Plains Indians between 1840 and 1876 (eBook)

Seminar paper from the year 2020 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Culture and Applied Geography, grade: Unbenotet, University of Heidelberg, language: English, abstract: The Plains Indians had a tough life. They were abandoned from their lands by white settlers over and over again. Losing their culture, losing their main food source, and losing many lives. They experienced hunger, racism and war and are now one of the most important icons of the American Culture.

When the Europeans first entered the Plains, they had a peaceful relationship, but with the American expansion, the Plains Indians lost many of their population and also their land and resources. Emigrants putting their bison away, Oregon trail taking land of the Plains Indians, diseases which they brought with them. A series of wars took place from the beginning of the European settlements until the late 19th century, known as the American Indian wars.
We will take a closer look on the things happening between 1840 and 1876.

Plains Indians: often imagined as the typical American Indians, riding on horseback with a feather and communicating in sign language, were the Native Americans living in the Great Plains of North America.
The Great Plains is a vast grassland spreading from Texas to the south of Canada, between the Mississippi River and the Rocky Mountains, covering almost 800km east to west and 4,800 km north to south. Its an incredible landscape with herds of buffaloes. (“Plains Indian”)

In 1778 Thomas Jefferson had the idea of exploring the Great West and later chose Lewis to do the expedition with. He sent the proposition to the congress who then approved it. Lewis chose William Clarke as an associate. However, the journals have a lack of information about the geography, anthropology and even more. Maybe because their expedition was largely made by water and rather by land. Zebulon M. Pike made the next expedition in July 15, 180 and took horses to not only see the water but more the landscape. People also started naming the Great Plains the Great American Desert, seeing the region as a desert because it was sparsely populated. It also was quite unexplored until not only Lewis and Clark, but also Pike went on an expedition. In fact, before that, Colonel Richard Irving once said in his book The Hunting Grounds of the Great West: ”when I was a schoolboy my map of the United States showed between the Missouri River and the Rocky Mountains a long and broad white blotch, upon which was printed in small capitals “THE GREAT AMERICAN DESERT – UNEXPLORED”. The expedition whetted the appetite to learn more about the land.