who did had to take on the nearly impossible job of
reestablishing their society in a foreign land.
Adding to their problems, the Five Civilized
Tribes were also faced with the resentment of Plains
tribes, such as the Pawnee and the Lakota, who did
not appreciate having to compete with these new-
comers for the resources of Indian Territory. At the
same time, the Plains Indians had to cope with the
ever-increasing traffic of settlers traveling across their
territory. Through its acquisition of Oregon Territory
in 1846 and victory in the Mexican-American War in
1848, the United States extended its borders to the
Pacific coast. The fertile farmlands of Oregon and the
gold fields of California themselves were enough to
lure thousands of Americans west. But the concept
of Manifest Destiny, first set forth by journalist John
O’Sullivan in 1846, added a sense of moral obligation
to their quest. “Our manifest destiny [is] to overspread
and to possess the whole of the continent which Prov-
idence has given us,” O’Sullivan wrote, implying it
was God’s will that Americans settle the West without
regard to Indian claims to this land.
As western expansion continued, it became clear
that Removal was no longer a viable policy. With
fewer and fewer unsettled lands left in which to re-
locate Indians, the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA)
sought to confine tribes in smaller and smaller por-
tions of their aboriginal lands. Through treaties, BIA
officials chipped away at tribal territories in order to
open up more lands for white settlement and to make
way for railroad lines. All too often, the Indian leaders
who signed the treaties did not understand their pro-
visions, and corrupt Indian agents pocketed the goods
and money the agreements intended as compensation
for the lost lands.
Alarmed by the flood of whites into their
territories, western Indians increasingly raided
westward-bound wagon trains and attacked non-
Indian settlements. The continual atmosphere of
fear exploded into terror during such highly publi-
cized revolts as the Whitman massacre of 1847 and
the Dakota Sioux uprising of 1862, during which
Indians murdered white families, including women
and children. Incidents such as these allowed whites
to demonize Indians (fighting to protect their
lands) as subhuman savages who, for the sake of
God and progress, non-Indians had an obligation
to exterminate.
This fury helped fuel the western military cam-
paigns launched against Indians during the Civil War.
Troops led by Kit Carson mercilessly pursued the
Navajo (Dineh) and Mescalero Apache to stop their
raiding. Once subdued, the groups were forced to
relocate under military guard to Bosque Redondo, a
barren area in what is now east-central New Mexico.
During the Navajo’s journey to Bosque Redondo—
now known as the Long Walk—and their four-year
confinement there, more than 10 percent of the tribal
population died of disease and starvation.
In Colorado Territory, the Third Colorado Cav-
alry, a group of undisciplined volunteers, was formed
by the territorial government to protect whites from
Indian attack. When after three months the soldiers
had not fired a shot, they were branded the “Blood-
less Third” by local journalists. Humiliated by this
nickname, the volunteers set upon a group of South-
ern Cheyenne and Arapaho peacefully camped along
Sand Creek. Nearly 200 men, women, and children
were slaughtered by the soldiers, who were then cel-
ebrated as heroes by Colorado settlers.
In Indian Territory, the Five Civilized Tribes
were drawn into the Civil War itself. At the start of
the war, representatives of the Confederacy pres-
sured these tribes to ally themselves to the South.
Left with little choice, the tribes joined the Confed-
erate cause—a decision that would cost them dearly.
During the war, their lands became a battlefield, and
their peoples were plagued with death, disease, and
hunger. Despite the extent of their suffering, they
were shown no mercy by the Union following their
surrender. In their punishing peace treaties with the
United States, the Indians were forced to give up their
lands in western Indian Territory—lands that their
Removal treaties had guaranteed to them for all time.
Their villages and fields destroyed and their popula-
tions decimated, the Indians were then faced for the
second time in only 30 years with the daunting task
of rebuilding their nations.1830 to 1865