Hostile Takeover of the New Wo
Hostile Takeover of the New WoBy: Bobby Moore
The Effects of the United States Government on the Indians "The responsibility of any nation, and the particular responsibility of elected officials of any nation, is not to justify what has passed for legality but to anticipate the conditions and problems of tomorrow and attempt to deal with them. The current confusion and violence in Indian Country are a result of the failure to do so by generations of elected officials in this country. To continue to perpetuate myths about American Indians which have no basis in fact or in law is merely avoiding the larger issues confronting the nations of the world," said author Vine Deloria, Jr. (Deloria, Prologue) The United States government failed miserably in its attempt to deal with the Indians. By pushing them further and further West, they pushed the Indians to hate and distrust the white man to the point of war. These wars resulted in hundreds of white deaths. However, the wars resulted in the destruction of several entire Indian tribes and the near extinction of Indian spirit throughout America. The tale is a sad one, one that Americans should not be proud of. After every broken treaty, the Americans blamed the Indians for existing, despite the want of the Indians to simply live on their lands peacefully. The "Trail of Tears" was a great tragedy and many thought it would be the last now that all of the Indians were out of the eastern United States. But the U.S. government became land hungry and due to their idealism of "Manifest Destiny," the "Trail of Tears" was only a starting point on the path to the destruction of the Indians of the West. By 1850 gold had been discovered in California, and white settlers were heading West to strike it rich and lay claim to the entire continent. (Utley and Washburn, page 163) New violence erupted as the white man moved into Indian hunting grounds. Ten percent of the Diggers in California met death violently. In 1846, California was home to 100,000 Indians. By 1851, the population had dropped to 30,000. (Utley and Washburn, 164)"That a war of extermination will continue to be waged until the Indian race becomes extinct, must be expected," said California governor in 1851. (Utley and Washburn, 179) Under the ideals of Tom Fitzpatrick, United States Indian Agent, the U.S. government decided it didn't only want to separate the whites and the Indians, but also intended to restrict them to specified areas known as reservations. Nineteenth century removal and reservation policies reduced Indian lands to mere islands in the stream of American settlement. Reservations themselves were largely unwanted or remote environments of little value. (Lewis, 1) The policy makers did not only want to control the Indians, but civilize them as well. The chiefs are thought to have agreed to these treaties not because they understood the provisions, but because a U.S. treaty tactic was to bribe them with a stock...
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