The Struggle Of Native Americans In The 1920's

According to Parrillo (2011), between the 1850 and 1880, the government embarked on a policy of segregation and isolation, rather than annihilation and expulsion, by establishing most of the nation’s Indian reservations. In 1861, Congress ended federal recognition of the Native American tribes as independent, sovereign nations, and made them wards of the government instead. This meant the welfare of Native Americans became the responsibility of Bureaucrats. This change in policy was so devastating that the effects are still visible today. The Bureaucrats were responsible for every aspect of the Natives lives and their food supply. Parrillo (2011) explains this by saying a once proud and independent people who had taught self-reliance at an early age now depended on outsiders for their welfare. Instead of reconstructing a lifestyle that would fit the natives the U.S. government’s goal was to Americanize them. Parrillo (2011) goes on to say:

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.

Another cause for poor relations between Native Americans and European Settlers was the constant push for acquiring new land by the Colonists. The Native Americans did not just want to give up their land and this resulted in war between the Indians and the Colonists. During this time Native Americans were sold into slavery belittled and removed from their land, due to the fact that the Colonists had more advanced technology and weapons. One of the major wars was the French and Indian War which resulted in the removal of Native Americans from their land and many casualties on both sides. Over time many battles were fought over land, even after America was an established country with presidents, laws, and court systems. Native Americans were continually pushed out of their land for hundreds of years while they were forced to move west. The constant push of Native Americans out of their land would cause an event known as the Trail of Tears where thousands of Indians were removed from their land by the Indian Removal Act. “In 1830 the Congress of the United States passed the "Indian Removal Act." Although many Americans were against the act, most notably Tennessee Congressman Davy Crockett, it passed anyway. President Jackson quickly signed the bill into law. The Cherokees attempted to fight removal legally by challenging the removal laws in the Supreme Court and by establishing an

Col. George Armstrong Custer was given a order to explore the Black Hills within reservation boundaries. He was also ordered to map and find a comfortable place with enough resources to plant a future military post. While Lt. Col. Custer was exploring the hills words of found gold were being spread by geologists. This lead to Miners and Entrepreneurs invading the land for profit of gold, which violated the treaty directly. When the US tried giving the Lakota prices to buy Black Hills they rejected it, which led to a deadline in January of 1876. It was said that all Sioux report to the reservation on January 31, but when there was no response in return, the task was handed off to the military. (Little Bighorn Battlefield National

In the early nineteenth century, the United States wanted position in the West, power was still in the hands of Native peoples. The Native Americans outnumbered whites and controlled the resources and routes of movement. Native Americans were not only fighting with the U.S. but with other Indian nations. Natives started to become even more unsettled as the U.S. government removed most eastern Native groups beyond the Mississippi River.

Everything was going very well for the settlers in the west, except for disputes and battles with the native Indian tribes. The tribes had signed many treaties with the Americans regarding their land and their safety; however, the treaties were loosely followed and ignored for the most part. In 1868, the Lakota were having conflicts with the US Army. The Lakota were angry that the army kept coming into their territory. This led to Red Cloud's War. Congress passed the Fort

history, cause by the excruciating relocation of the Indians. This is also considered as the beginning of the Indian extermination by the U.S. government even though they had lived in the country several generations before the white settlers set their foot in America. Altough after the American Revolution and the establishment of the United State, the Indians were consider as a discrete nation. Enclosed by a monarch country even so, the Indians were completey perpetrate to a tranquil coexistence, together with the White settlers.

Just like this century actually runs longer thematically than just 1800 to 1900, the story of the Indians extends backward before the first shots of the Civil War were fired and stretches forward past Reconstruction. Throughout this elongated era, different tribes had different experiences. Some, like the nations of the Iroquois, started their travails with warfare of white Americans as far back as choosing between the French and British during the French and Indian War. Others, like the Seminole, had fought many independent wars against America (or Spain or Britain) in their homelands long before they faced the Civil War. Still others, like the Cherokee, had attempted to assimilate into white culture, were forced off their lands, thought they were “safe” on guaranteed reservation lands, and then were forced again to participate when the Civil War bled westward into Indian Territory. The concepts of racism and “whiteness” that flowed like a river through themes of religion, progress, immigration, territory, slavery, and Reconstruction during the “long nineteenth century” also affected Native Americans; the “war of a thousand deserts” fought by the native tribes of the Southwest was both a unique experience and a shared experience as almost every tribe fought their own wars against whites and sometimes against other tribes

In 1868 the “Treaty of Fort Laramie” was signed, It was an agreement between many Native American nations and the United States guaranteeing the Lakota ownership of the Black Hills. However it didn’t take long for the treaty to be violated. In 1876 migrant workers seeking gold crossed over the reservation borders which led to the “Black Hills War”.

Native Americans have felt distress from societal and governmental interactions for hundreds of years. American Indian protests against these pressures date back to the colonial period. Broken treaties, removal policies, acculturation, and assimilation have scarred the indigenous societies of the United States. These policies and the continued oppression of the native communities produced an atmosphere of heightened tension. Governmental pressure for assimilation and their apparent aim to destroy cultures, communities, and identities through policies gave the native people a reason to fight. The unanticipated consequence was the subsequent creation of a pan-American Indian identity

In 1874 Gold was discovered in the Black Hills of South Dakota. Whites flooded the Native American land not caring about the invasion of the land. This was violating the treaty signed that designated this Indian Land. The United States pressured the Sioux Tribe to sign a new treaty in a pursuit of gold. General Philip Sheridan swiftly moved his troops on to native lands in-order to take out the Sioux warriors. The Sioux warded off many of these attacks by the United States. In June of 1876 Lieutenant

At the start of the Revolution in 1776 many of the patriots view towards the Indians was that of Thomas Jefferson’s, the paternalistic view. That the Indians were “noble savages, “uncivilized in their present state but if they would adapt to ways of the white society they could be redeemed. While others felt that they should be treated as conquered people because some of the tribes helped the British in the War, one of which was the Mohawks. That was one the main reason why most of the tribes choose to stay out of the war. At this point in time the patriots felt that they were merely trying to provide for their families and start a new life in the new world. But to the Indians they felt that the patriots were trying to push them off their lands, threatening their families and their way of life. And over time these views towards each other change with each push westward on the part of the patriots and each conflict of resistance on the part of the Indians. As the new nation grew the need for more land became evident, as a way of trying to bring resolve the government signed treaties with the tribes. The treaties promised them protection of the lands they had held if they ceded certain lands. But when it came right down to it treaty after treaty was broken, which lead to more and more distrust by the Indians. As time passed the views of Indians changed, in the early 1800’s whites viewed Indians as “savages” that should be removed from the valuable land that the

In Montana the Native American tribes are a crucial part of our history. Like all other independent nations, the Native American tribes of Montana each have their own unique customs, cultures and languages. Often times differences between tribes lead to conflict. But once europeans came to Montana the inter-tribal relationships were changed forever. One of the most influential and important wars of the nineteenth century was The Great Sioux War of 1876-1877.

The Indians siding with the English during the American Revolutionary war cannot be overlooked. The Indians beard a heavy burden from colonist because they sided with the English. It would not be startling to believe this fueled the initiative to remove Cherokee Nation west of the Mississippi River. In retrospect, the Cherokee wanted to be seen as its own state so they could handle their own affairs and be self-governed while still being under the protection of the United States. In the early 1800’s the Cherokee Nation had an extremely hard time to acculturate with the citizens of the United States. They had agreements and

The United States government used military force to follow a policy of genocide toward the Native Americans. Politically, the policies of removal, concentration, and assimilation caused the death of thousands of Native Americans. Economically, the United States government used military force whenever any valuable resource was discovered on Indian Land. Socially, the near extermination of the Buffalo caused starvation and death among the tribes. The evidence clearly indicates that the United States government used military force and economic pressures to conduct a policy of genocide towards the Native Americans.