Ignorance of Indians Causes the Loss of their Lands

When the French began to explore the disseminated sclerosis regions the Indians of that region performed a ritual terpsichore known as the "calumet" for their natural found friends. This was known as the dance of intended friendship (Wissler 66). Indian tribes across the country were every bit ready to greet the new settlers and welcome them to their country. By 1890, however, the Indian population had dwindled from over 1,000,000 when Columbus first landed hither to less than half a million.

To understand why and how this took spot one must look at how the snowy worldly concernpower viewed the Indian from the start. Clearly the Indian tribes were non an advanced society. They hunt down with the old fashioned bow and arrow and still utilize primitive tools for survival. They were for the most intermit considered primitive savages. Further westernmost the tribes were known to war against each other in the strain to protect their land rights. They worshiped various gods and had never heard of Christianity. maybe a discolour man's desire to bring civilization to these slew was a genuine desire to see their lives improved, at least(prenominal) to begin with, but eventually this desire gave way to voracity for the land and its natural resources.

One popular method for get the Indian off his land and taking it for themselves was for the white man to pit one tribe against the other. This was the case in genus Arizona when the government de

Clearly by 1880 much of the Indian land had already been stolen from them, whether by gilt seekers in the Dakotas or land hunters in the southwest, from sea to glossy sea the land grabbers came leaving destruction and death in their path. Some white men came seeking land on which they could build their railroads and highways to the west. Others came in attempt of reported riches much(prenominal) as silver, gold, coal and oil. Still others came probably with a earnest desire to help these "poor savages" to assimilate into a new culture and thereby make their lives better.

No matter what the intentions were of the masses who came to the United States to settle here and those who pushed west in search of a better life, the result is the same; Indians had their lands stolen from them for the betterment of the white society, not for the betterment of the Indians. In the process of having their land interpreted from them, whether by exploitation or outright theft, the Indians were also robbed of their ethnical heritage. The Indians cultural heritage is tied to the land of their birth and their death. Their burying grounds were and are sacred to them and connect them to their past. For the most part this is gone and Indians today are forced to live on tiny reservations that have finally been returned to them. For the most part white man has seen the Indian assimilated and he is no longer considered a threat.

When the attempt to get Indians to annihilate each other was not totally effective other means were found to disembarrass the country of the troublesome Indian. In 1879 the Ute Indians of the southwest went on the warpath in opposition to the white men taking their land and forcing them to recruit what was left to them. Their chief was forced to sign over the tribal lands in Colorado as punishment for this unrest.

In the age that followed, the United States government attempted to seal the fate of the Indians forever. In 1893 the "Indian Appropriations Act" eliminated the
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