HIST 151 Lecture Notes - Lecture 5: George Armstrong Custer, Dawes Act
Document Summary
The term contested west , that is used to describe the late 1800"s, as whites expanded westward fulfilling manifest destiny is used to understand the efforts by both whites and native americans as they battled for land, culture, and power. The forced assimilation of the native americans is a large portion of the term. The dawes act, the battles of lt. col. george armstrong custer, and the. Carlisle indian school are examples of how assimilation added to the struggles of the contested west, due to americans asserting their power and forcing american indians to uproot their lives to meet the terms of the federal government. When congress passed the dawes act, the goal was to force native. Americans to do things the way the whites wanted, by taking their away their land and giving it to individual families on specific terms that only. English was to be spoken, they were to be educated as americans, and act like americans (knaus).
