Native Americans During Westward Expansion Essay

Before the white men had moved west Native Americans occupied the land west of the Mississippi River. The Plains Indians were nomadic tribes that moved around throughout western North America. Then in the mid-1800s the east of the United States was starting to get crowded; the idea of moving west was beginning to look very entertaining. There were a lot of natural resources out west such as, precious metals, wood, In 1849 gold was discovered in California and the 1849 Gold Rush occurred. Hundreds of thousands of men moved west to pan and mine for gold. Some of the Americans moved west because they thought it was their God given right to expand throughout the entire continent; no matter who lived there already. Now the settlers were walking right through Native American territory and that angered the natives. This caused skirmishes between the two peoples. On top of that the United States government was passing all sorts of acts to isolate Native Americans. All of these things affected Native Americans. Western expansion and government affected Native Americans by depletion of resources, assimilations, and governmental actions.

government has unspecified and unorganized policies, which were unprotected for Native Americans who lived in the west because of all the new coming Americans. During westward expansion, a majority of who moved were whites, who didn’t know the Native Americans who already lived in the west. The Natives felt their land was being conquered, because of the U.S government policies(Louisana Purchase & Homestead Act) and the whites not wanting them to be there, which lead to fighting between the Natives and the whites. These acts and policies such as the Indian Removal Act often resulted in violated treaties and violence. The Indian Removal Act was the removal of Native American homes and tribes. “This also confines the Indians to still narrower limits, destroys that game which in their normal state, and constitutes their principal means of subsistence.” Resulting in westward expansion, Native Americans began rapidly decreasing in the area by wars and new diseases caught by new coming

Native Americans were primarily affected by westward expansion in the sense that it was the reason they not only lost their land, but they lost their culture and rights. The words of Santana, Chief of the Kiowas, are a perfect description for this, “These soldiers cut down my timber; they kill my buffalo...”.

During Westward Expansion, white settlers saw the Indians as a hindrance to civilization. Therefore the mindset of settlers were to convert Native Americans into white culture. To begin assimilating, the government should, “cease to recognize the Indians as political bodies,” adult male Indians should become a citizen to the government, Indian children shall be taken away and “be trained in industrial schools,” and Indians should be, “placed in the same position before the law.” Assimilating Indians wasn’t a simple teaching of a new culture instead, it was brutal. The boarding schools were merciless towards the Indians, mainly because they wanted to force Indians to drop their culture. Native Americans were obligated to change and lost their

When the Europeans and Spaniards first “discovered” North America all was well. The Indians at first were truly intrigued with the white man as the brought all sorts of new stuff to trade. Matter a fact the first set of settlers would not been able to survive without the help of the Indians. Unfortunately, the settlers had very little respect for the land and resources. The Europeans then starting using violence to get what they wanted and as the number of settlers increased the Indians new that they were in over their heads. With all the new settlers came diseases such as small pox and measles. These diseases hurt the Indian tribes severely, and with the ignorance the settler’s wars began; the Indian Wars, the Indian Removal Act, Wounded knee, and the trail of tears are only a few of the many. The U.S. Government took it upon themselves to start relocation programs, with these programs the Indians were ripped from their homes, required to speak only the language of the settlers and robbed of their customs. The children of the tribes were taken away and sent to special schools to Americanize them and forget about their heritage. Then in the late 1800’s the government started

1. Trace the history of relocation and Indian reservations. In what ways did reservations destroy Native American cultures, and in what ways did reservations foster tribal identities? Be sure to account for patterns of change and consistency over time.

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.

Prompt: Using information you gathered from a variety of texts, write a letter from the chosen group’s point of view, stating their opinion of Westward Expansion by answering the question, “Was Westward Expansion worth it?” Quote evidence from the text to support your claim.

Minority groups are defined as alien residents of nations who no longer have rights to their land. Ordinarily due to colonization. Minority status is the result of adverse discrimination some of the defining elements of these groups are commonly long-term occupation of land, common ancestry, traditional culture, language or formal membership. In the United States, Native Americans, also known as American Indians or just simply Indians are considered to be people whose pre-Columbian ancestors were indigenous to the lands within the nation’s modern boundaries. These people were composed of numerous distinct tribes, bands and ethnic groups. Custer Died for Your Sins is a 1969, non-fiction book by the lawyer, professor and writer Vine Deloria. This was noted primarily for its relevance to activist organizations like the American Indian Movement. The book consists of eleven essays and is critical of aid organizations, for their efforts to so called “help” Native Americans. The author shows readers that instead of helping they were stopping the progress. Deloria 's book discussed and offered many types of solutions in helping Native Americans.

As the white settlers took the Native American land, they were abandoned and displaced. Which is why the United States government put the Native Americans on reservations. Native Americans had a difficult time adjusting to life on the reservations. The land wasn’t as rich as it was in the land that was taken by the white settlers. (outside info)

Between 1803 and 1850, Manifest Destiny has termed the era of American westward expansion. During this westward expansion of American territory, slavery played a key role in the development of states and to an extent added fuel to the imperialistic fire. As claims to land were made, slavery became a prime concern and this helped force the issue of slavery into national politics.

There are two events that triggered the biggest migration in US history. First was the passage of the Homestead Act in 1862; each family that was willing to settle to the West was granted at least 160 acres of land. Second was the completion of the first transcontinental railroad in 1869, when it was finally possible to send the agricultural products such as live cattle to the more populated areas within less than a week. In addition, the frontiers were also able to get the much-needed tools and equipment by trains from those big cites. During this period, different groups of people had experienced huge yet completely different changes with their lives. Some experienced happiness and hope, while others experienced hardship and tragedy. Native

The Indians believed that they were to follow their food source or different During the

Prior to the European invasion, the Native American Indians inhabited both North and South America, most of them living in areas beyond the reach of railroads and well-traveled highways. The Europeans and Native Americans met episodically through war, resulting in a clash of culture and social integration. Interestingly, during times of geographical expansion, the American government usually had their greatest interest in the Indians. The United States population doubled every twenty years between the years of 1800 and 1900, while the population of indigenous people declined. With the decline of their population, the Indians were met with a difficult task of preserving their culture. They had to choose whether to make life easier and assimilate to society or maintain their old traditional ways which presented many difficulties.

The more the white men pushed them away, the more land the Indians lost. Native Americans lost all of their crops and their hunting ground. White men began killing buffalo for sport and wasting the meat and fur. A buffalo shortage ensued. As these Native Americans began relocating, they could not hunt due to the lack of buffalo. Native Americans began to starve and die. The government was barely a part of what was happening to the Native Americans. The government was being told stories about how the Native Americans were savages and killing off many white people including women and children (United States. National