Custer And Indian Conflict In The Battle Of Native Americans
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Indian conflict played a significant role in the founding of the United States, starting almost immediately after Christopher Columbus’s landing in the Americas. When the Spanish settlers arrived in the “new land”, they brought crops, livestock, and advancements in weaponry from their homes; this increased violence between tribes and brought new diseases/invasive species to the Native’s land. Along with bringing physical representation of Europe, the Spanish brought religion, offering protection from disease as a trade-off for the Indians conversion to Catholicism. Unfortunately, this was not the only trade-off, as the Indians had to pay an additional taxes (called encomiendas) to the white men in crops, and were angered when the settlers
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One of these battles occurred over who controlled the Black Hills, called The Battle of Little Bighorn (or Custer’s Last Stand). After Indians refused to give up their land to whites in search of gold, the U.S. government formulated an agreement where the natives would sacrifice some property and assimilate with American cultures to retain the rest of the Black Hills. When again the Indians refused to take into consideration the United State’s laws, the government sent General Custer and his troops to remove the Amerindians. The battle between Custer and the Indians resulted in the death of all fighting American troops, showing the true strength of Indians and increasing tensions with them. Revered D.J. Burrell held a sermon in Chicago regarding the Battle of Little Bighorn later that same year, speaking of the insincerity Americans had in their treaties and showing that it was the Americans own faults which led to Custer’s Last Stand (Source K). Indians were quickly ambushed by the whites as told by The Sitting Bull to a New York Correspondent, not giving them a final chance to work out their problems; even though a few Americans were killed, it was a result of the pain they brought upon the peaceful Lakota’s who only wanted to practice traditional culture in their Holy Land (Source E). After Custer’s Last Revenge, the Indians were forced to move onto Reservations by a persistent U.S. military, and even though the Indians developed new culture, they were not able to regain that same sense of pride; the leader of the Lakota, Sitting Bull, was killed over his new religion, the Ghost Dance, showing the lack of acceptance Americans had towards other cultures. Once again the 1800’s were “A Era of Dishonor”, as the Indians were not able to live their life freely on their homeland, eventually getting pushed out by a forceful
One of these battles occurred over who controlled the Black Hills, called The Battle of Little Bighorn (or Custer’s Last Stand). After Indians refused to give up their land to whites in search of gold, the U.S. government formulated an agreement where the natives would sacrifice some property and assimilate with American cultures to retain the rest of the Black Hills. When again the Indians refused to take into consideration the United State’s laws, the government sent General Custer and his troops to remove the Amerindians. The battle between Custer and the Indians resulted in the death of all fighting American troops, showing the true strength of Indians and increasing tensions with them. Revered D.J. Burrell held a sermon in Chicago regarding the Battle of Little Bighorn later that same year, speaking of the insincerity Americans had in their treaties and showing that it was the Americans own faults which led to Custer’s Last Stand (Source K). Indians were quickly ambushed by the whites as told by The Sitting Bull to a New York Correspondent, not giving them a final chance to work out their problems; even though a few Americans were killed, it was a result of the pain they brought upon the peaceful Lakota’s who only wanted to practice traditional culture in their Holy Land (Source E). After Custer’s Last Revenge, the Indians were forced to move onto Reservations by a persistent U.S. military, and even though the Indians developed new culture, they were not able to regain that same sense of pride; the leader of the Lakota, Sitting Bull, was killed over his new religion, the Ghost Dance, showing the lack of acceptance Americans had towards other cultures. Once again the 1800’s were “A Era of Dishonor”, as the Indians were not able to live their life freely on their homeland, eventually getting pushed out by a forceful