Plains Indians Vs Native Americans Essay

A people that are described by Anthropologists and historians alike as a hunter-gatherer society, were highly adaptable to the desert climate, and assimilated into Anglo-American life by the beginning of the twentieth century (Crum, pp. 2-4). Their ability to do such is founded on their adaptable nature. For many generations, the Shoshone, as well as the Indians of the Great Basin were viewed with qualities such as hostile, passive, and unwavering. Crum’s accounts through historical evidence prove the people were more adaptive and resilient in their

As these wildernesses were converted into farmland by the Americans, they would exacerbate the First Nation’s problems. They would drive away the animals and game that was necessary for their food, clothing, and fur trade. Once these independent

The 1854 Kansas-Nebraska Act was an act, which allowed new territories to decide if they were a free or slave state by popular sovereignty (Civilwar.org, Kansas-Nebraska Act). Kansas-Nebraska Act negated the Missouri Compromise. Missouri Compromise was an effort by the congress to diffuse the political rivalries triggered by the request of Missouri in 1819 for admission as a state in which supported slavery (Garraty and Foner). This was done to restore the balance of slave and free states at the time. Kansas-Nebraska Act violated the compromise that was made in the Missouri Compromise, it reignited the disagreement between the anti and pro-slavery factions, which lead to violent events.

Native Americans who emigrated from Europe perceived the Indians as a friendly society with whom they dwelt with in harmony. While Native Americans were largely intensive agriculturalists and entrepreneurial in nature, the Indians were hunters and gatherers who earned a livelihood predominantly as nomads. By the 19th century, irrefutable territories i.e. the areas around River Mississippi were under exclusive occupation by the Indians. At the time, different Indian tribes such as the Chickasaws, Creeks, and Cherokees had adapted a sedentary lifestyle and practiced small-scale agriculture. According to the proponents of removal, the Indians were to move westwards into forested lands in order to generate additional space for development through agricultural production (Memorial of the Cherokee Indians).

Indians quickly adopted the animal as a means of transportation and to hunt more efficiently. This was transformative to Indian culture and made hunting much easier. In fact, many Indians abandoned farming to start hunting Buffalo. Prior to this, North America

The animals that they once hunted by the Native Americans began to diminish due to the deforestation of the land. In addition to this the livestock that the colonists brought to raise on their farms caused problems for both civilizations. Hogs that were set free into the wild to freely procreate and increase in population destroyed the crops of both groups. As a result of the colonists, the Native Americans went from being the nomadic groups from the era of pre-colonization to remaining in one place on land that now featured fencing to protect their crops from the wild

The largest issue, according to Francis Haines’s article “The Northward Spread of Horses among the Plains Indians”, was their poor understanding of how the horse works. A horse is a prey animal, its first instinct is to run away. This is quite similar to cows and sheep, but they are generally less frightened especially when one compares a domestic cow to a wild horse. Horses also have a much different digestive track than the other grazers that the Comanche may be more acquainted to. They require a variety of different forages in their diet.

That lived a more sedentary or riverine lifestyle. They relied on products from agricultural resources. They also relied on wild rice. They hunted fish and small deer .

During the Gilded Age, many fortunes were made by the railroad system. The increased construction of railroads provided the transportation of people, supplies, and trading goods. The movement of people from the east to the west allowed for increased populations and the spread of their culture. The railroad system provided a service that could quickly and cheaply move supplies across America. The Manifest Destiny was also fueled by the railroad system in the sense that Americans felt it was their duty to spread the knowledge and teach other races.

The development of agriculture and the rise of industrialization generated new cultures and innovations in the new world. Native people in early America developed cultural distinct , men were in charge of the fishing, hunting, jobs that were more exposed to violence, and the women stayed closed to the village, farming, and child bearing. The way of life possessed by natives Americans did not compel them to conquer and transform new land. As opposed to European colonizers, Native Americans subscribed to a more “animistic” understanding of nature. In which they believed that plants and animals are not commodities, they are something to be respected rather than used.

Their beliefs were rejected by the white-american culture which made it difficult to assimilate or control the tribes by the United States. The U.S. was trying to convert the plains tribes from hunter-gatherers to farmers in the the European-American tradition. Native Americans tends to focus around nature. Their religion includes a number of practices,ceremonies and traditions. Their religion ceremonies included feasts, music, dances, and other performances.

Quite simply put, Europeans viewed Africans and Native Americans as inferior to themselves. They were considered to be heathens and barbarians by the Europeans. And, at least initially, they were not Christian. It was believed that Europeans could save both Native Americans and Africans not only spiritually but also economically and socially. This type of attitude also most likely made it much easier for the Europeans to discriminate and exploit them.

When comparing the Southwest indians to the Eastern Woodlands indians I found there were some differences, in their homes, the indians in the Southwest had hut like homes made of stone or adobe while indians in the Eastern Woodlands had lodge like homes made from wood. Farming and hunting seemed to be big for the Eastern Woodlands, but most of the Southwest people were just gatherers and hunters when they could be, although there were some successful farmers. Both areas had hostile groups of people, but the two groups in the Southwest later became more settled and peaceful. The Eastern Woodlands and the Great Plains had a few differences, again their homes being one of them.

By 1900, Native Americans had lost half of the land that had been originally given to them. Meanwhile, the farming and assimilating of Native Americans was not successful. By many accounts, Indians were not adjusting to neither their new family dynamic nor farming. The Cheyennes had to learn how to plough, plant, and harvest their new aired properties. One Sioux recalled the struggle men especially had of being stripped of his previous purpose, hunting buffalo, and his tribe, with whom he hunted with.

Before the Spanish ship that changed it all, which arrived in the “New World” in 1492, thriving organized communities of native people had centuries of history on the land. That ship, skippered by Christopher Columbus, altered the course of both Native American and European history. 1492 sparked the fire of cultural diffusion in the New World which profoundly impacted the Native American peoples and the European settlers. Prior to European contact, Native Americans lived as hunter-gatherers, living and traveling in groups of typically less than 300 people. These Native Americans spoke over 400 languages and practiced a myriad of different religions (The American Pageant).