#10) Analyze the effects that migration, disease and warfare had on the American Indian population from the colonial through
reconstruction periods.
Context
Originally, the inhabitants of North America were Indians. When Columbus landed and started the colonial trend in
America, conflict between the Natives and these colonists arose. In the years following the european migration, disease
brought from these colonists nearly wiped out the Indians. War and/or skirmishes between the Indians and the colonists
also contributed to the hardship of the American Indians during and after the colonial period. In later years, racism and
segregation towards the Indians forced them to migrate West, and then onto smaller reservations when Americans
migrated West after the civil war.
Thesis
From the colonial period until reconstruction, the Europeans treated the Indians as a nuisance rather than a group of
people. The effects of disease in the colonial period, migration during the era of good feelings and reconstruction, as
well as warfare with the indigenous peoples greatly decreased the amount of Indians in the US, as well as dismantled
their culture.
disease
French-Indian
war
-In 1491, no one in Europe or the Eastern hemisphere
had discovered or known about the Americas.
However, when Columbus set foot in the Bahamas, he
and his crew had carried much more than just
themselves across the sea. The Europeans had been
used to their diseases, (small pox, the plague, chicken
pox...etc) and had built up certain immunities. The
Indians had never been exposed to these diseases,
and in the course of 100 years, 90-100 million Native
Americans died.
-The colonies were encroaching upon the Indians’
territories, and the British colonies had a war with New
France. The Indians had felt threatened by the British
colonies, due to their hunger for expansion and neglect
of the indians. The Indians joined French forces
because France promised them their lands if they won
the war. (France was in competition with Britain). The
British won the war, and this ultimately lead to the
United States’ manifest destiny, the removal of the
Indians.
Manifest
Destiny
-Manifest destiny was essentially the end of Indian
culture and possession of land. Manifest destiny was
the idea that god had given the Americans the right to
travel, and settle west, all the way until the Pacific
Coast. With this idea, came great controversy over
what to do with the Indians who were out west living
there for thousands of years. Manifest destiny
conquered the minds of Americans, and the west
became ours. The General Mining act (1872) allowed
for western expansion to take native land.
Indian
Removal
Act
reservations
-The Indian removal act (1830) was an act passed by
congress and Andrew Jackson, authorizing the removal
of all indian tribes east of the Mississippi. The Indians
had lost essentially half of their country at this point.
Many of the tribes refused the removal, but the Federal
Government was too powerful and forced the removal.
4000+ Indians died on their travels from their
homelands, and it was called The Trail of Tears.
- Indians were put on reservations throughout American
history. It shows how little the Americans thought of the
Indians. The Americans just came in and said, move.
This land of your ancestors is ours now. Many Indians
fought back, and refused to live on the reservations.
-The Indians after the civil war were treated no
differently than they were prior to the war. Sure the war
brought freedom to the African American former slaves,
but did not address the second class citizens, the
Indians. The Native American population was viewed
as an inconvenience for the settlement of the west, and
the Federal Government forced the indigenous peoples
onto small reservations. This angered many different
Indian tribes, and many different chiefs refused the
boundaries that the government had put on them.
-Sitting Bull defeated Custer at Little Bighorn. The
Indians only lost 32 men.
Custer
-General Custer had been a very prestigious general in
the war, and he went to go put down an uprising of
Indians with two other generals. Custer full charged at
what was a surprisingly big number of Indians, around a
thousand. Custer was heavily outnumbered, and his
generals retreated. Custer was left with a third of his
original army, all left to be slaughtered by savages. But
these 'savages' were just defending their rights to their
homes that their ancestors had inhabited for centuries.
General Custer is a great example of manifest destiny
and the American conquest, not so called 'settlement'
of the west.