What you’ll learn to do: describe the conflict between Indigenous tribes and the U.S. Government during westward expansion

Figure 1. “Young” Sitting Bull of the Oglalas (not the more famous Hunkpapa of the same name), Red Cloud, Swift Bear, and Spotted Tail in Omaha, Nebraska, en route to Washington DC to meet with President Ulysses S. Grant to discuss the Black Hills in 1875.

As American settlers pushed westward, they inevitably came into conflict with American Indian tribes that had long been living on the land. Although the threat of attacks from Indigenous peoples was quite slim and nowhere proportionate to the number of U.S. Army actions directed against them, the occasional attack—often one of retaliation—was enough to fuel the popular fear of the “savage” Indian. The clashes, when they happened, were indeed brutal, although most of the brutality occurred at the hands of the settlers. Ultimately, the settlers, with the support of local militias and, later, with the federal government behind them, sought to eliminate the tribes from the lands they desired. The result was devastating for the Indigenous tribes, which lacked the weapons and group cohesion to fight back against such well-armed forces. The Manifest Destiny of the settlers spelled the end of the Native American way of life. Against the threat of confinement and the extinction of traditional ways of life, Indigenous Americans battled the American army and the encroaching lines of American settlement.