Preview

Write A Letter To The Transcontinental Railroad

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
468 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Write A Letter To The Transcontinental Railroad
American Government:

On behalf of the Native American tribes, this letter is being written to address the issue of the Transcontinental Railroad. I am Chief Red Horse of the Lakota tribe and I would like to bring up that the railroad will affect the way of life of all of the Natives. This is the reason why we will not be putting up with the railroads going through our land. It is completely unfair for you to take over our land and push us off of it. This land is ours. We settled on this land long before you came. There is no reason that we should be pushed off of our land for you to come invade us. This is our home and we will fight for it.

As an eyewitness of the Battle of Little Bighorn, I experienced the Sioux tribe being attacked by soldiers coming from all directions. They were attacked so fast that the council didn’t even have any time to talk. The Sioux got on their horses with their guns and went off to
…show more content…
They have brought people into our land. They are invading our land, which will not be put up with. It is not acceptable for the Americans to invade our land. The railroads have also brought hunters that kill off our buffalo supply. We are very angry about the misuse of the buffalo. The Americans came onto our land and started to hunt buffalo like it’s some kind of sport. That is very wrong and should not be allowed. We need the buffalo to live. We use buffalo for everything. We use their hides to make the teepees that we live in. The hides are also used for clothes, shoes, and blankets. We really need the buffalo hides for our protection. There is no way we could go without them. We also need their meat for food supply. The meat is dried to make jerky, which is our main food supply as Native Americans. Also, the bones and horns of the buffalo can be used to make tools. Tools are needed to build and repair. Toys can also be made from the bones and horns. We need toys for the young children of our

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    The predicament of the Native American Indians throughout history is devastated by many battles of relocation from one reservation to the next. One would perceive the Indians merely as puppets that were manipulated by white settlers. However, the Battle of the Little Bighorn was unique. Custer’s Last Stand has been a symbol of bravery, of folly, and of oppression.…

    • 749 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In the late 1850's-1860s there was a great breakthrough in the mode of transportation with the development of railroad systems. Around this era the US railroad system began to reach approximately 30,000 miles of railroad tracks. This was a great breakthrough on many levels.…

    • 205 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Buffalo Soldiers were put in place to protect the Tribes. When it came to the…

    • 842 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    1980 Dbq

    • 3003 Words
    • 13 Pages

    "In examining the question how the disturbances on the frontiers are to be quieted, two modes present themselves, by which the object might perhaps be effected; the first of which is by raising an army, and (destroying the resisting] tribes entirely, or 2ndly by forming treaties of peace with them, in which their rights and limits should be explicitly defined, and the treaties observed on the part of the United States with the most rigid justice, by punishing the whites, who should violate the same. In considering the first mode, an inquiry would arise, whether, under the existing circumstances of affairs, the United States have a clear right, consistently with the principles of justice and the laws of nature, to proceed to the destruction or expulsion of the savages.... The Indians being the prior occupants, possess the right of the soil. It cannot be taken from them unless by their free consent, or by the right of conquest in case of a. just war. To dispossess them on any other principle, would be a gross violation of the fundamental laws of nature, and of that distributive justice which is the glory of a nation. But if it should be decided, on an abstract view of the situation, to remove by force the ... Indians from the territory they occupy, the finances of the United States would not at present…

    • 3003 Words
    • 13 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    The First Transcontinental Railroad, originally known as the “Pacific Railroad” constituted one of the most significant and ambitious American technological advancements of the 19th century following the building of the Erie Canal in the 1820s and the crossing of the Isthmus of Panama by the Panama Railroad in 1855. It served as a vital link for trade, commerce and travel that joined the eastern and western halves of the late 19th-century United States. The transcontinental railroad slowly ended most of the slower and more hazardous stagecoach lines and wagon trains that had preceded it. They provided much faster, safer, and cheaper transport east and west for people and goods across half a continent. Although the railway spanned across…

    • 1889 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    A battle that had a remarkable impact to the Indians was the battle of Little Big Horn. This battle was between Seventh Cavalry and sitting Bull’s band of hostile Sioux. The name for this battle originates because it occurred on the little Big Horn river. The reason for this battle was because during that time period there was a lot of racism against the Indian and the Cavalry wanted to kill them all. There are many points of view that tell and explain what happened in the battle one which was U.S Major Reno. There is also Lakota Chief Red horse who was an eye witness of everything that occurred. Between U.S Major Reno and Lakota Chief Red Horse they both had similarities and differences in the claims that they make as they tell the war from their points of view.…

    • 803 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In 1850 and later on, several transcontinental railroads were built for easier transportation. The government also granted federal land for the laissez-faire ideologists for building the railroad (Doc. A). However, the process was slower than it’s planned. “More than 800 petitions were presents to Land Commission, and already 10 years of delays have elapsed and only some 50 patents have been granted” (Doc. B). The petitioners eventually have to sell their possessions little by little. Richest landholders ended up “living as objects of charity” (Doc. B). Red Cloud was also upset by the poor work of the government. He believed that “commissioners are sent out there to do nothing but to rob [us] and get the riches of this world away from us” (Doc. C). As the chief of Oglala Sioux, the Native American felt that the new American had come to kick them out of their lands and to steal their properties and possessions. In addition, Native American was suppressed by the colonists. “White man a teacher who tortured an ambitious Indian youth by frequently reminding the brave changeling that he was nothing but a “government pauper” (Doc.J). They lost trust and faith in the new government of the United States. Furthermore, the freight rates had done more injuries to the Western region than anything else. “The railroads have retarded its growth as they first hastened it” (Doc. I). F.B. Tracy…

    • 685 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Railroads were played an important role in the colonization and economic improvement in India and Mexico. Railroads created infrastructure and by integrating markets and increasing trade, this helped grow these two respective economies. Railroads allowed India and Mexico to increase their imports and exports, and also attributed to people becoming more connected between cities, which could have contributed to the native people of both countries desiring independence from their foreign rulers.…

    • 522 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Can you imagine living in a car for six months? If not then try to imagine how hard it would be to be living in a wagon thats always moving. Everyone having to pitch in by either collecting firewood, walking beside the wagon to make the load lighter for the horses, or taking care of seven or eight children, the exhuastion knocking you out every night. Then when you finally get to the land you travelled so far to get a piece of, there is more work then thought. The railroads changed all of that worry and hard labor. On September 8th, 1883 the railroad came to Washington State making almost everything alot easier. The railroads had a major influence on washintons development. The railroad effected the economic, geographic, and cultural aspects of Washington State.…

    • 777 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Although the United States had good reasons for kicking the Indians off their land like mining and housing for the extreme population growth, the United States wasn't justified in its treatment of the Native Americans during the period of Western Expansion.…

    • 434 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    1. Whites finally overcame resistance of the Plains Indians ultimately with various factors. The whites had a fire-and-sword policy that was the last step to shatter the spirit of the Indians. The railroad, diseases, locomotives, and the near-extinction of the Buffalo in the plains all contributed to the “taming” of the Plains Indians. The railroad sprang right through the heart of the West. Locomotives brought never ending amounts of white troops, farmers, cattlemen, sheepherders, and settlers in the Indians territories. The white people’s diseases killed off many of the Indians because of how little resistant their immune systems were. After the Indians resistance ceased, the Indians were forced into reservations in different territories and were practically almost ignored to death.…

    • 1143 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    500 Nations

    • 720 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Divergent Indian Tribes, throughout North and South America, had been thriving and living for generations with a deep reverence for their God or Spirit, and living in symbiosis with the land. As the new settlers arrived, they introduced their own brand of social order, however, they failed to understand the impact their desire to conform or corral the native people would forever alter, and in some instances destroy, the lives of future generations of Indians. One of the most startling examples of this was the decimation of the Lakota Indians by the 7th Calvary at Wounded Knee, South Dakota in 1890. Their leader, Big Foot, certainly was feeling the hopelessness and frustration of his people living on the Cheyenne River Reservation having to rely on the handouts from corrupt government officials for survival. It is likely, compelled by the desire to create a better existence for his people; Big Foot left the reservation in late December with approximately 300 of his people to meet Red Cloud, the Oglala Indian leader, at Pine Ridge. Previous to their ill- fated journey, their hopes had been temporarily inspired by Sitting Bull’s Ghost Dance; the Lakota Indians would dance tirelessly and endlessly whereby hoping to restore their nation’s personal freedoms and way of life prior to the intrusion of the white settlers on their lands. Unfortunately, their efforts would prove unsuccessful and succeeded only in producing further doubts by the white settlers and, likely, the justification for the actions of the 7th Calvary soldiers at Wounded Knee when the Lakota would be summarily executed even as they stood…

    • 720 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Although the original tracks from the Transcontinental Railroad had dissolved throughout the years, with only small portion of it still used today, it had changed our lives for the good. It contributed to the innovation of international affairs and most importantly the lives of the Americans. The impact of it is not just observed in the past, but also in the development of the contemporary society as it still has a crucial part in our transportation industry as well as our economic and social…

    • 1665 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    “It has been said that America will never be right until they right themselves with the American Indian. America must now seize this historic opportunity to deal honorably with the Native Peoples on the issue of Restitution, Reparations and Restoration of Lands that guarantees Indian people a future in America. “…

    • 1866 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Better Essays

    The Great Sioux War

    • 1089 Words
    • 5 Pages

    In May 1875, Sioux delegates, Spotted Tail, Red Cloud, and Lone Horn traveled to Washington, D.C. to persuade President Grant to honor the treaties and stop the invasion of miners into their lands. The US leaders said that Congress wanted to pay the tribes for their land and have them relocate (O’Brien 178). They refused to sign a new treaty, and Spotted Tail said,…

    • 1089 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays