2 Million Acres Of Unsettled Land example essay topic

315 words
"You are taking my land from me; you are killing off our game, so it is hard for us to live. Now you tell us to work for a living, we do not interfere with you, and again you say why do you not become civilized? We do not want your civilization, we will live as our fathers did, and their fathers before them (Crazy Horse - Oglada)". This quote was written my Crazy Horse who was a member of the Oglada tribe. Like many others, he was probably getting his land took from himself by the Americans. This is why the Trail of Tears happened.

It sent many Native Americans away from their homelands and made them move out west. Also, those Americans wanted the Native's to speak their language, become Christians, and support themselves by farming and trading. The American's took Native children from their homes, and they were sent to Pennsylvania to be "educated as Americans."There is no selfishness (among them) which is at the bottom of civilization (Henry Dawes)". Henry Dawes had said this, and eventually he passed the Dawes Act. This act divided reservation land into individual plots. Many Native American families had received 160 acres because of this act.

They also received Citizenship from the U. S and had to obey local, state, and federal laws. Although, during the 1880's and the 1930's, two-thirds of the Native American's 140 million acres became American territory. Lastly, there was 2 million acres of unsettled land to be distributed. On April 22, 1889, thousands of people showed up at the borders of the land. At noon, many Native Americans had raced onto the territory and staked out land claims. A couple hours later, claims had been staked on almost all of the 2 million acres.