"And the Strife Never Ends": Indian-White Hostility as Seen by European Travelers in America, 1800-1860

Abstract

Numerous European travelers to America from 1800-1860 observed and discussed the conflicts between Indians and whites in the United States. Generally they wrote about the causes of these conflicts within the context of life in America. Some displayed sympathy for the Indians, others saw him as a hopeless savage, adnd nearly all predicted his rapid disappearance. Histories of Indian-white contact in North America are often concerned with the bloody conflicts arising from the confrontation of the two races. Certainly in the colonial period the necessity of achieving a foothold and later maintaining control over the eastern section of America occasioned frequent warfare as the was forced toward the interior of the continent. After the United States had severed itself from the British Empire, troubles continued as Americans pushed their way west. These wars may have had long-range beneficial effects for white Americans. Rightly or wrongly, they opened the way for American expansion; the United States Army, stationed on the American to preserve peace with the Indians and to protect settlements, served as an agent of empire in pushing back the frontier; and Frederick Jackson Turner has written that the Indian frontier was both a military training school and a consolidating agent among frontiersmen who were forced to cooperate to resist a common enemy (1894:210-11). Numerous accounts of the wars are available for study: there are personal reminiscenses of military and political figures, as well as literate frontiersmen; newspaper accounts; and government records. These have all been used to piece together the events and individuals involved in conflicts between Americans and Indians. ITHNOHISTORY 20/2 (Spring 1973) 173 This content downloaded from 157.55.39.127 on Tue, 28 Jun 2016 07:30:07 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms