Essay, Research Paper

& # 8220 ; The long decease? is an appropriate rubric for the book depicting the slow decease of the Plains Indian? s manner of life. It took many old ages for the white adult male to change and destroy the lives and fatherland of the Plains Indians as the folk suffered enormously in the procedure. The Indians shortly became warriors, to no help, in hopes of supporting their land against the colonists. These colonists began come ining the West around the mid 1800? s. By the clip 1900 came, the Plains Indians had shrunk by over half.

Buffalo was a immense portion of the endurance of the Plains Indians. The railwaies came in and began butchering immense sums of American bison to feed the railroad building workers. Eastern athleticss huntsmans killed American bison for athletics and net income, sometimes called? harvest home? . In add-on, the Army slaughtered American bisons to command the folks who were immune to the infringing colonists. By consuming the American bison herds, the white husbandmans were so able prehend the Indian land and utilize the former hunting evidences for harvests.

Many Indians were slaughtered along with the American bison. For illustration, the Sand Creek incident in 1864 was an onslaught on many guiltless Indians. Furthermore, many Indians were driven onto reserves while giving up much of their land. This was done with much opposition from the Indians, which resulted in many struggles and decease.

Railroads took much of the land in the pla

ins, which further reduced Indian land. When the railroads were completed, they assisted in bringing in farm equipment and more settlers to work the land and take much of the farming from the Indians. In 1869, Congress established the Board of Indian Commissioners to mold Indians into Christian farmers and better adapt them to their reservations. Indeed, a way of assimilating the Indians so they would be more controlled and unable to sustain their old way of life while their land and old traditions were being taken away. Because of many obstacles, this policy failed. Do-gooders watching these atrocities were instrumental in passing the Dawes act in 1887. The act provided that each family would receive 160 acres of land for farming or 320 acres for grazing in hopes of leading to the breakup of reservations and making Indians more civilized like the ?whites?. The Dawes act made Indians U.S. citizens and forced them to become farmers and landowners. This act was another devistating blow to the Indians because they ended up with poor farming or grazing land, it indeed broke up the large reservations, and reduced total Indian land by 65 percent. The American Indian way of life, indeed, had a long death. It took many years and much suffering for the settlers to take away what the Indians once had. Their language and culture were suppressed, land lost, families killed, everything they knew and loved was taken away from them by the settlers.