History: Franklin D. Roosevelt and Great Depression

Could whites and Indians have lived peaceably in the trans-Mississippi West? I do not think that the whites and Indians could have lived peacefully in the trans-Mississippi West. I believe this is because of the ways the Indians were living and hunting. Also with how the whites were not concerned with their customs and only had a one track mind on what they wanted of their land. The government “attempted” to keep peace by pressuring the Indians into treaties that were only broken and then new ones would be made. The government was not looking out for the tribes best interest either because they forced more restrictive agreements on the Indians which led to a war in the west between the whites and Indians. Looking back on the history, I think it was going to be the inevitable outcome of the situation. Even when some of the tribes would hold the American flag up to show friendship and white ones for truce, they were massacred and scalped of all types such as mothers, children and even babies by the whites. However the liquor and disease killed more Indians than combat did. Indian hunters themselves nearly wiped the plains clean by 1883 which weakened Indian resistance from working for commercial companies. Mines, crops and grazing herds and fences disturbed hunting and farming lands of many traditional tribes. Another treaty of 1868 was made but broken by Custer who was later killed by the Indians and nearly 250 soldiers in the summer of 1876. Congress adopted the Dawes Severalty Act in 1887 to end reservation goals but to have Indians join whites as farmers and small property owners of their land into the marketplace. That didn’t help though because Indians didn’t want to give up their tribal ways and also had no experience farming, managing money and other white ways. By 1890, the Indians had to adapt to life within the boundaries set by white culture despite their efforts at resistance. So the way I see it is there would not have been a peaceful way to live