11.6 – Read the Text #4: Putting It All Together

READING TEXT
Module 11: Westward Expansion and Indigenous Communities

After the colonists won the American Revolution, there were 13 “united states” on the East Coast. The country also gained more land that was claimed by Britain in the past. While Native peoples still lived in all areas of the Americas, European countries such as France and Spain claimed some Native lands as their own.

In 1803, U.S. President Thomas Jefferson purchased the Louisiana Territory from France. He paid about 3 cents per acre (or, 4,000 square meters)! This land, between the Mississippi River and the Rocky Mountains, made the United States almost twice as big. By the mid-1800s, the United States had gained much more land by fighting wars, and making purchases and negotiations. The territory of the United States stretched from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean. Canada bordered it on the north, and Mexico on the south.

As the United States grew, people debated if slavery was fair. While state governments in the North banned slavery, it was still legal in the South until the American Civil War in the 1860s. As new states joined the country, U.S. leaders tried to keep a balance between slave states and free states because they wanted to avoid disagreement between the North and South.

More territory and a growing population meant that settlers (who were mainly white) began moving west into Native lands. This westward expansion caused many problems for the Native population. The United States government passed many laws to take away Native lands. They removed Indigenous peoples from their home lands and forced them to walk long distances to settlements called reservations. The United States pressured Native people to sign treaties. Also, the U.S. government often ignored the treaties later.

Native peoples’ lives did not improve as the westward settlement continued. In addition to moving Native people off of their lands, the federal government forced Native peoples to change their way of life to be like the majority white culture in the United States. This is called assimilation. Starting in the 1880s, the U.S. placed Native children into boarding schools far away from their families. These schools forced the children to speak only in English, to change their names, and to abandon their culture. Some of these boarding schools stayed open through the 1970s, but many Americans never heard about boarding schools because they weren’t usually included in history books.

The federal government and many state governments did not treat Native people as equal citizens of the United States. While Native Americans were recognized as U.S. citizens in 1924, many states passed laws that made it very difficult for Native people to vote. It wasn’t until 1958 that Native people could vote in every state in the U.S.

Native people and cultures continue to survive and thrive today as sovereign nations. Today, the United States recognizes more than 570 sovereign tribal nations. They have a special political status in the federal system. These nations are responsible for making their own decisions to secure the cultural, political, and economic success of today’s Native Americans.

NEXT: Think about and apply what you learned from the module text!