From Spirit to Machine: American Expansion and the Dispossession of the Native Americans

Abstract

From Spirit to Machine: American Expansion and the Dispossession of the Native Americans By Alan Kyle merican expansion westward is undoubtedly one of the most controversial times in United States history. By examining the details of certain historical events during this time, the morally questionable practice and policy that occurred is justified by various factors; the role of ideology, struggle for resources, propaganda, and myth all played a major part in the subjugation of the indigenous population. Given these factors, the question of how it is that the Indians were subjugated rather than integrated can be answered. For the tribes that did assimilate to Euro-American ways, expansionist forces targeted those tribes for relocation due to the fact that their adoption of intensive agriculture made them competitors for land. Apart from competition over the land, another reason why Indians could not be integrated into American society was because of conflicting ideals. The Indians had a naturalistic approach to their way of life, such as prayer to animal spirits and the belief in a great spirit chief that rules and cares for the land. They had no system of land ownership, so when asked to sell or move from their ancestral lands, the Indians responded with resistance. Thunder Traveling Over The Mountains, also known as Young Joseph, describes his father Joseph Senior’s last words, “My son, never forget my dying words. This country holds your father's body. Never sell the bones of your father and your mother. 1 The Native Americans were so invested in the land they occupied that when confronted by outer forces it lead to one of the bloodiest times in American history. The contemporary US ideology was of bringing modern advancement and all that is morally good to the West. This meant bringing their perceived superior qualities such as bureaucracy and modern political practice. As it turns out, bureaucracy was a great enabler for debasing the Indian way of life. In the case of General Miles, whom some say was a sympathizer, he promised the persecuted Nez Perce at Bear Paw that they could go back home to the Pacific Northwest if they surrendered. 2 About being told that Miles’s promise could not be kept, Joseph said: “I believe General Miles would have kept his word if he could have done so. I do not blame him for what we have suffered since the surrender. I do not know who is to blame.” 3 Whether General Miles had good intentions for the Indians or not does not matter, Miles was forced to adhere to his chain of command and so it was that the dispossession continued. The ability for different political actors to negotiate independently with the Native Americans caused much confusion and even separation, as noted with the Nez Perce splintering into treaty and non-treaty groups due to differences in interpretation of American negotiations. Young Joseph gives his own view of American bureaucracy when he states, “Other law chiefs came to see me and said they would help me to get a healthy country. I did not know who to believe. The white people have too many chiefs. They do not understand each other. They do not all talk alike.” 4 This American dynamic of selective A