Native American Resistance-The Plains Indian War

Running Head : THE PLAINS INDIAN WAR

THE PLAINS INDIAN WAR (Your Name (Your School

Introduction

American natives struggle , right from the time of arrival of Columbus in South America , is among the memorable events in American history . When Christopher Columbus and his voyage reached the New World , he made a way for mass exodus of European to American in pursuit of economic gains The natives were faced with massive displacement from their ancestral land as the colonies established large farms . Establishment of large commercial farms and mining meant that the natives

were deprived their livelihood and therefore what followed was a wave of resistance especially from the Indians who were natives to the land . Indian describes series of uprisings which were marked by native conflict with the white settlers or the federal government and the indigenous inhabitants of North America . The series of plain Indian wars , which started with the Sandy Creek Massacre ending with Wounded Knee massacre opened more the Native Americans land to colonizers and the consequent colonization of the American Indians . Most of them were either assimilated or forced to relocate to Indian reserves . The situation was complicated by the fact that the American Indians had their own tribe histories and they made war and peace at the local level . Therefore even government intervention would have done little to avert the course of the war (Richter , 2001

Plain Indian wars

The settlers were following the geography of the land and most of them settled in arable land . These lands were previously occupied by Indians they were forced to move from their land to give way for the setters The main cause of the Indian wars could be traced to the rate at which the settlers were occupying their land

The livelihood of Indian was supported by their land in a number of ways . First Indians were skilled hunter and therefore they had started supplying pelts establishing supply to Europeans engaged in the trade Fur was in high demand in Europe and therefore Indians exchanged it for European goods including firearms and liquor . However as the white settlers invaded , they become directly involved in the hunting and Indians were slowly losing their trade to the white settlers

There was also taking of Indians land by the white settlers which disrupted the ecological food supply chain . Coupled with the depletion of fur-bearing animals , the white settlers slowly changed their economic activities . The relationship between the native Indians and the white settler were turning sour from the previous friendly trading partners and therefore they started attacking each other (Mayer , 2006

For example , in the Sandy Creek Massacre which happened in 1864 , it has been shown that a locally raised militia had been organized and they attacked a village of Cheyenne and Arapaho Indians in Colorado . Although the estimates of number killed are not accurate , about 150 men , women and children were slaughtered . The congress was very much aware of the rivalry that had been boiling between the natives and the...