A lot of you are wondering why the soldiers and the pioneers wanted the Native Americans to move away to a reservation. Some of you have wondered that if there was so much land available, wasn’t there enough for both the settlers and the Native Americans?
These are important thoughts you have, and the answer to these thoughts is not a simple one. One of the reasons the Native Americans were forced to leave their land is summed up in two words: Manifest Destiny.
To understand what Manifest Destiny means, read an excerpt that John L. O'Sullivan wrote in 1839:
"The expansive future is our arena, and for our history. We are entering on its untrodden space, with the truths of God in our minds, beneficent objects in our hearts, and with a clear conscience unsullied by the past. We are the nation of human progress, and who will, what can, set limits to our onward march? Providence is with us, and no earthly power can...(stop us).”
This means that all this wonderful American wilderness is ours (for Americans, settlers, and soldiers). Our country is new, not like Europe. We have not had wars in this wilderness; the land is untrodden (not walked upon yet). Because we have not had wars like the countries in Europe had, our hearts are pure and fresh. We have no limits on what we can achieve because Providence (God and hope) is with us.
“The far-reaching, the boundless future will be the era of American greatness. In its magnificent domain of space and time, the nation of many nations is destined to manifest to mankind the excellence of divine principles; to establish on earth the noblest temple ever dedicated to the worship of the Most High -- the Sacred and the True. Its floor shall be a hemisphere -- its roof the firmament of the star- studded heavens, and its congregation an Union of many Republics, comprising hundreds of happy millions, calling, owning no man master, but governed by God's natural and moral law of equality, the law of brotherhood -- of peace and good will amongst men."
This means that in 1839, when Mr. O’Sullivan wrote this, he believed we were creating a wonderful country, built on the belief of worshipping God, and living by the moral laws. He thought that we would have a country where everyone is equal, and where we would all get along. Unfortunately, the idea of equality did not include Native Americans or slaves in the South. It wasn’t until 1863 that the slaves in Confederate (southern) states would become free by President Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation.
“Yes, we are the nation of progress, of individual freedom, of universal enfranchisement… We must onward to the fulfillment of our mission -- to the entire development of the principle of our organization -- freedom of conscience, freedom of person, freedom of trade and business pursuits, universality of freedom and equality. This is our high destiny, and in nature's eternal, inevitable decree of cause and effect we must accomplish it.
America been chosen; and her high example shall smite unto death the tyranny of kings, hierarchs, and oligarchs, and carry the glad tidings of peace and good will where myriads now endure an existence scarcely more enviable than that of beasts of the field. Who, then, can doubt that our country is destined to be the great nation of futurity?"
This means that in 1839, the author believed that America was the great nation of the world, one posed to meet its future. The author believed that America was not bogged down by kings and old rulers like other countries in the world had, but instead America was a new nation, ready to meet its destiny.
- Why do you think Americans in 1839 ignored the rights of Native Americans?
- If Manifest Destiny means that it is our God-given right to take over American land and settle it, then how do the Native Americans fit into this belief?
- Why did the Americans force the Native Americans to move to an Indian Reservation?
- Why did the soldiers make the young Native American children move to a boarding school to learn how to be American in Eve Bunting’s book, “Cheyenne Again”?
- If you were a Navaho living in Arizona in the 1800s, what do you think that you and your family would have done when the soldiers arrived?