Why Did the Native Americans Lose the Plains Wars

There are many reasons that the Europeans and the Native Americans didn’t get along. In the works that I have examined and read throughout this module, the relationship amongst these two groups had not been a good one from the beginning. The main reason for conflict between the Europeans and the Native Americans, it seems, was the Europeans greed and desire for land and power.

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

There are many ways in which we can view the history of the American West. One view is the popular story of Cowboys and Indians. It is a grand story filled with adventure, excitement and gold. Another perspective is one of the Native Plains Indians and the rich histories that spanned thousands of years before white discovery and settlement. Elliot West’s book, Contested Plains: Indians, Goldseekers and the Rush to Colorado, offers a view into both of these worlds. West shows how the histories of both nations intertwine, relate and clash all while dealing with complex geological and environmental challenges. West argues that an understanding of the settling of the Great Plains must come from a deeper understanding, a more thorough

Throughout the course of history there have been numerous accounts regarding Native American and European interaction. From first contact to Indian removal, the interaction was somewhat of a roller coaster ride, leading from times of peace to mini wars and rebellions staged by the Native American tribes. The first part of this essay will briefly discuss the pre-Columbian Indian civilizations in North America and provide simple awareness of their cultures, while the second part of this essay will explore all major Native American contact leading up to, and through, the American Revolution while emphasizing the impact of Spanish, French, and English explorers and colonies on Native American culture and vice versa. The third, and final, part of this essay will explore Native American interaction after the American Revolution with emphasis on westward expansion and the Jacksonian Era leading into Indian removal. Furthermore, this essay will attempt to provide insight into aspects of Native American/European interaction that are often ignored such as: gender relations between European men and Native American women, slavery and captivity of native peoples, trade between Native Americans and European colonists, and the effects of religion on Native American tribes.

The European and Native American warfare equipment and tactics differed greatly. The European were a more developed and established organization with a developed and established method of warfare and tactics. The European used prescribed military tactics to fight and defend, they used methods such as raids ambushes and unit formations to invade, surprise and defend against the enemy. The European also used a prescribed military battle doctrine or what’s know today as field manuals (FM’s), they also fought in small unit and moved tactically in formations. The European used weaponry far more advanced than the Native Americans. They were armed with weapons such as matchlocks, pikes, swards and armor. The small organized units were strong enough to defended gained ground regardless of the number of casualties taken.

Native Americans were deeply effected by colonization. It was extremely unfair of the Europeans to destroy Native American way of life. If the Native Americans had the weapons, like guns and disease, that the Europeans did, then maybe they could have fought for what was theirs. Europeans came to America and changed the Native Americans lives forever. This contact between the Native Americans and Europeans was called the Columbian Exchange. While both Native Americans and Europeans received advantages and disadvantages from the Columbian Exchange, Native Americans definitely suffered more while the Europeans were benefited

Long ago on the great plains, the buffalo roamed and the Native Americans lived amongst each other. They were able to move freely across the lands until the white men came and concentrated them into certain areas. Today there are more than five-hundred different tribes with different beliefs and history. Native Americans still face problems about the horrific history they went through and today 's discrimination. The removal of American Indian tribes is one of the most tragic events in American history. There are many treaties that have been signed by American representatives and people of Indian tribes that guaranteed peace and the values of the Indian territories. The treaties were to assure that fur trade would continue without interruption. The American people wanting Indian land has led to violent conflict between the two. Succeeding treaties usually forced the tribes to give up their land to the United States government. There were laws made for Native American Displacement that didn’t benefit the Native Americans, these laws still have long lasting effects on them today, and there was a huge number of Native Americans killed for many reasons.

Before the arrival of white people to the continent, Native Americans still engaged in war between the various different tribes. Their reasons for fighting each other were drastically different than the reasons they had when fighting non-Indians. Some Native American battles were fought for revenge. The most common cause of war between Native American groups was probably to defend or enlarge tribal territory. Later, their conflicts with white people were fought for trying to prevent the theft of their land, or in raids for food and supplies they were denied. There have been many famous clashes between Indians and the United States government. On November 4th 1791, In what is considered the worst ever defeat administered by Indians to U. S. troops more than 600 soldiers were killed by a force of mostly Shawnees and other Indians. The cause of the conflict was settlers moving into the Indian’s land in large numbers, ignoring Indians rights and demanding military protection if the Indians opposed them. This kind of situation was the cause for many of the largest fights with Native Americans, for example the battle of little big horn (otherwise known as Custer’s last stand) in which Indians that were ready for the arrival of the Calvary killed every soldier under General Custer’s command. A battle which United States

The Native Americans sustained and took care of their home, while the Europeans pushed and pulled for more money to fall from it. This caused the land to lose a lot of its density and eventually the Europeans’ wealth as well. Things that were lost were proper farming grounds, culture of the Native Americans, and wild life. Different views of the Europeans and Native Americans caused a lot of conflict. The Europeans’ views on the Indians’ way of life became critical once they saw and felt as if their society was not controlled

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.

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 treatment of the Native Americans by the United States government to try to control all the land was poor. The United States Government pushed the Native Americans to the coast. At first, they gave the Native Americans the Great Plains then realized that they could use it. The United States held a meeting with the Cheyenne, Arapaho, Sioux, and Crow tribes. They signed treaties with the Native Americans saying that if they moved they would give them more land that they could keep, they broke all of these treaties which angered the Native Americans.

The subject of this chapter summary will be the eighteenth chapter of Alan Taylor’s American Colonies. The chapter is called “The Great Plains” and discusses the history of that geographical region from 1680-1800. Taylor begins by explaining how warfare both sustained and weakened New Mexico. It maintained unity, because without an external enemy to focus on, the Pueblo people would rise up in revolt against Mexico. However, the constant warfare discouraged any new settlers from putting down roots there. Spain's holdings in North America were weakened by the foreign policy of the motherland, which focused on the colonial core of the territory, not the exterior regions. For Mexico, New Mexico was just a buffer zone between itself and other

Although white European settlers and the native Indians had existed moderately peaceful for around 40 years pressures rose in the mid-seventh century. Conflict arose due to decline in Indian territories, population, and their cultural integrity. These differences ultimately lead to conflicts in which collectively became known as King Philip’s War. What types of complaints did the Indians have against the settlers? How were the Indians expected to survive if the settlers kept taking their land? The primary sources in this collection of source documents touch upon on what each group (Indian or white settlers) did to survive: an excerpt from a narrative written by John Easton, a second hand account written by Thomas Church, a report written to the English leaders by Edward Randolph, a petition written by an Indian named William Nahton, and an excerpt of an account from a book written by Mary Rowlandson. These documents illustrate the main causes that sparked the war between the Native Indians and the white English settlers, narratives written by both sides to find peaceful solutions, and actual accounts of people who survived the conflict. The second hand account written about Benjamin Church’s meeting with the Indian group known as the Sakonnet Indians displays that the Indians knew their only chance of survival was to fight while the report written to English leaders by Randolph suggest that the settlers who viewed the Indians as uncivilized had ultimately forced the Indians

As far as warfare was concerned, the Native Americans suffered great losses upon the first conflicts with the Europeans. Many Indians were armed with bows, arrows, and spears, and clad themselves in a type of leather armor. This proved ineffective against the heavy artillery of the Europeans who had thick metal armor along with guns that easily penetrated the Native Americans. Because of the disadvantages that the Native Americans held in warfare, they had to change the way that they had been fighting for centuries. The Native Americans adopted a new strategy for war that consisted of guerilla style attacks. This way, the element of surprise brought them on a somewhat more level playing field due to their technologically inferior weapons. However, over time the Indians began trading with the Europeans to get guns. This completely revolutionized warfare for the Native Americans. Never before had they been in possession of such powerful arms. This made the Native Americans much more lethal during warfare.