The American story has always been one about the Westward expansion that began along the East coast and stretched to the Pacific. Before the American Revolution war that saw American colonies gain their independence from Britain, settlers had migrated westward into places of Kentucky and Tennessee. The Louisiana Purchase in 1803, the Lewis and Clark expedition, the defeat of Native Americans in 1812, which saw U.S, secure its boundaries and the Indian Removal Act of 1830, which forced America Natives, moved from the Southeast to the present states of Arkansas and Oklahoma a journey that was referred to as the Trail of Tears. The westward expansion was then helped by the transcontinental railroad that had been completed at that time and the passage of the Homestead Act. The Act encouraged American settlers to live on the unsettled land in the West, they would be provided a massive land and live on it for five years making improvements to it including building a dwelling (Hollars, 2013).
The westward expansion greatly affected Native Americans, who were the original owners of the land that the settlers wanted. They were forced to move out and leave the productive to white settlers. They were the great losers. They were forced to live out their traditional way of life due to the Westward Expansion. The Native Americans have relegated to reservations and places that land was unproductive and had no meaning for them. The United States gained massively in the Westward Expansion after acquiring a vast land with natural resources and ports along the oceans that enabled them to expand their trade and allow for economic growth in coastal areas. The Westward Expansion was, therefore, a great deal for the Native Americans since they had lost all their resources and what they held dear, the land, the resources, and their traditions were disrupted (John, 2001).
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The war of 1812 that was fought between the United States and the British colonial further escalated the Westward expansion, opening new lands for the United States. Lands that belonged to the Native Americas. The war intensified and Britain armies that had promised to protect Native Americans and prevent the U.S from taking their land retreated. The Native Americans had nothing except for them to give in and allow the U.S to take over their lands. Before the war, Indian Raids treated settlers who dwelled in places that were inhabited by Native Americans. After the war when the British army retreated, the tribes were restricted to lands that were unproductive. The war further weakened the Tecumseh’s confederation when Tecumseh was killed at the battle of the Thames. The Native Americans remained with nothing on their side and forced them to retreat and allow themselves forced to move out their land.
The Indian Removal act during the Westward expansion period forced the tribes to sign treaties that would forcibly remove them from their land. The then president Andrew Jackson signed an Indian Removal Act into law that practically changed how the United States handled Native Americans. The Act had an immediate outcome for the tribes since the tribes’ chief was forced to sign treaties that saw them move out their land. Until the Act, the tribe was given autonomous to conduct themselves as a nation on their lands. The Indian Act had granted the U.S with the power to put pressure on the tribe’s chiefs to put into paper that they were willing to relocate to southern areas especially Oklahoma and leave other parts for United States settlers. All these treaties at this period were aimed to achieve the westward expansions and the major obstacles were the Native Americans.
The Georgia gold rush intensified the war between Native Americans and American settlers. Due to the discovery of gold in Georgia, Native Americans and American settlers all wanted the Gold. The discovery of gold in Georgia put enormous pressure to tribe’s chiefs since the Americans were after resources and land. These were the main things that made the Native Americans forced out of their land. The westward expansion was indeed a bad thing for the Native Americans. It escalated slave trade in other regions and intensified racial segregations and Injustices. At that time, Native Americans were faced with many injustices including deaths. Some of Native Americans who opposed the injustices caused the deaths. The Georgia gold rush made the Senate pass an act and treaty that will see the Natives leave the region. They were forced to sign this kind of treaties even without their leaders signing them. It was a tough period for Native Americans since they did had limited resources to fight the Americans. The British troops who had promised to protect the Native Americans had retreated and the Native Americans were left to protect themselves. The tribes were forced to live in the forts (Kobrin, 2012).
The Homestead Act of 1862 further brought more injustices to Native Americans. The United States presumed the land in the west to be unoccupied, though Native Americans had settled in those lands the United States assumed that the Lands were unsettled. The Homestead Act encouraged American Settlers to move up to the West and occupy those lands. The lands were given to them free, to improve them build dwellings on them. This had a massive impact on the Native Americans who dwelled in these areas. The white settlers came forcibly and evicted the Native Americans.
The westward expansion left little for the Native Americas to survive for; they were used to unlimited resources including food and space. After the expansion, they were forced to compete for basic needs like water and food. It became a major problem for them and this rose to the emergence of diseases that they were not used to, the migration by the Native Americans affected them negatively as some of them would die due to diseases that they would get along the way. The westward expansion caused a break up of tribes, the tribes went up in different places and therefore there unity was disintegrated. They could no longer fight as one tribe. The Native Americans were pushed to lands that were infertile and unproductive since the way of life included hunting and gatherings, the lands they were pushed to do not enable them to be hunters and gatherers.
The Westward expansion did not only affect the Native Americans, but also the Mexicans. Texas had gained independence from Mexico but the Mexicans did not want to recognize this situation. The United States wanted to expand its territories but the refusal of Mexicans to give up Texas was an act of war. The war caused tragic deaths and forcing Mexicans out of Texas. The westward expansion was a period characterized by wars and injustices to minority groups like the Native Americans and the slaves. The Westward expansion instigated the slave trade since the United States had gained control of major ports along coastal lines. It enabled them to engage in the slave trade, the south grew deeper into the trade forcing the United States closer to the Civil war. The westward expansions were root to wars that were about boundaries and even Civil rights. With the main war being the Civil, war between the North and South territories of America.
The Americans during the Westward expansion were used to breaking treaties, after signing treaties with Native Americans the United States frequently went against such treaties and would grab more land that belonged to Native Americans. The Westward expansion led to numerous killings of buffalos. The Native Americans were associated with buffalos and hence the white settlers had to force the Buffaloes to move to reservations. In the process, the buffalos would be killed and that led to a drop in buffalo population in the 19th century. The westward expansion also brought about forced assimilation; the tribes were forced to take in Christianity as a way of life and adopt the new lifestyle that was installed to them by the Americans. This was a bad thing for the Native Americans since they had to abandon their lands and adopt a new way of life (Pearson, 2011).
Native Americans never had a chance in the war between the United States and the Tribes since the United States government was determined in supporting the settlers no matter what the case was. The government was willing to send troops down to regions inhabited by white settlers to for any kind of protection against Native Americans. This action would rise to loss of life especially the Native Americans. They were the victims most of the time, they were killed and every sort of injustices was done to them. (Hardy & Brown-Rice, 2016)
Conclusively, the Westward expansion was a bad period for minority groups in America in the 19th century. They experienced injustices in the name of expansion and more specifically the tribes suffered a lot during the war considering the fact that the lands originally belonged to Native Americans.
References
Hardy, A., & Brown Rice, K. (2016). Violence and Residual Associations among Native Americans Living on Tribal Lands. The Professional Counselor , 6 (4), 328-343. doi:10.15241/ah.6.4.328
Hollars, J. S. (2013). Westward Expansion . Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
John, G. (2001). Cultural nationalism, westward expansion and the production of imperial landscape: George Catlin’s native American West. Ecumene , 8 (2), 175-203. doi:10.1191/096746001701556977
Kobrin, R. (2012). Chosen capital: The Jewish encounter with American capitalism . New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.
Pearson, E. H. (2011). Remaking custom: Law and identity in the early American Republic . Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press.
