During the 18th Century the Americans were fighting for their independence from the British, through the American Revolutionary War, which gave hope to the Native Americans. This war lasted for eight years, from 1775 to 1783. By fighting with the revolutionaries, they hoped it would help them protect their land, liberty, and their culture. They would later find out that those revolutionary visions were left unfulfilled. Europeans always misunderstood the Natives way of living and their culture, by calling them savages, and killing off their entire population just to take their land from them. Many different tribes fought together as a group of confederates, or against each other as some natives individually sided with the revolutionaries. “By the end of the war, especially on the frontier, more and more Indians sided with the power that could best protect their liberty ---the British” (Gilje 2006, 92). As the …show more content…
The British in the Natives teamed up in July of 1778, destroyed and tortured the Wyoming Valley in Pennsylvania leaving hundreds of U.S. troops dead. They did the same to the Cherry Valley in New York and in Kentucky. In the 1780’s the Northwest Ordinance was passed, assuring that “…Indians would remain secure ‘in their property, rights and liberty’ unless Congress authorized ‘just and lawful wars’” (Gilje 2006, 96). The first “just and lawful war”, the Native Americans defeated the American Army, with the help of General Josiah Harmat. Out of embarrassment, President George Washington ordered a second was which the Natives were outnumbered by 3,000. The British decided so stop the fight with the Americans, which put the Indians in a bad place. “In 1795 the northwest Indians agreed to the Treaty of Greenville, granting about half of the future state of Ohio to American settlement.” (Gilje 2006, 96)”. This left the Natives without their full rights, liberties and without their
Your textbook (and most short accounts) depict the war as Indians against English colonists; how is that depiction accurate, and why or why not?
In 1763, the French and Indian War ended, leaving Great Britain with large debts. In order to help with the debt, Great Britain passed laws to tax the colonists. The colonists were furious. Were the American colonists justified in waging war and breaking away from Britain? Yes, the American colonists were justified in waging war to break away from Britain because the British Parliament was over taxing the colonists, the colonists were forced to stay on the East side of the Appalachian Mountains, and they had to pay to house and care for British soldiers.
Chapter 7 of Alan Taylor’s American Revolutions begins by describing the tense state of affairs between American Patriots and Native Indians in 1775. Both sides feared the other and were determined not to let their enemy defeat them. The Patriots were angry with the British for seeking alliance with the Indians, compromising their “racial solidarity”, in order to gain a military advantage. The Natives believed that American independence would be the catalyst for their downfall into slavery and landlessness. The author moves on to say that this was not the case with all tribes. For example, weak bands of Indians in the Carolinas allied with Patriots and fought in their army in hopes for protection after the war. However, the reality was that
Long ago on the great plains, the buffalo roamed and the Native Americans lived amongst each other. They were able to move freely across the lands until the white men came and concentrated them into certain areas. Today there are more than five-hundred different tribes with different beliefs and history. Native Americans still face problems about the horrific history they went through and today 's discrimination. The removal of American Indian tribes is one of the most tragic events in American history. There are many treaties that have been signed by American representatives and people of Indian tribes that guaranteed peace and the values of the Indian territories. The treaties were to assure that fur trade would continue without interruption. The American people wanting Indian land has led to violent conflict between the two. Succeeding treaties usually forced the tribes to give up their land to the United States government. There were laws made for Native American Displacement that didn’t benefit the Native Americans, these laws still have long lasting effects on them today, and there was a huge number of Native Americans killed for many reasons.
Violence escalated when colonists believed that extermination was the only way, to expand their lands, and it was the easiest way to eliminate them for good. Wars against natives were justified because of fear from colonists, wanting to protect themselves; Edward, Waterhouse created A Declaration of the State of the Colony and Affaires in Virginia, Waterhouse believed natives wanted to exterminate them, therefore an attack would be relevant to stop them. Along with finding a justification as to why it was okay attack natives in a brutal way, new war fighting styles were introduced the colonial officials. Scalp bounties first appeared in the middle of 1670, and this method was used to promote and offer rewards for native scalps; these bounties were rewarded in either monetary value or items needed.
During the time of 1763-1775, one of the occurrences that happened to affect the colonists’ perception of the British was the French and Indian War. The war itself was not the main reason the colonists’ had trouble with the British, but the time after the war was the actual cause of eventual trouble. During the war, the British fought with France around the Ohio valley for the control of land. The Ohio valley was very important to both of the empires, because of the land value and the strategic location it held in the years to come. Both had their struggles especially with the Native Americans that called this area their home. Most of the Native Americans sided with either the British or the French because they thought that if they had sided with
The European settlers thirsted for more land and aggressively took over the land Native Americans had been cultivating for years; therefore, causing the Indians to feel betrayed. “The United States took a more realistic approach when it passed the Northwest Ordinance in 1787, recognizing that tribes did have rights to their lands, and that U.S. purchase of tribal lands must be done through formal treaties. Ratification of the federal constitution in 1789 further streamlined Indian affairs by investing the new central government--rather than the states--with all treaty-making powers” (Relations Between Indians and U.S. Citizens). The colonists created the Northwest Ordinance in 1787 in order to seem proper in regards to stealing Ohio from
Before the arrival of white people to the continent, Native Americans still engaged in war between the various different tribes. Their reasons for fighting each other were drastically different than the reasons they had when fighting non-Indians. Some Native American battles were fought for revenge. The most common cause of war between Native American groups was probably to defend or enlarge tribal territory. Later, their conflicts with white people were fought for trying to prevent the theft of their land, or in raids for food and supplies they were denied. There have been many famous clashes between Indians and the United States government. On November 4th 1791, In what is considered the worst ever defeat administered by Indians to U. S. troops more than 600 soldiers were killed by a force of mostly Shawnees and other Indians. The cause of the conflict was settlers moving into the Indian’s land in large numbers, ignoring Indians rights and demanding military protection if the Indians opposed them. This kind of situation was the cause for many of the largest fights with Native Americans, for example the battle of little big horn (otherwise known as Custer’s last stand) in which Indians that were ready for the arrival of the Calvary killed every soldier under General Custer’s command. A battle which United States
The Revolutionary War, America’s conflict with Great Britain, the most powerful country in the world at the time, resulted in the independence of the United States of America. Through a war that lasted just over eight years, a relatively small country, which was actually a largely oversized settlement connected by roads, villages, towns, and cities before they won the war, was able to defeat the British with the help of France along the way. The war was caused by the rebellious reactions of the colonists to the taxes and acts that King George III had put into place to pay for the cost of the French and Indian War. The colonists were angered because of the taxes they were forced to pay for a war that was not theirs. The Revolutionary War proved
In the early 1800’s, The United States and Spain had continuously argued with the Native people. The Louisiana Territory was purchased from France in the year 1803, Americans continued to push farther west for fertile land that could be used for farming. Due to overcrowding of eastern cities like New York City and Boston many settlers moved out west for a new start. It allowed for colonists to spread out and own untouched fertile land. When white settlers arrived they had realized that most of the land acquired from the territory was occupied by Native Americans for thousands of years. For decades Americans had thought that the land west of the Appalachian Mountains were unoccupied, but they were wrong. There were many tribes that had occupied this land. This included tribes like, The Choctaw, Cherokee, and The Chickasaw. In a sense, Americans had violent outbreaks with the Natives the minute the colonists’ had arrived in the United State. As the colonists’ tried to establish complete dominance and superiority over the Indians, ongoing heated debates over land ownership, and demanding requests to satisfy greed made forceful attacks between the groups unavoidable.
The evidence shows a British soldier fired the first shot of the American Revolutionary War. In November 1775, seven hundred overconfident and armed British troops congregated in Lexington at dawn to begin their assault on the Colonists. They were ordered to confiscate any hidden weaponry the Colonists possessed. The Colonists did not want to fight and had set up just a meager defense. British soldiers surrounded and disarmed the militia.
Most Natives sided with the British against the U.S, “believing that a British victory might mean an end to expansion” (Donald Fixico). Tecumseh, an Indian leader, and his followers had observed Natives being removed from their lands by settler expansion. Therefore, Tecumseh tried to build firm relationships of many alliances with other nations such as Great Britain. However, the tables turned when Tecumseh and his warriors, deserted by British forces, faced an army of American soldiers at the Battle of the Thames River in 1813. The British found the Natives useless/worthless after noticing America’s growth in power.
Patriotism defines America like no other continent. The victory of the Seven Years’ War evoked the patriotism in the inhabitants of North America, however, the aftermath of the war led to a series of events that would create a domino effect, resulting in the Revolutionary War. The outset of this domino effect was the taxation passed by the Parliament to reduce the debt after the war, named Stamp Act. The impact of this taxation was extremely poignant since it was the first direct taxation applied to the population of the colony. Through the employment of boycotts as a form of rebellion, Americans manifested that the tax seemed outrageous since it was meant to collect a profit rather than to regulate trade.
The wait for American Indians was not fast, it was three years after the Clause from the Northwest Ordinance was written(1787, four years after the war ended), promising that “utmost good faith” would be observed towards them, “their land and
Long ago on the great plains, the buffalo roamed and the Native Americans lived amongst each other. They were able to move freely across the lands until the white men came and concentrated them into certain areas. Today there are more than five-hundred different tribes with different beliefs and history. Native Americans still face problems about the horrific history they went through and today 's discrimination. The removal of American Indian tribes is one of the most tragic events in American history. There are many treaties that have been signed by American representatives and people of Indian tribes that guaranteed peace and the values of the Indian territories. The treaties were to assure that fur trade would continue without interruption. The American people wanting Indian land has led to violent conflict between the two. Succeeding treaties usually forced the tribes to give up their land to the United States government. There were laws made for Native American Displacement that didn’t benefit the Native Americans, these laws still have long lasting effects on them today, and there was a huge number of Native Americans killed for many reasons.