How Did The Native Americans Live In The Late 19th Century

In the nineteenth century, United States focused all its attention on the West. The Americans justified their expansion westward as a “God-given” right called Manifest destiny. This belief dictated the U.S Policy. Following the Civil War, the federal government pushed the Indians off their lands to areas reserved for them called reservations. In addition to changing their homes, the Native Americans were forced to change their lifestyle and traditional ways while living in the reservation. Indian reservations were structured in a way that closely resembled colonial societies. The native population was ruled by outside influence and their culture, traditions, religion, and way of life where assaulted and outlawed in the name of civilization. Native American children where sent away to school with civilized classrooms that would teach Indians to speak English, worship the Christian god, and leave their tribal ways. By the late nineteenth century, the whites’
Different groups of Indians responded differently to oppose their life style changes. For instance, Comanche and Kiowa raiding parties used the reservation during the winter to store seasonal supplies and resuming their nomadic ways during spring time. Other tribes, such as Crow, Arikara, Pawnee, and Shoshoni fought along side the U.S army to defeat their old enemy, the Sioux. This strategy helped them avoid the fate of being shipped to reservations and they were able to stay in their homeland. Indians who refused to stay on reservation where hunted down and sent back or sometimes killed. Soon, many Indians only had two choices of either staying in reservations or be haunted down. Yet, others such as the Apaches resorted to armed resistance. They would perform hit-and-run guerrilla warfare that terrorized the white settlers. On the other hand, tribes such as the Sioux turned to nonviolent form of resistance called Ghost