Continuing in the reconstruction era, but moving away from business leaders, my class started discussing the Buffalo Soldiers and Native Americans. In order to learn about these soldiers and people, we watched a variety of videos on ABC Clio while also taking notes on a class shared Google doc. After taking notes and watching the videos, we then started to create questions on the topic to include into our class made final. By doing this, we were able to use the information and further learn it by making the questions. This was basically the same process we completed for the Rockefeller and Carnegie case study, so I was already familiar with the process. This made it easier this time around to plan out all the questions and create the essential question. The essential question that my class and I created for this unit asks, "In what ways did the U.S. Government discriminate against buffalo soldiers and native Americans accidentally? And in what ways did they purposely discriminate?
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| A flow Chart Showing Key Events |
Throughout the reconstruction period, sharecropping among black families and white landowners was a common system during the late 1800s. Sharecropping is defined as, "a system of agriculture in which a landowner allows a tenant to use the land in return for a share of the crops produced on the land." From first glance, this system sounds like a fair practice. However, it proved be a very controlling system, simply because the white landowners had great control over the black families. By doing this, blacks felt like they were slaves again. Knowing this, instead of participating in share cropping, Buffalo soldiers became soldiers because they knew that being a sharecropper would be awful. Therefore, the army started "Colored troops" and Andrew Johnson created 6 total regiments. The Buffalo soldiers were provided with an adequate amount of supplies, food, and homes. However, they were also called first upon to fight the Indians, as well as later wars such as the Spanish-American war . Aside from fighting, the Buffalo soldier also laid out electrical lines cutting off new settlers moving west. For many years, the Buffalo soldiers had everything they needed. However, during the post-civil war, the Americans expanded westward and took the land of the Buffalo soldiers. Americans used total war strategies against the Native Americans. They attacked the buffalo, their food supply, clothing, attacked horses and livestock, and even their homes. After this, nothing was the same. In the 1840s, the a discovery of gold caused a mass American Immigration Westward. Additionally, the government believed that Native Americans should be assimilated into society, therefore, they started to split up the land of the Native Americans. Also, 90% of their land went to white settlers. Although the U.S believed that they were doing a favor for the Native Americans, it was actually the exact opposite. Even though the government that they were the "Friends of the Native Americans", but the Native Americans were forced to conform with the society around them. In return, they were forced to leave their culture behind and basically their whole lives. In fact, they were encouraged to leave behind their roots.The land that the Native Americans were now living on was not at all good for farming, which made life very difficult. Aside from the Native Americans, Buffalo soldiers were still forced to fight, even though they were outnumbered. Buffalo soldiers were served under the worst conditions, didn't get to ride horses, and were forced to walk up to 90 miles. They also chased down rebel Native Americans to bring them back to Justice.
Additionally, in 1887 the Dawes Act was written. Looking at this document, this is regarded as one of the most significant pieces of federal legislation towards the Native Americans. The Objectives of the law was to promote Native Assimilation to U.S. culture and tradition, rather than their own, and open native lands to non-native settlement. The Dawes act gave Native Americans land, but this land
was a lot less than what they had previously inhabited. The settlers genuinely thought that they were doing the Native Americans a favor, but in reality they were harming them. Native Americans were told that they had respect from the government, however, the white settlers took advantage of their power. It is explained that, "Taught by the government that they had rights entitled to respect, when those rights have been assailed by the rapacity of the white man, the arm which should had been raised to protect them has ever been ready to sustain the aggressor." This shows how the white settlers had little respect for the native people and totally disregarded the fact that Native Americans should be respected too. Overall, whether intentional or accidental, the culture and lives of the Native Americans was destroyed. Buffalo soldiers also faced harsh times as well.
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| A poster representing the Dawes Act of 1887 |
In my opinion, although very unjust, I believe that the white settlers genuinely thought hat they were helping to Native Americans and Buffalo soldiers. A lot of the actions of the white settlers were thought to be a favor for the Native Americans and Buffalo soldiers. However, it was the exact opposite. Many Native Americans were forced off their own land; land that they had worked long hours on and built their lives on. Because of the white settlers, Native Americans were forced to leave their cultural traditions behind, and learn the American way of life. Food, supplies, and homes were also destroyed during this time, which must had been hard on the Native Americans. Also, the government forced the Buffalo soldiers to fight even though they were outnumbered. Although there may have been some intentional discrimination, I believe that the US honestly thought that they were friends of the Natives and that they were doing right. Unfortunately, they were wrong and in return caused a lot of distress to the Native Americans and Buffalo soldiers.
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