The Demise of the Plains Indians In chapters 16 and 17 we learned many things; a big portion was about the natives. Focusing on their treatments that consequently lead to their demise. As the white settlers moved in showing dominance, people could tell changes were coming. There were many adjustments made by the Plains Indians, yet they faced hardships such as, lack of supplies, adequate weapons, sicknesses, and declining tribe numbers Plains Indians faced hardships in many forms, during the time that white settlers started changing their ways. The whites brought a new way of life that the Indians had not yet seen. Some were positive and others, not so much. The whites had soon become a striking dominate force. Their knowledge and new helpful tips and inventions were great assets to the natives. While the less positives were their violence and diseases. On an educational website, www.Pbs.org they said that the new settlers brought nearly 2 …show more content…
In their way stood many Native tribes focusing on those in the plains (Arapaho, Cheyenne, Sioux, Comanche, Wichita, Blackfeet, and Omaha) that had called this land their home for many generations and more to come. Americans were too focused on their goals that they never took time to realize that these natives were not going to budge without a fight. An online encyclopedia whose portion was written by Robert Wooster says,
“The Plains Wars were neither solely the product of U.S. encroachment on native lands nor the result of Native American aggression; rather, they were fueled in large measure by both sides’ understanding of military action as a legitimate means of securing policy goals. Indians typically sought to engage in battle only when conditions seemed most favorable to success with minimal losses.”(Wooster, pg.4)
The natives did what they thought was best for their people to protect them from the advancing
Army and the forceful action used to confine the natives, the construction on Indian land, and the massive slaughter of the buffalo which the Indians relied on in every aspect of life. The mistreatment of the Native Americans has been going on for hundreds of years, way before the Gold Rush began. The American government has taken land that they are unable to return to this day. They have deprived the plains Indians of their culture and freedom. Immigration from other countries was at its peak, but America still wasn’t able to call people, that had resided in the United States for many years, citizens. Even the Native American’s, that had lived on the continent before it was even discovered, were denied citizenship unless they were Anglo-Saxon Protestant. To this day, many look at the Indians as a joke; The Seminoles as “The Tribe that Purchased A Billion Dollar Business.” Children are being taught about friendship between the American Settlers and the Natives, they are being lied to. The upcoming generations won’t understand the horrors of unnecessary warfare against innocent people, and they will only know to take what they want, even if it isn’t rightfully theirs. America as a nation has to be stopped from draping curtains over the defeat of the plains Indians: their wiping out of an entire people, just as they did to the
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.
The U.S. thought selfishly of the removal of the Natives. Though the Natives agreed, they agreed upon a movement that was to benefit them, but instead this movement dwindled both their numbers and hopes. Meanwhile, the States expanded and prospered on the Natives previously
Due to America’s expansion in the West, it made a very negative impact on the Native Americans there. For example, numerous amount of native Americans died due to the new diseases that they were being exposed to; such as influenza and smallpox. Additionally, Settlers tooks over large amounts of the Native Americans’ hunting grounds. Due to their inhabitants of the hunting grounds, it chased the animals that they would hunt. Lastly, the Native American population decreased. Seeing all this change being brought on to their land, Native Americans began to resist. America responded by attacking the Shawnee villages on the Tippecanoe River while Tecumseh was away, looking for allies. __________________________________________________________________________________
Americans and American Indians were constantly in conflict from 1855-1890, especially on the plains. The cause of such conflicts was the settlement of western territories which belonged to American Indians. Congress reserved the Great Plains for Indians before the Civil War due to Americans believing that the prairie could not be farmed. However, as the use for steel plows and railroads increased, policymakers had the power and desire to incorporate the entire region. Conflicts aroused as a result of American Indians being abused and used by the American government and citizens.
Settlers came in great numbers to settle into lands in the Americas, their presence had a tremendous effect on the Natives. The early relations of the Natives and settlers were a mixture of apprehensiveness and compromise. Not only were settlers underhandedly taking the Natives land and driving them away, they were also starting wars and bringing contagious diseases with them. Between the greed for land and disease the settlers brought with them, these issues were serious challenges to the Natives established way of living. It was almost an invasion, a steady one, of settlers flooding into regions of the colonies and continued disruption of Native lives.
At first, the Plains Indians were starving to death due to the bison being slaughtered by white men and the pelts being sold to the North. White men skinned the animals and left the meat. The Indians battled the Army and individual settlers but they were no match for the advance weaponry of white men.
In the early 1800’s, The United States and Spain had continuously argued with the Native people. The Louisiana Territory was purchased from France in the year 1803, Americans continued to push farther west for fertile land that could be used for farming. Due to overcrowding of eastern cities like New York City and Boston many settlers moved out west for a new start. It allowed for colonists to spread out and own untouched fertile land. When white settlers arrived they had realized that most of the land acquired from the territory was occupied by Native Americans for thousands of years. For decades Americans had thought that the land west of the Appalachian Mountains were unoccupied, but they were wrong. There were many tribes that had occupied this land. This included tribes like, The Choctaw, Cherokee, and The Chickasaw. In a sense, Americans had violent outbreaks with the Natives the minute the colonists’ had arrived in the United State. As the colonists’ tried to establish complete dominance and superiority over the Indians, ongoing heated debates over land ownership, and demanding requests to satisfy greed made forceful attacks between the groups unavoidable.
When the british first came to america, they realised they were not the only ones there. Native americans have been here from the beginning. Once the british started colonising, Native Americans realised that they had to defend their land. Years later, during the building of the transcontinental railroad, Native Americans were again forced to defend their land. During the building of the railroad, the government made a treaty to Native Americans saying that railroad surveyor would not go onto Native AMerican land. After this treaty was put into place, one company in charge of building the railroad sent a surveyor to plan the railroad. This person went throught the unceded Native American land (Doc 2) to find a path to
As the result of the invader of European on the physical aspect, the relationship between the natives and the invaders was clear: conquest, enslavement, the expropriation of all the wealth and resources of the land. However the Native Americans were also affected on the non-physical aspect. As the traditional base of existence changed due to the Colonists’ victory, the local Native communities had to adapt certain aspects of their culture in order to survive.
After the Civil War, thousands of Americans poured into the Great Plains on a collision course with western Indian tribes. Homesteaders, ranchers, and miners encroached on Indian lands and threatened native game and ways of life. They called on the U.S. Army to crush Indian resistance and confine tribes to government controlled reservations.
The lives of the native Americans that had already been living on the Great Plains frontier had been affected drastically. Most people really only hear about battles like Custer's last stand, and geronimo. What we don't read in our textbooks is how they were treated. They had been pushed out of their land and were mostly confined to reservations, mostly areas that the white didn't feel were very good. They also were given rations on the reservation, that Americans only had to do in hard times such as war.
The Great Plains were home to many Native Americans and several animals, most importantly the buffalo. Life was peaceful for the Native Americans until the railroad started being built and Americans began to expand westward. The Great Plains at first were viewed at in a negative way by the Americans because they thought it was just a “useless wasteland.” Americans thought that this land was too dry for their farming and agriculture. As these railroads were built westward Americans realized how beneficial they actually were. For example, many settlers found no dry land, but millions of acres of fertile soil. Also, cattlemen saw an open range for cattle and the opportunities here started to open up. Although this land was already taken by both Native Americans and buffalo, that meant nothing to the new settlers as they planned to get rid of both of them (Doc 1). I thought that the expansion of the Great Plains was negative for the Indians, but also positive for the Americans. I believe that the expansion of the railroad was positive for the Americans because as I said earlier, it brought them new opportunities find better lives and better land. It was very negative for the Indian because Americans decided to invade their land and get rid of them and
First of all, the Plains Indian were great travelers that roam free throughout the lands and were great fighters who used guerilla tactics. With time, came the genocide of the of the buffalo, this was because the Americans would just kill them for sport and leave the meat to rot. Another issue that came was the creation of reservation. As you know the plain Indians were always free to roam the land and all of the sudden the Americans tried to restrict them to one place, which could not have happened since the Indians hatted farming. In addition, you cannot forget the creations of boarding school which were founded by Francis Pratt. At the schools they tried to persuade the American way of life such as religion, clothing, and language. If a Indian spoke their native language they beaten for not
Between 1790 and 1920 it was a tough time for the Indians. During that period Native Americans were forced to convert to the European-American Culture. Their whole life changed, the way of living, religion, and especially their children’s future. It was wrong of Americans to convert natives into a different society that they saw fit and not letting them express their own culture and treating them as an unworthy society.