Western Migration: How Did It Affect Native Americans?
Traditionally, when one thinks of the expansion of the American West, the event most likely to come to mind is the California Gold Rush of 1849. Western Migration had such a huge impact on a lot of people including the Native Americans who were forced out of their communities into reservations. The Western Migration also reminded of how like the Native Americans lost their rights during that time.
Beginning in 1618, the head right system offered fifty acres of land to new migrants who promised to raise tobacco or to wealthy sponsors who paid for the passage of a migrant, and fueled a westward flow of land hunters and tobacco farmers. Soon rich aristocrats wanted land too, forcing poor farmers to migrate farther west to get hold of land. While trying to go west people had to stop several times because they encountered with Native Americans who weren’t happy to see us in their territory.
During the 19th century the western expansion of the United States forced a large numbers of Native Americans from enormous areas of their territory, either by forcing them into marginal lands farther and farther west, or by just killing them. President Andrew Jackson, Congress passed the Indian Removal Act of 1830, which forced the Five Civilized Tribes from the east onto western reservations, primarily to take their land for settlement. The forced migration was marked by great hardship and many deaths. Its route is known as the “Trails of Tears.” Conflicts generally known at the time as "Indian Wars" broke out between U.S. forces and many different tribes. There were several treaties during the 19th centaury, but later were eliminated because for a lot of other reasons. There were also several battles including a victory for the Native Americans at the Battle of Little Bighorn in 1876, and the massacre of Native Americans at Wounded Knee in 1890.
On January 1876 the United States goverments ordered all the remaining Native Americans to move in to reservations. During the 1960s Native Americans were being arrested for teaching their traditional beliefs. These reservations that the Indians were forced into is a huge problem because its has a high rate of unemployment, and poverty. Some states even failed to recognize that they have Native Americans tribes. For example Virginia has no federally recognized tribes, because of the work of one man, Walter Ashby Plecker. In 1912, Plecker became the first registrar of the state's Bureau of Vital Statistics, serving until 1946, a confirmed white supremacist. A law passed by the state's General Assembly recognized only two races, "white" and "colored". Plecker pressured local governments into reclassifying all Native Americans in the state as "colored", leading to massive destruction of records on the state's Native American community. In order to receive federal recognition and the benefits it confers, tribes must prove their continuous existence since 1900s.
I think that the Native Americans were treated just like the African Americans. They were forced to leave their homelands into these reservations that are ruining their lives just like the African Americans were forced to be slaves. The Native Americans had their rights taken away and they got arrested just for trying to teach their old beliefs to their young ones. I don’t think some Native Americans will never forget what a huge impact western migration had on them.
Traditionally, when one thinks of the expansion of the American West, the event most likely to come to mind is the California Gold Rush of 1849. Western Migration had such a huge impact on a lot of people including the Native Americans who were forced out of their communities into reservations. The Western Migration also reminded of how like the Native Americans lost their rights during that time.
Beginning in 1618, the head right system offered fifty acres of land to new migrants who promised to raise tobacco or to wealthy sponsors who paid for the passage of a migrant, and fueled a westward flow of land hunters and tobacco farmers. Soon rich aristocrats wanted land too, forcing poor farmers to migrate farther west to get hold of land. While trying to go west people had to stop several times because they encountered with Native Americans who weren’t happy to see us in their territory.
During the 19th century the western expansion of the United States forced a large numbers of Native Americans from enormous areas of their territory, either by forcing them into marginal lands farther and farther west, or by just killing them. President Andrew Jackson, Congress passed the Indian Removal Act of 1830, which forced the Five Civilized Tribes from the east onto western reservations, primarily to take their land for settlement. The forced migration was marked by great hardship and many deaths. Its route is known as the “Trails of Tears.” Conflicts generally known at the time as "Indian Wars" broke out between U.S. forces and many different tribes. There were several treaties during the 19th centaury, but later were eliminated because for a lot of other reasons. There were also several battles including a victory for the Native Americans at the Battle of Little Bighorn in 1876, and the massacre of Native Americans at Wounded Knee in 1890.
On January 1876 the United States goverments ordered all the remaining Native Americans to move in to reservations. During the 1960s Native Americans were being arrested for teaching their traditional beliefs. These reservations that the Indians were forced into is a huge problem because its has a high rate of unemployment, and poverty. Some states even failed to recognize that they have Native Americans tribes. For example Virginia has no federally recognized tribes, because of the work of one man, Walter Ashby Plecker. In 1912, Plecker became the first registrar of the state's Bureau of Vital Statistics, serving until 1946, a confirmed white supremacist. A law passed by the state's General Assembly recognized only two races, "white" and "colored". Plecker pressured local governments into reclassifying all Native Americans in the state as "colored", leading to massive destruction of records on the state's Native American community. In order to receive federal recognition and the benefits it confers, tribes must prove their continuous existence since 1900s.
I think that the Native Americans were treated just like the African Americans. They were forced to leave their homelands into these reservations that are ruining their lives just like the African Americans were forced to be slaves. The Native Americans had their rights taken away and they got arrested just for trying to teach their old beliefs to their young ones. I don’t think some Native Americans will never forget what a huge impact western migration had on them.
