Joseph's Speech On Westward Expansion

After the Civil War ended, westward expansion became a focal point in America’s growth as a country. The idea of “Manifest Destiny” became popular, this was the idea that America had a God given right to expand West. There were many people of different ethnicity’s that wanted to move West because they believed that they would have new opportunities, or a new beginning. There was said to be free land that people could use to farm. Unfortunately, not everything was easy and there were people already living out West. The Native Americans had already established tribes and culture where Americans wanted to move. There were times of peace and war between the Indians and Americans, but in the end the Indians were often forcibly removed from their

Joseph had hope that he could change the way whites looked at Indians and their culture because the whites thought Indians were uncivilized savages. Joseph also talked about how white settlers had come and taken the land that he and his ancestors have lived on for many years. The Chief did not want to go into a war, but said he would if it came down to it. He wished to live peacefully with the white settlers. Joseph is obviously influenced by his Native culture, so he made white settlers out to be bad guys in a way. In Joseph’s speech, he said that white settlers had offered treaty after treaty until he was almost forced to sign one which gave up their land and moved them to another reservation. People today will look at this speech and sympathize with the Chief, but back in the late 1800’s, many white settlers believed that they were not doing any harm and they were even helping the

Richard Pratt was an American teacher that taught on Indian reservations. White superiority was a big influence in the speech he gave to reformers in 1892. Pratt thought that Indians were uncivilized, but could be assimilated into American culture. He believes this because he thought African-Americans were the same way. Pratt had the idea that if you take children out of Native American tribes and then put them into American schools out of their tribal nation, they would assimilate and become civilized people. This is what Pratt means by killing the Indian but saving the man. Of course, the Indian side of this is not shown in this speech, but they were not too fond of the