) The American Indians fought for their rights and beliefs through the American court system. Their other objective other than fighting for their rights was but in the end, they were forced out of their homes to move

Native American Conflicts and Wars Native American conflicts and wars were the struggles between the native people and white people for the rich lands that became the United States. The savage battles provide the background for many exciting stories and legends about frontier life and the nation's development. English settlers established their small colonies along the Atlantic Coast in the early 1600's. As they moved into the Native American's lands in greater and greater numbers, quarrels developed between the natives and whites. These disagreements often led to the death of a native or a settler. Most of these wars resulted from such conflicts. These conflicts and wars continued until the Native Americans killed or captured as many white men, women and children as possible, and often scalped the dead. A French missionary wrote of them at war: "They approach like foxes, fight like lions, and disappear like birds." A basic cause for the fighting between white people and Native Americans was the different way of life of each group. Some tribes raised corn and other vegetables, but they all hunted wild animals for food and clothing. Most white settlers made a living by farming. In the East, they cut down forests to get farmland. Afton they destroyed trees and underbrush, wild animals could no longer live there. In the West, white hunters killed thousands of buffalos just for their skins. The tribes usually had to choose between moving to new hunting grounds, which were often occupied by hostile tribes, or fighting to keep their old ones. They know that the whites threatened both their lives and their security. Both Native Americans and whites were to blame for the many frontier wars. The colonies refused to recognize the tribes rights. They believed the Native American were savages without souls. The Native Americans, in turn, did not understand the colonist’s ways. For example, when the Native Americans signed a treaty, they thought they had sold only the right to use the land, not the land itself. They did

The Indian Nations lost nearly half their land due to the Reconstruction treaties of 1866, which required the land lost to be used for resettlement of more Indian tribes. Indian populations within Indian Territory did not change much from 1865 to 1900, but the non- Indian populations soon outnumbered the Indian populations six to one (Baird and Goble, p 126). Lane – Pomeroy Plan pushed by the Kansas representatives, James Lane and Samuel Pomeroy, to pressure the Federal government to remove more Indians to Indian Territory (Baird and Goble, p 131). The Homesteading movement increased pressure to relocate Indians to Indian Territory to open up more lands in surrounding states for settlement. Upwards to 15,000 Indians were relocated to Indian Territory during the Second Trail of Tears (Baird and Goble, p 131). The increased diversity between Indian tribes and the growing non-Indian population created a tension for Indians to maintain control of Indian Territory, which grew worse as the territory edged closer to statehood.

People have been living in the Americas for thousands of years. Only fairly recently, the past few hundred years, have foreigners begun to arrive and drastically disrupt the way of life of the aboriginal population. The situation has become so severe that a population that was one believed to

American settler colonialism is no different than the colonialism in South Africa, Australia and Algeria because the similarities between them: indigenous populations were depleted, indigenous resistances arose, and colonizing culture religion becomes the dominant culture. Indigenous population was depleted in two way: through human involvement and also by biological diseases.

Deja Moses Mr. Call ENG 231 January 19, 2016 Why was their conflict between the European Settlers and Native Americans? Well, it all started during the years of 1840 throughout 1895. There was a huge struggle for the Plains which led to a war against the Plain Indians. “In 1840 the Great Plains were sparsely inhabited by the Plain Indians. The Indians depended upon the huge herds of buffalo, but by 1890 the buffalo were totally wiped out from existence by the settlers, who destroyed the Indian way of life (TheAmericanWest).”

Native Americans in the American Civil War composed various Native American bands, tribes, and nations. Native Americans fought knowing they might jeopardize their freedom, unique cultures, and ancestral lands if they ended up on the losing side of the Civil War. A few Native American tribes, such as the

Other campaigns led by Colonel Ranald Mackenzie and Colonel Nelson Miles were successful for the US. Mackenzie defeated the Northern Cheyenne and pressured them to relocate, while Miles pushed a number of Northern Cheyenne and some Lakota to either surrender or slip across the border into Canada (Sioux War of 1876). Rumors were heard that northern hostiles were interested in surrendering,

Many horrible atrocities occurred to the native people of America at the hands of the settlers. Various crimes such as thievery, murder, and other very disgraceful acts against these people without a second thought. Years since then, it is easy look at what happened and realize what the white people

Popular culture has shaped our understanding and perception of Native American culture. From Disney to literature has given the picture of the “blood thirsty savage” of the beginning colonialism in the new world to the “Noble Savage,” a trait painted by non-native the West (Landsman and Lewis 184) and this has influenced many non native perceptions. What many outsiders do not see is the struggle Native American have on day to day bases. Each generation of Native American is on a struggle to keep their traditions alive, but to function in school and ultimately graduate.