Soldiers and 'Slaves'

This week in class we learned about Buffalo Soldiers and Native Americans. We watched a couple ABC CLIO videos about this and the westward expansion. America sent the Buffalo Soldiers to move the native Americans onto reservations. The cause of this was in 1830, the policy of Indian removal. They removed the Cherokee, Choctaw, Chickasaw, Creek and Seminole tribes, and forced them west of the Mississippi River. This later led to war with the native Americans. In this unit we have to answer the essential question, "Did the government have good intentions when enacting policies for westward expansion? In what ways did these policies impact the natives and buffalo soldiers?"

A lot of these policies started because prospectors were trespassing on Native land to search for gold and they demanded protection from the hostile Natives. This started the American Indian wars and later on congress approved the creation of the Buffalo Soldiers, who were six regiments of black soldiers totaling about 1,000. The government created these soldiers primarily to fight in the Indian Wars and do the dirty work that white soldiers didn't want to do. They provided them with old, hand-me-down horses and reused rifles. The government thought that this was a step forward however because they first black soldiers in the U.S. Army. After some time fighting, the government promised the natives the possession of the Dakota territory if they promised to stop fighting. After some leaders refused to go, the government ordered them onto the reservations or they would be considered hostile, and most natives ignored this. It didn’t matter too much because two years after settlers found gold there, the government forced all Indians back onto reservations. Due to all of the changing of policies and moving back and forth, it probably had a very negative impact on the Native American’s for having to keep changing homes, and for the Buffalo Soldiers who kept having to force them back and forth. Some can argue that the government’s intentions were good to reduce conflict between natives and new white settlers in certain areas, but they still weren’t very good policies. Another example of this is the Carlisle Schools idea. Many people thought, including the Bureau of Indian Affairs, that it would be a good idea to try and “Americanize” the native american youth. A quote from above the school said, “Kill the Indian in him and save the man.” Believably, this policy was hated by the Native American tribes because it destroyed their culture and beliefs by “Americanizing” them. At the time the government thought they were doing their best to help the Indians and didn’t realize how bad it was. So the government did have good intentions, they thought they were doing the right thing, but it turned out they did the opposite.

In my opinion, I would say that yes the government had good intentions based on their knowledge or what they believed, but it negatively impacted the Native Americans. The Native Americans were forced out of their home, moved place to place, and all by force too. All of that was because of the government’s so-called ‘good intentions’ and policies. Not only did these policies affect the Natives, but also the Buffalo Soldiers because they had to supervise and force all of the Natives out of their homes onto reservations. The Buffalo soldiers didn’t necessarily agree with what they were doing, they might have known how wrong it was, but they had no choice. The American government went from enslaving one race, to basically enslaving another one by forcing them off of their home land, and by trying to destroy their culture.