The Untold Side of Westward Expansion

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The Untold Side of Westward Expansion

• Part 1

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Opposites Dont Always Attract
Native Americans
White Settlers

• Lived within nature
• Polytheistic
• Tribal cultural norms kept order
• Owning land meant having access to the game or
  resources on the land

• Sought to subdue nature
• Monotheistic
• Laws and courts kept order
• Owning land meant controlling what happened to it

With these differences, how was the government to
hand the conflict brewing between Native
Americans and White Settlers?
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Option 1 Allow Native Americans to keep their
lands.

• Pros
• The United States would show that all right and
  due process of the law are not limited to white
  males.
• Cons
• Legal disputes would continue for decades.

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Option2 Stay out of the dispute.

• Pros
• None
• Cons
• Disputes might become violent.
• National government would have to admit it cannot
  control its citizens.
• Would set a poor precedent for groups looking for
  federal protection.

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Option 3 Work out a compromise

• Pros
• Native Americans would keep their land, but as
  private property.
• Cons
• Whites would find other ways of seizing Native
  American lands.

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Option 4 Remove Native Americans

• Pros
• Would open up millions of acres
• Would eliminate possibility of endless legal
  battles and violence
• Cons
• Would cause untold suffering to Native Americans

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The Untold Side of Westward Expansion

• Part 2

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Andrew Jacksons Plan

• How many thousands of our own people would
  gladly embrace the opportunity of removing to the
  West on such conditions! Rightly considered,
  the policy of the General Government toward the
  red man is not only liberal, but generous. He is
  unwilling to submit to the laws of the States and
  mingle with their population. To save him from
  this alternative, or perhaps utter annihilation,
  the General Government kindly offers him a new
  home, and proposes to pay the whole expense of
  his removal and settlement
• Andrew Jackson
• President Jacksons Message to Congress On
  Indian Removal, December 6, 1830 Records of the
  United States Senate, 177801990 National
  Archives.

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Native American Options

• What options were available to Native American
  groups under Jacksons Indian Removal Act?

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Cherokee Comply

• Adopted the civilized ways of American people.
• Developed a written alphabet.
• Published newspapers in Cherokee and English
• Created a formal government
• Applied for statehood
• Operated 18 schools and 41 mills

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Eventual Outcome

• Land hungry settlers focused attention on
  Cherokee settlements
• Jacksons Indian Removal Act forces the Cherokee
  off their land
• Trail of Tears

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Your Turn

• Read History Alive pgs 192 194 (Seminole)
• Read History Alive pgs 349 350 (Sioux)
• Read History Alive pgs 338 339 (Nez Perce)
• Fill in your chart to explain their initial
  reactions and eventual outcomes.

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Seminole Hide/Fight

• The Indian Removal Act force drastic actions from
  the Seminole
• Some Seminoles left their villages and farms to
  hide in the swamps of Northern Florida, while
  others went to the reservations
• For years, they waged war on the U.S. from hiding
  places in the swamps
• The war cost the U.S. more in both lives and
  money than other Indian conflicts before and after

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Eventual Outcome

• Seminoles from the reservations were brought back
  to Florida to negotiate with the warring groups
• The army moved through the swamplands burning
  huts, canoes, crops, etc.
• Eventually the losses were too great and the
  Seminole surrendered
• Total cost for U.S. 60 million dollars and 2000
  lives

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Sioux Fight

• Sioux tribes were living in the Black Hills area
  of the Dakota Territory
• Gold was found in the Black Hills
• 15,000 settlers raid the territory looking for
  gold
• The U.S. government tries to force the selling of
  the land
• The military tries to force the Sioux off the land

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Eventual Outcome

• After the Battle of Little Big Horn, the U.S.
  army raids the territory
• Congress seized the territory
• The Sioux were eventually forced onto a
  reservation

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Nez Perce Flee

• The Nez Perce had been a peaceful tribe in
  Eastern Oregon
• White settlers arrived looking for gold and later
  farmland
• The government gave Chief Joseph a ultimatum,
  move to a reservation or face the U.S. Army
• As the Nez Perce travelled to the reservation, a
  small band of warriors attacked white settlements.

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Eventual Outcome

• After the attack, Chief Joseph tries to flee to
  Canada
• He lead the Army on a 1,000 mile chase
• Eventually he must surrender and goes to the
  reservation in Oklahoma.

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(No Transcript)
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Life on the reservation

• Transitions to reservation life was traumatic.
• Warriors despised farming and subsistence chores.
• Food was a problem for most tribes.
• The disappearance of buffalo made tribes
  dependent on government handouts.
• Often promised foods never made it to the
  reservation.
• Food the Indians did receive was at best strange
  and at worst spoiled.
• I do not wonder that when these Indians see
  their wives and children starvingthey go to war.
  And then we are sent to kill. It is an outrage.
  General George Crook

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The Dawes Act

• Devided up the land on reservations into
  individual farms.
• You received more land depending on the number of
  family members and the type of farm you ran.
• Farming was a supposed method to civilize the
  tribes.
• Unfortunately, the land for these farm was in
  desert/semidesert areas.
• Also few Native Americans knew how to farm.

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What do you think is the next step in
domesticating Native Americans?