Solving the “Indian Problem”

How best to solve the “Indian Problem”
Almost from the moment of first contact, European attitudes towards Native Americans split into two camps:

Elimination
● Removal
● Annihilation

Coexistence
● Assimilation

Indian Removal Act of 1830
Reasons for removal policy

Increased trans-Appalachian settlement

Growing white population wanted access to Indian lands
Humanitarians argued it would save Indians from extinction
 Inevitable fate of peoples who resisted “superior” white civilization
 Early example of philosophy of “Social Darwinism”

“Your white brothers will not trouble you; they will have no claim to the land, and you can live upon it, you and all your children, as long as the grass grows or the water runs, in peace and plenty. It will be yours forever.”

29 November 1864
Col. John M. Chivington
Cheyenne Chief
Black Kettle

Annihilation
Slaughtering the Buffalo
Let them kill, skin, and sell until the buffalo is exterminated, as it is the only way to bring lasting peace and allow civilization to advance."
- General Philip Sheridan

Annihilation
Slaughtering the Buffalo

Annihilation
Railroads vs. Buffalo
When the railroad pushed westward through the plains, buffalo were often shot for sport as the trains passed by, the carcasses left to rot upon the prairie.
Illustration from Frank Leslie's illustrated newspaper, 1871.

Annihilation/Removal
The Indian Wars
Many Army officers, reflecting society, were ambivalent about fighting “savages.”

Despised pontificating humanitarians

Disliked rapacious frontiersmen
 Lamented their government’s record of broken treaties but nevertheless, carried out national policy

Annihilation/Removal
Northern Plains
Gen. George A. Custer
Sioux Chief Sitting Bull
US Survivor - Comanche

Annihilation/Removal
Northern Plains

Annihilation/Removal
Northern Plains

Assimilation
Goal was to assimilate and “Americanize” the
Native Americans

Ended tribal ownership of land

Allotted 160 acres to each head of household

Granted citizenship to those who accepted allotment

Land held in trust for 25 years

Established schools for Indian children
 “Excess” land sold to finance program