Western Frontier
By: Jon New
Jon New
LA-4
SS-3
3/10/16
Throughout history there has been many people wanting to expand a country or a nation, doing this they would change other human’s lives. The Native Americans had to change so during Westward Expansion. The United States wanted to Expand Westward but the Native Americans were in their way, so they came up with a solution to their problem.
The United States wanted to expand westward, to create a larger nation. They had a problem, the Native Americans lived in the lands they wanted to expand in. A big reason that they wanted to expand was the Black Hills, it was a huge attraction to the whites, because of the gold that was in the hills. This was a very important piece of land to the Native Americans. There was much conflict between the whites, and the Native Americans; General Miles insulted Chief Sitting Bull, and he said that all the legends about them was all a lie. This resulted in a battle, the whites won. The American’s wanted the Black Hills, and the land in the West so bad, that they were killing Native American’s. After that battle, Chief Sitting Bull took his tribe to Canada because he knew that the whites could keep coming back to fight, and Chief Sitting Bull didn’t want that. When they went to Canada they said that they couldn’t use Canada as a base to fight the Americans. If they did use Canada as a base then they would have to get out of Canada. A few of the teenager’s decided to steal a couple horses from a tribe in Canada, so then they had to move back to America, once they moved back to America they went to the reservations. The Americans said that they had to get rid of their own lifestyle, and to completely change to a white’s lifestyle. They had to cut their hair, have a Christian name, farm, wear American clothing, and live the lifestyle of an American. The Americans, did not care one bit about the Native American’s life, they had no respect for them, and they looked at them like they were something in the way. The whites also were a major factor that the buffalo almost went extinct. Buffalo was a huge part in the Native Americans lives, they used their meat for food, and used their hide for clothes and bedding. This changed the Native American’s values of life forever.
What the Americans did to the Native Americans still has an impact on the lives of Native Americans to this day. Since the Americans treated the Native Americans so bad most don’t like the Americans. So if you ever ran into one, they would not be that friendly to you. Since most do not like Americans they have a limited amount of people that they can have a friendship with. Another way that the lives of the Native American’s is still affected today is, the way that they have to live. They can either live on reservations or live with Americans but they have to take on the life of an American outside of the reservation. On a reservation their lives are similar to a third world country (Living). They have a lack of economic opportunity causes four to eight out of ten adults are unemployed (Living). Thirty percent of Native Americans have over loaded houses, and less than fifty percent is connected to a sewer (Living). Their health care is very poor. A Native American’s life expectancy is 5 years behind an Americans (Living). Fifty five percent of Native Americans rely on Indian Health Service for health care, and they only meet sixty percent of their needs (Living). What we did over a hundred years ago still impacts the lives of the Native Americans today.
This is one of the many different events of people wanting to expand a country or a nation, doing this they would change other human’s lives. The Native Americans had to change their way of life, living, and their eating. Everything that the Americans did is still impacted on the Native Americans to this day.
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