Americans had already started an impact on Plains Indians life first by their idea of Manifest Destiny and expanding to the west through God’s given rights for economic benefits like mining and farming in new fertile land. Making expansion deals like the Mexican Cession where the U.S. gained Upper California and New Mexico. The lives of Plains Indians in the latter half of the 19th Century were dramatically impacted by a combination of technological developments and government actions, as they faced increased encroachment on their lands, destruction of their traditional way of life, and forced assimilation into Euro-American society. In the later half of the 19th century Plains Indians were greatly affected by the technological developments …show more content…
This allowed for the transportation of goods and people across vast distances, which opened up the West to settlement and commerce. The expansion of railroads, however, had a devastating impact on the buffalo herds, which were essential to the Plains Indians' way of life. The railroads allowed for the hunting of buffalo to become commercialized and more efficient, leading to the decimation of the buffalo herds, which was the main source of food for the Plains Indians. This was supported by “the Extermination of the American Bison,” which states that the extermination of the buffalo’s was caused by Americans reckless greed, wanton destructiveness, and improvidence. The Buffalo’s also supplied the Indian with food, clothing, shelter, bedding, saddles, ropes, shields, and innumerable smaller articles of use and ornament. William Honardy wrote this document at this point of time because he believed that the slaughter of buffaloes was unjustifiable and wanted to explain why Americans killed the buffaloes. This all shows that with the killing of buffaloes by Americans, they were affecting the Plains Indians way of life using new technological developments like the modern breech-loading rifles and other sporting fire-arms in
Assignment 5 1. The massacre of the buffalo herd was the end of a way life for the Plains tribes because thy depended on every part of the animal so much. The used the buffalo for food, clothing, tools, and shelter. The American’s single handedly drove the buffalo species to near extinction, which caused the Plains tribe’s way of life to drastically change.
Warfare was the most predominant threat that faced the Plains Indians which occured from the expanding American economy and the scarcity of horses. Knowing they would die, some Indians released their horses in the winter season and would collect survivors in the spring. The Crees and Assiniboines saw their horse population diminishing so they started to rely on the raids of neighboring villages to provide them with horses. Warfare also led to the overall decline of bison. Because bison were scarce, formerly allied tribes fought for resources.
The great herds were not decimated overnight. The slaughter was a gradual process, reaching its full momentum in the 1870s. The Native Americans of the Great Plains had relied upon and hunted buffalo for thousands of years. Without the arrival of the Caucasians—and with them the gun, the horse, and the market for bison products—it seems likely the Indians could have lived sustainably with the bison far into the future.
One of the key factors that fueled the Plains Indian Wars was the issue of land. Native American tribes were forcibly removed from their ancestral lands and confined to reservations through a series of treaties that were often disregarded or violated by the U.S. government. This led to tensions as tribes were displaced from their traditional hunting grounds and faced challenges in maintaining their way of life, which was closely tied to the land and its resources. Additionally, cultural differences played a significant role in the conflict. Native American tribes had their unique ways of life, customs, and spiritual beliefs, which clashed with the assimilationist policies of the U.S. government that sought to impose Western culture and values
Time after time, reservation after reservation, Native Americans were promised safe and secure lands. However, Eastern settlers constantly traveled upon these Western lands and searched for fame, fortune, and livelihood. But for every dollar these settlers were gaining, they were causing sufferable harm to the Native Americans. one such industry was Buffalo hunting. Native Americans relied on the Buffalo as a food source, clothing, and other various tools and goods.
Class, When considering the events regarding the Plains Indians there are three things that come to mind first as contributing factors to the decline of their culture. The existence of the buffalo was seriously threatened. The white pioneers brought disease not experienced by the Indians. The federal government fought them with “military force”.
The slaughter of the bison played a big factor in the Plains Indian’s removal to the reservations. The bison was a way of life for the nomadic tribes of the plains; it was a source of food, shelter, fuel, and a central part of their religion and rituals (Roark 540). While a way of life for the Indians, bison for the white Americans were not. Even though the army took credit for the conquest of the Plains Indians, it was mostly the destruction of the bison herd that the victory is due to (Roark 540). In 1867, more than five thousand Comanches, Kiowas, and Southern Arapahos gathered at Medicine Lodge Creek in Kansas to negotiate a treaty, and signed the treaty agreeing to move to reservations (Roark 540).
“These soldiers cut down my timber, they kill my buffalo and when I see that, my heart feels like bursting.” Buffalo, or the American bison, populations have become almost extinct in the wild going from several million to just a couple hundred in just a few years. This was caused by the buffalo’s hides sold for high profits making them desirable to the colonials who over hunted them and drove them towards endangerment and even hurt the Native American populations who relied on the buffalo as their main source of food. Because of this the buffalo were a very important part of the 1800s and western expansion and ultimately led to the fate of many Native American tribes.
Life for the Native Americans was much harder during and after the western expansion. For example, the US took land from the Indians leading the formation of reservations, White men almost hunted the Buffalo , an important food source for the Indians, to extinction, and forced the Indians to get rid of their culture. Because of the western expansion, the area of land the Indians could occupy decreased significantly. The government would make treaties with the Indians allowing them to keep a certain area of land, but this would soon be broken ; When the Pacific Railroad Act was passed it stated that wherever a track was laid the company would own any land 200 ft surrounding the track including Indian land ; the Government would make sure that
During the 19th century, the policy of the U.S. towards Indians was to drive them further westward, breaking several treaties. The Plains Indians did not wish to settle down in civilized communities and instead preferred the life of a hunter. However, the westward expansions of the U.S. directly conflicted these interests, settling the once open prairies. The Indians rebelled because the white men violated their treaties, took away their land, shot them, and burned their homes. On the other hand, the Catholic Church tried to convert and gain equal rights for the Indians.
-PBS (WHY). This greatly affected the Indians since they lost so many lives that day. The adaptation to the whites, the extinction of buffalo, and the domination of whites are just some of the reasons how the Native Americans land and culture was affected by the Westward Expansion. Although the Native Americans lost much of their homeland and their way of life, they still proved that even threw the worst conditions possible they stick together and fight through
Discussion Question #3 Andrew Isenberg cites the horse, fur trade, and epidemic disease as the main factors for Plains Indians shifting from semi-sedentary nomadic hunters by the start of the 19th century. The largest impact on the Plains Indian way of life was the reintroduction of the horse to the Americas by Spanish colonists. Before having the extended range to more easily and efficiently hunt bison, Plains Indians had diverse methods of food procurement. These methods, called ecological “safety nets” by William Cronon and Richard White, included gathering numerous plants, hunting different types of animals, and raising crops (65).
““raid” replaced “trade” in white–Indian relations. Congress even voted in 1871 not to ratify any more Indian treaties, effectively announcing that it no longer sought peaceful relations with the Plains Indians.” (Thomas J. DiLorenzo). Orders were given to kill everything in the villages, including dogs, and burned down any remaining structures to minimize the chance of survivors recovering. Not only did the army attack the Indians head on, they also hunted down as many buffalo as they could, since buffalo was the main animal hunted by the indians.
During the late 19th century, there was a huge increase in new technologies that would eventually affect the Indians that lived on the Great Plains, including the Trans Continental railroads and barbed wire. In fact, the government would also make efforts to limit the presence of the Plain Indians, and establish acts that would affect their culture of life, like the Dawes Severalty Act and the Homestead Act of 1860. The establishment of the Railroad finished in 1869, connecting the East and West. It influenced the amount of white settlers traveling to any part of the country and would eventually affect the Indians. This would affect the Indians because it brought more white settlers to their land.
First of all, Native Americans were settled on a hotbed of natural resources which included oil and precious metals such as silver and gold. There was also much fertile land that would entice farmers and frontiersmen to move out west. On this land there was so much potential economic opportunity for farmers, cattle drivers, miners and many other occupations. The government developed the popular public misconception that the indians were misusing the land and that Americans had the right to take advantage of the opportunities that lie in the west. These ideas led to the Dawes Severalty Act of 1887 which authorized encroachment of Indian lands by the US government in order to divide up reservations and control Indian activity.