Westward Expansion minidbq native Americans

© 2007 Smithsonian Institution
Mini-DBQ: Impact of Westward Expansion on Native Americans

Smithsonian Center for Education and Museum Studies
Your assignment from class today Create an essay responding to this prompt
and using all 5 sources plus outside info from your reading. You will turn
this in at the end of the period Friday (June 3) These questions will be turned
in on Paper and your Essay will be typed and submitted in canvas.
Question: Analyze the consequences of westward expansion on Native Americans after the
Civil War. Did US government policies ameliorate or exacerbate these consequences

(Ameliorate: to make better or lessen the negative impacts of something. Exacerbate to make worse)

Historical Context Since the first English settlers arrived at Jamestown in 1607, the story of America has been one of movement westward. As more and more Europeans came to our shores, colonists spread further and further into what was called the frontier, which is defined as an area of unsettled land. We know, however, that America was already inhabited by Natives whose ancestors had arrived thousands of years earlier. Conflicts overland ownership, religion, and culture, combined with broken promises by the US. government, moved the Indian population away from their homeland. The presidency of Andrew Jackson forced the removal of the tribes of the Southeast on the Trail of Tears to what is now Oklahoma. In the period following the Civil War, many people moved west for new opportunities and anew life. This would mean more clashes—this time with Plains Indians. Although America had changed much in the 250 years since the first settlers arrived, the attitude toward Native Americans had not. The building of the transcontinental railroad was the beginning of the end for many proud tribes of the West.