Westward Expansion How did it Affect the American Indians?

“Manifest Destiny” 1872 John Gast“Spirit of the Frontier”

What is happening here?How does this represent Americans’ way of thinking at this time?

Westward Expansion – How did Americans justify westward expansion and the removal of

Indian tribes and their right to land?

It was rationalized in terms that it would bring Anglo-Saxon institutions into an area that was devoid of such enlightenment.

The hypocrisy of this is obvious because many of the people, though not all of them, who were removed were very sophisticated and relatively "civilized" people. For example, the literacy rate of the Cherokee nation is higher than that of the white South up through the Civil War, yet the tribe was moved westward as an uncivilized people, so that their land could be open for American expansion.

The argument that was used was, "This had to be done to save these poor Indian people. They don't fit in the East, so we have to move them out beyond the frontier where they can do their Indian thing . This is the only possible way to save them."

Texas RangersD

uties Guarded the

frontierMounted on horse to cover large amounts of landUsed Colt six-shooter

Effec

ts Patrolled the frontier, enabling settlers to move westwardLed to increased conflicts between American Indians and settlers

The Reservation Policy• Most Texans wanted a “Separate but equal”

policy with the Indians• The Texas legislature set aside approximately

70,000 acres, for Indian reservations in northwest Texas.

The Reservation Policy• Two major Indian

reservations were built:• The Brazos County Indian

Reservation – 2000 Indians moved to the

reservation, including Caddo, Anadarko, Waco, and Tonkawa.

– Many Indians moved to the reservation to gain protection from the Comanche.

• The Comanche Indian Reservation was located about forty miles away.

The Reservation Policy• The Alabama-

Coushatta, unique among Texas tribes in their ability to maintain peace with Texans, moved to a reservation in Polk County.

****These people managed to avoid becoming involved in the warfare that was about to engulf their fellow Texas Indians.

The Removal of Texas IndiansBy the late 1850s, most Texans considered the reservation experiment to be a failure.

Conflicts between the Comanche and Texans made them eager to expel the Indians from Texas permanently.

As a result, the U.S. Army and Texas Rangers launched several military offensives against the Comanche.

Texas Indian Reservations Today

• Unlike other western states, Texas has almost no Indian lands due to the conflicts that drove most of the Indians to other states. http://www.laits.utexas.edu/txp_media/html/cult/features/0500_02/

indianreservation.html

Indian Policy after the Civil War

IT WAS A DIFFICULT TIME FOR ALL:

For both groups, the frontier remained

unsafe and unpredictable.

The federal garrisons that were supposed to protect settlers were undermanned. Texas wanted to provide rangers to supplement frontier defense but was ruined financially by the defeat in the war.

Slaughter of the BuffaloWilliam T. Sherman, commander of the U.S. Army, and Philip H. Sheridan, commander of U.S. troops in Texas, were veterans of some of the worst fighting of the Civil War.

Sherman and Sheridan had learned not only

to wage war on the battlefield but to break

the enemy's will to resist.

To this end, they began a

policy of encouraging the slaughter

of the southern

buffalo herd.

Slaughter of the Buffalo• Buffalo in Texas were

first described by Cabeza de Vaca. Texas was home to four main herds, and at the height of their population, their trails could be several miles wide. What became known as the "great slaughter" took place in the 1870s, and by 1878 the buffalo in Texas was all but exterminated.