Land Issue - American west.

Land Issue

1. To the Indians’ land was priceless and was worth more than any amount of money ‘Unlike money the land will lat forever as long as the Sun shines, and the rivers flow this land will continue to give life’. The Indians’ believed that the land was put there by the Great Spirit; to them, the land was like their mother. Therefore, no one could own the land and nobody could plough, or farm the land in any way because it would be like ‘stabbing’ their mother. They also believed that they came from the land and when they were dead they would return to it; another reason why they felt they could never sell the land because it would be like selling their ancestors and going back on all their beliefs. Some land was particularly sacred, especially high places like the ‘Black Hills’ were sacred for the Sioux. Holy men from the Sioux sometimes visited the Black Hills when in need of guidance or a vision; to the Indians the mountains were a bit like a shrine.
2. The Indian felt very close to the land they believed they were part of it, they believed they came from the land, and when they died, they would return as part of it. They saw the land as their mother and therefore were outraged when they saw miners digging shafts in the Black Hills because it made mockery of everything they believed in. The Black Hills were especially sacred to the Sioux, so to see the ‘Whiteman’ digging into the land where they believed their ancestors lay must have been distressing. Some of the male Indians held their beliefs so strongly they were willing to die for this land.
3. The reason many people moved west was because of the huge area of land that they regarded as being ‘wasted’. This was because they saw no fences, farmland, or mines so to them it was not being used and belonged to no one. They thought it was within their rights to establish ownership of the land by fencing it off so they could use the land for farming and mining to make a profit. They found it very difficult to understand the Indians’ beliefs, and did not make much of an effort to do so because it was thought the Indians’ were savages, still living in the Stone Age. This resulted in the ‘Whiteman’ taking little heed of the Indians’ absurd beliefs and were willing to continue putting up fences and mining. With the two groups having such opposite beliefs it became inevitable that conflict on the Plains was inevitable.
4. The ‘Whiteman’ saw the Indians’ use of land as a shameless waste and they considered it was their duty to make use of this land, by farming and mining it. This idea became the root of what was called the ‘Manifest Destiny’. The ‘Whiteman’ felt their civilisation i.e. their government and lifestyle was far superior to that of the Indians to them the Indians were pathetic, mindless savages. They felt it was their destiny and duty to possess the entire continent and use the land for their own purposes such as farming and mining. They should spread their ‘perfect’ beliefs of Christianity and their ‘perfect’ civilisation over all of North America. The emigrants and settlers saw the continent as a rich, bountiful place with lots of resources that needed to be made use of. Throughout the east, there were idyllic views about how ‘perfect’ life in the west would be, the ‘Manifest Destiny’ became a bit of a dream. The harsh reality though, was that in order to take control of this continent they would virtually have to wipe out an entire race- the Indians. However, the ‘Whiteman’ saw the Indians as very primitive and that it was God’s will that the ‘Whiteman’ should spread its more developed civilisation throughout this continent. This meant who ever stood in the way of them doing so-the Indians-was being a traitor to God and this made it right for the ‘Whiteman’ to kill the Indians. They thought by doing this they were fulfilling their destiny and carrying out God’s will.
5. There are many different issues other than land that the Indians and the ‘Whiteman’ have very different views upon, government for example…