What event led to war between Native Americans and white settlers in the 1850s?
Answers
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By the 1850s, most Native Americans had been transplanted west of the Mississippi River as a result of the Indian Removal Act 30 years earlier. But while this might have relieved the white Americans on the east side of the river, it caused problems for all those natives in the West. Whole tribes were forced onto reservations in exchange for promises of peace, cash payments, and supplies - a lot of which never even reached some tribes due to corruption in the system and because of oversight caused by the Civil War. More and more people now depended on less land and fewer resources. White settlers further depleted natural resources like farmland, water, and game, especially American bison (commonly called buffalo) that were hunted nearly to extinction for their hides. Millions of Plains Indians who had depended on the herds for their survival now faced extinction themselves.
Some Native American nations cooperated with the United States, while others attempted to resist. In many instances, people on both sides were in the wrong, but it shouldn't be too hard to imagine the frustration felt by many tribes. The violence spread and escalated throughout the West in a series of conflicts collectively referred to as the Indian Wars in the late 1800s, immortalizing names and places like Wounded Knee, Geronimo, and Crazy Horse in American folklore.