American Expansion In Sioux By D. L. Birchfield

383 Words2 Pages
For the Sioux tribe, American expansion caused many problems and hardships, primarily derived from Americans’ dislike for Natives. This is evident in an excerpt from the book Sioux by D. L. Birchfield. One can see from this excerpt that when streams of American expansion moved west because of the California Gold Rush, they brought various illnesses and sickness to the Sioux. The spread of smallpox, measles, and other contagious diseases killed off an estimated ½ of their population (Birchfield). Settlers were not sad because of this news, and a lot were actually glad that so many Native Americans had died. Because of all these people moving west, some wanted to settle on their land, leading to treaties forcing the Sioux into small reserved