This week, continuing the plan we began with our last unit on Carnegie and Rockefeller, we learned about Buffalo Soldiers and their role involving Native Americans. In order to do this, we first watched videos that introduced us to major ideas, subjects and events of this period. Then, we read several primary and secondary sources relating to the topic. Then, as a class, we created the essential question: Was the discrimination that the Buffalo soldiers and Native Americans faced intentional or did the White settlers and federal government actually believe that what they were doing was just? While they may have thought their treatment of the Buffalo Soldiers and Native Americans was just, the federal government treated the two minority groups as if they were inferior and behaved towards them in a degrading manner.
Buffalo Soldiers, black Americans coming off of the civil war, were not treated in the same way as their white peers; even so, the U.S. government still believed this treatment was just. By joining the army in their fight against Native Americans, they were simply avoiding the fate of sharecropping, in which they would be put back into a situation similar to slavery. However, being a Buffalo Soldier was not a whole lot better. In addition to completing their duties as soldiers, they also were forced to lay out electric line as well as cut out the path for other troops. The soldiers were also not highly valued. Though there name comes partly from their “very aggressive and successful” natures, they were often put in dangerous situations, being greatly outnumbered by the Native Americans they were fighting. The U.S. may have thought they were being fair by creating 6 regiments of soldiers and providing them with food, work and shelter. However, there were too many things working against Buffalo Soldiers to truly call their treatment “just”.
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Native Americans were also discriminated against by the U.S. Government, though for very different reasons than for those whom they were fighting. After the civil war, Americans flooded into the Great Plains, in the search for both gold and new settlements. What they did not think about prior to this, however, was the fact that Native Americans had been living in these places longer than even the first English settlements. Therefore, they decided that to rid themselves of this problem, they would exterminate the tribes that were in their way. To do this, the government implemented the strategy of total war. Their goal was to attack the buffalo and horses, and deplete their food and clothing supply. Then, they would attack the actual people along with their homes. Obviously, the Native Americans did not take kindly to this, and decided to fight back. In response to this, the United States decided to offer the land west of the Missouri River in exchange for their consent to stop fighting. Additionally, the Dawes Act tried to promote an assimilation of Native American and United States culture. However, no matter how much the government attempted to make the situation just, it simply wasn’t. All the Native Americans wanted was for things to continue the way they had for so long, but they were ultimately kicked out of their homes and forced to abide by U.S. Law.
Cool, Eric!
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