|
 By
the 1850s nearly all Native Americans, roughly 360,000 in
number, lived to the west of the
Mississippi River
. These American Indians, some from the Northwestern and Southeastern
territories, were confined to Indian Territory located in
present day
Oklahoma
, while the Kiowas and Comanches shared the land of the
Southern Plains; and the Sioux, Crows and Blackfeet dominated
the Northern Plains. These
Native American groups encountered adversity as the steady
flow of European immigrants into northeastern American cities
pushed a stream of migrants into the western lands already
occupied by these diverse groups of Indians.
 The
early nineteenth century in the
United States
was marked by its steady expansion to the
Mississippi River
. However, due to
the Gadsden purchase, that lead to
U.S.
control of the borderlands of southern
New Mexico
and
Arizona
in addition to the authority over
Oregon
country,
Texas
and
California
;
America’s expansion did not end there.
Between 1830 and 1860 the
United States
nearly doubled the amount of territory under its control.
These territorial gains coincided with the arrival of
troves of European and Asian immigrants who wished to join the
surge of American settlers heading west.
This, partnered with the discovery of gold in 1849,
presented attractive opportunities for those willing to make
the long journey westward. Consequently, with the military’s
protection and the
U.S.
government’s assistance, many settlers began building their
homesteads in the
Great Plains
and other parts of the Native American inhabited West.
 Native
American Policy can be defined as the laws and operations
developed and adapted in the United States to outline the
relationship between Native Americans and the federal
government. When the
United States
first became an independent nation, it adopted the European
policies towards these native peoples, but over the course of
two centuries the U.S.
adapted its own widely varying policies regarding the changing
perspectives and necessities of Native American supervision.
In 1824, in order to administer the
U.S.
government’s Native American policies, Congress made a new
agency within the War Department called the Bureau of Indian
Affairs, which worked closely with the U.S. Army to enforce
their policies. At times the federal government recognized the
Indians as self-governing, independent political communities
with varying cultural identities; however, at other times the
government attempted to force the Native Americans to abandon
their cultural identity, give up their land and assimilate
into the American culture.
The
U.S.
government’s policies towards Native Americans in the second
half of the nineteenth century were influenced by the desire
to expand westward into territories occupied by these Indian
tribes.
 With
the steady flow of settlers into Indian controlled land,
Eastern newspapers published sensationalized stories of cruel
native tribes committing massive massacres of hundreds of
white travelers. Although
some settlers lost their lives to American Indian attacks, this was not
the norm; in fact, Native Americans often helped settlers
cross the Plains. Not
only did the American Indians sell wild game and other
supplies to travelers, but they acted as guides and messengers
between wagon trains as well. Despite the friendly natures of
the American Indians, settlers still feared the possibility of
an attack. To calm
these fears, in 1851 the
U.S.
government held a conference with several local Indian tribes
and established the Treaty of Fort Laramie.
Under this treaty, each Native American tribe accepted
a bounded territory, allowed the government to construct roads
and forts in this territory and pledged not to attack
settlers; in return the federal government agreed to honor the
boundaries of each tribe’s territory and make annual
payments to the Indians. The
Native Americans responded peacefully to the treaty; in fact
the
Cheyenne
, Sioux, Crow, Arapaho, Assinibione,
Mandan
, Gros Ventre and Arikara tribes who signed the treaty, even
agreed to end the hostilities amongst their tribes in order to
accept the terms of the treaty.
Continued
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