How Did Western Expansion Affect Native Americans

During 1865-1900’s, Western Expansion caused major impacts on the Natives Americans and European Americans. Natives were slowly being wiped out due to the powerful challenges caused by the colonist and the conflict between cultural arrogance such as the natives being primitive and the European Americans thought of being superior. It causes cultural issues that led to Reservation Systems which the U.S. Government forced Native Americans tribes to live in certain areas. This act caused rebellious plans such as the Dakota Sioux Uprising of 1862, the Dawes Act of 1887 and Geronimo. Another major conflict were the issues with land, trade, medicine and cultural differences such as the Ghost Dance, even though some Natives accepted the Treaty Process, …show more content…
In 1854, the Federal Government abolished the northern half of Indian Territory and established the Kansas and Nebraska Territories, which were immediately opened up to white settlement. Many of the tribes occupying the land ended up on vastly reduced Reservations. Under the 141 Reservation System of cultural assimilation, American Indians kept their citizenship in their sovereign tribes. The Reservations were devised to encourage the Indians to live within clearly defined zones, and the U.S. promised to provide: food, goods, money, and protection from other tribes and white settlers. The Reservation policy also reflected the views of some of the educators and protestant missionaries that forcing the Indians to live in a confined space with little opportunity for nomadic hunting would make it easier to "civilize the savages." Characters such as Geronimo, a medicine man of the Chiricachia Apache tribes are forced to move to another Reservation in Northern Arizona. Geronimo will lead several rebellions to live in Mexico. The U.S. Army are to force him back on the Reservation; he surrenders because fewer Chiricachua support Geronimo because they were tired of being on the