Westward Expansion
After reading the Background Materials and the passage below, discuss the following questions. Use additional resources to support your ideas and to strengthen your argument.
The excerpt is from a book entitled Crazy Horse: The Strange Man of the Oglalas by Mari Sandoz. In her book, Sandoz recalls stories she had heard as a child growing up in “Crazy Horse country” in the Black Hills of what is now South Dakota. This is an account of how many Native Americans, including Crazy Horse, reacted to the arrival of “the white man.”
- Who was Crazy Horse? Define what you think his role was:
a) from the Native American viewpoint and
b) from a historical viewpoint. - Present two of Crazy Horse’s observations about the arrival of white settlers. Do you think his observations were correct, why or why not?
- How did westward expansion affect Native American culture and land? Do you think the Native Americans could have stopped the westward migration? Why or why not?
“So the trail had started, with just a little stream of white men coming through, and the Indian lifted his hand in welcome and went out to smoke and watch this lengthening village of the whites that moved past him day after day all summer, always headed in the same direction. He wondered that he never saw them come back, yet they must be the same ones each year, for there could not be that many people on all the earth. At first he wondered at the women and children too, for he had long thought of the whites as only men, although he had heard stories of the families that had been seen, the women with the pale, sick skins, and the break-in-two bodies, the young ones pale too, with light hair and soft as the flying seed of the cottonwood that tickles the nose in the summer.
Even when there were quite a few on the trail the Indians had let the whites use his trader town while he sat with his pipe and blanket looking on as they bought perhaps a handful of gunpowder or the last cup of flour for a sick woman, or had their footsore oxen shod at three dollars a shoe. Often they left more wagons behind with the many already standing dead as old bones around the fort because the animals that were to pull them over the far mountains had been worn out.
Puffing on his long-stemmed pipe of stone the Indian had watched all these things and found them very strange and new. But soon the little stream of whites grew into a great river, wider than a gun could shoot across, and the grass and the buffalo got so used up that the Indian ponies were poor far into sundance time and the hunters had to travel many days, sometimes clear to the Crow country, for a kettle of fresh meat. There was uneasiness about this, and much talk at the councils. The younger chiefs and warriors from up on the Cheyenne River or down in the Smoky Hill country and other places back from the white man’s road were angry at the things they saw happening. And when the trader chiefs like Conquering Bear and Bull Tail and old Smoke made strong talk for continued peace with the people on the trail, the others called them Loaf About the Forts and said they had sold their tongues to the white man for his sugar and coffee and whisky.
But before the young warriors could do much more than demand tobacco and a feast now and then from the travelers, or drive off a few mules, the soldiers came and bought up the Indian trading town on the Laramie, and while the traders did not leave, the soldiers stayed. The wilder young men of the Lakotas stood off watching this thing that was happening, talking about it among themselves in growing anger. They had seen the white man’s wheel tracks and his guns drive the game away, his stock eat their grass, his breath scatter diseases among them so thousands died. Now his soldiers had the fort right in the middle of them all.”
(Source: Sandoz, Mari. Crazy Horse: The Strange Man of the Oglalas. Lincoln & London: University of Nebraska Press, 2004, 3-5)
Please note that all three questions have multiple elements. Make sure that you have addressed each one before moving on to the next question.
The best way to approach this assignment would be to respond to the questions in the order they are presented. For example; start by restating the question, “1. Who was Crazy Horse? Define what you think his role was: a) from the Native American viewpoint and b) from an historical viewpoint.” Then begin by answering the first element of the question, ‘Who was Crazy Horse?’ and then move into part “a” and then part “b”.
Do not forget to use the readings to support your narrative and include in-text citations. That will add depth and credibility to your work..
Use concepts from the background readings as well as any academic resources you can find (Wikipedia-type sources are not acceptable). Please be sure to cite your sources within the text and provide a reference page at the end of your paper.
Length: 3-4 pages, double-spaced, typed using 12 Point Times New Roman font.
The following items will be assessed in particular:
- Your ability to apply the basic concepts to the questions.
- Some in-text references to the background readings (APA formatting not required).
- The essay should address each element of the assignment. Remember to support your answers with solid references including the background readings.
Upload your paper to the Case 1 Dropbox when it is completed.