Essay on Struggle for Dominance in the Ohio River Valley

Boone was born in Berks County Pennsylvania to Quaker parents. Boone’s family was later prosecuted for their beliefs as Quakers. Boone loved the outdoors and hunting was one of his many specialties. Hunting was very important because that was there food at the time which was accumulated from hunting. At a very young age he set out in the wilderness to shoot his first bear he was not scared but determined to kill it. This caused him to become a “talented woodsman and hunter”. (Biography.com) “Boone learned to read and write from his mother, and his father taught him wilderness survival skills”.

“The Contested Plains: Indians, Goldseekers, and the Rush to Colorado” Written by Elliott West. I chose to write about this book because of the large range of events and transitions that occurred throughout the American West that the author includes in the text. Elliot West highlights the struggles that many endured while trying to create better circumstances for not only themselves but also their families by moving to the west. He chronicles the adaptations that many white settlers arriving in the west faced in order to be able to make a living for themselves. But another reason why I found the book interesting was because of the way Elliot West provided perspective for each side of the struggle over the American West. He gives us the

The relationship between the English and the Native Americans in 1600 to 1700 is one of the most fluctuating and the most profound relationships in American history. On the one side of the picture, the harmony between Wampanoag and Puritans even inspires them to celebrate “first Thanksgiving”; while, by contrast, the conflicts between the Pequots and the English urge them to antagonize each other, and even wage a war. In addition, the mystery of why the European settlers, including English, become the dominant power in American world, instead of the indigenous people, or Indians, can be solved from the examination of the relationship. In a variety of ways, the relationship drastically alters how people think about and relate to the aborigines. Politically, the relationship changes to establish the supremacy of the English; the English intends to obtain the land and rules over it. Socially, the relationship changes to present the majority of the English settlers; the dominating population is mostly the English settlers. Economically, the relationship changes to obtain the benefit of the English settlers; they gain profit from the massive resource in America. Therefore, the relationship does, in fact, change to foreshadow the discordance of the two groups of people.

This very interesting and well written book is a successful effort to recover an unanachronistic view of interactions between native peoples and Europeans in the American Great Lakes region between the mid-17th century and the end of the War of 1812. White deals extensively with events usually described in terms of European conquest of native peoples or French-British imperial rivalry but White's perspective is both novel and insightful. The Middle Ground that White describes in not a geographic locale but a metaphor for an interesting type of cultural interaction and accommodation. In the mid-17th century, the powerful Iroquois confederation had fragemented many other tribal groupings and driven their remnants westwards. Some of these groups

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.

This first hand account by John G Burnett, a member of the 2nd Regiment, 2nd Brigade, Mounted Infantry, was written in 1890 as a letter to his children and paints a descriptive picture of the brutality of the Trail of Tears (“Two Accounts of the Trail of Tears”). The Trail of Tears was a tragic event, but was unavoidable due to the circumstances of the time. Many factors preceding the Trail of Tears have been proven to be catalyst for the tragic event. The Trail of Tears was when the United States Army forced the Cherokee indians from their home and made them move west of the Mississippi. There were people who were for the Trail of Tears and those who were not. Some factors which made the Trail of Tears inevitable were the growing population of America, the attitude of Americans toward natives, and the president of the time.

To better understand the conflict between the Europeans and the Native Americans, one must closely examine the state of Europe’s economy at the time. Europe struggled with difficult conditions. This included poverty, violence and diseases like typhus, smallpox, influenza and measles. There were widespread famines which caused the prices of products to vary and made life very difficult in Europe. Street crimes and violence were prevalent in cities: “Other eruption of bizarre torture, murder, and ritual cannibalism were not uncommon”.2 Europeans

​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 the time period of 1800-1850 white Americans expanded across the vast lands on the western side of the continent and regularly encountered conflict with various Indian nations. In these documents, interactions for the various Indian nations were subjected to different cultivation between each tribe per say that there were responses that filled different needs and demands. Some tribes provided benefits such as agriculture and household manufacture and produced the idea that settlements to be blended and conform into one people. Other interactions created conflict because some of our land purchases were not 100% in compliance with the constitution. Yet some Indian nations

Prior to the Revolutionary War, the Native Americans were considered to be an essential part to learning and living on the North American landscape. However, after the relationship between the Colonists and British tensed, the Native Americans found themselves in the middle of a war that would divide the Native American people. However, during the course of the war, the Native Americans had to consider who they should fight with/for. While both sides, the British and the Colonists, professed the benefits of fighting with/for them, the Native Americans’ decision would determine the fate of many Indian generations during the course of expansion in North America. On one side, the British offered diplomacy, land, and economic expansion; on the other, the Colonists promoted freedom, equality, and the promise of land. The struggle of the tribes to decide which side to fight for would prove to be the true battle that many of them would face. However, the relationships of the Native Americans and the English people did not start with the Revolution; it began almost two-hundred years prior in the settlement of Jamestown.

The Indians were viewed as standing in the way of the progress of the new nation by the settlers and many other people who were trying to settle the U.S. The settlers who were eager to have land for more cotton pressured the government to gain Indian Territory. Andrew Jackson was the commander of the U.S. Military forces that defeated a faction of the Creek nation that resulted in the Creek Indians losing 22 million acres of land in

The Ohio Valley Region was known as the American frontier during the time period from 1760 to 1813. The white expansion into the Ohio Valley Region brought about the decline and the eventual dissolution of the Native American way of life. The struggles of the French and English in the north and the westward push of American settlers in the south were met with unified pro-nativist resistance. The individual struggles of three men characterize the turmoil between whites and Native Americans. Pontiac’s war against the English, Tecumseh’s organization of a unified Indian Confederation, and Daniel Boone’s leadership in the western migration into Kentucky demonstrate the fight for control in the Ohio

Looking throughout the overwhelming events the American Revolution had on everyone involved, allows us to examine how the governments’ policies toward the Indians changed over time. It shows how the policy changes effected the Indians as well as the Americans’, their attitudes toward each other as the American’s pushed westward and the Indians resisted. Then the actions on both sides which lead up to the final removal of all Indians to west of the Mississippi in 1830’s.

This tragic loss of Native American culture is heartbreaking even in today's society. As was ruefully stated by Native American chief Santana, "These soldiers cut down our timber, they kill my buffalo; and when I see that, my heart feels like bursting; I feel sorry." (Document G) Since its inception in 1776, the United States was known as one of the most prominent advocates for freedom and liberty. Its emphasis on liberty and equality results from this nation’s dedication to and founding upon the Christian proposition that all men are created equal by God. Yet if this was truly taken to heart, then why were they so hedonistic against the Native Americans? Tensions between the tribes and the citizens of America drastically increased over the years of Manifest Destiny. Expanding the boundaries of the United States was in many ways a cultural war. While the US fought with the natives, the real power struggle occurred within. "Controversy grew over Texas, its annexation, and its boundaries. Not all Congressmen wanted to add Texas to the US as fear of a potentially large slave territory threatened the balance of Congress" (Background Essay Adapted) The desire of southerners to find more lands suitable for cotton

The United States acquired vast territories between the time of the Revolution and the Civil War, paying a price economically, socially, and politically. This unit examines the forces that drove such rapid expansion, the settlers moving into these regions, and the impact on the Native Americans already there.