Manifest Destiny: Settling The West

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Settling the West Essay There were quite a few reasons the early Americans had conflict with the Native Americans. In American history, the Native Americans were always just kind of pushed away. It seems like they're forgotten and mistreated. Many things the early Americans did were wrong. They pushed Natives off of territories and killed them. There are far more than three reasons. However, in this essay I'll be talking about the Manifest Destiny, the killing of buffalo, and the Dakota Sioux Rising. The Manifest Destiny was the belief that settlers were to move west and settle all the land from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean. The same settlers had already pushed the Native Americans west after settling on the East Coast. They …show more content…
This means that they followed their food and moved around a lot. They didn't have actual homes and stayed in tepees which are tents that are able to be taken apart quickly. The buffalo were the Native Americans main source of food. They used buffalo for almost everything. They used the fur as clothes. They used the bones as spoons and forks. The meat was for food. The Natives wasted nothing and actually worshipped the animals. They made sure to thank the animals for their sacrifice. The Natives were very respectful of the land and animals. The settlers figured if they pushed the buffalo west then the Natives would follow. They also realized if they killed the buffalo then the Natives would start to run out of food. The Americans started killing the buffalo at a massive rate. They were very wasteful with the buffalo and it upset the Natives. The settlers tried forcing the Natives onto reservations, however it wouldn't work because they were nomadic. The first major clash, The Dakota Sioux Uprising, was in 1862. The Sioux Natives slaughtered hundreds of civilians to force them out of the Minnesota River Valley. The U.S. Government promised the Native Americans Annuities. Annuities are annual payments. The government never paid the Native Americans which led to Native Americans nearly starving and extreme desperation. This caused an outrage among the Natives which led to more war. The government sent the army who killed nearly 1,000 warriors and abolished the Dakota