The American Indian's Struggle for Survival in Modern America
In the first half of the nineteenth century, the American Anglo-Saxon ideology of Manifest Destiny laid the foundation for the government's right to territorial and economic expansion. The American republic was deemed a white Anglo-Saxon republic. Hence, white races would be readily absorbed into the nation, but nonwhite races would not be welcome. Using these arguments as a base, the government was able to justify the annexation of areas that were heavily populated with "inferior" races and the country shaped policies that reflected its belief that Indians were inferior and expendable (Horsman 226).
The move toward what would eventually become the near-decimation of the Indian population in North America began as early as 1803, with the Louisiana Purchase (Morgan 20). From that date on, governmental policy reflected the country's belief that any relationship between white Americans and Indians was necessarily conflictual. During the first half of the nineteenth century, most of the Indians living in the South were removed to what would later be called Indian Territory (Morgan 26). Then, during the 1850s, the federal government focused its attention on the Indians inhabiting the trans-Mississippi West (Milner 173).
From the 1850s, the relationship between America and the Indians was characterized by a series of wars that lasted into the 1890s (Milner 173). Although all the Indian tribes were not directly involved in military conflicts with the Americans, all Indians were subject to the federal government's policy of cultural assimilation (Milner 173). Assimilation, however, did not mean that the two groups would live together. Rather, it required the development of individualism and a sense of competitive economic self-interest among Indians (Mander 275). Most Indians were relocated to reservations, where federal agents attempted to lead them on the "wh...