Why did the Native Americans lose the battle for the plains?

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Why did the Native Americans lose the battle for the plains?

         For centuries the Native American Indians had lived in relative peace and harmony then in the19th century everything changed. By the 1870’s the Native American Indians were either imprisoned on reservations or assimilated into white American society. They had lost all right to the plains, their former home. The conflict for the plains between Indians and whites lasted for many decades and as the 19th century progressed the conflict deepened. The Indians were to lose the conflict for many reasons; I am going to investigate these reasons in this essay.

          The white Americans helped to bring about the Indians’ defeat, virtually as soon as they started settling the west (in the 1820’s) and as more of the American population started to follow the trailblazers these settlers began to have more of an effect on the Indian way of life. The more settlers went west the more land they needed and so the more of the Native American land they took, for their gold rush towns, cattle ranching, farming and homesteading. Taking this land had an awful effect on the Buffalo, on who the Indian depended. Buffalo could no longer roam freely over the plains and so their grazing patterns were disturbed. The settlers also affected the buffalo by shooting at them for sport and also, further into the century, by performing mass slaughter of their population, the population of buffalo decreased from 13 million to just 200 between 1840 and 1885. Since the buffalo were of so many uses to the Indians (building material, tools etc.) not having the buffaloes to hunt left them weak and dependant on the government for items that they could previously provide for themselves. This reliance meant that the US government could take advantage and make the Indians lives even worse. The

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        The settlers were not the only people who caused the Indians downfall; another group that furthered the Indians destruction was the American government. They encouraged American citizens to settle the west in order to carry out manifest destiny; this sped up the onset of large numbers of settlers which caused the effects of the settlers upon the Indians to be sudden and substantial, the Indians could provide little opposition to this. Another government action which the Indians couldn’t oppose was the use of acts and paperwork, the government realised the advantage they had in the fact ...

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Final Comment. Star rating **** This is a very confident and detailed answer. The key strength is that it is really sharply focussed on the issue in the question and shows an excellent level of knowledge and understanding. On the whole the points are supported by accurate and relevant factual detail and it important to remember not to slip in to generalisations.