Westward Expansion questions

1. What are some of the main reasons that the federal government's policy of assimilation failed? Think About:
Native Americans' way of life
Cultural differences
Attitude of whites toward Native Americans
Government promises





-Some of the main reasons that the federal government's policies of assimilation's failed was because all the different tribes of the Native Americans. All of these tribes were different and wanted there own space. When these tribes were hunting for food sometimes they ran into each other and it became a war. The Native Americans all had one thing in common though, they all hunted for their food in the Great Plains. They hunted for buffalo on their horses, that made things a lot easier, and that is a reason they were surviving. They got their food from hunting, and most of their clothes and houses. The whites wanted this land for themselves and were not very negotiable towards the Native Americans. They killed women and children, they thought that they could fight on the Native Americans land and get away with it also, take the land because the natives didn't "improve" it. The whites thought this though because of the governments promises. The government made promises to the Native Americans and for the whites. They promised the Native Americans that they would be safe in there own land but also that the whites could go west. The Native Americans did not want to give up the way of their lives because it was what they had been used to. The government failed because they weren't making it seem like the Native Americans were safe. The whites were still killing the Native Americans food, clothes, and shelter supply, and killing Native Americans.





2. How successful were government efforts to promote settlement of the Great Plains? Give examples to support your answer.Think about:
The growth in population on the Great Plains
The role of railroads in the economy
The Homestead Act

-The government efforts to promote settlement of the Great Plains worked very well. The population growth got much larger now that there were farmers and Native Americans. The government made the Homestead act that whoever owned land could get more land for free and many farmers, natives, even government people took advantage of it. Even though some farmers thought it wasn't right for people to be claiming off everywhere, they took advantage by claiming economical things, land, and they made houses. To get all the supplies the farmers needed like tools, seeds, etc, they had to get it from the railroads that were made throughout the Great Plains. Sometimes the railroad drivers weren't all that nice and the western farmers thought that they were taking advantage of them because they weren't making the eastern farmers pay as much.