The conflict between Native Americans and white foreigners had been evolving ever since Conquistadors set foot in the New World in 1492. White settlers, hungry for new land and the opportunity to prosper, would always dissent with Natives, who the whites considered no better than savages. President Andrew Jackson’s Indian Removal Act of 1830, which led to the forced migration of the Cherokee from their homelands to Oklahoma, proved that all tribes would struggle to retain their land. The belief of manifest destiny originating in 1845 spurred the expansionist impulse to disperse through the western territories obtained in the Mexican cession. The exodus of white emigrators into the west was met with opposition from Plains Indians, triggering
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To eliminate the threat to westward expansion, the United States government created the Fort Laramie Treaty of 1851, which establish military forts and forced Natives to stay within tribal boundaries. The treaty, one of the first agreements to be made between Plains tribes and the American government, was only agreed upon by some chiefs, but the nomadic Plains tribes had numerous chiefs within one Indian nation. Consequently, several of the Indians who did not want to surrender their nomadic lifestyle refused the confinement. The same can be said for whites, who violated Indian reservation boundary lines and often did not deliver the provisions of food and clothing promised to them. In 1867, the Medicine Lodge Treaty infuriated the Plains tribes as instead of creating tribal boundaries within their homeland, the Natives were forced into reservations in Oklahoma as well as having to learn white culture. Those who agreed to move onto these reservations were often desperate, starving, and left with no alternative, but the overall refusal to be confined to reservations prompted the government to change military policies as …show more content…
The Sand Creek Massacre of 1864 was outrageous to the Plains Tribes as the Cheyenne chief Black Kettle had already agreed at Fort Weld to peacefully relocate to reservations. John M. Chivington with a group of volunteers murdered close to two hundred in the Cheyenne encampment. Though the government did not sanction the slaughter, the flames of war were ignited when Cheyenne, Arapaho, and Sioux retaliated. All fighting was not targeted at the Americans as disagreements within the Dakota and Lakota tribes of whether military uprising was the only way to retain their homeland or a useless and counterproductive endeavour resulted in the Dakota War of 1865. The Sioux’s had a short lived victory at The Battle of Little Bighorn in 1876 in which General Custer’s military detachment was all but obliterated. In response, the government moved the sacred Black Hills outside of the tribal boundary, making it vulnerable to white settlement. Along with the loss of sacred land, Chief Joseph, leader of the Nez Perce, was forced to surrender in 1877 before his people could escape to Canada. The Natives, morally wounded and devastated at the loss of sacred land, grew weary of
To eliminate the threat to westward expansion, the United States government created the Fort Laramie Treaty of 1851, which establish military forts and forced Natives to stay within tribal boundaries. The treaty, one of the first agreements to be made between Plains tribes and the American government, was only agreed upon by some chiefs, but the nomadic Plains tribes had numerous chiefs within one Indian nation. Consequently, several of the Indians who did not want to surrender their nomadic lifestyle refused the confinement. The same can be said for whites, who violated Indian reservation boundary lines and often did not deliver the provisions of food and clothing promised to them. In 1867, the Medicine Lodge Treaty infuriated the Plains tribes as instead of creating tribal boundaries within their homeland, the Natives were forced into reservations in Oklahoma as well as having to learn white culture. Those who agreed to move onto these reservations were often desperate, starving, and left with no alternative, but the overall refusal to be confined to reservations prompted the government to change military policies as …show more content…
The Sand Creek Massacre of 1864 was outrageous to the Plains Tribes as the Cheyenne chief Black Kettle had already agreed at Fort Weld to peacefully relocate to reservations. John M. Chivington with a group of volunteers murdered close to two hundred in the Cheyenne encampment. Though the government did not sanction the slaughter, the flames of war were ignited when Cheyenne, Arapaho, and Sioux retaliated. All fighting was not targeted at the Americans as disagreements within the Dakota and Lakota tribes of whether military uprising was the only way to retain their homeland or a useless and counterproductive endeavour resulted in the Dakota War of 1865. The Sioux’s had a short lived victory at The Battle of Little Bighorn in 1876 in which General Custer’s military detachment was all but obliterated. In response, the government moved the sacred Black Hills outside of the tribal boundary, making it vulnerable to white settlement. Along with the loss of sacred land, Chief Joseph, leader of the Nez Perce, was forced to surrender in 1877 before his people could escape to Canada. The Natives, morally wounded and devastated at the loss of sacred land, grew weary of