Indian and European: Indian-White Relations from Discovery to 1887

Abstract

When the American continent was settled by Europeans, they saw as a mission the conversion of the natives into Europeans. Needing their friend ship and aid they treated them as free men, true owners of the land, but failed to understand their concept of land use and tenure. A policy of fair dealing soon faced the inexorable facts of a rapidly growing white population eager for land. The westward movement pushed the Indian farther and farther away from the Atlantic shore. Their land boundaries were no longer inviolate and with the Dawes Act of 1887, the final invasion of Indian homelands began.—Ed.