How Did Culture Change Native American Culture

How the culture of the Native Americans Changed The culture of the Native Americans of the Great Plains changed drastically during the Western Expansion in the mid-1800’s. Their loss in culture was due to white settlers disturbing their everyday lives. Some examples of ways settlers affected their culture is killing almost all the buffalo and taking their land for multiple reasons. Although the Natives protested, in the end a culture that had lasted for many millennia had come to an end in the Great Plains. Before the disturbance of White settlers, Native Americans lived off of buffalo. They literally used every part of the buffalo, with bones as weapons and tools, and the hide as tepees. Native Americans in the great planes like the Lakota lived nomadic lives, following the buffalo. When the white settlers began expanding West, they built the transcontinental railroad, which cut the buffalo’s land in two. The buffalo were constantly disturbing the railroad, and …show more content…
During the Homestead Act, any American could claim 160 acres of land for a near free cost. Near the end of the Homestead Act, the Dawes act was put into effect to add the Native’s land to what could be claimed through the Homestead act (Doc 9). The amount of land reserved by Native Americans decreased massively in a matter of years. Instead of leading nomadic lives, each Native American family was given 40 to 160 acres of land that they owned. This changed their culture dramatically, and obviously the Natives weren’t pleased. A Native called Crazy Horse spoke out against this (Doc 7), but to no avail. During this change, Native children under the age of 10 were taken by the whites in an attempt them to the Whites (Doc 4). After the loss of land, buffalo and many battles, Native resistance ended and their culture was never again how it was in the great