Native American and White Settlers Conflict

Native American and White Settlers Conflict In about the early 1800s, white settlers began to move west and they came to the Pacific Northwest, or what they called the Oregon Country. Native Americans and the white settlers had a lot of different ways of living. Some of these differences created conflicts between the two groups. I think that education, land ownership, and disease were the three main causes of their conflicts. Education was one of the problems that the Native Americans had with the white settlers. The Native Americans didn't have formal education because they had no need for academics. Children were only taught by their parents to do their duties. Girls were often taught to clean the house, cook, and grow/collect crops. They gathered seeds and wild plants, especially sweet purple huckleberries and the nutritious root of Camas Lilies (Stefoff). Boys were taught to hunt and fish with their fathers. But the "white men" thought that their ways were better and wanted the Indians to learn their ways, so they often made children get separated from their families when they were sent or sometimes taken to boarding schools off the reservation to learn the American ways. Indian boarding schools brought all nation children together and discouraged them to speak any other language but English (article - Race and Ethnicity: Government Policy Toward Native Americans). This made the children forget about the Native Culture and their family traditions.

Land ownership was also a cause of conflict. Indians did not see the land as a source of profit, but rather as a source of life. The Indians usually adapted to the environment as they found it. The Indians believed that the land was for everyone, but when the white settlers came, they drew property lines, built fences, and roads intersected everywhere. Europeans often shaped their environment to fit their life style. The US Government and other tribes signed a treaty which tribes gave up, or ceded, to the US