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Key 4 Native Americans of the West
OVERVIEW Lands west of the Mississippi were home to Western tribes such as the Pueblo, Navajo, Apache, and Sioux, as well as Eastern tribes—Cherokee, Creek, Winnebago—that had been forcibly resettled in the West.
Life-styles: Reflecting various life-styles, some native Americans were farmers and had permanent settlements, while others lived nomadi-cally, combining hunting with farming and sheep herding.
The Plains Indian culture: Plains Indians constituted the largest group in the West. Often militant warriors, they were in the vanguard of the struggle to defend their lands from white settlement. • Their nomadic life in harmony with nature depended upon the buffalo, or bison, because, as a source of food, clothing, fuel, and weapons, it provided the economic basis for their lives.
Government policy toward the native American: The federal government traditionally regarded Indian tribes both as independent nations and as wards and therefore negotiated treaties with them that required ratification by the Senate.
Concentration policy: This policy, associated with the 1850s, resulted in a reservation policy.
Relocation: In 1867, an Indian Peace Commission, established by Congress, decided that all Plains tribes would be relocated on two reservations, one in Oklahoma and the other in the Dakotas.
Tribal independence ceased to be recognized: The federal government also decided that it would no longer recognize tribes as independent entities or negotiate with tribal chiefs. This signaled the beginning of efforts aimed at undermining the collective nature of Indian life, thereby forcing assimilation into the white culture.
The buffalo: The welfare of native Americans was also greatly affected by the mass slaughter of buffalo from the 1850s onward.
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