The Problem of the Indian Tribes

The term Indian wars usually represents the opposition and conflicts between the Europeans and the original inhabitants of North America. First settlements were met friendly by the Indians but newcomers were aggressive and didn`t want to cooperate. They wanted everything including the native lands of Indians. English settlers provoked conflicts when they began to occupy the Atlantic Coast. All the history of English settlements is full of tribal conflicts and wars. The outbreak in Virginia in 1622 was followed by the century and a half of wars. After the American Revolution the new government faced the problem of the Indian tribes who didn`t want to leave the land of Ohio – picturesque and very fertile lands. They were finally made to move to Indiana in 1795. But that was not enough and settlers tried to throw them away from Indiana also. The effort was successful. After 1815 moving Indians to reservation around the Mississippi river became the state policy to the U.S. This way by 1860 the majority of Indian tribes were relocated but they didn`t give up at once and the goal was achieved with the great struggle. The Seminole war and the Black Hawk War resulted the struggle with the most withstanding tribes. In the middle of the nineteenth century the war actions moved from the eastern woods to the mountains and deserts of the Mississippi west. In these wars generals Crook and Miles tried to suppress the opposition which mainly consisted of four Indian tribes - the Apache, the Comanche, the Sioux and the Cheyenne. These are the most known though there were a lot of others of course. The fight was severe and the bestialities of those times show us how important was the victory for everyone. Finally the Indians were moved to the rocky and forestless lands of the far west.

The beginning of 1860s is remarkable by the growth of aggression in fighting between the Native inhabitants and the Americans. Peacefully minded in the beginning, Indians became aggressive when Americans began to hunt buffalos – the main food source for Indians. The wave of wars and revolts followed the advancement of the Americans to the west. Between 1869 and 1878 more than 200 big battles took place with many victims from the both sides. The Native Americans fought bravely and defended their own territories and the resistance was fierce but they were defeated finally as the quantity of the American troops increased more and more and there weapons were better developed. One more important factor which influences the upshot of the war was the spread of the Western railroad.

The Wounded Knee battle in 1980 is usually considered to be the end of the war thought there were some big ones later.

The Dawes Act began a new period in the life of the Native Americans. Approved in February, 1987, the Act fixed the reservations as the only place for the Indians and didn`t give them any chance to survive outside the reservations. Theoretically the Dawes Act demanded to provide every Native America with the allotment of land for the personal use and his right would be protected by the state this way. It was hardly mentioned only what kind of lands were given to the Indians as instead of their fertile lands and woods where they could hunt they got bare pieces of land hardly enough to survive and meant to keep them in the reservations without the right to move out of them. The leaders of the tribes got the right to buy additional land for the tribes if they wished so but it wasn`t mentioned why they should have bought the lands of their ancestors which belonged to them by birth. The allotments given to the Indians by the government of the U.S. denied the right of them for the all lands they used to live centuries before.

Another important reason of the oppression of the Indians was the discovery of gold in California in the middle of the nineteenth century and a lot of gold diggers wanted the lands which belonged to the Indians.

That is right, the government wanted to civilize them but the question was who needed that. As for the Native Americans, the years of opposition has probably shown their attitude. No doubt it was profitable for the government as it gave it the right to order all the lands of the Indians. “Civilized” should be read as obeying in this context and that is exactly what the government needed. It didn`t need the uncontrolled power in the territory of the country and the Indians differed in everything from the Americans. A lot of effort was put to convert the Indians into Christianity and the government didn`t save the money on that as the difference in the religion meant the difference in the mentality and was dangerous. The schools were built in order to civilize the children and to teach them. The government in its wish to control all the aspects of life described even the hairdo for school children. It was prohibited to make the plaits as it was originally Indian hairdo.

The state took consequent steps to take the Native Americans under control and to become the enjoying full rights owner of all the lands and finally became rather successful in that. To my opinion the Dawes Act was one of those steps to take the Native Americans under control.