Journal 5

I researched Native Americans today and learned more about the interaction between the tribes and the European settlers. The settlers basically stole the Indians land from them when they came to the country. The Indians didn't understand the meaning of "private property"; different tribes fought each other for the right to hunt on the land, but not own it. Instead, the entire community of Indian tribes "owned" the land they lived on.
Europeans wrote treaties with the Delaware and Shawnee Indians that supposedly were going to allow them to split the land, but the settlers took advantage of the Indians and took all of it for themselves. Eventually, Congress passed a law in the 1870s that ceased the signing of treaties and they gave Indians pieces of land called Indian Reserves. They got some land back, but were restricted to live where the Europeans told them to.
The government believed that the Indians were incapable of caring for the land, so it was cared for by the U.S. government.
This was a serious struggle for equality because the Indians' voice was ignored by the new Americans. That's why there aren't many of them left in America today.