There was a great change in the way the government dealt with the Indians during the time of the Gilded Age opposed to before hand, mostly due to a massive western migration of United States settlers and a need to domesticate the Native American tribes in an attempt to “Americanize” them more. Before the Gilded Age there was a great deal of violence and head butting between the Native Americans and the new Americans settling on their lands. Native American policy was not very compassionate and they were viewed as a savage and unfriendly group.
There for the government seldom tried to make treaties with the Indians and when they did they were not fair and it was apparent that the Native Americans would be dominated and taken advantage of some way or another. This includes many occurrences such as the Trail of Tears and the Indian Removal Act. Although government policy before the Gilded Age was harsh it ended up becoming worse. During the Gilded Age, Americans needed to branch out and explore new areas of the country in hopes of finding new departments for prosperity since many jobs and successful paths were becoming hard to acquire with the massive rates of immigration.
Now that there were railroads, which allowed more and more Americans to travel from the east to the west, there were many new settlers and new land would need to be acquired. The main problem with this was the fact that many Native American tribes presided in those areas since they had been forcibly relocated there earlier. During this settlement of the West in order to make room for the settlers many herds of buffalo, the Native Americans primary resource for food, clothes, and many other essential tools, were killed in hopes to exterminate a great sum of the Native Americans who could not thrive without being able to hunt these buffalo.
The Essay on The Wizord Of Oz Symbolizing The Gilded Age
... gives a lot of symbols relating to the gilded age in American history which took place from 1880 1900. ... much alike. They are both the head of government, they both control all the areas in the ... they once owned is know owned by the government. The story the wonderful World of OZ, contains ... comparison with the Native Americans Oncewe were a free people, living happily in a great forest, flying from ...
Almost 20 million were killed and this slaughter almost leads to their extinction. This lead to a great deal of violence between the two sides and the Native Americans began to greatly despise these American settlers who would not stop with this relocation and torture. But United States government officials used military power and treaties to get around this cruelty once again. After many bloody battles, Congress abolished treaty making with Indian Nations all together and turned to the Congress and Executive branches to make the big decisions concerning the Indian Land given to them earlier and the resources on those lands.
Their land and resources were “bought” from them and then distributed to United States settlers for very cheap. Thus many Native Americans were now forced onto reservations and their children were demanded that they assimilate into American culture. In the case of the Dawes Act in 1887, which forbade Native Americans from owning land, many of their own customs and traditions were outlawed in hope that they could reshape their culture into the more “mainstream” Americanized culture that was forming during the great melting pot of the Gilded Age.
The main difference between government policy before the Gilded Age and during the Gilded age were due to the need for new land to be settled by easterners coming to the west. This growth in western settlement encouraged the government to take the easy way out and deal with the Native Americans in a very forcive and uncompassionate matter with little to know interest in preserving their culture or ways of life.
