SLAVERY DOMINATES THE NARRATIVE - WHAT ABOUT NATIVE AMERICANS ?

 

GROK

Core Factors Supporting Policies Leading to Genocide Against Native Americans (Mid- to Late 1800s)
During the mid- to late 19th century, U.S. expansionism and policies toward Native Americans were driven by a combination of ideological, economic, and racial motivations that justified violent displacement, massacres, and cultural erasure—often framed at the time as necessary for "progress" and "civilization." These factors culminated in what historians recognize as genocidal acts, including the Indian Wars (e.g., Sand Creek Massacre in 1864, Wounded Knee in 1890), forced removals, and deliberate starvation. Key elements included:

• Manifest Destiny and Territorial Expansion: A prevailing belief that Anglo-Americans were divinely ordained to expand across the continent, viewing Native lands as empty or underutilized. This ideology portrayed displacement as inevitable and beneficial for national growth, enabling the seizure of vast territories for railroads, mining, and agriculture.
• Economic Greed and Resource Exploitation: Settlers and the government prioritized access to gold, fertile land, and buffalo herds, seeing Native presence as an obstacle. Policies like the Homestead Act (1862) encouraged white settlement, while the extermination of buffalo herds intentionally undermined Native economies dependent on hunting.
• Racial Dehumanization and Superiority: Natives were stereotyped as "savages" or "barbarians" unworthy of land rights, fueling calls for extermination. Military leaders and politicians, like General Philip Sheridan (famous for "The only good Indian is a dead Indian"), framed violence as a civilizing force, drawing on pseudoscientific racism to justify mass killings and bounties on scalps in places like California.
• Government-Sanctioned Policies and Military Campaigns: Acts like the Indian Removal Act (1830, extended into later decades) and treaties broken under pressure authorized forced marches (e.g., Trail of Tears echoes in later relocations) and wars. State-sponsored genocides, such as in California during the Gold Rush (1849–1870s), involved militias reimbursed for killings, reducing Native populations by up to 80% in some areas.

These factors weren't universally endorsed but were amplified by media, politicians, and settlers, leading to an estimated Native population decline from millions pre-contact to around 250,000 by 1900, through direct violence, disease, and starvation.

Reservations as Confinement Camps: Unrealistic in the Context of Native Ways of Life and CustomsNative American reservations, established primarily through the Indian Appropriations Act (1851) and expanded in the late 1800s via the Dawes Act (1887), functioned much like confinement camps, restricting tribes to often barren, isolated lands far smaller than their traditional territories. This system was inherently unrealistic and destructive for indigenous ways of life, as it imposed sedentary, agrarian models incompatible with diverse tribal customs, leading to cultural erosion and ongoing trauma.

• Confinement and Loss of Autonomy: Reservations confined nomadic groups like the Plains tribes (e.g., Lakota, Cheyenne) to fixed boundaries, prohibiting seasonal migrations essential for hunting, gathering, and spiritual practices. This mirrored prison-like control, with U.S. Army oversight enforcing boundaries and rationing food, often as a tool of subjugation post-wars.
  khanacademy.org
  The setup ignored communal land stewardship, forcing individual allotments that fragmented communities and enabled further land loss to whites.
• Incompatibility with Traditional Economies and Customs: For hunter-gatherer or semi-nomadic societies, reservations' poor soil and limited resources made self-sufficiency impossible, clashing with customs tied to vast landscapes (e.g., buffalo hunts for food, clothing, and rituals). This led to dependency on government aid, famine, and disease outbreaks, exacerbating cultural genocide.
  bridgew.edu
  Boarding schools, integrated into the reservation system, further stripped children of languages and traditions, aiming for total assimilation.

In essence, reservations weren't viable adaptations but tools of control, rendering traditional lifeways unsustainable and contributing to long-term poverty and identity loss—effects that persist today.