Hey Vision Chasers, it's Dr. Bird here with another social studies lesson for you today. You know, wherever you are, I hope you are doing well. Today's lesson is going to cover the question, How did the United States westward expansion affect Native Americans?
The story of the United States contains many sad chapters and unfortunately this is going to be one of them. When the first Europeans arrived in this part of the world, things were going to change forever for the people who were already living there. And so the Native Americans who are living in what would become the United States, they would have to move repeatedly in order to make way for immigrants who are going to permanently make the West their home.
So in terms of Westward expansion, what I've done is I've broken it down for you into four phases. Number one is going to be relocation. Number two is going to be repossess. Number three is going to be reform.
And then number four is going to be. Revenge. And so relocation obviously means to move from one place to another. And so relocation begins with Andrew Jackson and the Indian Removal Act of 1830. Native Americans living in the southeast part of the United States were ordered to move because that land was valuable to the United States.
And so over 15,000 Native Americans were forced to make this journey to Oklahoma. And of those 15,000, Over 4,000 died and so later in the 1800s the Native Americans were once again forced to relocate as a result of the systematic slaughter of of the buffalo. The buffalo were important to the Native Americans not only for food but for many many other uses as well.
And so when the buffalo were driven to near extinction it forced the Native Americans to choose to live on the reservations which were ran by the United States government. And it was said during this time that every buffalo dead is an Indian gone. And so ultimately the slaughter of the buffalo and forcing the Native Americans to live on reservations would make way for the railroad and the government was actually behind the systematic slaughter of the buffalo in order to make way for that railroad now repossessed that obviously means to give something and then take it away to repossess something and that was something that Native Americans were all too familiar with in dealing with the United States government they were promised land by the United States government and it was taken It was the United States government that encouraged people to move out west and live out there in hopes that they would start another state that would join the union. Through the Homestead Act, the government encouraged citizens to live in the west and return for free land.
Much of this land had previously belonged to the Native Americans. And I have for you here a diary entry from a Native American during this time, and he witnessed these things. And here begins diary.
Again, we hiked further into the embracing winds of the West to make way for the ever more beautiful. multiplying white men. Their visit has been welcomed by the curiosity of our people, but one must wonder if the expansion of their camps will ever cease. Communication between our tribes is poor. Their gestures are appear friendly, but many of their actions prove difficult to accept.
With every strike the earth takes from their large spoons, I wince. Yet the resulting yellow rock the white men gain leaves me intrigued and mystified, wanting to know more. Maybe this new way of life is the path we are to follow.
However, something about it does not stir well within my spirit. As I look around at my my people I see a culture being lost as a great spirit and its ancestral traditions are forgotten I assume all there is to do is to wait and watch until a clearer day arrives and that's signed by screaming bird and so the one of the major instances of repossessed land was the Treaty of Fort Laramie and in this treaty the Native Americans were promised land in the Dakota territory and it was theirs until Goldwood was discovered on that land and the United States government came in and took that land away from the Native American now the third R is reform and when you reform something you change something and in this case we're talking about the Native Americans being changed into a white person and the other word that really illustrates this is assimilation so assimilation it's another word for change because Because what they're trying to do is obviously change the Native American into a white person. And this picture that you see on your screen definitely illustrates the change or reform that they're looking for.
The Dawes Act of 1887 reversed this. reservation policy now the Dawes Act is kind of tricky because as I said before with the Dawes Act they're going away from the reservations and they want the Native Americans to be further spread out into their individual families as opposed to being close together living together and sharing ideas values and so the idea was to separate them And put them in single plots of land, single family plots of land so that they'll ultimately be more like white people. And some of those values, religion, culture of the Native Americans would fade away and they would adopt Christianity.
Another component of the Dawes Act was the Indian Boarding School. The purpose of the Indian Boarding School was to further assimilate the Native Americans into white culture. The United States government also funded Christian groups.
groups to come in and teach the Native Americans how to be good Christians. The last R is revenge. Now, the battle of little Bighorn or Custer's last stand would be a pivotal moment in the relations between the Native Americans and the United States. Now this massacre was a huge victory for the Native Americans as they overwhelmingly defeated Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer and his men. Now, in response to this event, the United States, States military overwhelmed the Native Americans and starved them into submission.
Submission included living on reservations. These reservations were managed by the United States military for the United States government. Many of these soldiers who were managing these reservations were not happy about what happened to Custer and his men. These feelings led to an event called Wounded Knee. At the conclusion of Wounded Knee, over 150 Native Americans were massacred by the the United States Army and most of the dead were women and children and in many instances there were bullets in their backs meaning that they were running away from the fight.
Now again this is history and definitely history has sad chapters and as as I said before this is definitely one of them and so ultimately what would happen is the United States would conquer the West and overwhelm the Native Americans and all of the westward land. would become part of the United States. And so I feel comfortable in just leaving it at that.
As time has gone on, things have gotten better, and the United States has tried to make amends for the treatment of the Native Americans. And you can argue that it's almost impossible for the United States to get even with the Native Americans and fully pay them back for what happened to their ancestors long ago So we'll leave it at that I encourage you to do some research of your own on the topic And so with that that's our social studies lesson for the day I encourage you to please download the worksheet that goes along with this video Also, please check the vision chases website for more tips and tools to help you as you chase your vision of success Until we meet again. I am dr. Bird. Thank you so much for watching.
Bye