U.S. Military and Government Policy Concerning the Native Americans in the West Evolve From the End of the American Civil War Through 1890

Prior to the Civil War, the American West was a vast, remote and sparsely populated region Aside from the settlers moving across the Plains to the West Coast, there not many U.S. citizens to defend, so the U.S. military focused on defending the trails used by immigrants. In order to provide this defense, the Army built forts from which they could operate and patrol the area around these bases. The primary strategy was "search and destroy campaigns against isolated bands with the purpose of keeping them off balance and unable to organize systematic raids" (Kalyvas , 112-120). By 1853, 66 percent of the regular U.S. Army was located in the West (23 percent of these along the Mexican border) to enforce this strategy. Operating alongside the Army during this time was the Bureau of Indian Affairs, created in 1834 and transferred to the Department of the Interior in 1849. The Bureau would act as a diplomatic arm of the U.S. government, establishing formal relations with tribes and paying an annuity to peaceful tribes (Gleditsch, 33-48).

Even with the United States embroiled in a civil war, conflicts with the Indians continued. It may comes as a surprise to some, who think of the Indian Wars as taking place on the plains of Montana, Wyoming, etc., but in 1862 the Santee Sioux staged an uprising in Minnesota. As a result of this and other actions against the Sioux in the Northern Plains, the United States began to develop the reservation policy. The U.S. Army would destroy the food and supplies of the bands, forcing them to seek assistance from the Indian Bureau who would provide assistance in exchange for the bands camping ...