of their common experiences of defeat and mistreatment at the hands of whites.
During the colonial period, the British crown did not have a coordinated policy toward the Indians of North America. Specific tribes (most notably the Iroquois and the Cherokee) became military and political pawns used by both the crown and the individual colonies: ôFrom the King WilliamÆs War in the late seventeenth century through the War of 1812, tribal allegiances were frequently dictated by the trade situation. At a given moment a tribe might prefer its French or English Father (Hagan, p. 6). The success of the American Revolution brought no immediate change in the status of the Indians.
When the United States acquired new territory from France and Mexico in the early 19th century, the federal government wanted to open this land to settlement by homesteaders. But the Indian tribes that inhabited the region had signed treaties with European governments assuring their title to the land. Now the United States assumed legal responsibility for honoring these treaties. At first, President Thomas Jefferson believed that the Louisiana Purchase contained sufficient land for both the Indians and the white population. Within a generation, though, it became clear that the Indians would not be allowed to remain, thus initiating a particularly shameful chapter in white/Indian relations. As a modern Native American laments, ôThey put the excuse in there that progress must go on . . . If I was writing about this history and my group had done something inhumane, without soul or some concern with the lives of people, I probably would try to camouflage this thing, tooö (White, 1971, p. 57).
The effect of systematic white appropriation of their lands was devastating for the Indians. The Native Americans way of life is tied inextricably to the land, particularly for tribal members: ôLand, not as property, but as self-identity, was the central i...