Course on american history : westward expansion from the natives point of view

History                    Theme 2 – Westward Expansion

Theme 2    - Westward Expansion

 “Go west young Man”

The American Frontier during the 19th century

PART 2 – A tragedy for the Native Americans  (PPT1 – Slide 1)

Slides 2-7 Introduction: 5 maps: From 1850 to 1900, Native Americans lost most of their land in the Western part of the USA after losing all of it in the Eastern part because the encroachment by the settlers.

Key Questions:

• How did the US policy towards the Natives change from the 1830s to the 1890s?
• What were the main battles in the Great Plains?
• What were the main reasons of the defeat of the Native Americans?

Key website: http://www.pbs.org/weta/thewest/resources/archives/

1. American policies and Native resistance to control the territory west of the Mississippi: a forty year-conflict (1860s - 1890s)

Slide 9 2 different worlds:

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Slide 10 pp.300-304 – The West in the American Imagination (Chap. 11 – The Contested West, 1815-1860)

It was hard to believe the two regions were part of the same country. The rapidly industrializing East bore no resemblance to most of the American West. Except for few urban centers on the coast, the West knew nothing of cities. Instead, the West was an emerging patchwork of Slide 11 homestead farmers, Slide 12 miners, and Slide 13 cattle ranchers looking for land. While Easterners tried to make their way in these and other professions, Slide 14 Native Americans desperately clung to the hopes of maintaining their tribal traditions.

1.1. A changing world for the Native Americans

Situation of the Natives in the 1830s

• Slides 16-19 East of the Mississippi = Removal policies by President Andrew Jackson with the Trail of tears (previous course)

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Slide 20 pp.306-307– Indian Removal and Resistance  (Chap. 11 – The Contested West, 1815-1860)

Native Nations are considered as “dependent nations” so under the responsibilities of the Supreme Court. So, considered as young children protected from the avidity of the settlers by the President. But no respect of this responsibility. Main reason for the US government = to concentrate Indigenous peoples in Reservations to make free lands for farmers.

• Slide 21 West = 2/3 of the Nations, mostly in the Great Plains considered as an Indian Territory: became skillful hunters. Contacts with the Whites thanks to explorers and a few settlers.

Slide 22 By in the early nineteenth century, the United States government had claimed most of North America as its own, either as states or territories. Initially, Amerindians were “allowed” to remain on this land, although the federal government made attempts to regulate their habitation.

The U.S. government was not sure how to classify Amerindians who occupied U.S. territory, so tribes were both independent nations and wards of the state. This dual—albeit contradictory—perspective, required that treaties negotiated with Native tribes be ratified by the U.S. Senate.

2 types of reactions by the Indians facing the Westward expansion

• Slide 23 Some Natives (mainly Cherokees, Choctaws, Creeks, Seminoles) adapted themselves to the White way of life during the 18th century and became Christian and excellent farmers.

Most of the Indigenous people were in favor of compromises because fur trade got them accustomed to, acquainted with Whites. Tribes could have useful products such as weapons, knives…; they could sell food and handcraft to the soldiers or settlers.

• But tensions inside the tribes between the ones in favor of assimilation and the ones in favor of resistance

1.2. Signatures of Peace Treaties and the reservation policy

🡺 Main example = Slide 25 In the Fort Laramie Treaty of 1851, the US government agreed that large areas of land should belong to Native American tribes 'for all time' (e.g. Slide 26 the Sioux were given the Black Hills of Dakota).

TREATY:

Slide 27 The Natives guaranteed safe passage for settlers on the Oregon Trail in return for recognition of their sovereignty over some lands (assigning Natives precise large tracts of lands = reservations) and the promises of an annuity in the amount of fifty thousand dollars for fifty years as a compensation for the massive killing of buffalos and the cutting of wood.

Slide 28 The Indigenous nations also allowed roads and forts to be built in their territories.

The United States Senate ratified the treaty. But several tribes never received the commodities promised as payments. And the Senate reduced the annuity to 10 years.

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