Last updated: July 9, 2021
Place
Stop Three
NPS / Christian Schroll
Quick Facts
Location:
Washita Battlefield National Historic Site
As the American Civil War raged throughout the country, conflict over tribal lands on the Southern Plains grew more heated. White emigrants seeking gold and a new life promised by the Homestead Act streamed into the western territories. They could not relate to the Native tribes that spoke a different language and claimed a different relationship with the land. Communication was hard. Treaties made with the tribes were changed and ignored as westward expansion by emigrants, trains, and military forces increased. Mistrust, fear, and retaliation on both sides fueled continued conflict. The Cheyenne and Arapaho peoples native to the region fought back in vain as they tried to maintain their way of life.
It is said that the seeds of this conflict lay in a clash resulting from two cultures both desiring the same geographical area for disparate reasons.
Can you of think of other times when a rivalry between two cultures has resulted in violence or tragedy? What has been the result for those involved? How did one culture claim “dominance”?