In the mid-nineteenth century the trans-Mississippi west was home to some 350,000 Native Americans living in scores of distinct cultural groups. Many of these people lived according to their traditional ways and had little or no interaction with mainstream (people of European or African ancestry) Americans. By the 1880s, all of the American Indian peoples had been militarily defeated and placed on reservations, where they were often dependent on government handouts for survival. Indians who left the reservations were regarded as “hostiles” and were hunted down and either killed or returned to the reservations.
Do you think that the military conquest of Native Americans in the Trans-Mississippi West was inevitable?
In answering this question, be sure to examine in some depth the experiences of at least one specific Native American culture from the trans-Mississippi West. There is some information in the textbook on a handful of Indian cultures, including the Lakota (or Sioux), the Comanche, the Apache, and the Nez Perce. You may want to pick one of these cultures to explore, but feel free to choose another if you like. For this assignment you will certainly need to do some outside research on the culture you decide to write about.
In answering this week’s discussion question you will want to touch on the following topics:
(1) What was the nature of the Native American society you are examining in the mid-nineteenth century, in the period before significant contact with the mainstream culture?
(2) How did the Indian culture you are discussing respond to mainstream American encroachment on their homeland?
(3) What factors contributed to the military defeat of this culture/society?
(4) You may also want to comment on what life was like for the people of this culture in the years after their military defeat.
Your point of view on this discussion question should also be supported by specific cited evidence from EACH of the following sources:
(1) Chapter Sixteen in the Give Me Liberty! textbook.
(2) Each of the primary sources posted in folders in the unit six area.
(3) Outside source(s) (websites, videos, etc.) you find related to a specific Native American culture
