Manifest Destiny

Native American’s View of Manifest Destiny

American territorial expansion was rejected by many groups of people for various reasons and Native Americans were no different. Native Americans resisted American territorial expansion in several ways. The following essay will not only consist of reasons for Native American resistance but also provide proof from several primary sources. These sources include Tecumseh’s Appeal to the Osages, where Tecumseh tries to unite dozens of Indian tribes against the United States expansion efforts, Black Hawk’s Encroachment by White Settlers, where Black Hawk, a Sac Indian war chief, conveys his life story to try and justify his actions in the Black Hawk war against the American settlers, and an Encounter between Omaha Hunters and White Squatters in Iowa, where a hostile encounter between Omaha Hunters and White Squatters was the result of dramatically different conceptions of landownership amongst them.
Tecumseh, a Shawnee diplomat and warrior, saw his homeland being invaded by white settlers and believed that only a pan-Indian confederacy could defeat the encroaching United States (Greenburg, pg. 57). To make this idea a reality, Tecumseh rode to dozens of different Indian villages pleading them to join the efforts against American territorial expansion and urging them to fight to reclaim their land. Tecumseh advised, “nothing will pacify [the white men] but the destruction of all the red men,” and that white men “wish to kill us, or drive us back, as they would wolves and panthers…the white men are not friends to the Indians” (Greenburg, pg. 58). “If you do not unite with us, they will first destroy us, and then you will fall an easy prey to them,” he told each tribe. He warned each tribe that they alone could not hold off the white man, “we must be united…we must fight each other’s battles” (Greenburg, pg. 59) Despite Tecumseh’s valiant efforts to unify Indian peoples against American expansion, it did not stop the United States from removing Indians from different parts of Indian territory. The United States government was sending commissioners to different tribes to have them sign peace treaties, consenting tribes to give up their land to white settlers.
Black Hawk, a Sac war chief, gave his testimony to justify his actions in the Black Hawk war; a war where Sac and Fox Indians tried to reclaim land they felt had been taken unfairly by one of these United States treaties. He detailed that if the white man would have explained that signing the treaty would result in giving away his village, he would have never signed it (Greenburg 64). He went on to give occurrences where he and his tribe were mistreated by white men after the treaty was signed, and eventually white men started moving into his village claiming the tribes land and crops as their own. “I received information that three families of whites had arrived at our village and destroyed some of our lodges, and were making fences and dividing our corn-fields for their own use,” Black Hawk stated in his testimony (Greenburg pg. 66). As white men moved west, settling on land to which they had no legal title also became a foundation for conflict between whites and Indians. It is yet another example of how Indians resisted America’s territorial expansion.
An encounter recorded between Omaha Hunters and white squatters in Iowa is a prime example of this resistance. In the account, the Omaha warrior stated that while on a hunting trip, through land they claimed as their own, they ran into a white settlement. At first the white men were inviting, but turned hostile towards the hunting tribe once different beliefs of whose land they were hunting on was. “I am unwilling for you to wander over this land…this land is mine,” said the white men (Greenburg pg. 75) The Omaha hunters were appalled at the white man’s belief that the land was theirs. Not only was the land legally neither the white man’s nor part of the United States, the Omaha’s were using it as their hunting grounds; yet the white squatters believed it theirs (Greenburg pg. 74). This is proof that whites and Indians had dramatically different conceptions of landownership, and yet another occurrence of Indians resisting America’s expansion westward.
In conclusion, it has been proved that Native Americans where very resistant to the United States efforts of westward expansion. Tecumseh’s Appeal to the Osages (document 9) where Tecumseh made attempts to unite dozens of Indian tribes against the invading Americans, Black Hawk’s Encroachment by White Settlers (document 11) where Black Hawk gave his testimony to justify his actions in the Black Hawk war against American settlers in his village, and an Encounter between Omaha Hunters and White Squatters in Iowa (document 15) where a group of Omaha Hunters and a group of White Settlers, outside of the land the United States legally owned, came into hostile conflict of who owned the land, provide three different accounts of proof that American Indians resisted American territorial expansion in several ways.