Western Frontier Assesment
By Jackson Cozzens-Forgione
Why was expanding the U.S. more important than saving natives lives?
Have you ever had to give something up for something better in return? For example, having to give up a sport you enjoy playing for more time for homework at home. Well this is similar with what the U.S. had to do during the American-Indian War during the late 1800's. The conflict between the Indians and Americans date back into the early 1600's when the Europeans first came over into North America. When the U.S. expansionists first trekked into the west in hopes of finding free land to expand the U.S., not only did they find the land they were looking for but also found Indians who were occupying most of the land.
What the U.S. had to do in order to claim the land and call it their own, prolonged the time it took to develop the U.S. the way they wanted to. The U.S. had to compromise something that would work out both for the U.S. and the Indians. They tried to assimilate the Indians into the whites culture and have the Indians sell the land to the whites but they refused. Then the whites tried to share the land with the Indians under the whites rules, but they also refused. After all of the negotiation, the whites were fed up and decided to kill and drive most of the Indians away from the U.S. Which ended up working out for them. The U.S. decided to not waste any more time than they needed to and continue expanding the U.S. by force. They tried to evacuate most of them into reservation camps, and the ones who did not listen ended up being killed. The Americans believed that expanding the U.S. was more important than saving the natives because they did not agree on most topics. The Indians believed that the land should be used for hunting and gathering. The whites believed that the land should be used for farming and ranching. The whites also believed that the uncultured or uncultivated land had no use and was a waste to the Indians. The Indians also disagreed to be converted into white religion, such and Christianity.
The main reason the Whites thought that expanding the nation was more important than saving the people of the land was mostly out of anger caused by disagreement in most negotiations. As the Indians refused to accept each other the whites were throwing at them, they finally got fed up and tried to evacuate most of the Indians they could into reservations and killed the rest who were stubborn about it. The Whites got too impatient and continued the expansion of the U.S.
Western Frontier Photo Collage
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