The Yakama Wars
Envision a stranger barging into the house your family has owned for hundreds of years. He demands to buy it, but you refuse. His desire to have your house is uncontrollable and in order to get the house he kills you, your family, and all of your friends. This wouldn’t be fair or ethical, but is much like what happened during the early years of the American settlement westward. Unlike the scenario of your house being taken, there were more events leading up to the Yakama Wars than just one. Conflicts between the Native Americans of Southeastern Washington, the new American government and military, and the white American settlers began with fights over land, feelings of superiority over the other race and fights over the …show more content…
Some Native Americans did not believe land could be bought or sold. Some tribes, like the Nez Perce, refused to give up their ancestral lands (Nez Perce Wars). In the textbook “Washington a State of Contrasts”, it notes that tribes “did not own land individually” but instead “used natural resources to provide food and shelter”. Also, the Native Americans and white settlers used their lands differently. The settlers didn’t mind changing the land to make money, whereas the American Indians proposed using the land, but not changing it (Carlson and Green 85). The dispute over how land should be purchased and used played a part in the growing conflict.
Yet another cause of the Yakama Wars was the impairment of the Yakamas ability to gather food. Native Americans commonly survived on plants, fishing, and hunting, whereas the early white settlers grew crops and raised livestock (Carlson and Green 85). Previously nomadic Native Americans could no longer travel to harvest food. New mining methods by settlers made it increasingly difficult to fish for salmon where waterways were located (Plateau Indian). Whites assumed that the semi-nomadic tribes would be able to get enough food on reservations, although that was not the case because they did not
Envision a stranger barging into the house your family has owned for hundreds of years. He demands to buy it, but you refuse. His desire to have your house is uncontrollable and in order to get the house he kills you, your family, and all of your friends. This wouldn’t be fair or ethical, but is much like what happened during the early years of the American settlement westward. Unlike the scenario of your house being taken, there were more events leading up to the Yakama Wars than just one. Conflicts between the Native Americans of Southeastern Washington, the new American government and military, and the white American settlers began with fights over land, feelings of superiority over the other race and fights over the …show more content…
Some Native Americans did not believe land could be bought or sold. Some tribes, like the Nez Perce, refused to give up their ancestral lands (Nez Perce Wars). In the textbook “Washington a State of Contrasts”, it notes that tribes “did not own land individually” but instead “used natural resources to provide food and shelter”. Also, the Native Americans and white settlers used their lands differently. The settlers didn’t mind changing the land to make money, whereas the American Indians proposed using the land, but not changing it (Carlson and Green 85). The dispute over how land should be purchased and used played a part in the growing conflict.
Yet another cause of the Yakama Wars was the impairment of the Yakamas ability to gather food. Native Americans commonly survived on plants, fishing, and hunting, whereas the early white settlers grew crops and raised livestock (Carlson and Green 85). Previously nomadic Native Americans could no longer travel to harvest food. New mining methods by settlers made it increasingly difficult to fish for salmon where waterways were located (Plateau Indian). Whites assumed that the semi-nomadic tribes would be able to get enough food on reservations, although that was not the case because they did not