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Essay on Struggle Over Land,Labor,and Life-ways: Intercultural Conflict and the Transformation of the American West
American west reflects the cultural diversity of the trans-Appalachian region. Long before the white man set foot on American soil, the American Indians, or rather the Native Americans had been living on this land. Values and way of life, west of the mountains were as wide-ranging as the area's peoples, traditions, cultural notions, religious practices, and levels of education.
Indian Wars
In the 20th century their were many large changes and the fear and excitement of being on the brink of a new world. People played Indian as a way to escape this and to embarrass something that seemed so natural. Hobbyist became common. Where before Anglo-Americans wanted Native Americans to despair and reviled most of their culture while stealing and changing other parts, now whites were embracing Native American culture. The hobbyist in this period did the same as was done before (Alvin, 2002). They brought with them expectations of the culture and if the Indian culture and people did not meet those expectations then they were ignored or reviled. Most importantly it was just more of the same, taking the ideas that were attractive and leaving behind the rest. Although this period brought more respect to the Indian people it did little to restore the true Indian form. Their culture had been torn to pieces and lost over time.
The western conflicts in the United States between Native Americans, Anglo-Americans and whites from 1880 to 1920 are known as the Indian Wars, and, like all wars, originated from a series of betrayals, attacks, and broken promises. The most extensive conflicts generally included the most powerful and populous Native American nations: the Comanche and Kiowa, among others, in the Southern Plains; the Lakota Sioux, Cheyenne, Shoshone, and Blackfeet, among others, in the Northern Plains; the Apache and Navajo, among others, in the Southwest; the Ute, Shoshone, Bannock, and Yakama in the Northwest......
