Treatment of Different Native American Tribes

The Indians of the Far West are not as well known as the Indians of the Plains, but California and environs was home to scores of tribes and to hundreds of thousands of Indians. California was the most heavily populated region, and most Indians resided in small communities, surviving by hunting and collecting plant foods. Prior to 1846, these Indians were largely out of the way of the American expansion and so were let alone. Once the Mexican War began, the Indians were caught in the conflict between the Americans and the Mexicans. There were few Anglos in the area until the Mormons arrived in Utah in the late 1840s, and after that time there was conflict between the Anglo population and the Indian population. The Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo in 1848 transferred California and the Great Basin to the United States. With the discovery of gold in 1848, there was a frenzy of settlers headed to this region seeking gold. Most of these new settlers were young men with little regard for Indian life or property, and the population was much reduced within a few yea

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e not necessarily in conflict with the Indians over any real issue. It was more that many seeking gold were simply inclined to violence and had little interest in the Indian except as a convenient target. The Navajo in Colorado and Utah were a different matter. There was direct war with this Indian tribe, and once the tribe was defeated there was a treaty signed in 1868. The Navajo were treated comparatively well by the U.S. government because of the intercession of General William Tecumseh Sherman, a man who believed in reconstruction whether of the South or of the Indian: Personally, he doubted the Indians' capacity for citizenship, but he thought they deserved the chance. For their part, they must cooperate. They must settle on well-defined reservations, embrace "civilized" pursuits, and in no way impede the westward march of the Union so recently preserved. The Navajo situation was investigated by the government in 1867 to determine how the Indians were living and how well they were being regulated, and the results were not unlike those in California. Conditions were found to be deplorable. According to the Indian Peace Commission, members of congress had no understanding of Indian issues and thought only of how
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Some common words found in the essay are:
Fort Laramie, Basin United, White Indian, Scourge Pox, Mormon Indian, Indian White, Peace Commission, Peace Policy, Indian Personally, DC Heath, massachusetts dc heath, major american indian, american indian history, heath 1994, lexington massachusetts, peter iverson, indian history, american indian, major american, massachusetts dc, dc heath, dc heath 1994, lexington massachusetts dc, eds lexington, albert hurtado,
Approximate Word count = 1873
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page)

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