The European heritage
The European attitudes toward the environment
When European colonizers entered North America, they regarded the continent as a virtual
wilderness, one waiting to be settled and developed economically. The indigenous agriculture in
what is now the United States and Canada seemed strange and rudimentary to them, and it had
made only a slight dent in the vast forests and grasslands. There were no herds or flocks of
domesticated grazing animals exploiting the natural pastures, and mineral deposits, water power,
and other resources were being ignored by the aborigines. The Europeans saw no reason why
they should not claim land they thought could be used to better advantage; and they proceeded to
buy out, exterminate, or push out the Indians—when they did not enslave them—and established
their supremacy over the land.
The dispossession of the Indians
The process of removing the Indians from their ancestral lands led to bitter disputes. The
British tried to end one such problem by setting up the Proclamation of 1763 line along the
Appalachian divide, allowing whites to take over what lay to the east but attempting to reserve
what lay to the west as Indian territory. After their independence from Britain, the Americans
continued to adopt this ideal of a two-nation state, but in practice the notion soon collapsed as
they pushed the Indian line westward past the Appalachians to the Mississippi River and into the
Missouri River valley and other western lands. Nearly all the Indians in the east were displaced
to the west and into special zones in Oklahoma, the Great Plains, and the intermontane basins.
Even there, their land and their way of life were not respected, as ranchers, railroaders, and
homesteaders opened the West to settlement.
The Indian “territories” soon were reduced to isolated “reservations.” As a result, most of
the Indian population in the United States is now found west of the Mississippi River, usually in
drier areas unsuited to productive agriculture. At times the U.S. government has encouraged
Indians to leave the reservations and mix with the general population in the large cities of the
Midwest and West, a process of acculturation that some—including many younger and
ethnically conscious Indians—would claim poses as many dangers to the individual and social
well-being of Indians as do the communal misfortunes already brought upon them.
Counteracting the forces of assimilation have been increasingly energetic programs to defend
and strengthen aboriginal identity.
In Canada the reservation system was adopted at a relatively early date; it protected First
Nation (Native American) settlements throughout the east, even in such agriculturally rich areas
as the Montreal plain or peninsular Ontario. As the Europeans moved west, care was taken to
retain Indians on at least part of their own lands, including such fertile areas as the valley of the
Red River of the North and the Fraser River delta. Intermarriage between whites and Indians was
much more common than in the United States and produced a sizable community of the French
and Indian métis, who in 1869–70 unsuccessfully attempted to set up a separate state in the
Canadian prairies.
In both Mexico and Central America, racial admixture has gone much farther. In Mexico,
the mestizo population—of mixed Indian and white descent—accounts for some three-fifths of
the population, while pure-blooded Indians amount to less than one-fifth, and whites constitute
nearly all the rest (small fractions are Mexicans of African and Arab descent). European
immigration to Mexico and Central America since the original Spanish conquest has been
negligible. When Velasco made his tally of 5,000,000 Indians within his jurisdiction, there were
only 150,000 Spaniards in the New World.
The European attitudes toward the environment
When European colonizers entered North America, they regarded the continent as a virtual
wilderness, one waiting to be settled and developed economically. The indigenous agriculture in
what is now the United States and Canada seemed strange and rudimentary to them, and it had
made only a slight dent in the vast forests and grasslands. There were no herds or flocks of
domesticated grazing animals exploiting the natural pastures, and mineral deposits, water power,
and other resources were being ignored by the aborigines. The Europeans saw no reason why
they should not claim land they thought could be used to better advantage; and they proceeded to
buy out, exterminate, or push out the Indians—when they did not enslave them—and established
their supremacy over the land.
The dispossession of the Indians
The process of removing the Indians from their ancestral lands led to bitter disputes. The
British tried to end one such problem by setting up the Proclamation of 1763 line along the
Appalachian divide, allowing whites to take over what lay to the east but attempting to reserve
what lay to the west as Indian territory. After their independence from Britain, the Americans
continued to adopt this ideal of a two-nation state, but in practice the notion soon collapsed as
they pushed the Indian line westward past the Appalachians to the Mississippi River and into the
Missouri River valley and other western lands. Nearly all the Indians in the east were displaced
to the west and into special zones in Oklahoma, the Great Plains, and the intermontane basins.
Even there, their land and their way of life were not respected, as ranchers, railroaders, and
homesteaders opened the West to settlement.
The Indian “territories” soon were reduced to isolated “reservations.” As a result, most of
the Indian population in the United States is now found west of the Mississippi River, usually in
drier areas unsuited to productive agriculture. At times the U.S. government has encouraged
Indians to leave the reservations and mix with the general population in the large cities of the
Midwest and West, a process of acculturation that some—including many younger and
ethnically conscious Indians—would claim poses as many dangers to the individual and social
well-being of Indians as do the communal misfortunes already brought upon them.
Counteracting the forces of assimilation have been increasingly energetic programs to defend
and strengthen aboriginal identity.
In Canada the reservation system was adopted at a relatively early date; it protected First
Nation (Native American) settlements throughout the east, even in such agriculturally rich areas
as the Montreal plain or peninsular Ontario. As the Europeans moved west, care was taken to
retain Indians on at least part of their own lands, including such fertile areas as the valley of the
Red River of the North and the Fraser River delta. Intermarriage between whites and Indians was
much more common than in the United States and produced a sizable community of the French
and Indian métis, who in 1869–70 unsuccessfully attempted to set up a separate state in the
Canadian prairies.
In both Mexico and Central America, racial admixture has gone much farther. In Mexico,
the mestizo population—of mixed Indian and white descent—accounts for some three-fifths of
the population, while pure-blooded Indians amount to less than one-fifth, and whites constitute
nearly all the rest (small fractions are Mexicans of African and Arab descent). European
immigration to Mexico and Central America since the original Spanish conquest has been
negligible. When Velasco made his tally of 5,000,000 Indians within his jurisdiction, there were
only 150,000 Spaniards in the New World.
The European attitudes toward the environment
When European colonizers entered North America, they regarded the continent as a virtual
wilderness, one waiting to be settled and developed economically. The indigenous agriculture in
what is now the United States and Canada seemed strange and rudimentary to them, and it had
made only a slight dent in the vast forests and grasslands. There were no herds or flocks of
domesticated grazing animals exploiting the natural pastures, and mineral deposits, water power,
and other resources were being ignored by the aborigines. The Europeans saw no reason why
they should not claim land they thought could be used to better advantage; and they proceeded to
buy out, exterminate, or push out the Indians—when they did not enslave them—and established
their supremacy over the land.
The dispossession of the Indians
The process of removing the Indians from their ancestral lands led to bitter disputes. The
British tried to end one such problem by setting up the Proclamation of 1763 line along the
Appalachian divide, allowing whites to take over what lay to the east but attempting to reserve
what lay to the west as Indian territory. After their independence from Britain, the Americans
continued to adopt this ideal of a two-nation state, but in practice the notion soon collapsed as
they pushed the Indian line westward past the Appalachians to the Mississippi River and into the
Missouri River valley and other western lands. Nearly all the Indians in the east were displaced
to the west and into special zones in Oklahoma, the Great Plains, and the intermontane basins.
Even there, their land and their way of life were not respected, as ranchers, railroaders, and
homesteaders opened the West to settlement.
The Indian “territories” soon were reduced to isolated “reservations.” As a result, most of
the Indian population in the United States is now found west of the Mississippi River, usually in
drier areas unsuited to productive agriculture. At times the U.S. government has encouraged
Indians to leave the reservations and mix with the general population in the large cities of the
Midwest and West, a process of acculturation that some—including many younger and
ethnically conscious Indians—would claim poses as many dangers to the individual and social
well-being of Indians as do the communal misfortunes already brought upon them.
Counteracting the forces of assimilation have been increasingly energetic programs to defend
and strengthen aboriginal identity.
In Canada the reservation system was adopted at a relatively early date; it protected First
Nation (Native American) settlements throughout the east, even in such agriculturally rich areas
as the Montreal plain or peninsular Ontario. As the Europeans moved west, care was taken to
retain Indians on at least part of their own lands, including such fertile areas as the valley of the
Red River of the North and the Fraser River delta. Intermarriage between whites and Indians was
much more common than in the United States and produced a sizable community of the French
and Indian métis, who in 1869–70 unsuccessfully attempted to set up a separate state in the
Canadian prairies.
In both Mexico and Central America, racial admixture has gone much farther. In Mexico,
the mestizo population—of mixed Indian and white descent—accounts for some three-fifths of
the population, while pure-blooded Indians amount to less than one-fifth, and whites constitute
nearly all the rest (small fractions are Mexicans of African and Arab descent). European
immigration to Mexico and Central America since the original Spanish conquest has been
negligible. When Velasco made his tally of 5,000,000 Indians within his jurisdiction, there were
only 150,000 Spaniards in the New World.
The European attitudes toward the environment
When European colonizers entered North America, they regarded the continent as a virtual
wilderness, one waiting to be settled and developed economically. The indigenous agriculture in
what is now the United States and Canada seemed strange and rudimentary to them, and it had
made only a slight dent in the vast forests and grasslands. There were no herds or flocks of
domesticated grazing animals exploiting the natural pastures, and mineral deposits, water power,
and other resources were being ignored by the aborigines. The Europeans saw no reason why
they should not claim land they thought could be used to better advantage; and they proceeded to
buy out, exterminate, or push out the Indians—when they did not enslave them—and established
their supremacy over the land.
The dispossession of the Indians
The process of removing the Indians from their ancestral lands led to bitter disputes. The
British tried to end one such problem by setting up the Proclamation of 1763 line along the
Appalachian divide, allowing whites to take over what lay to the east but attempting to reserve
what lay to the west as Indian territory. After their independence from Britain, the Americans
continued to adopt this ideal of a two-nation state, but in practice the notion soon collapsed as
they pushed the Indian line westward past the Appalachians to the Mississippi River and into the
Missouri River valley and other western lands. Nearly all the Indians in the east were displaced
to the west and into special zones in Oklahoma, the Great Plains, and the intermontane basins.
Even there, their land and their way of life were not respected, as ranchers, railroaders, and
homesteaders opened the West to settlement.
The Indian “territories” soon were reduced to isolated “reservations.” As a result, most of
the Indian population in the United States is now found west of the Mississippi River, usually in
drier areas unsuited to productive agriculture. At times the U.S. government has encouraged
Indians to leave the reservations and mix with the general population in the large cities of the
Midwest and West, a process of acculturation that some—including many younger and
ethnically conscious Indians—would claim poses as many dangers to the individual and social
well-being of Indians as do the communal misfortunes already brought upon them.
Counteracting the forces of assimilation have been increasingly energetic programs to defend
and strengthen aboriginal identity.
In Canada the reservation system was adopted at a relatively early date; it protected First
Nation (Native American) settlements throughout the east, even in such agriculturally rich areas
as the Montreal plain or peninsular Ontario. As the Europeans moved west, care was taken to
retain Indians on at least part of their own lands, including such fertile areas as the valley of the
Red River of the North and the Fraser River delta. Intermarriage between whites and Indians was
much more common than in the United States and produced a sizable community of the French
and Indian métis, who in 1869–70 unsuccessfully attempted to set up a separate state in the
Canadian prairies.
In both Mexico and Central America, racial admixture has gone much farther. In Mexico,
the mestizo population—of mixed Indian and white descent—accounts for some three-fifths of
the population, while pure-blooded Indians amount to less than one-fifth, and whites constitute
nearly all the rest (small fractions are Mexicans of African and Arab descent). European
immigration to Mexico and Central America since the original Spanish conquest has been
negligible. When Velasco made his tally of 5,000,000 Indians within his jurisdiction, there were
only 150,000 Spaniards in the New World.
The European attitudes toward the environment
When European colonizers entered North America, they regarded the continent as a virtual
wilderness, one waiting to be settled and developed economically. The indigenous agriculture in
what is now the United States and Canada seemed strange and rudimentary to them, and it had
made only a slight dent in the vast forests and grasslands. There were no herds or flocks of
domesticated grazing animals exploiting the natural pastures, and mineral deposits, water power,
and other resources were being ignored by the aborigines. The Europeans saw no reason why
they should not claim land they thought could be used to better advantage; and they proceeded to
buy out, exterminate, or push out the Indians—when they did not enslave them—and established
their supremacy over the land.
The dispossession of the Indians
The process of removing the Indians from their ancestral lands led to bitter disputes. The
British tried to end one such problem by setting up the Proclamation of 1763 line along the
Appalachian divide, allowing whites to take over what lay to the east but attempting to reserve
what lay to the west as Indian territory. After their independence from Britain, the Americans
continued to adopt this ideal of a two-nation state, but in practice the notion soon collapsed as
they pushed the Indian line westward past the Appalachians to the Mississippi River and into the
Missouri River valley and other western lands. Nearly all the Indians in the east were displaced
to the west and into special zones in Oklahoma, the Great Plains, and the intermontane basins.
Even there, their land and their way of life were not respected, as ranchers, railroaders, and
homesteaders opened the West to settlement.
The Indian “territories” soon were reduced to isolated “reservations.” As a result, most of
the Indian population in the United States is now found west of the Mississippi River, usually in
drier areas unsuited to productive agriculture. At times the U.S. government has encouraged
Indians to leave the reservations and mix with the general population in the large cities of the
Midwest and West, a process of acculturation that some—including many younger and
ethnically conscious Indians—would claim poses as many dangers to the individual and social
well-being of Indians as do the communal misfortunes already brought upon them.
Counteracting the forces of assimilation have been increasingly energetic programs to defend
and strengthen aboriginal identity.
In Canada the reservation system was adopted at a relatively early date; it protected First
Nation (Native American) settlements throughout the east, even in such agriculturally rich areas
as the Montreal plain or peninsular Ontario. As the Europeans moved west, care was taken to
retain Indians on at least part of their own lands, including such fertile areas as the valley of the
Red River of the North and the Fraser River delta. Intermarriage between whites and Indians was
much more common than in the United States and produced a sizable community of the French
and Indian métis, who in 1869–70 unsuccessfully attempted to set up a separate state in the
Canadian prairies.
In both Mexico and Central America, racial admixture has gone much farther. In Mexico,
the mestizo population—of mixed Indian and white descent—accounts for some three-fifths of
the population, while pure-blooded Indians amount to less than one-fifth, and whites constitute
nearly all the rest (small fractions are Mexicans of African and Arab descent). European
immigration to Mexico and Central America since the original Spanish conquest has been
negligible. When Velasco made his tally of 5,000,000 Indians within his jurisdiction, there were
only 150,000 Spaniards in the New World.
The European attitudes toward the environment
When European colonizers entered North America, they regarded the continent as a virtual
wilderness, one waiting to be settled and developed economically. The indigenous agriculture in
what is now the United States and Canada seemed strange and rudimentary to them, and it had
made only a slight dent in the vast forests and grasslands. There were no herds or flocks of
domesticated grazing animals exploiting the natural pastures, and mineral deposits, water power,
and other resources were being ignored by the aborigines. The Europeans saw no reason why
they should not claim land they thought could be used to better advantage; and they proceeded to
buy out, exterminate, or push out the Indians—when they did not enslave them—and established
their supremacy over the land.
The dispossession of the Indians
The process of removing the Indians from their ancestral lands led to bitter disputes. The
British tried to end one such problem by setting up the Proclamation of 1763 line along the
Appalachian divide, allowing whites to take over what lay to the east but attempting to reserve
what lay to the west as Indian territory. After their independence from Britain, the Americans
continued to adopt this ideal of a two-nation state, but in practice the notion soon collapsed as
they pushed the Indian line westward past the Appalachians to the Mississippi River and into the
Missouri River valley and other western lands. Nearly all the Indians in the east were displaced
to the west and into special zones in Oklahoma, the Great Plains, and the intermontane basins.
Even there, their land and their way of life were not respected, as ranchers, railroaders, and
homesteaders opened the West to settlement.
The Indian “territories” soon were reduced to isolated “reservations.” As a result, most of
the Indian population in the United States is now found west of the Mississippi River, usually in
drier areas unsuited to productive agriculture. At times the U.S. government has encouraged
Indians to leave the reservations and mix with the general population in the large cities of the
Midwest and West, a process of acculturation that some—including many younger and
ethnically conscious Indians—would claim poses as many dangers to the individual and social
well-being of Indians as do the communal misfortunes already brought upon them.
Counteracting the forces of assimilation have been increasingly energetic programs to defend
and strengthen aboriginal identity.
In Canada the reservation system was adopted at a relatively early date; it protected First
Nation (Native American) settlements throughout the east, even in such agriculturally rich areas
as the Montreal plain or peninsular Ontario. As the Europeans moved west, care was taken to
retain Indians on at least part of their own lands, including such fertile areas as the valley of the
Red River of the North and the Fraser River delta. Intermarriage between whites and Indians was
much more common than in the United States and produced a sizable community of the French
and Indian métis, who in 1869–70 unsuccessfully attempted to set up a separate state in the
Canadian prairies.
In both Mexico and Central America, racial admixture has gone much farther. In Mexico,
the mestizo population—of mixed Indian and white descent—accounts for some three-fifths of
the population, while pure-blooded Indians amount to less than one-fifth, and whites constitute
nearly all the rest (small fractions are Mexicans of African and Arab descent). European
immigration to Mexico and Central America since the original Spanish conquest has been
negligible. When Velasco made his tally of 5,000,000 Indians within his jurisdiction, there were
only 150,000 Spaniards in the New World.
The European attitudes toward the environment
When European colonizers entered North America, they regarded the continent as a virtual
wilderness, one waiting to be settled and developed economically. The indigenous agriculture in
what is now the United States and Canada seemed strange and rudimentary to them, and it had
made only a slight dent in the vast forests and grasslands. There were no herds or flocks of
domesticated grazing animals exploiting the natural pastures, and mineral deposits, water power,
and other resources were being ignored by the aborigines. The Europeans saw no reason why
they should not claim land they thought could be used to better advantage; and they proceeded to
buy out, exterminate, or push out the Indians—when they did not enslave them—and established
their supremacy over the land.
The dispossession of the Indians
The process of removing the Indians from their ancestral lands led to bitter disputes. The
British tried to end one such problem by setting up the Proclamation of 1763 line along the
Appalachian divide, allowing whites to take over what lay to the east but attempting to reserve
what lay to the west as Indian territory. After their independence from Britain, the Americans
continued to adopt this ideal of a two-nation state, but in practice the notion soon collapsed as
they pushed the Indian line westward past the Appalachians to the Mississippi River and into the
Missouri River valley and other western lands. Nearly all the Indians in the east were displaced
to the west and into special zones in Oklahoma, the Great Plains, and the intermontane basins.
Even there, their land and their way of life were not respected, as ranchers, railroaders, and
homesteaders opened the West to settlement.
The Indian “territories” soon were reduced to isolated “reservations.” As a result, most of
the Indian population in the United States is now found west of the Mississippi River, usually in
drier areas unsuited to productive agriculture. At times the U.S. government has encouraged
Indians to leave the reservations and mix with the general population in the large cities of the
Midwest and West, a process of acculturation that some—including many younger and
ethnically conscious Indians—would claim poses as many dangers to the individual and social
well-being of Indians as do the communal misfortunes already brought upon them.
Counteracting the forces of assimilation have been increasingly energetic programs to defend
and strengthen aboriginal identity.
In Canada the reservation system was adopted at a relatively early date; it protected First
Nation (Native American) settlements throughout the east, even in such agriculturally rich areas
as the Montreal plain or peninsular Ontario. As the Europeans moved west, care was taken to
retain Indians on at least part of their own lands, including such fertile areas as the valley of the
Red River of the North and the Fraser River delta. Intermarriage between whites and Indians was
much more common than in the United States and produced a sizable community of the French
and Indian métis, who in 1869–70 unsuccessfully attempted to set up a separate state in the
Canadian prairies.
In both Mexico and Central America, racial admixture has gone much farther. In Mexico,
the mestizo population—of mixed Indian and white descent—accounts for some three-fifths of
the population, while pure-blooded Indians amount to less than one-fifth, and whites constitute
nearly all the rest (small fractions are Mexicans of African and Arab descent). European
immigration to Mexico and Central America since the original Spanish conquest has been
negligible. When Velasco made his tally of 5,000,000 Indians within his jurisdiction, there were
only 150,000 Spaniards in the New World.
The European attitudes toward the environment
When European colonizers entered North America, they regarded the continent as a virtual
wilderness, one waiting to be settled and developed economically. The indigenous agriculture in
what is now the United States and Canada seemed strange and rudimentary to them, and it had
made only a slight dent in the vast forests and grasslands. There were no herds or flocks of
domesticated grazing animals exploiting the natural pastures, and mineral deposits, water power,
and other resources were being ignored by the aborigines. The Europeans saw no reason why
they should not claim land they thought could be used to better advantage; and they proceeded to
buy out, exterminate, or push out the Indians—when they did not enslave them—and established
their supremacy over the land.
The dispossession of the Indians
The process of removing the Indians from their ancestral lands led to bitter disputes. The
British tried to end one such problem by setting up the Proclamation of 1763 line along the
Appalachian divide, allowing whites to take over what lay to the east but attempting to reserve
what lay to the west as Indian territory. After their independence from Britain, the Americans
continued to adopt this ideal of a two-nation state, but in practice the notion soon collapsed as
they pushed the Indian line westward past the Appalachians to the Mississippi River and into the
Missouri River valley and other western lands. Nearly all the Indians in the east were displaced
to the west and into special zones in Oklahoma, the Great Plains, and the intermontane basins.
Even there, their land and their way of life were not respected, as ranchers, railroaders, and
homesteaders opened the West to settlement.
The Indian “territories” soon were reduced to isolated “reservations.” As a result, most of
the Indian population in the United States is now found west of the Mississippi River, usually in
drier areas unsuited to productive agriculture. At times the U.S. government has encouraged
Indians to leave the reservations and mix with the general population in the large cities of the
Midwest and West, a process of acculturation that some—including many younger and
ethnically conscious Indians—would claim poses as many dangers to the individual and social
well-being of Indians as do the communal misfortunes already brought upon them.
Counteracting the forces of assimilation have been increasingly energetic programs to defend
and strengthen aboriginal identity.
In Canada the reservation system was adopted at a relatively early date; it protected First
Nation (Native American) settlements throughout the east, even in such agriculturally rich areas
as the Montreal plain or peninsular Ontario. As the Europeans moved west, care was taken to
retain Indians on at least part of their own lands, including such fertile areas as the valley of the
Red River of the North and the Fraser River delta. Intermarriage between whites and Indians was
much more common than in the United States and produced a sizable community of the French
and Indian métis, who in 1869–70 unsuccessfully attempted to set up a separate state in the
Canadian prairies.
In both Mexico and Central America, racial admixture has gone much farther. In Mexico,
the mestizo population—of mixed Indian and white descent—accounts for some three-fifths of
the population, while pure-blooded Indians amount to less than one-fifth, and whites constitute
nearly all the rest (small fractions are Mexicans of African and Arab descent). European
immigration to Mexico and Central America since the original Spanish conquest has been
negligible. When Velasco made his tally of 5,000,000 Indians within his jurisdiction, there were
only 150,000 Spaniards in the New World.
The European attitudes toward the environment
When European colonizers entered North America, they regarded the continent as a virtual
wilderness, one waiting to be settled and developed economically. The indigenous agriculture in
what is now the United States and Canada seemed strange and rudimentary to them, and it had
made only a slight dent in the vast forests and grasslands. There were no herds or flocks of
domesticated grazing animals exploiting the natural pastures, and mineral deposits, water power,
and other resources were being ignored by the aborigines. The Europeans saw no reason why
they should not claim land they thought could be used to better advantage; and they proceeded to
buy out, exterminate, or push out the Indians—when they did not enslave them—and established
their supremacy over the land.
The dispossession of the Indians
The process of removing the Indians from their ancestral lands led to bitter disputes. The
British tried to end one such problem by setting up the Proclamation of 1763 line along the
Appalachian divide, allowing whites to take over what lay to the east but attempting to reserve
what lay to the west as Indian territory. After their independence from Britain, the Americans
continued to adopt this ideal of a two-nation state, but in practice the notion soon collapsed as
they pushed the Indian line westward past the Appalachians to the Mississippi River and into the
Missouri River valley and other western lands. Nearly all the Indians in the east were displaced
to the west and into special zones in Oklahoma, the Great Plains, and the intermontane basins.
Even there, their land and their way of life were not respected, as ranchers, railroaders, and
homesteaders opened the West to settlement.
The Indian “territories” soon were reduced to isolated “reservations.” As a result, most of
the Indian population in the United States is now found west of the Mississippi River, usually in
drier areas unsuited to productive agriculture. At times the U.S. government has encouraged
Indians to leave the reservations and mix with the general population in the large cities of the
Midwest and West, a process of acculturation that some—including many younger and
ethnically conscious Indians—would claim poses as many dangers to the individual and social
well-being of Indians as do the communal misfortunes already brought upon them.
Counteracting the forces of assimilation have been increasingly energetic programs to defend
and strengthen aboriginal identity.
In Canada the reservation system was adopted at a relatively early date; it protected First
Nation (Native American) settlements throughout the east, even in such agriculturally rich areas
as the Montreal plain or peninsular Ontario. As the Europeans moved west, care was taken to
retain Indians on at least part of their own lands, including such fertile areas as the valley of the
Red River of the North and the Fraser River delta. Intermarriage between whites and Indians was
much more common than in the United States and produced a sizable community of the French
and Indian métis, who in 1869–70 unsuccessfully attempted to set up a separate state in the
Canadian prairies.
In both Mexico and Central America, racial admixture has gone much farther. In Mexico,
the mestizo population—of mixed Indian and white descent—accounts for some three-fifths of
the population, while pure-blooded Indians amount to less than one-fifth, and whites constitute
nearly all the rest (small fractions are Mexicans of African and Arab descent). European
immigration to Mexico and Central America since the original Spanish conquest has been
negligible. When Velasco made his tally of 5,000,000 Indians within his jurisdiction, there were
only 150,000 Spaniards in the New World.
The European attitudes toward the environment
When European colonizers entered North America, they regarded the continent as a virtual
wilderness, one waiting to be settled and developed economically. The indigenous agriculture in
what is now the United States and Canada seemed strange and rudimentary to them, and it had
made only a slight dent in the vast forests and grasslands. There were no herds or flocks of
domesticated grazing animals exploiting the natural pastures, and mineral deposits, water power,
and other resources were being ignored by the aborigines. The Europeans saw no reason why
they should not claim land they thought could be used to better advantage; and they proceeded to
buy out, exterminate, or push out the Indians—when they did not enslave them—and established
their supremacy over the land.
The dispossession of the Indians
The process of removing the Indians from their ancestral lands led to bitter disputes. The
British tried to end one such problem by setting up the Proclamation of 1763 line along the
Appalachian divide, allowing whites to take over what lay to the east but attempting to reserve
what lay to the west as Indian territory. After their independence from Britain, the Americans
continued to adopt this ideal of a two-nation state, but in practice the notion soon collapsed as
they pushed the Indian line westward past the Appalachians to the Mississippi River and into the
Missouri River valley and other western lands. Nearly all the Indians in the east were displaced
to the west and into special zones in Oklahoma, the Great Plains, and the intermontane basins.
Even there, their land and their way of life were not respected, as ranchers, railroaders, and
homesteaders opened the West to settlement.
The Indian “territories” soon were reduced to isolated “reservations.” As a result, most of
the Indian population in the United States is now found west of the Mississippi River, usually in
drier areas unsuited to productive agriculture. At times the U.S. government has encouraged
Indians to leave the reservations and mix with the general population in the large cities of the
Midwest and West, a process of acculturation that some—including many younger and
ethnically conscious Indians—would claim poses as many dangers to the individual and social
well-being of Indians as do the communal misfortunes already brought upon them.
Counteracting the forces of assimilation have been increasingly energetic programs to defend
and strengthen aboriginal identity.
In Canada the reservation system was adopted at a relatively early date; it protected First
Nation (Native American) settlements throughout the east, even in such agriculturally rich areas
as the Montreal plain or peninsular Ontario. As the Europeans moved west, care was taken to
retain Indians on at least part of their own lands, including such fertile areas as the valley of the
Red River of the North and the Fraser River delta. Intermarriage between whites and Indians was
much more common than in the United States and produced a sizable community of the French
and Indian métis, who in 1869–70 unsuccessfully attempted to set up a separate state in the
Canadian prairies.
In both Mexico and Central America, racial admixture has gone much farther. In Mexico,
the mestizo population—of mixed Indian and white descent—accounts for some three-fifths of
the population, while pure-blooded Indians amount to less than one-fifth, and whites constitute
nearly all the rest (small fractions are Mexicans of African and Arab descent). European
immigration to Mexico and Central America since the original Spanish conquest has been
negligible. When Velasco made his tally of 5,000,000 Indians within his jurisdiction, there were
only 150,000 Spaniards in the New World.
The European attitudes toward the environment
When European colonizers entered North America, they regarded the continent as a virtual
wilderness, one waiting to be settled and developed economically. The indigenous agriculture in
what is now the United States and Canada seemed strange and rudimentary to them, and it had
made only a slight dent in the vast forests and grasslands. There were no herds or flocks of
domesticated grazing animals exploiting the natural pastures, and mineral deposits, water power,
and other resources were being ignored by the aborigines. The Europeans saw no reason why
they should not claim land they thought could be used to better advantage; and they proceeded to
buy out, exterminate, or push out the Indians—when they did not enslave them—and established
their supremacy over the land.
The dispossession of the Indians
The process of removing the Indians from their ancestral lands led to bitter disputes. The
British tried to end one such problem by setting up the Proclamation of 1763 line along the
Appalachian divide, allowing whites to take over what lay to the east but attempting to reserve
what lay to the west as Indian territory. After their independence from Britain, the Americans
continued to adopt this ideal of a two-nation state, but in practice the notion soon collapsed as
they pushed the Indian line westward past the Appalachians to the Mississippi River and into the
Missouri River valley and other western lands. Nearly all the Indians in the east were displaced
to the west and into special zones in Oklahoma, the Great Plains, and the intermontane basins.
Even there, their land and their way of life were not respected, as ranchers, railroaders, and
homesteaders opened the West to settlement.
The Indian “territories” soon were reduced to isolated “reservations.” As a result, most of
the Indian population in the United States is now found west of the Mississippi River, usually in
drier areas unsuited to productive agriculture. At times the U.S. government has encouraged
Indians to leave the reservations and mix with the general population in the large cities of the
Midwest and West, a process of acculturation that some—including many younger and
ethnically conscious Indians—would claim poses as many dangers to the individual and social
well-being of Indians as do the communal misfortunes already brought upon them.
Counteracting the forces of assimilation have been increasingly energetic programs to defend
and strengthen aboriginal identity.
In Canada the reservation system was adopted at a relatively early date; it protected First
Nation (Native American) settlements throughout the east, even in such agriculturally rich areas
as the Montreal plain or peninsular Ontario. As the Europeans moved west, care was taken to
retain Indians on at least part of their own lands, including such fertile areas as the valley of the
Red River of the North and the Fraser River delta. Intermarriage between whites and Indians was
much more common than in the United States and produced a sizable community of the French
and Indian métis, who in 1869–70 unsuccessfully attempted to set up a separate state in the
Canadian prairies.
In both Mexico and Central America, racial admixture has gone much farther. In Mexico,
the mestizo population—of mixed Indian and white descent—accounts for some three-fifths of
the population, while pure-blooded Indians amount to less than one-fifth, and whites constitute
nearly all the rest (small fractions are Mexicans of African and Arab descent). European
immigration to Mexico and Central America since the original Spanish conquest has been
negligible. When Velasco made his tally of 5,000,000 Indians within his jurisdiction, there were
only 150,000 Spaniards in the New World.
The European attitudes toward the environment
When European colonizers entered North America, they regarded the continent as a virtual
wilderness, one waiting to be settled and developed economically. The indigenous agriculture in
what is now the United States and Canada seemed strange and rudimentary to them, and it had
made only a slight dent in the vast forests and grasslands. There were no herds or flocks of
domesticated grazing animals exploiting the natural pastures, and mineral deposits, water power,
and other resources were being ignored by the aborigines. The Europeans saw no reason why
they should not claim land they thought could be used to better advantage; and they proceeded to
buy out, exterminate, or push out the Indians—when they did not enslave them—and established
their supremacy over the land.
The dispossession of the Indians
The process of removing the Indians from their ancestral lands led to bitter disputes. The
British tried to end one such problem by setting up the Proclamation of 1763 line along the
Appalachian divide, allowing whites to take over what lay to the east but attempting to reserve
what lay to the west as Indian territory. After their independence from Britain, the Americans
continued to adopt this ideal of a two-nation state, but in practice the notion soon collapsed as
they pushed the Indian line westward past the Appalachians to the Mississippi River and into the
Missouri River valley and other western lands. Nearly all the Indians in the east were displaced
to the west and into special zones in Oklahoma, the Great Plains, and the intermontane basins.
Even there, their land and their way of life were not respected, as ranchers, railroaders, and
homesteaders opened the West to settlement.
The Indian “territories” soon were reduced to isolated “reservations.” As a result, most of
the Indian population in the United States is now found west of the Mississippi River, usually in
drier areas unsuited to productive agriculture. At times the U.S. government has encouraged
Indians to leave the reservations and mix with the general population in the large cities of the
Midwest and West, a process of acculturation that some—including many younger and
ethnically conscious Indians—would claim poses as many dangers to the individual and social
well-being of Indians as do the communal misfortunes already brought upon them.
Counteracting the forces of assimilation have been increasingly energetic programs to defend
and strengthen aboriginal identity.
In Canada the reservation system was adopted at a relatively early date; it protected First
Nation (Native American) settlements throughout the east, even in such agriculturally rich areas
as the Montreal plain or peninsular Ontario. As the Europeans moved west, care was taken to
retain Indians on at least part of their own lands, including such fertile areas as the valley of the
Red River of the North and the Fraser River delta. Intermarriage between whites and Indians was
much more common than in the United States and produced a sizable community of the French
and Indian métis, who in 1869–70 unsuccessfully attempted to set up a separate state in the
Canadian prairies.
In both Mexico and Central America, racial admixture has gone much farther. In Mexico,
the mestizo population—of mixed Indian and white descent—accounts for some three-fifths of
the population, while pure-blooded Indians amount to less than one-fifth, and whites constitute
nearly all the rest (small fractions are Mexicans of African and Arab descent). European
immigration to Mexico and Central America since the original Spanish conquest has been
negligible. When Velasco made his tally of 5,000,000 Indians within his jurisdiction, there were
only 150,000 Spaniards in the New World.
The European attitudes toward the environment
When European colonizers entered North America, they regarded the continent as a virtual
wilderness, one waiting to be settled and developed economically. The indigenous agriculture in
what is now the United States and Canada seemed strange and rudimentary to them, and it had
made only a slight dent in the vast forests and grasslands. There were no herds or flocks of
domesticated grazing animals exploiting the natural pastures, and mineral deposits, water power,
and other resources were being ignored by the aborigines. The Europeans saw no reason why
they should not claim land they thought could be used to better advantage; and they proceeded to
buy out, exterminate, or push out the Indians—when they did not enslave them—and established
their supremacy over the land.
The dispossession of the Indians
The process of removing the Indians from their ancestral lands led to bitter disputes. The
British tried to end one such problem by setting up the Proclamation of 1763 line along the
Appalachian divide, allowing whites to take over what lay to the east but attempting to reserve
what lay to the west as Indian territory. After their independence from Britain, the Americans
continued to adopt this ideal of a two-nation state, but in practice the notion soon collapsed as
they pushed the Indian line westward past the Appalachians to the Mississippi River and into the
Missouri River valley and other western lands. Nearly all the Indians in the east were displaced
to the west and into special zones in Oklahoma, the Great Plains, and the intermontane basins.
Even there, their land and their way of life were not respected, as ranchers, railroaders, and
homesteaders opened the West to settlement.
The Indian “territories” soon were reduced to isolated “reservations.” As a result, most of
the Indian population in the United States is now found west of the Mississippi River, usually in
drier areas unsuited to productive agriculture. At times the U.S. government has encouraged
Indians to leave the reservations and mix with the general population in the large cities of the
Midwest and West, a process of acculturation that some—including many younger and
ethnically conscious Indians—would claim poses as many dangers to the individual and social
well-being of Indians as do the communal misfortunes already brought upon them.
Counteracting the forces of assimilation have been increasingly energetic programs to defend
and strengthen aboriginal identity.
In Canada the reservation system was adopted at a relatively early date; it protected First
Nation (Native American) settlements throughout the east, even in such agriculturally rich areas
as the Montreal plain or peninsular Ontario. As the Europeans moved west, care was taken to
retain Indians on at least part of their own lands, including such fertile areas as the valley of the
Red River of the North and the Fraser River delta. Intermarriage between whites and Indians was
much more common than in the United States and produced a sizable community of the French
and Indian métis, who in 1869–70 unsuccessfully attempted to set up a separate state in the
Canadian prairies.
In both Mexico and Central America, racial admixture has gone much farther. In Mexico,
the mestizo population—of mixed Indian and white descent—accounts for some three-fifths of
the population, while pure-blooded Indians amount to less than one-fifth, and whites constitute
nearly all the rest (small fractions are Mexicans of African and Arab descent). European
immigration to Mexico and Central America since the original Spanish conquest has been
negligible. When Velasco made his tally of 5,000,000 Indians within his jurisdiction, there were
only 150,000 Spaniards in the New World.
The European attitudes toward the environment
When European colonizers entered North America, they regarded the continent as a virtual
wilderness, one waiting to be settled and developed economically. The indigenous agriculture in
what is now the United States and Canada seemed strange and rudimentary to them, and it had
made only a slight dent in the vast forests and grasslands. There were no herds or flocks of
domesticated grazing animals exploiting the natural pastures, and mineral deposits, water power,
and other resources were being ignored by the aborigines. The Europeans saw no reason why
they should not claim land they thought could be used to better advantage; and they proceeded to
buy out, exterminate, or push out the Indians—when they did not enslave them—and established
their supremacy over the land.
The dispossession of the Indians
The process of removing the Indians from their ancestral lands led to bitter disputes. The
British tried to end one such problem by setting up the Proclamation of 1763 line along the
Appalachian divide, allowing whites to take over what lay to the east but attempting to reserve
what lay to the west as Indian territory. After their independence from Britain, the Americans
continued to adopt this ideal of a two-nation state, but in practice the notion soon collapsed as
they pushed the Indian line westward past the Appalachians to the Mississippi River and into the
Missouri River valley and other western lands. Nearly all the Indians in the east were displaced
to the west and into special zones in Oklahoma, the Great Plains, and the intermontane basins.
Even there, their land and their way of life were not respected, as ranchers, railroaders, and
homesteaders opened the West to settlement.
The Indian “territories” soon were reduced to isolated “reservations.” As a result, most of
the Indian population in the United States is now found west of the Mississippi River, usually in
drier areas unsuited to productive agriculture. At times the U.S. government has encouraged
Indians to leave the reservations and mix with the general population in the large cities of the
Midwest and West, a process of acculturation that some—including many younger and
ethnically conscious Indians—would claim poses as many dangers to the individual and social
well-being of Indians as do the communal misfortunes already brought upon them.
Counteracting the forces of assimilation have been increasingly energetic programs to defend
and strengthen aboriginal identity.
In Canada the reservation system was adopted at a relatively early date; it protected First
Nation (Native American) settlements throughout the east, even in such agriculturally rich areas
as the Montreal plain or peninsular Ontario. As the Europeans moved west, care was taken to
retain Indians on at least part of their own lands, including such fertile areas as the valley of the
Red River of the North and the Fraser River delta. Intermarriage between whites and Indians was
much more common than in the United States and produced a sizable community of the French
and Indian métis, who in 1869–70 unsuccessfully attempted to set up a separate state in the
Canadian prairies.
In both Mexico and Central America, racial admixture has gone much farther. In Mexico,
the mestizo population—of mixed Indian and white descent—accounts for some three-fifths of
the population, while pure-blooded Indians amount to less than one-fifth, and whites constitute
nearly all the rest (small fractions are Mexicans of African and Arab descent). European
immigration to Mexico and Central America since the original Spanish conquest has been
negligible. When Velasco made his tally of 5,000,000 Indians within his jurisdiction, there were
only 150,000 Spaniards in the New World.
The European attitudes toward the environment
When European colonizers entered North America, they regarded the continent as a virtual
wilderness, one waiting to be settled and developed economically. The indigenous agriculture in
what is now the United States and Canada seemed strange and rudimentary to them, and it had
made only a slight dent in the vast forests and grasslands. There were no herds or flocks of
domesticated grazing animals exploiting the natural pastures, and mineral deposits, water power,
and other resources were being ignored by the aborigines. The Europeans saw no reason why
they should not claim land they thought could be used to better advantage; and they proceeded to
buy out, exterminate, or push out the Indians—when they did not enslave them—and established
their supremacy over the land.
The dispossession of the Indians
The process of removing the Indians from their ancestral lands led to bitter disputes. The
British tried to end one such problem by setting up the Proclamation of 1763 line along the
Appalachian divide, allowing whites to take over what lay to the east but attempting to reserve
what lay to the west as Indian territory. After their independence from Britain, the Americans
continued to adopt this ideal of a two-nation state, but in practice the notion soon collapsed as
they pushed the Indian line westward past the Appalachians to the Mississippi River and into the
Missouri River valley and other western lands. Nearly all the Indians in the east were displaced
to the west and into special zones in Oklahoma, the Great Plains, and the intermontane basins.
Even there, their land and their way of life were not respected, as ranchers, railroaders, and
homesteaders opened the West to settlement.
The Indian “territories” soon were reduced to isolated “reservations.” As a result, most of
the Indian population in the United States is now found west of the Mississippi River, usually in
drier areas unsuited to productive agriculture. At times the U.S. government has encouraged
Indians to leave the reservations and mix with the general population in the large cities of the
Midwest and West, a process of acculturation that some—including many younger and
ethnically conscious Indians—would claim poses as many dangers to the individual and social
well-being of Indians as do the communal misfortunes already brought upon them.
Counteracting the forces of assimilation have been increasingly energetic programs to defend
and strengthen aboriginal identity.
In Canada the reservation system was adopted at a relatively early date; it protected First
Nation (Native American) settlements throughout the east, even in such agriculturally rich areas
as the Montreal plain or peninsular Ontario. As the Europeans moved west, care was taken to
retain Indians on at least part of their own lands, including such fertile areas as the valley of the
Red River of the North and the Fraser River delta. Intermarriage between whites and Indians was
much more common than in the United States and produced a sizable community of the French
and Indian métis, who in 1869–70 unsuccessfully attempted to set up a separate state in the
Canadian prairies.
In both Mexico and Central America, racial admixture has gone much farther. In Mexico,
the mestizo population—of mixed Indian and white descent—accounts for some three-fifths of
the population, while pure-blooded Indians amount to less than one-fifth, and whites constitute
nearly all the rest (small fractions are Mexicans of African and Arab descent). European
immigration to Mexico and Central America since the original Spanish conquest has been
negligible. When Velasco made his tally of 5,000,000 Indians within his jurisdiction, there were
only 150,000 Spaniards in the New World.
The European attitudes toward the environment
When European colonizers entered North America, they regarded the continent as a virtual
wilderness, one waiting to be settled and developed economically. The indigenous agriculture in
what is now the United States and Canada seemed strange and rudimentary to them, and it had
made only a slight dent in the vast forests and grasslands. There were no herds or flocks of
domesticated grazing animals exploiting the natural pastures, and mineral deposits, water power,
and other resources were being ignored by the aborigines. The Europeans saw no reason why
they should not claim land they thought could be used to better advantage; and they proceeded to
buy out, exterminate, or push out the Indians—when they did not enslave them—and established
their supremacy over the land.
The dispossession of the Indians
The process of removing the Indians from their ancestral lands led to bitter disputes. The
British tried to end one such problem by setting up the Proclamation of 1763 line along the
Appalachian divide, allowing whites to take over what lay to the east but attempting to reserve
what lay to the west as Indian territory. After their independence from Britain, the Americans
continued to adopt this ideal of a two-nation state, but in practice the notion soon collapsed as
they pushed the Indian line westward past the Appalachians to the Mississippi River and into the
Missouri River valley and other western lands. Nearly all the Indians in the east were displaced
to the west and into special zones in Oklahoma, the Great Plains, and the intermontane basins.
Even there, their land and their way of life were not respected, as ranchers, railroaders, and
homesteaders opened the West to settlement.
The Indian “territories” soon were reduced to isolated “reservations.” As a result, most of
the Indian population in the United States is now found west of the Mississippi River, usually in
drier areas unsuited to productive agriculture. At times the U.S. government has encouraged
Indians to leave the reservations and mix with the general population in the large cities of the
Midwest and West, a process of acculturation that some—including many younger and
ethnically conscious Indians—would claim poses as many dangers to the individual and social
well-being of Indians as do the communal misfortunes already brought upon them.
Counteracting the forces of assimilation have been increasingly energetic programs to defend
and strengthen aboriginal identity.
In Canada the reservation system was adopted at a relatively early date; it protected First
Nation (Native American) settlements throughout the east, even in such agriculturally rich areas
as the Montreal plain or peninsular Ontario. As the Europeans moved west, care was taken to
retain Indians on at least part of their own lands, including such fertile areas as the valley of the
Red River of the North and the Fraser River delta. Intermarriage between whites and Indians was
much more common than in the United States and produced a sizable community of the French
and Indian métis, who in 1869–70 unsuccessfully attempted to set up a separate state in the
Canadian prairies.
In both Mexico and Central America, racial admixture has gone much farther. In Mexico,
the mestizo population—of mixed Indian and white descent—accounts for some three-fifths of
the population, while pure-blooded Indians amount to less than one-fifth, and whites constitute
nearly all the rest (small fractions are Mexicans of African and Arab descent). European
immigration to Mexico and Central America since the original Spanish conquest has been
negligible. When Velasco made his tally of 5,000,000 Indians within his jurisdiction, there were
only 150,000 Spaniards in the New World.
The European attitudes toward the environment
When European colonizers entered North America, they regarded the continent as a virtual
wilderness, one waiting to be settled and developed economically. The indigenous agriculture in
what is now the United States and Canada seemed strange and rudimentary to them, and it had
made only a slight dent in the vast forests and grasslands. There were no herds or flocks of
domesticated grazing animals exploiting the natural pastures, and mineral deposits, water power,
and other resources were being ignored by the aborigines. The Europeans saw no reason why
they should not claim land they thought could be used to better advantage; and they proceeded to
buy out, exterminate, or push out the Indians—when they did not enslave them—and established
their supremacy over the land.
The dispossession of the Indians
The process of removing the Indians from their ancestral lands led to bitter disputes. The
British tried to end one such problem by setting up the Proclamation of 1763 line along the
Appalachian divide, allowing whites to take over what lay to the east but attempting to reserve
what lay to the west as Indian territory. After their independence from Britain, the Americans
continued to adopt this ideal of a two-nation state, but in practice the notion soon collapsed as
they pushed the Indian line westward past the Appalachians to the Mississippi River and into the
Missouri River valley and other western lands. Nearly all the Indians in the east were displaced
to the west and into special zones in Oklahoma, the Great Plains, and the intermontane basins.
Even there, their land and their way of life were not respected, as ranchers, railroaders, and
homesteaders opened the West to settlement.
The Indian “territories” soon were reduced to isolated “reservations.” As a result, most of
the Indian population in the United States is now found west of the Mississippi River, usually in
drier areas unsuited to productive agriculture. At times the U.S. government has encouraged
Indians to leave the reservations and mix with the general population in the large cities of the
Midwest and West, a process of acculturation that some—including many younger and
ethnically conscious Indians—would claim poses as many dangers to the individual and social
well-being of Indians as do the communal misfortunes already brought upon them.
Counteracting the forces of assimilation have been increasingly energetic programs to defend
and strengthen aboriginal identity.
In Canada the reservation system was adopted at a relatively early date; it protected First
Nation (Native American) settlements throughout the east, even in such agriculturally rich areas
as the Montreal plain or peninsular Ontario. As the Europeans moved west, care was taken to
retain Indians on at least part of their own lands, including such fertile areas as the valley of the
Red River of the North and the Fraser River delta. Intermarriage between whites and Indians was
much more common than in the United States and produced a sizable community of the French
and Indian métis, who in 1869–70 unsuccessfully attempted to set up a separate state in the
Canadian prairies.
In both Mexico and Central America, racial admixture has gone much farther. In Mexico,
the mestizo population—of mixed Indian and white descent—accounts for some three-fifths of
the population, while pure-blooded Indians amount to less than one-fifth, and whites constitute
nearly all the rest (small fractions are Mexicans of African and Arab descent). European
immigration to Mexico and Central America since the original Spanish conquest has been
negligible. When Velasco made his tally of 5,000,000 Indians within his jurisdiction, there were
only 150,000 Spaniards in the New World.
The European attitudes toward the environment
When European colonizers entered North America, they regarded the continent as a virtual
wilderness, one waiting to be settled and developed economically. The indigenous agriculture in
what is now the United States and Canada seemed strange and rudimentary to them, and it had
made only a slight dent in the vast forests and grasslands. There were no herds or flocks of
domesticated grazing animals exploiting the natural pastures, and mineral deposits, water power,
and other resources were being ignored by the aborigines. The Europeans saw no reason why
they should not claim land they thought could be used to better advantage; and they proceeded to
buy out, exterminate, or push out the Indians—when they did not enslave them—and established
their supremacy over the land.
The dispossession of the Indians
The process of removing the Indians from their ancestral lands led to bitter disputes. The
British tried to end one such problem by setting up the Proclamation of 1763 line along the
Appalachian divide, allowing whites to take over what lay to the east but attempting to reserve
what lay to the west as Indian territory. After their independence from Britain, the Americans
continued to adopt this ideal of a two-nation state, but in practice the notion soon collapsed as
they pushed the Indian line westward past the Appalachians to the Mississippi River and into the
Missouri River valley and other western lands. Nearly all the Indians in the east were displaced
to the west and into special zones in Oklahoma, the Great Plains, and the intermontane basins.
Even there, their land and their way of life were not respected, as ranchers, railroaders, and
homesteaders opened the West to settlement.
The Indian “territories” soon were reduced to isolated “reservations.” As a result, most of
the Indian population in the United States is now found west of the Mississippi River, usually in
drier areas unsuited to productive agriculture. At times the U.S. government has encouraged
Indians to leave the reservations and mix with the general population in the large cities of the
Midwest and West, a process of acculturation that some—including many younger and
ethnically conscious Indians—would claim poses as many dangers to the individual and social
well-being of Indians as do the communal misfortunes already brought upon them.
Counteracting the forces of assimilation have been increasingly energetic programs to defend
and strengthen aboriginal identity.
In Canada the reservation system was adopted at a relatively early date; it protected First
Nation (Native American) settlements throughout the east, even in such agriculturally rich areas
as the Montreal plain or peninsular Ontario. As the Europeans moved west, care was taken to
retain Indians on at least part of their own lands, including such fertile areas as the valley of the
Red River of the North and the Fraser River delta. Intermarriage between whites and Indians was
much more common than in the United States and produced a sizable community of the French
and Indian métis, who in 1869–70 unsuccessfully attempted to set up a separate state in the
Canadian prairies.
In both Mexico and Central America, racial admixture has gone much farther. In Mexico,
the mestizo population—of mixed Indian and white descent—accounts for some three-fifths of
the population, while pure-blooded Indians amount to less than one-fifth, and whites constitute
nearly all the rest (small fractions are Mexicans of African and Arab descent). European
immigration to Mexico and Central America since the original Spanish conquest has been
negligible. When Velasco made his tally of 5,000,000 Indians within his jurisdiction, there were
only 150,000 Spaniards in the New World.
The European attitudes toward the environment
When European colonizers entered North America, they regarded the continent as a virtual
wilderness, one waiting to be settled and developed economically. The indigenous agriculture in
what is now the United States and Canada seemed strange and rudimentary to them, and it had
made only a slight dent in the vast forests and grasslands. There were no herds or flocks of
domesticated grazing animals exploiting the natural pastures, and mineral deposits, water power,
and other resources were being ignored by the aborigines. The Europeans saw no reason why
they should not claim land they thought could be used to better advantage; and they proceeded to
buy out, exterminate, or push out the Indians—when they did not enslave them—and established
their supremacy over the land.
The dispossession of the Indians
The process of removing the Indians from their ancestral lands led to bitter disputes. The
British tried to end one such problem by setting up the Proclamation of 1763 line along the
Appalachian divide, allowing whites to take over what lay to the east but attempting to reserve
what lay to the west as Indian territory. After their independence from Britain, the Americans
continued to adopt this ideal of a two-nation state, but in practice the notion soon collapsed as
they pushed the Indian line westward past the Appalachians to the Mississippi River and into the
Missouri River valley and other western lands. Nearly all the Indians in the east were displaced
to the west and into special zones in Oklahoma, the Great Plains, and the intermontane basins.
Even there, their land and their way of life were not respected, as ranchers, railroaders, and
homesteaders opened the West to settlement.
The Indian “territories” soon were reduced to isolated “reservations.” As a result, most of
the Indian population in the United States is now found west of the Mississippi River, usually in
drier areas unsuited to productive agriculture. At times the U.S. government has encouraged
Indians to leave the reservations and mix with the general population in the large cities of the
Midwest and West, a process of acculturation that some—including many younger and
ethnically conscious Indians—would claim poses as many dangers to the individual and social
well-being of Indians as do the communal misfortunes already brought upon them.
Counteracting the forces of assimilation have been increasingly energetic programs to defend
and strengthen aboriginal identity.
In Canada the reservation system was adopted at a relatively early date; it protected First
Nation (Native American) settlements throughout the east, even in such agriculturally rich areas
as the Montreal plain or peninsular Ontario. As the Europeans moved west, care was taken to
retain Indians on at least part of their own lands, including such fertile areas as the valley of the
Red River of the North and the Fraser River delta. Intermarriage between whites and Indians was
much more common than in the United States and produced a sizable community of the French
and Indian métis, who in 1869–70 unsuccessfully attempted to set up a separate state in the
Canadian prairies.
In both Mexico and Central America, racial admixture has gone much farther. In Mexico,
the mestizo population—of mixed Indian and white descent—accounts for some three-fifths of
the population, while pure-blooded Indians amount to less than one-fifth, and whites constitute
nearly all the rest (small fractions are Mexicans of African and Arab descent). European
immigration to Mexico and Central America since the original Spanish conquest has been
negligible. When Velasco made his tally of 5,000,000 Indians within his jurisdiction, there were
only 150,000 Spaniards in the New World.
The European attitudes toward the environment
When European colonizers entered North America, they regarded the continent as a virtual
wilderness, one waiting to be settled and developed economically. The indigenous agriculture in
what is now the United States and Canada seemed strange and rudimentary to them, and it had
made only a slight dent in the vast forests and grasslands. There were no herds or flocks of
domesticated grazing animals exploiting the natural pastures, and mineral deposits, water power,
and other resources were being ignored by the aborigines. The Europeans saw no reason why
they should not claim land they thought could be used to better advantage; and they proceeded to
buy out, exterminate, or push out the Indians—when they did not enslave them—and established
their supremacy over the land.
The dispossession of the Indians
The process of removing the Indians from their ancestral lands led to bitter disputes. The
British tried to end one such problem by setting up the Proclamation of 1763 line along the
Appalachian divide, allowing whites to take over what lay to the east but attempting to reserve
what lay to the west as Indian territory. After their independence from Britain, the Americans
continued to adopt this ideal of a two-nation state, but in practice the notion soon collapsed as
they pushed the Indian line westward past the Appalachians to the Mississippi River and into the
Missouri River valley and other western lands. Nearly all the Indians in the east were displaced
to the west and into special zones in Oklahoma, the Great Plains, and the intermontane basins.
Even there, their land and their way of life were not respected, as ranchers, railroaders, and
homesteaders opened the West to settlement.
The Indian “territories” soon were reduced to isolated “reservations.” As a result, most of
the Indian population in the United States is now found west of the Mississippi River, usually in
drier areas unsuited to productive agriculture. At times the U.S. government has encouraged
Indians to leave the reservations and mix with the general population in the large cities of the
Midwest and West, a process of acculturation that some—including many younger and
ethnically conscious Indians—would claim poses as many dangers to the individual and social
well-being of Indians as do the communal misfortunes already brought upon them.
Counteracting the forces of assimilation have been increasingly energetic programs to defend
and strengthen aboriginal identity.
In Canada the reservation system was adopted at a relatively early date; it protected First
Nation (Native American) settlements throughout the east, even in such agriculturally rich areas
as the Montreal plain or peninsular Ontario. As the Europeans moved west, care was taken to
retain Indians on at least part of their own lands, including such fertile areas as the valley of the
Red River of the North and the Fraser River delta. Intermarriage between whites and Indians was
much more common than in the United States and produced a sizable community of the French
and Indian métis, who in 1869–70 unsuccessfully attempted to set up a separate state in the
Canadian prairies.
In both Mexico and Central America, racial admixture has gone much farther. In Mexico,
the mestizo population—of mixed Indian and white descent—accounts for some three-fifths of
the population, while pure-blooded Indians amount to less than one-fifth, and whites constitute
nearly all the rest (small fractions are Mexicans of African and Arab descent). European
immigration to Mexico and Central America since the original Spanish conquest has been
negligible. When Velasco made his tally of 5,000,000 Indians within his jurisdiction, there were
only 150,000 Spaniards in the New World.
The European attitudes toward the environment
When European colonizers entered North America, they regarded the continent as a virtual
wilderness, one waiting to be settled and developed economically. The indigenous agriculture in
what is now the United States and Canada seemed strange and rudimentary to them, and it had
made only a slight dent in the vast forests and grasslands. There were no herds or flocks of
domesticated grazing animals exploiting the natural pastures, and mineral deposits, water power,
and other resources were being ignored by the aborigines. The Europeans saw no reason why
they should not claim land they thought could be used to better advantage; and they proceeded to
buy out, exterminate, or push out the Indians—when they did not enslave them—and established
their supremacy over the land.
The dispossession of the Indians
The process of removing the Indians from their ancestral lands led to bitter disputes. The
British tried to end one such problem by setting up the Proclamation of 1763 line along the
Appalachian divide, allowing whites to take over what lay to the east but attempting to reserve
what lay to the west as Indian territory. After their independence from Britain, the Americans
continued to adopt this ideal of a two-nation state, but in practice the notion soon collapsed as
they pushed the Indian line westward past the Appalachians to the Mississippi River and into the
Missouri River valley and other western lands. Nearly all the Indians in the east were displaced
to the west and into special zones in Oklahoma, the Great Plains, and the intermontane basins.
Even there, their land and their way of life were not respected, as ranchers, railroaders, and
homesteaders opened the West to settlement.
The Indian “territories” soon were reduced to isolated “reservations.” As a result, most of
the Indian population in the United States is now found west of the Mississippi River, usually in
drier areas unsuited to productive agriculture. At times the U.S. government has encouraged
Indians to leave the reservations and mix with the general population in the large cities of the
Midwest and West, a process of acculturation that some—including many younger and
ethnically conscious Indians—would claim poses as many dangers to the individual and social
well-being of Indians as do the communal misfortunes already brought upon them.
Counteracting the forces of assimilation have been increasingly energetic programs to defend
and strengthen aboriginal identity.
In Canada the reservation system was adopted at a relatively early date; it protected First
Nation (Native American) settlements throughout the east, even in such agriculturally rich areas
as the Montreal plain or peninsular Ontario. As the Europeans moved west, care was taken to
retain Indians on at least part of their own lands, including such fertile areas as the valley of the
Red River of the North and the Fraser River delta. Intermarriage between whites and Indians was
much more common than in the United States and produced a sizable community of the French
and Indian métis, who in 1869–70 unsuccessfully attempted to set up a separate state in the
Canadian prairies.
In both Mexico and Central America, racial admixture has gone much farther. In Mexico,
the mestizo population—of mixed Indian and white descent—accounts for some three-fifths of
the population, while pure-blooded Indians amount to less than one-fifth, and whites constitute
nearly all the rest (small fractions are Mexicans of African and Arab descent). European
immigration to Mexico and Central America since the original Spanish conquest has been
negligible. When Velasco made his tally of 5,000,000 Indians within his jurisdiction, there were
only 150,000 Spaniards in the New World.
The European attitudes toward the environment
When European colonizers entered North America, they regarded the continent as a virtual
wilderness, one waiting to be settled and developed economically. The indigenous agriculture in
what is now the United States and Canada seemed strange and rudimentary to them, and it had
made only a slight dent in the vast forests and grasslands. There were no herds or flocks of
domesticated grazing animals exploiting the natural pastures, and mineral deposits, water power,
and other resources were being ignored by the aborigines. The Europeans saw no reason why
they should not claim land they thought could be used to better advantage; and they proceeded to
buy out, exterminate, or push out the Indians—when they did not enslave them—and established
their supremacy over the land.
The dispossession of the Indians
The process of removing the Indians from their ancestral lands led to bitter disputes. The
British tried to end one such problem by setting up the Proclamation of 1763 line along the
Appalachian divide, allowing whites to take over what lay to the east but attempting to reserve
what lay to the west as Indian territory. After their independence from Britain, the Americans
continued to adopt this ideal of a two-nation state, but in practice the notion soon collapsed as
they pushed the Indian line westward past the Appalachians to the Mississippi River and into the
Missouri River valley and other western lands. Nearly all the Indians in the east were displaced
to the west and into special zones in Oklahoma, the Great Plains, and the intermontane basins.
Even there, their land and their way of life were not respected, as ranchers, railroaders, and
homesteaders opened the West to settlement.
The Indian “territories” soon were reduced to isolated “reservations.” As a result, most of
the Indian population in the United States is now found west of the Mississippi River, usually in
drier areas unsuited to productive agriculture. At times the U.S. government has encouraged
Indians to leave the reservations and mix with the general population in the large cities of the
Midwest and West, a process of acculturation that some—including many younger and
ethnically conscious Indians—would claim poses as many dangers to the individual and social
well-being of Indians as do the communal misfortunes already brought upon them.
Counteracting the forces of assimilation have been increasingly energetic programs to defend
and strengthen aboriginal identity.
In Canada the reservation system was adopted at a relatively early date; it protected First
Nation (Native American) settlements throughout the east, even in such agriculturally rich areas
as the Montreal plain or peninsular Ontario. As the Europeans moved west, care was taken to
retain Indians on at least part of their own lands, including such fertile areas as the valley of the
Red River of the North and the Fraser River delta. Intermarriage between whites and Indians was
much more common than in the United States and produced a sizable community of the French
and Indian métis, who in 1869–70 unsuccessfully attempted to set up a separate state in the
Canadian prairies.
In both Mexico and Central America, racial admixture has gone much farther. In Mexico,
the mestizo population—of mixed Indian and white descent—accounts for some three-fifths of
the population, while pure-blooded Indians amount to less than one-fifth, and whites constitute
nearly all the rest (small fractions are Mexicans of African and Arab descent). European
immigration to Mexico and Central America since the original Spanish conquest has been
negligible. When Velasco made his tally of 5,000,000 Indians within his jurisdiction, there were
only 150,000 Spaniards in the New World.
The European attitudes toward the environment
When European colonizers entered North America, they regarded the continent as a virtual
wilderness, one waiting to be settled and developed economically. The indigenous agriculture in
what is now the United States and Canada seemed strange and rudimentary to them, and it had
made only a slight dent in the vast forests and grasslands. There were no herds or flocks of
domesticated grazing animals exploiting the natural pastures, and mineral deposits, water power,
and other resources were being ignored by the aborigines. The Europeans saw no reason why
they should not claim land they thought could be used to better advantage; and they proceeded to
buy out, exterminate, or push out the Indians—when they did not enslave them—and established
their supremacy over the land.
The dispossession of the Indians
The process of removing the Indians from their ancestral lands led to bitter disputes. The
British tried to end one such problem by setting up the Proclamation of 1763 line along the
Appalachian divide, allowing whites to take over what lay to the east but attempting to reserve
what lay to the west as Indian territory. After their independence from Britain, the Americans
continued to adopt this ideal of a two-nation state, but in practice the notion soon collapsed as
they pushed the Indian line westward past the Appalachians to the Mississippi River and into the
Missouri River valley and other western lands. Nearly all the Indians in the east were displaced
to the west and into special zones in Oklahoma, the Great Plains, and the intermontane basins.
Even there, their land and their way of life were not respected, as ranchers, railroaders, and
homesteaders opened the West to settlement.
The Indian “territories” soon were reduced to isolated “reservations.” As a result, most of
the Indian population in the United States is now found west of the Mississippi River, usually in
drier areas unsuited to productive agriculture. At times the U.S. government has encouraged
Indians to leave the reservations and mix with the general population in the large cities of the
Midwest and West, a process of acculturation that some—including many younger and
ethnically conscious Indians—would claim poses as many dangers to the individual and social
well-being of Indians as do the communal misfortunes already brought upon them.
Counteracting the forces of assimilation have been increasingly energetic programs to defend
and strengthen aboriginal identity.
In Canada the reservation system was adopted at a relatively early date; it protected First
Nation (Native American) settlements throughout the east, even in such agriculturally rich areas
as the Montreal plain or peninsular Ontario. As the Europeans moved west, care was taken to
retain Indians on at least part of their own lands, including such fertile areas as the valley of the
Red River of the North and the Fraser River delta. Intermarriage between whites and Indians was
much more common than in the United States and produced a sizable community of the French
and Indian métis, who in 1869–70 unsuccessfully attempted to set up a separate state in the
Canadian prairies.
In both Mexico and Central America, racial admixture has gone much farther. In Mexico,
the mestizo population—of mixed Indian and white descent—accounts for some three-fifths of
the population, while pure-blooded Indians amount to less than one-fifth, and whites constitute
nearly all the rest (small fractions are Mexicans of African and Arab descent). European
immigration to Mexico and Central America since the original Spanish conquest has been
negligible. When Velasco made his tally of 5,000,000 Indians within his jurisdiction, there were
only 150,000 Spaniards in the New World.
The European attitudes toward the environment
When European colonizers entered North America, they regarded the continent as a virtual
wilderness, one waiting to be settled and developed economically. The indigenous agriculture in
what is now the United States and Canada seemed strange and rudimentary to them, and it had
made only a slight dent in the vast forests and grasslands. There were no herds or flocks of
domesticated grazing animals exploiting the natural pastures, and mineral deposits, water power,
and other resources were being ignored by the aborigines. The Europeans saw no reason why
they should not claim land they thought could be used to better advantage; and they proceeded to
buy out, exterminate, or push out the Indians—when they did not enslave them—and established
their supremacy over the land.
The dispossession of the Indians
The process of removing the Indians from their ancestral lands led to bitter disputes. The
British tried to end one such problem by setting up the Proclamation of 1763 line along the
Appalachian divide, allowing whites to take over what lay to the east but attempting to reserve
what lay to the west as Indian territory. After their independence from Britain, the Americans
continued to adopt this ideal of a two-nation state, but in practice the notion soon collapsed as
they pushed the Indian line westward past the Appalachians to the Mississippi River and into the
Missouri River valley and other western lands. Nearly all the Indians in the east were displaced
to the west and into special zones in Oklahoma, the Great Plains, and the intermontane basins.
Even there, their land and their way of life were not respected, as ranchers, railroaders, and
homesteaders opened the West to settlement.
The Indian “territories” soon were reduced to isolated “reservations.” As a result, most of
the Indian population in the United States is now found west of the Mississippi River, usually in
drier areas unsuited to productive agriculture. At times the U.S. government has encouraged
Indians to leave the reservations and mix with the general population in the large cities of the
Midwest and West, a process of acculturation that some—including many younger and
ethnically conscious Indians—would claim poses as many dangers to the individual and social
well-being of Indians as do the communal misfortunes already brought upon them.
Counteracting the forces of assimilation have been increasingly energetic programs to defend
and strengthen aboriginal identity.
In Canada the reservation system was adopted at a relatively early date; it protected First
Nation (Native American) settlements throughout the east, even in such agriculturally rich areas
as the Montreal plain or peninsular Ontario. As the Europeans moved west, care was taken to
retain Indians on at least part of their own lands, including such fertile areas as the valley of the
Red River of the North and the Fraser River delta. Intermarriage between whites and Indians was
much more common than in the United States and produced a sizable community of the French
and Indian métis, who in 1869–70 unsuccessfully attempted to set up a separate state in the
Canadian prairies.
In both Mexico and Central America, racial admixture has gone much farther. In Mexico,
the mestizo population—of mixed Indian and white descent—accounts for some three-fifths of
the population, while pure-blooded Indians amount to less than one-fifth, and whites constitute
nearly all the rest (small fractions are Mexicans of African and Arab descent). European
immigration to Mexico and Central America since the original Spanish conquest has been
negligible. When Velasco made his tally of 5,000,000 Indians within his jurisdiction, there were
only 150,000 Spaniards in the New World.
The European attitudes toward the environment
When European colonizers entered North America, they regarded the continent as a virtual
wilderness, one waiting to be settled and developed economically. The indigenous agriculture in
what is now the United States and Canada seemed strange and rudimentary to them, and it had
made only a slight dent in the vast forests and grasslands. There were no herds or flocks of
domesticated grazing animals exploiting the natural pastures, and mineral deposits, water power,
and other resources were being ignored by the aborigines. The Europeans saw no reason why
they should not claim land they thought could be used to better advantage; and they proceeded to
buy out, exterminate, or push out the Indians—when they did not enslave them—and established
their supremacy over the land.
The dispossession of the Indians
The process of removing the Indians from their ancestral lands led to bitter disputes. The
British tried to end one such problem by setting up the Proclamation of 1763 line along the
Appalachian divide, allowing whites to take over what lay to the east but attempting to reserve
what lay to the west as Indian territory. After their independence from Britain, the Americans
continued to adopt this ideal of a two-nation state, but in practice the notion soon collapsed as
they pushed the Indian line westward past the Appalachians to the Mississippi River and into the
Missouri River valley and other western lands. Nearly all the Indians in the east were displaced
to the west and into special zones in Oklahoma, the Great Plains, and the intermontane basins.
Even there, their land and their way of life were not respected, as ranchers, railroaders, and
homesteaders opened the West to settlement.
The Indian “territories” soon were reduced to isolated “reservations.” As a result, most of
the Indian population in the United States is now found west of the Mississippi River, usually in
drier areas unsuited to productive agriculture. At times the U.S. government has encouraged
Indians to leave the reservations and mix with the general population in the large cities of the
Midwest and West, a process of acculturation that some—including many younger and
ethnically conscious Indians—would claim poses as many dangers to the individual and social
well-being of Indians as do the communal misfortunes already brought upon them.
Counteracting the forces of assimilation have been increasingly energetic programs to defend
and strengthen aboriginal identity.
In Canada the reservation system was adopted at a relatively early date; it protected First
Nation (Native American) settlements throughout the east, even in such agriculturally rich areas
as the Montreal plain or peninsular Ontario. As the Europeans moved west, care was taken to
retain Indians on at least part of their own lands, including such fertile areas as the valley of the
Red River of the North and the Fraser River delta. Intermarriage between whites and Indians was
much more common than in the United States and produced a sizable community of the French
and Indian métis, who in 1869–70 unsuccessfully attempted to set up a separate state in the
Canadian prairies.
In both Mexico and Central America, racial admixture has gone much farther. In Mexico,
the mestizo population—of mixed Indian and white descent—accounts for some three-fifths of
the population, while pure-blooded Indians amount to less than one-fifth, and whites constitute
nearly all the rest (small fractions are Mexicans of African and Arab descent). European
immigration to Mexico and Central America since the original Spanish conquest has been
negligible. When Velasco made his tally of 5,000,000 Indians within his jurisdiction, there were
only 150,000 Spaniards in the New World.
The European attitudes toward the environment
When European colonizers entered North America, they regarded the continent as a virtual
wilderness, one waiting to be settled and developed economically. The indigenous agriculture in
what is now the United States and Canada seemed strange and rudimentary to them, and it had
made only a slight dent in the vast forests and grasslands. There were no herds or flocks of
domesticated grazing animals exploiting the natural pastures, and mineral deposits, water power,
and other resources were being ignored by the aborigines. The Europeans saw no reason why
they should not claim land they thought could be used to better advantage; and they proceeded to
buy out, exterminate, or push out the Indians—when they did not enslave them—and established
their supremacy over the land.
The dispossession of the Indians
The process of removing the Indians from their ancestral lands led to bitter disputes. The
British tried to end one such problem by setting up the Proclamation of 1763 line along the
Appalachian divide, allowing whites to take over what lay to the east but attempting to reserve
what lay to the west as Indian territory. After their independence from Britain, the Americans
continued to adopt this ideal of a two-nation state, but in practice the notion soon collapsed as
they pushed the Indian line westward past the Appalachians to the Mississippi River and into the
Missouri River valley and other western lands. Nearly all the Indians in the east were displaced
to the west and into special zones in Oklahoma, the Great Plains, and the intermontane basins.
Even there, their land and their way of life were not respected, as ranchers, railroaders, and
homesteaders opened the West to settlement.
The Indian “territories” soon were reduced to isolated “reservations.” As a result, most of
the Indian population in the United States is now found west of the Mississippi River, usually in
drier areas unsuited to productive agriculture. At times the U.S. government has encouraged
Indians to leave the reservations and mix with the general population in the large cities of the
Midwest and West, a process of acculturation that some—including many younger and
ethnically conscious Indians—would claim poses as many dangers to the individual and social
well-being of Indians as do the communal misfortunes already brought upon them.
Counteracting the forces of assimilation have been increasingly energetic programs to defend
and strengthen aboriginal identity.
In Canada the reservation system was adopted at a relatively early date; it protected First
Nation (Native American) settlements throughout the east, even in such agriculturally rich areas
as the Montreal plain or peninsular Ontario. As the Europeans moved west, care was taken to
retain Indians on at least part of their own lands, including such fertile areas as the valley of the
Red River of the North and the Fraser River delta. Intermarriage between whites and Indians was
much more common than in the United States and produced a sizable community of the French
and Indian métis, who in 1869–70 unsuccessfully attempted to set up a separate state in the
Canadian prairies.
In both Mexico and Central America, racial admixture has gone much farther. In Mexico,
the mestizo population—of mixed Indian and white descent—accounts for some three-fifths of
the population, while pure-blooded Indians amount to less than one-fifth, and whites constitute
nearly all the rest (small fractions are Mexicans of African and Arab descent). European
immigration to Mexico and Central America since the original Spanish conquest has been
negligible. When Velasco made his tally of 5,000,000 Indians within his jurisdiction, there were
only 150,000 Spaniards in the New World.
The European attitudes toward the environment
When European colonizers entered North America, they regarded the continent as a virtual
wilderness, one waiting to be settled and developed economically. The indigenous agriculture in
what is now the United States and Canada seemed strange and rudimentary to them, and it had
made only a slight dent in the vast forests and grasslands. There were no herds or flocks of
domesticated grazing animals exploiting the natural pastures, and mineral deposits, water power,
and other resources were being ignored by the aborigines. The Europeans saw no reason why
they should not claim land they thought could be used to better advantage; and they proceeded to
buy out, exterminate, or push out the Indians—when they did not enslave them—and established
their supremacy over the land.
The dispossession of the Indians
The process of removing the Indians from their ancestral lands led to bitter disputes. The
British tried to end one such problem by setting up the Proclamation of 1763 line along the
Appalachian divide, allowing whites to take over what lay to the east but attempting to reserve
what lay to the west as Indian territory. After their independence from Britain, the Americans
continued to adopt this ideal of a two-nation state, but in practice the notion soon collapsed as
they pushed the Indian line westward past the Appalachians to the Mississippi River and into the
Missouri River valley and other western lands. Nearly all the Indians in the east were displaced
to the west and into special zones in Oklahoma, the Great Plains, and the intermontane basins.
Even there, their land and their way of life were not respected, as ranchers, railroaders, and
homesteaders opened the West to settlement.
The Indian “territories” soon were reduced to isolated “reservations.” As a result, most of
the Indian population in the United States is now found west of the Mississippi River, usually in
drier areas unsuited to productive agriculture. At times the U.S. government has encouraged
Indians to leave the reservations and mix with the general population in the large cities of the
Midwest and West, a process of acculturation that some—including many younger and
ethnically conscious Indians—would claim poses as many dangers to the individual and social
well-being of Indians as do the communal misfortunes already brought upon them.
Counteracting the forces of assimilation have been increasingly energetic programs to defend
and strengthen aboriginal identity.
In Canada the reservation system was adopted at a relatively early date; it protected First
Nation (Native American) settlements throughout the east, even in such agriculturally rich areas
as the Montreal plain or peninsular Ontario. As the Europeans moved west, care was taken to
retain Indians on at least part of their own lands, including such fertile areas as the valley of the
Red River of the North and the Fraser River delta. Intermarriage between whites and Indians was
much more common than in the United States and produced a sizable community of the French
and Indian métis, who in 1869–70 unsuccessfully attempted to set up a separate state in the
Canadian prairies.
In both Mexico and Central America, racial admixture has gone much farther. In Mexico,
the mestizo population—of mixed Indian and white descent—accounts for some three-fifths of
the population, while pure-blooded Indians amount to less than one-fifth, and whites constitute
nearly all the rest (small fractions are Mexicans of African and Arab descent). European
immigration to Mexico and Central America since the original Spanish conquest has been
negligible. When Velasco made his tally of 5,000,000 Indians within his jurisdiction, there were
only 150,000 Spaniards in the New World.
The European attitudes toward the environment
When European colonizers entered North America, they regarded the continent as a virtual
wilderness, one waiting to be settled and developed economically. The indigenous agriculture in
what is now the United States and Canada seemed strange and rudimentary to them, and it had
made only a slight dent in the vast forests and grasslands. There were no herds or flocks of
domesticated grazing animals exploiting the natural pastures, and mineral deposits, water power,
and other resources were being ignored by the aborigines. The Europeans saw no reason why
they should not claim land they thought could be used to better advantage; and they proceeded to
buy out, exterminate, or push out the Indians—when they did not enslave them—and established
their supremacy over the land.
The dispossession of the Indians
The process of removing the Indians from their ancestral lands led to bitter disputes. The
British tried to end one such problem by setting up the Proclamation of 1763 line along the
Appalachian divide, allowing whites to take over what lay to the east but attempting to reserve
what lay to the west as Indian territory. After their independence from Britain, the Americans
continued to adopt this ideal of a two-nation state, but in practice the notion soon collapsed as
they pushed the Indian line westward past the Appalachians to the Mississippi River and into the
Missouri River valley and other western lands. Nearly all the Indians in the east were displaced
to the west and into special zones in Oklahoma, the Great Plains, and the intermontane basins.
Even there, their land and their way of life were not respected, as ranchers, railroaders, and
homesteaders opened the West to settlement.
The Indian “territories” soon were reduced to isolated “reservations.” As a result, most of
the Indian population in the United States is now found west of the Mississippi River, usually in
drier areas unsuited to productive agriculture. At times the U.S. government has encouraged
Indians to leave the reservations and mix with the general population in the large cities of the
Midwest and West, a process of acculturation that some—including many younger and
ethnically conscious Indians—would claim poses as many dangers to the individual and social
well-being of Indians as do the communal misfortunes already brought upon them.
Counteracting the forces of assimilation have been increasingly energetic programs to defend
and strengthen aboriginal identity.
In Canada the reservation system was adopted at a relatively early date; it protected First
Nation (Native American) settlements throughout the east, even in such agriculturally rich areas
as the Montreal plain or peninsular Ontario. As the Europeans moved west, care was taken to
retain Indians on at least part of their own lands, including such fertile areas as the valley of the
Red River of the North and the Fraser River delta. Intermarriage between whites and Indians was
much more common than in the United States and produced a sizable community of the French
and Indian métis, who in 1869–70 unsuccessfully attempted to set up a separate state in the
Canadian prairies.
In both Mexico and Central America, racial admixture has gone much farther. In Mexico,
the mestizo population—of mixed Indian and white descent—accounts for some three-fifths of
the population, while pure-blooded Indians amount to less than one-fifth, and whites constitute
nearly all the rest (small fractions are Mexicans of African and Arab descent). European
immigration to Mexico and Central America since the original Spanish conquest has been
negligible. When Velasco made his tally of 5,000,000 Indians within his jurisdiction, there were
only 150,000 Spaniards in the New World.
The European attitudes toward the environment
When European colonizers entered North America, they regarded the continent as a virtual
wilderness, one waiting to be settled and developed economically. The indigenous agriculture in
what is now the United States and Canada seemed strange and rudimentary to them, and it had
made only a slight dent in the vast forests and grasslands. There were no herds or flocks of
domesticated grazing animals exploiting the natural pastures, and mineral deposits, water power,
and other resources were being ignored by the aborigines. The Europeans saw no reason why
they should not claim land they thought could be used to better advantage; and they proceeded to
buy out, exterminate, or push out the Indians—when they did not enslave them—and established
their supremacy over the land.
The dispossession of the Indians
The process of removing the Indians from their ancestral lands led to bitter disputes. The
British tried to end one such problem by setting up the Proclamation of 1763 line along the
Appalachian divide, allowing whites to take over what lay to the east but attempting to reserve
what lay to the west as Indian territory. After their independence from Britain, the Americans
continued to adopt this ideal of a two-nation state, but in practice the notion soon collapsed as
they pushed the Indian line westward past the Appalachians to the Mississippi River and into the
Missouri River valley and other western lands. Nearly all the Indians in the east were displaced
to the west and into special zones in Oklahoma, the Great Plains, and the intermontane basins.
Even there, their land and their way of life were not respected, as ranchers, railroaders, and
homesteaders opened the West to settlement.
The Indian “territories” soon were reduced to isolated “reservations.” As a result, most of
the Indian population in the United States is now found west of the Mississippi River, usually in
drier areas unsuited to productive agriculture. At times the U.S. government has encouraged
Indians to leave the reservations and mix with the general population in the large cities of the
Midwest and West, a process of acculturation that some—including many younger and
ethnically conscious Indians—would claim poses as many dangers to the individual and social
well-being of Indians as do the communal misfortunes already brought upon them.
Counteracting the forces of assimilation have been increasingly energetic programs to defend
and strengthen aboriginal identity.
In Canada the reservation system was adopted at a relatively early date; it protected First
Nation (Native American) settlements throughout the east, even in such agriculturally rich areas
as the Montreal plain or peninsular Ontario. As the Europeans moved west, care was taken to
retain Indians on at least part of their own lands, including such fertile areas as the valley of the
Red River of the North and the Fraser River delta. Intermarriage between whites and Indians was
much more common than in the United States and produced a sizable community of the French
and Indian métis, who in 1869–70 unsuccessfully attempted to set up a separate state in the
Canadian prairies.
In both Mexico and Central America, racial admixture has gone much farther. In Mexico,
the mestizo population—of mixed Indian and white descent—accounts for some three-fifths of
the population, while pure-blooded Indians amount to less than one-fifth, and whites constitute
nearly all the rest (small fractions are Mexicans of African and Arab descent). European
immigration to Mexico and Central America since the original Spanish conquest has been
negligible. When Velasco made his tally of 5,000,000 Indians within his jurisdiction, there were
only 150,000 Spaniards in the New World.
The European attitudes toward the environment
When European colonizers entered North America, they regarded the continent as a virtual
wilderness, one waiting to be settled and developed economically. The indigenous agriculture in
what is now the United States and Canada seemed strange and rudimentary to them, and it had
made only a slight dent in the vast forests and grasslands. There were no herds or flocks of
domesticated grazing animals exploiting the natural pastures, and mineral deposits, water power,
and other resources were being ignored by the aborigines. The Europeans saw no reason why
they should not claim land they thought could be used to better advantage; and they proceeded to
buy out, exterminate, or push out the Indians—when they did not enslave them—and established
their supremacy over the land.
The dispossession of the Indians
The process of removing the Indians from their ancestral lands led to bitter disputes. The
British tried to end one such problem by setting up the Proclamation of 1763 line along the
Appalachian divide, allowing whites to take over what lay to the east but attempting to reserve
what lay to the west as Indian territory. After their independence from Britain, the Americans
continued to adopt this ideal of a two-nation state, but in practice the notion soon collapsed as
they pushed the Indian line westward past the Appalachians to the Mississippi River and into the
Missouri River valley and other western lands. Nearly all the Indians in the east were displaced
to the west and into special zones in Oklahoma, the Great Plains, and the intermontane basins.
Even there, their land and their way of life were not respected, as ranchers, railroaders, and
homesteaders opened the West to settlement.
The Indian “territories” soon were reduced to isolated “reservations.” As a result, most of
the Indian population in the United States is now found west of the Mississippi River, usually in
drier areas unsuited to productive agriculture. At times the U.S. government has encouraged
Indians to leave the reservations and mix with the general population in the large cities of the
Midwest and West, a process of acculturation that some—including many younger and
ethnically conscious Indians—would claim poses as many dangers to the individual and social
well-being of Indians as do the communal misfortunes already brought upon them.
Counteracting the forces of assimilation have been increasingly energetic programs to defend
and strengthen aboriginal identity.
In Canada the reservation system was adopted at a relatively early date; it protected First
Nation (Native American) settlements throughout the east, even in such agriculturally rich areas
as the Montreal plain or peninsular Ontario. As the Europeans moved west, care was taken to
retain Indians on at least part of their own lands, including such fertile areas as the valley of the
Red River of the North and the Fraser River delta. Intermarriage between whites and Indians was
much more common than in the United States and produced a sizable community of the French
and Indian métis, who in 1869–70 unsuccessfully attempted to set up a separate state in the
Canadian prairies.
In both Mexico and Central America, racial admixture has gone much farther. In Mexico,
the mestizo population—of mixed Indian and white descent—accounts for some three-fifths of
the population, while pure-blooded Indians amount to less than one-fifth, and whites constitute
nearly all the rest (small fractions are Mexicans of African and Arab descent). European
immigration to Mexico and Central America since the original Spanish conquest has been
negligible. When Velasco made his tally of 5,000,000 Indians within his jurisdiction, there were
only 150,000 Spaniards in the New World.
The European attitudes toward the environment
When European colonizers entered North America, they regarded the continent as a virtual
wilderness, one waiting to be settled and developed economically. The indigenous agriculture in
what is now the United States and Canada seemed strange and rudimentary to them, and it had
made only a slight dent in the vast forests and grasslands. There were no herds or flocks of
domesticated grazing animals exploiting the natural pastures, and mineral deposits, water power,
and other resources were being ignored by the aborigines. The Europeans saw no reason why
they should not claim land they thought could be used to better advantage; and they proceeded to
buy out, exterminate, or push out the Indians—when they did not enslave them—and established
their supremacy over the land.
The dispossession of the Indians
The process of removing the Indians from their ancestral lands led to bitter disputes. The
British tried to end one such problem by setting up the Proclamation of 1763 line along the
Appalachian divide, allowing whites to take over what lay to the east but attempting to reserve
what lay to the west as Indian territory. After their independence from Britain, the Americans
continued to adopt this ideal of a two-nation state, but in practice the notion soon collapsed as
they pushed the Indian line westward past the Appalachians to the Mississippi River and into the
Missouri River valley and other western lands. Nearly all the Indians in the east were displaced
to the west and into special zones in Oklahoma, the Great Plains, and the intermontane basins.
Even there, their land and their way of life were not respected, as ranchers, railroaders, and
homesteaders opened the West to settlement.
The Indian “territories” soon were reduced to isolated “reservations.” As a result, most of
the Indian population in the United States is now found west of the Mississippi River, usually in
drier areas unsuited to productive agriculture. At times the U.S. government has encouraged
Indians to leave the reservations and mix with the general population in the large cities of the
Midwest and West, a process of acculturation that some—including many younger and
ethnically conscious Indians—would claim poses as many dangers to the individual and social
well-being of Indians as do the communal misfortunes already brought upon them.
Counteracting the forces of assimilation have been increasingly energetic programs to defend
and strengthen aboriginal identity.
In Canada the reservation system was adopted at a relatively early date; it protected First
Nation (Native American) settlements throughout the east, even in such agriculturally rich areas
as the Montreal plain or peninsular Ontario. As the Europeans moved west, care was taken to
retain Indians on at least part of their own lands, including such fertile areas as the valley of the
Red River of the North and the Fraser River delta. Intermarriage between whites and Indians was
much more common than in the United States and produced a sizable community of the French
and Indian métis, who in 1869–70 unsuccessfully attempted to set up a separate state in the
Canadian prairies.
In both Mexico and Central America, racial admixture has gone much farther. In Mexico,
the mestizo population—of mixed Indian and white descent—accounts for some three-fifths of
the population, while pure-blooded Indians amount to less than one-fifth, and whites constitute
nearly all the rest (small fractions are Mexicans of African and Arab descent). European
immigration to Mexico and Central America since the original Spanish conquest has been
negligible. When Velasco made his tally of 5,000,000 Indians within his jurisdiction, there were
only 150,000 Spaniards in the New World.
The European attitudes toward the environment
When European colonizers entered North America, they regarded the continent as a virtual
wilderness, one waiting to be settled and developed economically. The indigenous agriculture in
what is now the United States and Canada seemed strange and rudimentary to them, and it had
made only a slight dent in the vast forests and grasslands. There were no herds or flocks of
domesticated grazing animals exploiting the natural pastures, and mineral deposits, water power,
and other resources were being ignored by the aborigines. The Europeans saw no reason why
they should not claim land they thought could be used to better advantage; and they proceeded to
buy out, exterminate, or push out the Indians—when they did not enslave them—and established
their supremacy over the land.
The dispossession of the Indians
The process of removing the Indians from their ancestral lands led to bitter disputes. The
British tried to end one such problem by setting up the Proclamation of 1763 line along the
Appalachian divide, allowing whites to take over what lay to the east but attempting to reserve
what lay to the west as Indian territory. After their independence from Britain, the Americans
continued to adopt this ideal of a two-nation state, but in practice the notion soon collapsed as
they pushed the Indian line westward past the Appalachians to the Mississippi River and into the
Missouri River valley and other western lands. Nearly all the Indians in the east were displaced
to the west and into special zones in Oklahoma, the Great Plains, and the intermontane basins.
Even there, their land and their way of life were not respected, as ranchers, railroaders, and
homesteaders opened the West to settlement.
The Indian “territories” soon were reduced to isolated “reservations.” As a result, most of
the Indian population in the United States is now found west of the Mississippi River, usually in
drier areas unsuited to productive agriculture. At times the U.S. government has encouraged
Indians to leave the reservations and mix with the general population in the large cities of the
Midwest and West, a process of acculturation that some—including many younger and
ethnically conscious Indians—would claim poses as many dangers to the individual and social
well-being of Indians as do the communal misfortunes already brought upon them.
Counteracting the forces of assimilation have been increasingly energetic programs to defend
and strengthen aboriginal identity.
In Canada the reservation system was adopted at a relatively early date; it protected First
Nation (Native American) settlements throughout the east, even in such agriculturally rich areas
as the Montreal plain or peninsular Ontario. As the Europeans moved west, care was taken to
retain Indians on at least part of their own lands, including such fertile areas as the valley of the
Red River of the North and the Fraser River delta. Intermarriage between whites and Indians was
much more common than in the United States and produced a sizable community of the French
and Indian métis, who in 1869–70 unsuccessfully attempted to set up a separate state in the
Canadian prairies.
In both Mexico and Central America, racial admixture has gone much farther. In Mexico,
the mestizo population—of mixed Indian and white descent—accounts for some three-fifths of
the population, while pure-blooded Indians amount to less than one-fifth, and whites constitute
nearly all the rest (small fractions are Mexicans of African and Arab descent). European
immigration to Mexico and Central America since the original Spanish conquest has been
negligible. When Velasco made his tally of 5,000,000 Indians within his jurisdiction, there were
only 150,000 Spaniards in the New World.
The European attitudes toward the environment
When European colonizers entered North America, they regarded the continent as a virtual
wilderness, one waiting to be settled and developed economically. The indigenous agriculture in
what is now the United States and Canada seemed strange and rudimentary to them, and it had
made only a slight dent in the vast forests and grasslands. There were no herds or flocks of
domesticated grazing animals exploiting the natural pastures, and mineral deposits, water power,
and other resources were being ignored by the aborigines. The Europeans saw no reason why
they should not claim land they thought could be used to better advantage; and they proceeded to
buy out, exterminate, or push out the Indians—when they did not enslave them—and established
their supremacy over the land.
The dispossession of the Indians
The process of removing the Indians from their ancestral lands led to bitter disputes. The
British tried to end one such problem by setting up the Proclamation of 1763 line along the
Appalachian divide, allowing whites to take over what lay to the east but attempting to reserve
what lay to the west as Indian territory. After their independence from Britain, the Americans
continued to adopt this ideal of a two-nation state, but in practice the notion soon collapsed as
they pushed the Indian line westward past the Appalachians to the Mississippi River and into the
Missouri River valley and other western lands. Nearly all the Indians in the east were displaced
to the west and into special zones in Oklahoma, the Great Plains, and the intermontane basins.
Even there, their land and their way of life were not respected, as ranchers, railroaders, and
homesteaders opened the West to settlement.
The Indian “territories” soon were reduced to isolated “reservations.” As a result, most of
the Indian population in the United States is now found west of the Mississippi River, usually in
drier areas unsuited to productive agriculture. At times the U.S. government has encouraged
Indians to leave the reservations and mix with the general population in the large cities of the
Midwest and West, a process of acculturation that some—including many younger and
ethnically conscious Indians—would claim poses as many dangers to the individual and social
well-being of Indians as do the communal misfortunes already brought upon them.
Counteracting the forces of assimilation have been increasingly energetic programs to defend
and strengthen aboriginal identity.
In Canada the reservation system was adopted at a relatively early date; it protected First
Nation (Native American) settlements throughout the east, even in such agriculturally rich areas
as the Montreal plain or peninsular Ontario. As the Europeans moved west, care was taken to
retain Indians on at least part of their own lands, including such fertile areas as the valley of the
Red River of the North and the Fraser River delta. Intermarriage between whites and Indians was
much more common than in the United States and produced a sizable community of the French
and Indian métis, who in 1869–70 unsuccessfully attempted to set up a separate state in the
Canadian prairies.
In both Mexico and Central America, racial admixture has gone much farther. In Mexico,
the mestizo population—of mixed Indian and white descent—accounts for some three-fifths of
the population, while pure-blooded Indians amount to less than one-fifth, and whites constitute
nearly all the rest (small fractions are Mexicans of African and Arab descent). European
immigration to Mexico and Central America since the original Spanish conquest has been
negligible. When Velasco made his tally of 5,000,000 Indians within his jurisdiction, there were
only 150,000 Spaniards in the New World.
The European attitudes toward the environment
When European colonizers entered North America, they regarded the continent as a virtual
wilderness, one waiting to be settled and developed economically. The indigenous agriculture in
what is now the United States and Canada seemed strange and rudimentary to them, and it had
made only a slight dent in the vast forests and grasslands. There were no herds or flocks of
domesticated grazing animals exploiting the natural pastures, and mineral deposits, water power,
and other resources were being ignored by the aborigines. The Europeans saw no reason why
they should not claim land they thought could be used to better advantage; and they proceeded to
buy out, exterminate, or push out the Indians—when they did not enslave them—and established
their supremacy over the land.
The dispossession of the Indians
The process of removing the Indians from their ancestral lands led to bitter disputes. The
British tried to end one such problem by setting up the Proclamation of 1763 line along the
Appalachian divide, allowing whites to take over what lay to the east but attempting to reserve
what lay to the west as Indian territory. After their independence from Britain, the Americans
continued to adopt this ideal of a two-nation state, but in practice the notion soon collapsed as
they pushed the Indian line westward past the Appalachians to the Mississippi River and into the
Missouri River valley and other western lands. Nearly all the Indians in the east were displaced
to the west and into special zones in Oklahoma, the Great Plains, and the intermontane basins.
Even there, their land and their way of life were not respected, as ranchers, railroaders, and
homesteaders opened the West to settlement.
The Indian “territories” soon were reduced to isolated “reservations.” As a result, most of
the Indian population in the United States is now found west of the Mississippi River, usually in
drier areas unsuited to productive agriculture. At times the U.S. government has encouraged
Indians to leave the reservations and mix with the general population in the large cities of the
Midwest and West, a process of acculturation that some—including many younger and
ethnically conscious Indians—would claim poses as many dangers to the individual and social
well-being of Indians as do the communal misfortunes already brought upon them.
Counteracting the forces of assimilation have been increasingly energetic programs to defend
and strengthen aboriginal identity.
In Canada the reservation system was adopted at a relatively early date; it protected First
Nation (Native American) settlements throughout the east, even in such agriculturally rich areas
as the Montreal plain or peninsular Ontario. As the Europeans moved west, care was taken to
retain Indians on at least part of their own lands, including such fertile areas as the valley of the
Red River of the North and the Fraser River delta. Intermarriage between whites and Indians was
much more common than in the United States and produced a sizable community of the French
and Indian métis, who in 1869–70 unsuccessfully attempted to set up a separate state in the
Canadian prairies.
In both Mexico and Central America, racial admixture has gone much farther. In Mexico,
the mestizo population—of mixed Indian and white descent—accounts for some three-fifths of
the population, while pure-blooded Indians amount to less than one-fifth, and whites constitute
nearly all the rest (small fractions are Mexicans of African and Arab descent). European
immigration to Mexico and Central America since the original Spanish conquest has been
negligible. When Velasco made his tally of 5,000,000 Indians within his jurisdiction, there were
only 150,000 Spaniards in the New World.
The European attitudes toward the environment
When European colonizers entered North America, they regarded the continent as a virtual
wilderness, one waiting to be settled and developed economically. The indigenous agriculture in
what is now the United States and Canada seemed strange and rudimentary to them, and it had
made only a slight dent in the vast forests and grasslands. There were no herds or flocks of
domesticated grazing animals exploiting the natural pastures, and mineral deposits, water power,
and other resources were being ignored by the aborigines. The Europeans saw no reason why
they should not claim land they thought could be used to better advantage; and they proceeded to
buy out, exterminate, or push out the Indians—when they did not enslave them—and established
their supremacy over the land.
The dispossession of the Indians
The process of removing the Indians from their ancestral lands led to bitter disputes. The
British tried to end one such problem by setting up the Proclamation of 1763 line along the
Appalachian divide, allowing whites to take over what lay to the east but attempting to reserve
what lay to the west as Indian territory. After their independence from Britain, the Americans
continued to adopt this ideal of a two-nation state, but in practice the notion soon collapsed as
they pushed the Indian line westward past the Appalachians to the Mississippi River and into the
Missouri River valley and other western lands. Nearly all the Indians in the east were displaced
to the west and into special zones in Oklahoma, the Great Plains, and the intermontane basins.
Even there, their land and their way of life were not respected, as ranchers, railroaders, and
homesteaders opened the West to settlement.
The Indian “territories” soon were reduced to isolated “reservations.” As a result, most of
the Indian population in the United States is now found west of the Mississippi River, usually in
drier areas unsuited to productive agriculture. At times the U.S. government has encouraged
Indians to leave the reservations and mix with the general population in the large cities of the
Midwest and West, a process of acculturation that some—including many younger and
ethnically conscious Indians—would claim poses as many dangers to the individual and social
well-being of Indians as do the communal misfortunes already brought upon them.
Counteracting the forces of assimilation have been increasingly energetic programs to defend
and strengthen aboriginal identity.
In Canada the reservation system was adopted at a relatively early date; it protected First
Nation (Native American) settlements throughout the east, even in such agriculturally rich areas
as the Montreal plain or peninsular Ontario. As the Europeans moved west, care was taken to
retain Indians on at least part of their own lands, including such fertile areas as the valley of the
Red River of the North and the Fraser River delta. Intermarriage between whites and Indians was
much more common than in the United States and produced a sizable community of the French
and Indian métis, who in 1869–70 unsuccessfully attempted to set up a separate state in the
Canadian prairies.
In both Mexico and Central America, racial admixture has gone much farther. In Mexico,
the mestizo population—of mixed Indian and white descent—accounts for some three-fifths of
the population, while pure-blooded Indians amount to less than one-fifth, and whites constitute
nearly all the rest (small fractions are Mexicans of African and Arab descent). European
immigration to Mexico and Central America since the original Spanish conquest has been
negligible. When Velasco made his tally of 5,000,000 Indians within his jurisdiction, there were
only 150,000 Spaniards in the New World.
The European attitudes toward the environment
When European colonizers entered North America, they regarded the continent as a virtual
wilderness, one waiting to be settled and developed economically. The indigenous agriculture in
what is now the United States and Canada seemed strange and rudimentary to them, and it had
made only a slight dent in the vast forests and grasslands. There were no herds or flocks of
domesticated grazing animals exploiting the natural pastures, and mineral deposits, water power,
and other resources were being ignored by the aborigines. The Europeans saw no reason why
they should not claim land they thought could be used to better advantage; and they proceeded to
buy out, exterminate, or push out the Indians—when they did not enslave them—and established
their supremacy over the land.
The dispossession of the Indians
The process of removing the Indians from their ancestral lands led to bitter disputes. The
British tried to end one such problem by setting up the Proclamation of 1763 line along the
Appalachian divide, allowing whites to take over what lay to the east but attempting to reserve
what lay to the west as Indian territory. After their independence from Britain, the Americans
continued to adopt this ideal of a two-nation state, but in practice the notion soon collapsed as
they pushed the Indian line westward past the Appalachians to the Mississippi River and into the
Missouri River valley and other western lands. Nearly all the Indians in the east were displaced
to the west and into special zones in Oklahoma, the Great Plains, and the intermontane basins.
Even there, their land and their way of life were not respected, as ranchers, railroaders, and
homesteaders opened the West to settlement.
The Indian “territories” soon were reduced to isolated “reservations.” As a result, most of
the Indian population in the United States is now found west of the Mississippi River, usually in
drier areas unsuited to productive agriculture. At times the U.S. government has encouraged
Indians to leave the reservations and mix with the general population in the large cities of the
Midwest and West, a process of acculturation that some—including many younger and
ethnically conscious Indians—would claim poses as many dangers to the individual and social
well-being of Indians as do the communal misfortunes already brought upon them.
Counteracting the forces of assimilation have been increasingly energetic programs to defend
and strengthen aboriginal identity.
In Canada the reservation system was adopted at a relatively early date; it protected First
Nation (Native American) settlements throughout the east, even in such agriculturally rich areas
as the Montreal plain or peninsular Ontario. As the Europeans moved west, care was taken to
retain Indians on at least part of their own lands, including such fertile areas as the valley of the
Red River of the North and the Fraser River delta. Intermarriage between whites and Indians was
much more common than in the United States and produced a sizable community of the French
and Indian métis, who in 1869–70 unsuccessfully attempted to set up a separate state in the
Canadian prairies.
In both Mexico and Central America, racial admixture has gone much farther. In Mexico,
the mestizo population—of mixed Indian and white descent—accounts for some three-fifths of
the population, while pure-blooded Indians amount to less than one-fifth, and whites constitute
nearly all the rest (small fractions are Mexicans of African and Arab descent). European
immigration to Mexico and Central America since the original Spanish conquest has been
negligible. When Velasco made his tally of 5,000,000 Indians within his jurisdiction, there were
only 150,000 Spaniards in the New World.
The European attitudes toward the environment
When European colonizers entered North America, they regarded the continent as a virtual
wilderness, one waiting to be settled and developed economically. The indigenous agriculture in
what is now the United States and Canada seemed strange and rudimentary to them, and it had
made only a slight dent in the vast forests and grasslands. There were no herds or flocks of
domesticated grazing animals exploiting the natural pastures, and mineral deposits, water power,
and other resources were being ignored by the aborigines. The Europeans saw no reason why
they should not claim land they thought could be used to better advantage; and they proceeded to
buy out, exterminate, or push out the Indians—when they did not enslave them—and established
their supremacy over the land.
The dispossession of the Indians
The process of removing the Indians from their ancestral lands led to bitter disputes. The
British tried to end one such problem by setting up the Proclamation of 1763 line along the
Appalachian divide, allowing whites to take over what lay to the east but attempting to reserve
what lay to the west as Indian territory. After their independence from Britain, the Americans
continued to adopt this ideal of a two-nation state, but in practice the notion soon collapsed as
they pushed the Indian line westward past the Appalachians to the Mississippi River and into the
Missouri River valley and other western lands. Nearly all the Indians in the east were displaced
to the west and into special zones in Oklahoma, the Great Plains, and the intermontane basins.
Even there, their land and their way of life were not respected, as ranchers, railroaders, and
homesteaders opened the West to settlement.
The Indian “territories” soon were reduced to isolated “reservations.” As a result, most of
the Indian population in the United States is now found west of the Mississippi River, usually in
drier areas unsuited to productive agriculture. At times the U.S. government has encouraged
Indians to leave the reservations and mix with the general population in the large cities of the
Midwest and West, a process of acculturation that some—including many younger and
ethnically conscious Indians—would claim poses as many dangers to the individual and social
well-being of Indians as do the communal misfortunes already brought upon them.
Counteracting the forces of assimilation have been increasingly energetic programs to defend
and strengthen aboriginal identity.
In Canada the reservation system was adopted at a relatively early date; it protected First
Nation (Native American) settlements throughout the east, even in such agriculturally rich areas
as the Montreal plain or peninsular Ontario. As the Europeans moved west, care was taken to
retain Indians on at least part of their own lands, including such fertile areas as the valley of the
Red River of the North and the Fraser River delta. Intermarriage between whites and Indians was
much more common than in the United States and produced a sizable community of the French
and Indian métis, who in 1869–70 unsuccessfully attempted to set up a separate state in the
Canadian prairies.
In both Mexico and Central America, racial admixture has gone much farther. In Mexico,
the mestizo population—of mixed Indian and white descent—accounts for some three-fifths of
the population, while pure-blooded Indians amount to less than one-fifth, and whites constitute
nearly all the rest (small fractions are Mexicans of African and Arab descent). European
immigration to Mexico and Central America since the original Spanish conquest has been
negligible. When Velasco made his tally of 5,000,000 Indians within his jurisdiction, there were
only 150,000 Spaniards in the New World.
The European attitudes toward the environment
When European colonizers entered North America, they regarded the continent as a virtual
wilderness, one waiting to be settled and developed economically. The indigenous agriculture in
what is now the United States and Canada seemed strange and rudimentary to them, and it had
made only a slight dent in the vast forests and grasslands. There were no herds or flocks of
domesticated grazing animals exploiting the natural pastures, and mineral deposits, water power,
and other resources were being ignored by the aborigines. The Europeans saw no reason why
they should not claim land they thought could be used to better advantage; and they proceeded to
buy out, exterminate, or push out the Indians—when they did not enslave them—and established
their supremacy over the land.
The dispossession of the Indians
The process of removing the Indians from their ancestral lands led to bitter disputes. The
British tried to end one such problem by setting up the Proclamation of 1763 line along the
Appalachian divide, allowing whites to take over what lay to the east but attempting to reserve
what lay to the west as Indian territory. After their independence from Britain, the Americans
continued to adopt this ideal of a two-nation state, but in practice the notion soon collapsed as
they pushed the Indian line westward past the Appalachians to the Mississippi River and into the
Missouri River valley and other western lands. Nearly all the Indians in the east were displaced
to the west and into special zones in Oklahoma, the Great Plains, and the intermontane basins.
Even there, their land and their way of life were not respected, as ranchers, railroaders, and
homesteaders opened the West to settlement.
The Indian “territories” soon were reduced to isolated “reservations.” As a result, most of
the Indian population in the United States is now found west of the Mississippi River, usually in
drier areas unsuited to productive agriculture. At times the U.S. government has encouraged
Indians to leave the reservations and mix with the general population in the large cities of the
Midwest and West, a process of acculturation that some—including many younger and
ethnically conscious Indians—would claim poses as many dangers to the individual and social
well-being of Indians as do the communal misfortunes already brought upon them.
Counteracting the forces of assimilation have been increasingly energetic programs to defend
and strengthen aboriginal identity.
In Canada the reservation system was adopted at a relatively early date; it protected First
Nation (Native American) settlements throughout the east, even in such agriculturally rich areas
as the Montreal plain or peninsular Ontario. As the Europeans moved west, care was taken to
retain Indians on at least part of their own lands, including such fertile areas as the valley of the
Red River of the North and the Fraser River delta. Intermarriage between whites and Indians was
much more common than in the United States and produced a sizable community of the French
and Indian métis, who in 1869–70 unsuccessfully attempted to set up a separate state in the
Canadian prairies.
In both Mexico and Central America, racial admixture has gone much farther. In Mexico,
the mestizo population—of mixed Indian and white descent—accounts for some three-fifths of
the population, while pure-blooded Indians amount to less than one-fifth, and whites constitute
nearly all the rest (small fractions are Mexicans of African and Arab descent). European
immigration to Mexico and Central America since the original Spanish conquest has been
negligible. When Velasco made his tally of 5,000,000 Indians within his jurisdiction, there were
only 150,000 Spaniards in the New World.
The European attitudes toward the environment
When European colonizers entered North America, they regarded the continent as a virtual
wilderness, one waiting to be settled and developed economically. The indigenous agriculture in
what is now the United States and Canada seemed strange and rudimentary to them, and it had
made only a slight dent in the vast forests and grasslands. There were no herds or flocks of
domesticated grazing animals exploiting the natural pastures, and mineral deposits, water power,
and other resources were being ignored by the aborigines. The Europeans saw no reason why
they should not claim land they thought could be used to better advantage; and they proceeded to
buy out, exterminate, or push out the Indians—when they did not enslave them—and established
their supremacy over the land.
The dispossession of the Indians
The process of removing the Indians from their ancestral lands led to bitter disputes. The
British tried to end one such problem by setting up the Proclamation of 1763 line along the
Appalachian divide, allowing whites to take over what lay to the east but attempting to reserve
what lay to the west as Indian territory. After their independence from Britain, the Americans
continued to adopt this ideal of a two-nation state, but in practice the notion soon collapsed as
they pushed the Indian line westward past the Appalachians to the Mississippi River and into the
Missouri River valley and other western lands. Nearly all the Indians in the east were displaced
to the west and into special zones in Oklahoma, the Great Plains, and the intermontane basins.
Even there, their land and their way of life were not respected, as ranchers, railroaders, and
homesteaders opened the West to settlement.
The Indian “territories” soon were reduced to isolated “reservations.” As a result, most of
the Indian population in the United States is now found west of the Mississippi River, usually in
drier areas unsuited to productive agriculture. At times the U.S. government has encouraged
Indians to leave the reservations and mix with the general population in the large cities of the
Midwest and West, a process of acculturation that some—including many younger and
ethnically conscious Indians—would claim poses as many dangers to the individual and social
well-being of Indians as do the communal misfortunes already brought upon them.
Counteracting the forces of assimilation have been increasingly energetic programs to defend
and strengthen aboriginal identity.
In Canada the reservation system was adopted at a relatively early date; it protected First
Nation (Native American) settlements throughout the east, even in such agriculturally rich areas
as the Montreal plain or peninsular Ontario. As the Europeans moved west, care was taken to
retain Indians on at least part of their own lands, including such fertile areas as the valley of the
Red River of the North and the Fraser River delta. Intermarriage between whites and Indians was
much more common than in the United States and produced a sizable community of the French
and Indian métis, who in 1869–70 unsuccessfully attempted to set up a separate state in the
Canadian prairies.
In both Mexico and Central America, racial admixture has gone much farther. In Mexico,
the mestizo population—of mixed Indian and white descent—accounts for some three-fifths of
the population, while pure-blooded Indians amount to less than one-fifth, and whites constitute
nearly all the rest (small fractions are Mexicans of African and Arab descent). European
immigration to Mexico and Central America since the original Spanish conquest has been
negligible. When Velasco made his tally of 5,000,000 Indians within his jurisdiction, there were
only 150,000 Spaniards in the New World.
The European attitudes toward the environment
When European colonizers entered North America, they regarded the continent as a virtual
wilderness, one waiting to be settled and developed economically. The indigenous agriculture in
what is now the United States and Canada seemed strange and rudimentary to them, and it had
made only a slight dent in the vast forests and grasslands. There were no herds or flocks of
domesticated grazing animals exploiting the natural pastures, and mineral deposits, water power,
and other resources were being ignored by the aborigines. The Europeans saw no reason why
they should not claim land they thought could be used to better advantage; and they proceeded to
buy out, exterminate, or push out the Indians—when they did not enslave them—and established
their supremacy over the land.
The dispossession of the Indians
The process of removing the Indians from their ancestral lands led to bitter disputes. The
British tried to end one such problem by setting up the Proclamation of 1763 line along the
Appalachian divide, allowing whites to take over what lay to the east but attempting to reserve
what lay to the west as Indian territory. After their independence from Britain, the Americans
continued to adopt this ideal of a two-nation state, but in practice the notion soon collapsed as
they pushed the Indian line westward past the Appalachians to the Mississippi River and into the
Missouri River valley and other western lands. Nearly all the Indians in the east were displaced
to the west and into special zones in Oklahoma, the Great Plains, and the intermontane basins.
Even there, their land and their way of life were not respected, as ranchers, railroaders, and
homesteaders opened the West to settlement.
The Indian “territories” soon were reduced to isolated “reservations.” As a result, most of
the Indian population in the United States is now found west of the Mississippi River, usually in
drier areas unsuited to productive agriculture. At times the U.S. government has encouraged
Indians to leave the reservations and mix with the general population in the large cities of the
Midwest and West, a process of acculturation that some—including many younger and
ethnically conscious Indians—would claim poses as many dangers to the individual and social
well-being of Indians as do the communal misfortunes already brought upon them.
Counteracting the forces of assimilation have been increasingly energetic programs to defend
and strengthen aboriginal identity.
In Canada the reservation system was adopted at a relatively early date; it protected First
Nation (Native American) settlements throughout the east, even in such agriculturally rich areas
as the Montreal plain or peninsular Ontario. As the Europeans moved west, care was taken to
retain Indians on at least part of their own lands, including such fertile areas as the valley of the
Red River of the North and the Fraser River delta. Intermarriage between whites and Indians was
much more common than in the United States and produced a sizable community of the French
and Indian métis, who in 1869–70 unsuccessfully attempted to set up a separate state in the
Canadian prairies.
In both Mexico and Central America, racial admixture has gone much farther. In Mexico,
the mestizo population—of mixed Indian and white descent—accounts for some three-fifths of
the population, while pure-blooded Indians amount to less than one-fifth, and whites constitute
nearly all the rest (small fractions are Mexicans of African and Arab descent). European
immigration to Mexico and Central America since the original Spanish conquest has been
negligible. When Velasco made his tally of 5,000,000 Indians within his jurisdiction, there were
only 150,000 Spaniards in the New World.
The European attitudes toward the environment
When European colonizers entered North America, they regarded the continent as a virtual
wilderness, one waiting to be settled and developed economically. The indigenous agriculture in
what is now the United States and Canada seemed strange and rudimentary to them, and it had
made only a slight dent in the vast forests and grasslands. There were no herds or flocks of
domesticated grazing animals exploiting the natural pastures, and mineral deposits, water power,
and other resources were being ignored by the aborigines. The Europeans saw no reason why
they should not claim land they thought could be used to better advantage; and they proceeded to
buy out, exterminate, or push out the Indians—when they did not enslave them—and established
their supremacy over the land.
The dispossession of the Indians
The process of removing the Indians from their ancestral lands led to bitter disputes. The
British tried to end one such problem by setting up the Proclamation of 1763 line along the
Appalachian divide, allowing whites to take over what lay to the east but attempting to reserve
what lay to the west as Indian territory. After their independence from Britain, the Americans
continued to adopt this ideal of a two-nation state, but in practice the notion soon collapsed as
they pushed the Indian line westward past the Appalachians to the Mississippi River and into the
Missouri River valley and other western lands. Nearly all the Indians in the east were displaced
to the west and into special zones in Oklahoma, the Great Plains, and the intermontane basins.
Even there, their land and their way of life were not respected, as ranchers, railroaders, and
homesteaders opened the West to settlement.
The Indian “territories” soon were reduced to isolated “reservations.” As a result, most of
the Indian population in the United States is now found west of the Mississippi River, usually in
drier areas unsuited to productive agriculture. At times the U.S. government has encouraged
Indians to leave the reservations and mix with the general population in the large cities of the
Midwest and West, a process of acculturation that some—including many younger and
ethnically conscious Indians—would claim poses as many dangers to the individual and social
well-being of Indians as do the communal misfortunes already brought upon them.
Counteracting the forces of assimilation have been increasingly energetic programs to defend
and strengthen aboriginal identity.
In Canada the reservation system was adopted at a relatively early date; it protected First
Nation (Native American) settlements throughout the east, even in such agriculturally rich areas
as the Montreal plain or peninsular Ontario. As the Europeans moved west, care was taken to
retain Indians on at least part of their own lands, including such fertile areas as the valley of the
Red River of the North and the Fraser River delta. Intermarriage between whites and Indians was
much more common than in the United States and produced a sizable community of the French
and Indian métis, who in 1869–70 unsuccessfully attempted to set up a separate state in the
Canadian prairies.
In both Mexico and Central America, racial admixture has gone much farther. In Mexico,
the mestizo population—of mixed Indian and white descent—accounts for some three-fifths of
the population, while pure-blooded Indians amount to less than one-fifth, and whites constitute
nearly all the rest (small fractions are Mexicans of African and Arab descent). European
immigration to Mexico and Central America since the original Spanish conquest has been
negligible. When Velasco made his tally of 5,000,000 Indians within his jurisdiction, there were
only 150,000 Spaniards in the New World.
The European attitudes toward the environment
When European colonizers entered North America, they regarded the continent as a virtual
wilderness, one waiting to be settled and developed economically. The indigenous agriculture in
what is now the United States and Canada seemed strange and rudimentary to them, and it had
made only a slight dent in the vast forests and grasslands. There were no herds or flocks of
domesticated grazing animals exploiting the natural pastures, and mineral deposits, water power,
and other resources were being ignored by the aborigines. The Europeans saw no reason why
they should not claim land they thought could be used to better advantage; and they proceeded to
buy out, exterminate, or push out the Indians—when they did not enslave them—and established
their supremacy over the land.
The dispossession of the Indians
The process of removing the Indians from their ancestral lands led to bitter disputes. The
British tried to end one such problem by setting up the Proclamation of 1763 line along the
Appalachian divide, allowing whites to take over what lay to the east but attempting to reserve
what lay to the west as Indian territory. After their independence from Britain, the Americans
continued to adopt this ideal of a two-nation state, but in practice the notion soon collapsed as
they pushed the Indian line westward past the Appalachians to the Mississippi River and into the
Missouri River valley and other western lands. Nearly all the Indians in the east were displaced
to the west and into special zones in Oklahoma, the Great Plains, and the intermontane basins.
Even there, their land and their way of life were not respected, as ranchers, railroaders, and
homesteaders opened the West to settlement.
The Indian “territories” soon were reduced to isolated “reservations.” As a result, most of
the Indian population in the United States is now found west of the Mississippi River, usually in
drier areas unsuited to productive agriculture. At times the U.S. government has encouraged
Indians to leave the reservations and mix with the general population in the large cities of the
Midwest and West, a process of acculturation that some—including many younger and
ethnically conscious Indians—would claim poses as many dangers to the individual and social
well-being of Indians as do the communal misfortunes already brought upon them.
Counteracting the forces of assimilation have been increasingly energetic programs to defend
and strengthen aboriginal identity.
In Canada the reservation system was adopted at a relatively early date; it protected First
Nation (Native American) settlements throughout the east, even in such agriculturally rich areas
as the Montreal plain or peninsular Ontario. As the Europeans moved west, care was taken to
retain Indians on at least part of their own lands, including such fertile areas as the valley of the
Red River of the North and the Fraser River delta. Intermarriage between whites and Indians was
much more common than in the United States and produced a sizable community of the French
and Indian métis, who in 1869–70 unsuccessfully attempted to set up a separate state in the
Canadian prairies.
In both Mexico and Central America, racial admixture has gone much farther. In Mexico,
the mestizo population—of mixed Indian and white descent—accounts for some three-fifths of
the population, while pure-blooded Indians amount to less than one-fifth, and whites constitute
nearly all the rest (small fractions are Mexicans of African and Arab descent). European
immigration to Mexico and Central America since the original Spanish conquest has been
negligible. When Velasco made his tally of 5,000,000 Indians within his jurisdiction, there were
only 150,000 Spaniards in the New World.
The European attitudes toward the environment
When European colonizers entered North America, they regarded the continent as a virtual
wilderness, one waiting to be settled and developed economically. The indigenous agriculture in
what is now the United States and Canada seemed strange and rudimentary to them, and it had
made only a slight dent in the vast forests and grasslands. There were no herds or flocks of
domesticated grazing animals exploiting the natural pastures, and mineral deposits, water power,
and other resources were being ignored by the aborigines. The Europeans saw no reason why
they should not claim land they thought could be used to better advantage; and they proceeded to
buy out, exterminate, or push out the Indians—when they did not enslave them—and established
their supremacy over the land.
The dispossession of the Indians
The process of removing the Indians from their ancestral lands led to bitter disputes. The
British tried to end one such problem by setting up the Proclamation of 1763 line along the
Appalachian divide, allowing whites to take over what lay to the east but attempting to reserve
what lay to the west as Indian territory. After their independence from Britain, the Americans
continued to adopt this ideal of a two-nation state, but in practice the notion soon collapsed as
they pushed the Indian line westward past the Appalachians to the Mississippi River and into the
Missouri River valley and other western lands. Nearly all the Indians in the east were displaced
to the west and into special zones in Oklahoma, the Great Plains, and the intermontane basins.
Even there, their land and their way of life were not respected, as ranchers, railroaders, and
homesteaders opened the West to settlement.
The Indian “territories” soon were reduced to isolated “reservations.” As a result, most of
the Indian population in the United States is now found west of the Mississippi River, usually in
drier areas unsuited to productive agriculture. At times the U.S. government has encouraged
Indians to leave the reservations and mix with the general population in the large cities of the
Midwest and West, a process of acculturation that some—including many younger and
ethnically conscious Indians—would claim poses as many dangers to the individual and social
well-being of Indians as do the communal misfortunes already brought upon them.
Counteracting the forces of assimilation have been increasingly energetic programs to defend
and strengthen aboriginal identity.
In Canada the reservation system was adopted at a relatively early date; it protected First
Nation (Native American) settlements throughout the east, even in such agriculturally rich areas
as the Montreal plain or peninsular Ontario. As the Europeans moved west, care was taken to
retain Indians on at least part of their own lands, including such fertile areas as the valley of the
Red River of the North and the Fraser River delta. Intermarriage between whites and Indians was
much more common than in the United States and produced a sizable community of the French
and Indian métis, who in 1869–70 unsuccessfully attempted to set up a separate state in the
Canadian prairies.
In both Mexico and Central America, racial admixture has gone much farther. In Mexico,
the mestizo population—of mixed Indian and white descent—accounts for some three-fifths of
the population, while pure-blooded Indians amount to less than one-fifth, and whites constitute
nearly all the rest (small fractions are Mexicans of African and Arab descent). European
immigration to Mexico and Central America since the original Spanish conquest has been
negligible. When Velasco made his tally of 5,000,000 Indians within his jurisdiction, there were
only 150,000 Spaniards in the New World.
The European attitudes toward the environment
When European colonizers entered North America, they regarded the continent as a virtual
wilderness, one waiting to be settled and developed economically. The indigenous agriculture in
what is now the United States and Canada seemed strange and rudimentary to them, and it had
made only a slight dent in the vast forests and grasslands. There were no herds or flocks of
domesticated grazing animals exploiting the natural pastures, and mineral deposits, water power,
and other resources were being ignored by the aborigines. The Europeans saw no reason why
they should not claim land they thought could be used to better advantage; and they proceeded to
buy out, exterminate, or push out the Indians—when they did not enslave them—and established
their supremacy over the land.
The dispossession of the Indians
The process of removing the Indians from their ancestral lands led to bitter disputes. The
British tried to end one such problem by setting up the Proclamation of 1763 line along the
Appalachian divide, allowing whites to take over what lay to the east but attempting to reserve
what lay to the west as Indian territory. After their independence from Britain, the Americans
continued to adopt this ideal of a two-nation state, but in practice the notion soon collapsed as
they pushed the Indian line westward past the Appalachians to the Mississippi River and into the
Missouri River valley and other western lands. Nearly all the Indians in the east were displaced
to the west and into special zones in Oklahoma, the Great Plains, and the intermontane basins.
Even there, their land and their way of life were not respected, as ranchers, railroaders, and
homesteaders opened the West to settlement.
The Indian “territories” soon were reduced to isolated “reservations.” As a result, most of
the Indian population in the United States is now found west of the Mississippi River, usually in
drier areas unsuited to productive agriculture. At times the U.S. government has encouraged
Indians to leave the reservations and mix with the general population in the large cities of the
Midwest and West, a process of acculturation that some—including many younger and
ethnically conscious Indians—would claim poses as many dangers to the individual and social
well-being of Indians as do the communal misfortunes already brought upon them.
Counteracting the forces of assimilation have been increasingly energetic programs to defend
and strengthen aboriginal identity.
In Canada the reservation system was adopted at a relatively early date; it protected First
Nation (Native American) settlements throughout the east, even in such agriculturally rich areas
as the Montreal plain or peninsular Ontario. As the Europeans moved west, care was taken to
retain Indians on at least part of their own lands, including such fertile areas as the valley of the
Red River of the North and the Fraser River delta. Intermarriage between whites and Indians was
much more common than in the United States and produced a sizable community of the French
and Indian métis, who in 1869–70 unsuccessfully attempted to set up a separate state in the
Canadian prairies.
In both Mexico and Central America, racial admixture has gone much farther. In Mexico,
the mestizo population—of mixed Indian and white descent—accounts for some three-fifths of
the population, while pure-blooded Indians amount to less than one-fifth, and whites constitute
nearly all the rest (small fractions are Mexicans of African and Arab descent). European
immigration to Mexico and Central America since the original Spanish conquest has been
negligible. When Velasco made his tally of 5,000,000 Indians within his jurisdiction, there were
only 150,000 Spaniards in the New World.
The European attitudes toward the environment
When European colonizers entered North America, they regarded the continent as a virtual
wilderness, one waiting to be settled and developed economically. The indigenous agriculture in
what is now the United States and Canada seemed strange and rudimentary to them, and it had
made only a slight dent in the vast forests and grasslands. There were no herds or flocks of
domesticated grazing animals exploiting the natural pastures, and mineral deposits, water power,
and other resources were being ignored by the aborigines. The Europeans saw no reason why
they should not claim land they thought could be used to better advantage; and they proceeded to
buy out, exterminate, or push out the Indians—when they did not enslave them—and established
their supremacy over the land.
The dispossession of the Indians
The process of removing the Indians from their ancestral lands led to bitter disputes. The
British tried to end one such problem by setting up the Proclamation of 1763 line along the
Appalachian divide, allowing whites to take over what lay to the east but attempting to reserve
what lay to the west as Indian territory. After their independence from Britain, the Americans
continued to adopt this ideal of a two-nation state, but in practice the notion soon collapsed as
they pushed the Indian line westward past the Appalachians to the Mississippi River and into the
Missouri River valley and other western lands. Nearly all the Indians in the east were displaced
to the west and into special zones in Oklahoma, the Great Plains, and the intermontane basins.
Even there, their land and their way of life were not respected, as ranchers, railroaders, and
homesteaders opened the West to settlement.
The Indian “territories” soon were reduced to isolated “reservations.” As a result, most of
the Indian population in the United States is now found west of the Mississippi River, usually in
drier areas unsuited to productive agriculture. At times the U.S. government has encouraged
Indians to leave the reservations and mix with the general population in the large cities of the
Midwest and West, a process of acculturation that some—including many younger and
ethnically conscious Indians—would claim poses as many dangers to the individual and social
well-being of Indians as do the communal misfortunes already brought upon them.
Counteracting the forces of assimilation have been increasingly energetic programs to defend
and strengthen aboriginal identity.
In Canada the reservation system was adopted at a relatively early date; it protected First
Nation (Native American) settlements throughout the east, even in such agriculturally rich areas
as the Montreal plain or peninsular Ontario. As the Europeans moved west, care was taken to
retain Indians on at least part of their own lands, including such fertile areas as the valley of the
Red River of the North and the Fraser River delta. Intermarriage between whites and Indians was
much more common than in the United States and produced a sizable community of the French
and Indian métis, who in 1869–70 unsuccessfully attempted to set up a separate state in the
Canadian prairies.
In both Mexico and Central America, racial admixture has gone much farther. In Mexico,
the mestizo population—of mixed Indian and white descent—accounts for some three-fifths of
the population, while pure-blooded Indians amount to less than one-fifth, and whites constitute
nearly all the rest (small fractions are Mexicans of African and Arab descent). European
immigration to Mexico and Central America since the original Spanish conquest has been
negligible. When Velasco made his tally of 5,000,000 Indians within his jurisdiction, there were
only 150,000 Spaniards in the New World.
The European attitudes toward the environment
When European colonizers entered North America, they regarded the continent as a virtual
wilderness, one waiting to be settled and developed economically. The indigenous agriculture in
what is now the United States and Canada seemed strange and rudimentary to them, and it had
made only a slight dent in the vast forests and grasslands. There were no herds or flocks of
domesticated grazing animals exploiting the natural pastures, and mineral deposits, water power,
and other resources were being ignored by the aborigines. The Europeans saw no reason why
they should not claim land they thought could be used to better advantage; and they proceeded to
buy out, exterminate, or push out the Indians—when they did not enslave them—and established
their supremacy over the land.
The dispossession of the Indians
The process of removing the Indians from their ancestral lands led to bitter disputes. The
British tried to end one such problem by setting up the Proclamation of 1763 line along the
Appalachian divide, allowing whites to take over what lay to the east but attempting to reserve
what lay to the west as Indian territory. After their independence from Britain, the Americans
continued to adopt this ideal of a two-nation state, but in practice the notion soon collapsed as
they pushed the Indian line westward past the Appalachians to the Mississippi River and into the
Missouri River valley and other western lands. Nearly all the Indians in the east were displaced
to the west and into special zones in Oklahoma, the Great Plains, and the intermontane basins.
Even there, their land and their way of life were not respected, as ranchers, railroaders, and
homesteaders opened the West to settlement.
The Indian “territories” soon were reduced to isolated “reservations.” As a result, most of
the Indian population in the United States is now found west of the Mississippi River, usually in
drier areas unsuited to productive agriculture. At times the U.S. government has encouraged
Indians to leave the reservations and mix with the general population in the large cities of the
Midwest and West, a process of acculturation that some—including many younger and
ethnically conscious Indians—would claim poses as many dangers to the individual and social
well-being of Indians as do the communal misfortunes already brought upon them.
Counteracting the forces of assimilation have been increasingly energetic programs to defend
and strengthen aboriginal identity.
In Canada the reservation system was adopted at a relatively early date; it protected First
Nation (Native American) settlements throughout the east, even in such agriculturally rich areas
as the Montreal plain or peninsular Ontario. As the Europeans moved west, care was taken to
retain Indians on at least part of their own lands, including such fertile areas as the valley of the
Red River of the North and the Fraser River delta. Intermarriage between whites and Indians was
much more common than in the United States and produced a sizable community of the French
and Indian métis, who in 1869–70 unsuccessfully attempted to set up a separate state in the
Canadian prairies.
In both Mexico and Central America, racial admixture has gone much farther. In Mexico,
the mestizo population—of mixed Indian and white descent—accounts for some three-fifths of
the population, while pure-blooded Indians amount to less than one-fifth, and whites constitute
nearly all the rest (small fractions are Mexicans of African and Arab descent). European
immigration to Mexico and Central America since the original Spanish conquest has been
negligible. When Velasco made his tally of 5,000,000 Indians within his jurisdiction, there were
only 150,000 Spaniards in the New World.
The European attitudes toward the environment
When European colonizers entered North America, they regarded the continent as a virtual
wilderness, one waiting to be settled and developed economically. The indigenous agriculture in
what is now the United States and Canada seemed strange and rudimentary to them, and it had
made only a slight dent in the vast forests and grasslands. There were no herds or flocks of
domesticated grazing animals exploiting the natural pastures, and mineral deposits, water power,
and other resources were being ignored by the aborigines. The Europeans saw no reason why
they should not claim land they thought could be used to better advantage; and they proceeded to
buy out, exterminate, or push out the Indians—when they did not enslave them—and established
their supremacy over the land.
The dispossession of the Indians
The process of removing the Indians from their ancestral lands led to bitter disputes. The
British tried to end one such problem by setting up the Proclamation of 1763 line along the
Appalachian divide, allowing whites to take over what lay to the east but attempting to reserve
what lay to the west as Indian territory. After their independence from Britain, the Americans
continued to adopt this ideal of a two-nation state, but in practice the notion soon collapsed as
they pushed the Indian line westward past the Appalachians to the Mississippi River and into the
Missouri River valley and other western lands. Nearly all the Indians in the east were displaced
to the west and into special zones in Oklahoma, the Great Plains, and the intermontane basins.
Even there, their land and their way of life were not respected, as ranchers, railroaders, and
homesteaders opened the West to settlement.
The Indian “territories” soon were reduced to isolated “reservations.” As a result, most of
the Indian population in the United States is now found west of the Mississippi River, usually in
drier areas unsuited to productive agriculture. At times the U.S. government has encouraged
Indians to leave the reservations and mix with the general population in the large cities of the
Midwest and West, a process of acculturation that some—including many younger and
ethnically conscious Indians—would claim poses as many dangers to the individual and social
well-being of Indians as do the communal misfortunes already brought upon them.
Counteracting the forces of assimilation have been increasingly energetic programs to defend
and strengthen aboriginal identity.
In Canada the reservation system was adopted at a relatively early date; it protected First
Nation (Native American) settlements throughout the east, even in such agriculturally rich areas
as the Montreal plain or peninsular Ontario. As the Europeans moved west, care was taken to
retain Indians on at least part of their own lands, including such fertile areas as the valley of the
Red River of the North and the Fraser River delta. Intermarriage between whites and Indians was
much more common than in the United States and produced a sizable community of the French
and Indian métis, who in 1869–70 unsuccessfully attempted to set up a separate state in the
Canadian prairies.
In both Mexico and Central America, racial admixture has gone much farther. In Mexico,
the mestizo population—of mixed Indian and white descent—accounts for some three-fifths of
the population, while pure-blooded Indians amount to less than one-fifth, and whites constitute
nearly all the rest (small fractions are Mexicans of African and Arab descent). European
immigration to Mexico and Central America since the original Spanish conquest has been
negligible. When Velasco made his tally of 5,000,000 Indians within his jurisdiction, there were
only 150,000 Spaniards in the New World.
The European attitudes toward the environment
When European colonizers entered North America, they regarded the continent as a virtual
wilderness, one waiting to be settled and developed economically. The indigenous agriculture in
what is now the United States and Canada seemed strange and rudimentary to them, and it had
made only a slight dent in the vast forests and grasslands. There were no herds or flocks of
domesticated grazing animals exploiting the natural pastures, and mineral deposits, water power,
and other resources were being ignored by the aborigines. The Europeans saw no reason why
they should not claim land they thought could be used to better advantage; and they proceeded to
buy out, exterminate, or push out the Indians—when they did not enslave them—and established
their supremacy over the land.
The dispossession of the Indians
The process of removing the Indians from their ancestral lands led to bitter disputes. The
British tried to end one such problem by setting up the Proclamation of 1763 line along the
Appalachian divide, allowing whites to take over what lay to the east but attempting to reserve
what lay to the west as Indian territory. After their independence from Britain, the Americans
continued to adopt this ideal of a two-nation state, but in practice the notion soon collapsed as
they pushed the Indian line westward past the Appalachians to the Mississippi River and into the
Missouri River valley and other western lands. Nearly all the Indians in the east were displaced
to the west and into special zones in Oklahoma, the Great Plains, and the intermontane basins.
Even there, their land and their way of life were not respected, as ranchers, railroaders, and
homesteaders opened the West to settlement.
The Indian “territories” soon were reduced to isolated “reservations.” As a result, most of
the Indian population in the United States is now found west of the Mississippi River, usually in
drier areas unsuited to productive agriculture. At times the U.S. government has encouraged
Indians to leave the reservations and mix with the general population in the large cities of the
Midwest and West, a process of acculturation that some—including many younger and
ethnically conscious Indians—would claim poses as many dangers to the individual and social
well-being of Indians as do the communal misfortunes already brought upon them.
Counteracting the forces of assimilation have been increasingly energetic programs to defend
and strengthen aboriginal identity.
In Canada the reservation system was adopted at a relatively early date; it protected First
Nation (Native American) settlements throughout the east, even in such agriculturally rich areas
as the Montreal plain or peninsular Ontario. As the Europeans moved west, care was taken to
retain Indians on at least part of their own lands, including such fertile areas as the valley of the
Red River of the North and the Fraser River delta. Intermarriage between whites and Indians was
much more common than in the United States and produced a sizable community of the French
and Indian métis, who in 1869–70 unsuccessfully attempted to set up a separate state in the
Canadian prairies.
In both Mexico and Central America, racial admixture has gone much farther. In Mexico,
the mestizo population—of mixed Indian and white descent—accounts for some three-fifths of
the population, while pure-blooded Indians amount to less than one-fifth, and whites constitute
nearly all the rest (small fractions are Mexicans of African and Arab descent). European
immigration to Mexico and Central America since the original Spanish conquest has been
negligible. When Velasco made his tally of 5,000,000 Indians within his jurisdiction, there were
only 150,000 Spaniards in the New World.
The European attitudes toward the environment
When European colonizers entered North America, they regarded the continent as a virtual
wilderness, one waiting to be settled and developed economically. The indigenous agriculture in
what is now the United States and Canada seemed strange and rudimentary to them, and it had
made only a slight dent in the vast forests and grasslands. There were no herds or flocks of
domesticated grazing animals exploiting the natural pastures, and mineral deposits, water power,
and other resources were being ignored by the aborigines. The Europeans saw no reason why
they should not claim land they thought could be used to better advantage; and they proceeded to
buy out, exterminate, or push out the Indians—when they did not enslave them—and established
their supremacy over the land.
The dispossession of the Indians
The process of removing the Indians from their ancestral lands led to bitter disputes. The
British tried to end one such problem by setting up the Proclamation of 1763 line along the
Appalachian divide, allowing whites to take over what lay to the east but attempting to reserve
what lay to the west as Indian territory. After their independence from Britain, the Americans
continued to adopt this ideal of a two-nation state, but in practice the notion soon collapsed as
they pushed the Indian line westward past the Appalachians to the Mississippi River and into the
Missouri River valley and other western lands. Nearly all the Indians in the east were displaced
to the west and into special zones in Oklahoma, the Great Plains, and the intermontane basins.
Even there, their land and their way of life were not respected, as ranchers, railroaders, and
homesteaders opened the West to settlement.
The Indian “territories” soon were reduced to isolated “reservations.” As a result, most of
the Indian population in the United States is now found west of the Mississippi River, usually in
drier areas unsuited to productive agriculture. At times the U.S. government has encouraged
Indians to leave the reservations and mix with the general population in the large cities of the
Midwest and West, a process of acculturation that some—including many younger and
ethnically conscious Indians—would claim poses as many dangers to the individual and social
well-being of Indians as do the communal misfortunes already brought upon them.
Counteracting the forces of assimilation have been increasingly energetic programs to defend
and strengthen aboriginal identity.
In Canada the reservation system was adopted at a relatively early date; it protected First
Nation (Native American) settlements throughout the east, even in such agriculturally rich areas
as the Montreal plain or peninsular Ontario. As the Europeans moved west, care was taken to
retain Indians on at least part of their own lands, including such fertile areas as the valley of the
Red River of the North and the Fraser River delta. Intermarriage between whites and Indians was
much more common than in the United States and produced a sizable community of the French
and Indian métis, who in 1869–70 unsuccessfully attempted to set up a separate state in the
Canadian prairies.
In both Mexico and Central America, racial admixture has gone much farther. In Mexico,
the mestizo population—of mixed Indian and white descent—accounts for some three-fifths of
the population, while pure-blooded Indians amount to less than one-fifth, and whites constitute
nearly all the rest (small fractions are Mexicans of African and Arab descent). European
immigration to Mexico and Central America since the original Spanish conquest has been
negligible. When Velasco made his tally of 5,000,000 Indians within his jurisdiction, there were
only 150,000 Spaniards in the New World.
The European attitudes toward the environment
When European colonizers entered North America, they regarded the continent as a virtual
wilderness, one waiting to be settled and developed economically. The indigenous agriculture in
what is now the United States and Canada seemed strange and rudimentary to them, and it had
made only a slight dent in the vast forests and grasslands. There were no herds or flocks of
domesticated grazing animals exploiting the natural pastures, and mineral deposits, water power,
and other resources were being ignored by the aborigines. The Europeans saw no reason why
they should not claim land they thought could be used to better advantage; and they proceeded to
buy out, exterminate, or push out the Indians—when they did not enslave them—and established
their supremacy over the land.
The dispossession of the Indians
The process of removing the Indians from their ancestral lands led to bitter disputes. The
British tried to end one such problem by setting up the Proclamation of 1763 line along the
Appalachian divide, allowing whites to take over what lay to the east but attempting to reserve
what lay to the west as Indian territory. After their independence from Britain, the Americans
continued to adopt this ideal of a two-nation state, but in practice the notion soon collapsed as
they pushed the Indian line westward past the Appalachians to the Mississippi River and into the
Missouri River valley and other western lands. Nearly all the Indians in the east were displaced
to the west and into special zones in Oklahoma, the Great Plains, and the intermontane basins.
Even there, their land and their way of life were not respected, as ranchers, railroaders, and
homesteaders opened the West to settlement.
The Indian “territories” soon were reduced to isolated “reservations.” As a result, most of
the Indian population in the United States is now found west of the Mississippi River, usually in
drier areas unsuited to productive agriculture. At times the U.S. government has encouraged
Indians to leave the reservations and mix with the general population in the large cities of the
Midwest and West, a process of acculturation that some—including many younger and
ethnically conscious Indians—would claim poses as many dangers to the individual and social
well-being of Indians as do the communal misfortunes already brought upon them.
Counteracting the forces of assimilation have been increasingly energetic programs to defend
and strengthen aboriginal identity.
In Canada the reservation system was adopted at a relatively early date; it protected First
Nation (Native American) settlements throughout the east, even in such agriculturally rich areas
as the Montreal plain or peninsular Ontario. As the Europeans moved west, care was taken to
retain Indians on at least part of their own lands, including such fertile areas as the valley of the
Red River of the North and the Fraser River delta. Intermarriage between whites and Indians was
much more common than in the United States and produced a sizable community of the French
and Indian métis, who in 1869–70 unsuccessfully attempted to set up a separate state in the
Canadian prairies.
In both Mexico and Central America, racial admixture has gone much farther. In Mexico,
the mestizo population—of mixed Indian and white descent—accounts for some three-fifths of
the population, while pure-blooded Indians amount to less than one-fifth, and whites constitute
nearly all the rest (small fractions are Mexicans of African and Arab descent). European
immigration to Mexico and Central America since the original Spanish conquest has been
negligible. When Velasco made his tally of 5,000,000 Indians within his jurisdiction, there were
only 150,000 Spaniards in the New World.
The European attitudes toward the environment
When European colonizers entered North America, they regarded the continent as a virtual
wilderness, one waiting to be settled and developed economically. The indigenous agriculture in
what is now the United States and Canada seemed strange and rudimentary to them, and it had
made only a slight dent in the vast forests and grasslands. There were no herds or flocks of
domesticated grazing animals exploiting the natural pastures, and mineral deposits, water power,
and other resources were being ignored by the aborigines. The Europeans saw no reason why
they should not claim land they thought could be used to better advantage; and they proceeded to
buy out, exterminate, or push out the Indians—when they did not enslave them—and established
their supremacy over the land.
The dispossession of the Indians
The process of removing the Indians from their ancestral lands led to bitter disputes. The
British tried to end one such problem by setting up the Proclamation of 1763 line along the
Appalachian divide, allowing whites to take over what lay to the east but attempting to reserve
what lay to the west as Indian territory. After their independence from Britain, the Americans
continued to adopt this ideal of a two-nation state, but in practice the notion soon collapsed as
they pushed the Indian line westward past the Appalachians to the Mississippi River and into the
Missouri River valley and other western lands. Nearly all the Indians in the east were displaced
to the west and into special zones in Oklahoma, the Great Plains, and the intermontane basins.
Even there, their land and their way of life were not respected, as ranchers, railroaders, and
homesteaders opened the West to settlement.
The Indian “territories” soon were reduced to isolated “reservations.” As a result, most of
the Indian population in the United States is now found west of the Mississippi River, usually in
drier areas unsuited to productive agriculture. At times the U.S. government has encouraged
Indians to leave the reservations and mix with the general population in the large cities of the
Midwest and West, a process of acculturation that some—including many younger and
ethnically conscious Indians—would claim poses as many dangers to the individual and social
well-being of Indians as do the communal misfortunes already brought upon them.
Counteracting the forces of assimilation have been increasingly energetic programs to defend
and strengthen aboriginal identity.
In Canada the reservation system was adopted at a relatively early date; it protected First
Nation (Native American) settlements throughout the east, even in such agriculturally rich areas
as the Montreal plain or peninsular Ontario. As the Europeans moved west, care was taken to
retain Indians on at least part of their own lands, including such fertile areas as the valley of the
Red River of the North and the Fraser River delta. Intermarriage between whites and Indians was
much more common than in the United States and produced a sizable community of the French
and Indian métis, who in 1869–70 unsuccessfully attempted to set up a separate state in the
Canadian prairies.
In both Mexico and Central America, racial admixture has gone much farther. In Mexico,
the mestizo population—of mixed Indian and white descent—accounts for some three-fifths of
the population, while pure-blooded Indians amount to less than one-fifth, and whites constitute
nearly all the rest (small fractions are Mexicans of African and Arab descent). European
immigration to Mexico and Central America since the original Spanish conquest has been
negligible. When Velasco made his tally of 5,000,000 Indians within his jurisdiction, there were
only 150,000 Spaniards in the New World.
The European attitudes toward the environment
When European colonizers entered North America, they regarded the continent as a virtual
wilderness, one waiting to be settled and developed economically. The indigenous agriculture in
what is now the United States and Canada seemed strange and rudimentary to them, and it had
made only a slight dent in the vast forests and grasslands. There were no herds or flocks of
domesticated grazing animals exploiting the natural pastures, and mineral deposits, water power,
and other resources were being ignored by the aborigines. The Europeans saw no reason why
they should not claim land they thought could be used to better advantage; and they proceeded to
buy out, exterminate, or push out the Indians—when they did not enslave them—and established
their supremacy over the land.
The dispossession of the Indians
The process of removing the Indians from their ancestral lands led to bitter disputes. The
British tried to end one such problem by setting up the Proclamation of 1763 line along the
Appalachian divide, allowing whites to take over what lay to the east but attempting to reserve
what lay to the west as Indian territory. After their independence from Britain, the Americans
continued to adopt this ideal of a two-nation state, but in practice the notion soon collapsed as
they pushed the Indian line westward past the Appalachians to the Mississippi River and into the
Missouri River valley and other western lands. Nearly all the Indians in the east were displaced
to the west and into special zones in Oklahoma, the Great Plains, and the intermontane basins.
Even there, their land and their way of life were not respected, as ranchers, railroaders, and
homesteaders opened the West to settlement.
The Indian “territories” soon were reduced to isolated “reservations.” As a result, most of
the Indian population in the United States is now found west of the Mississippi River, usually in
drier areas unsuited to productive agriculture. At times the U.S. government has encouraged
Indians to leave the reservations and mix with the general population in the large cities of the
Midwest and West, a process of acculturation that some—including many younger and
ethnically conscious Indians—would claim poses as many dangers to the individual and social
well-being of Indians as do the communal misfortunes already brought upon them.
Counteracting the forces of assimilation have been increasingly energetic programs to defend
and strengthen aboriginal identity.
In Canada the reservation system was adopted at a relatively early date; it protected First
Nation (Native American) settlements throughout the east, even in such agriculturally rich areas
as the Montreal plain or peninsular Ontario. As the Europeans moved west, care was taken to
retain Indians on at least part of their own lands, including such fertile areas as the valley of the
Red River of the North and the Fraser River delta. Intermarriage between whites and Indians was
much more common than in the United States and produced a sizable community of the French
and Indian métis, who in 1869–70 unsuccessfully attempted to set up a separate state in the
Canadian prairies.
In both Mexico and Central America, racial admixture has gone much farther. In Mexico,
the mestizo population—of mixed Indian and white descent—accounts for some three-fifths of
the population, while pure-blooded Indians amount to less than one-fifth, and whites constitute
nearly all the rest (small fractions are Mexicans of African and Arab descent). European
immigration to Mexico and Central America since the original Spanish conquest has been
negligible. When Velasco made his tally of 5,000,000 Indians within his jurisdiction, there were
only 150,000 Spaniards in the New World.
The European attitudes toward the environment
When European colonizers entered North America, they regarded the continent as a virtual
wilderness, one waiting to be settled and developed economically. The indigenous agriculture in
what is now the United States and Canada seemed strange and rudimentary to them, and it had
made only a slight dent in the vast forests and grasslands. There were no herds or flocks of
domesticated grazing animals exploiting the natural pastures, and mineral deposits, water power,
and other resources were being ignored by the aborigines. The Europeans saw no reason why
they should not claim land they thought could be used to better advantage; and they proceeded to
buy out, exterminate, or push out the Indians—when they did not enslave them—and established
their supremacy over the land.
The dispossession of the Indians
The process of removing the Indians from their ancestral lands led to bitter disputes. The
British tried to end one such problem by setting up the Proclamation of 1763 line along the
Appalachian divide, allowing whites to take over what lay to the east but attempting to reserve
what lay to the west as Indian territory. After their independence from Britain, the Americans
continued to adopt this ideal of a two-nation state, but in practice the notion soon collapsed as
they pushed the Indian line westward past the Appalachians to the Mississippi River and into the
Missouri River valley and other western lands. Nearly all the Indians in the east were displaced
to the west and into special zones in Oklahoma, the Great Plains, and the intermontane basins.
Even there, their land and their way of life were not respected, as ranchers, railroaders, and
homesteaders opened the West to settlement.
The Indian “territories” soon were reduced to isolated “reservations.” As a result, most of
the Indian population in the United States is now found west of the Mississippi River, usually in
drier areas unsuited to productive agriculture. At times the U.S. government has encouraged
Indians to leave the reservations and mix with the general population in the large cities of the
Midwest and West, a process of acculturation that some—including many younger and
ethnically conscious Indians—would claim poses as many dangers to the individual and social
well-being of Indians as do the communal misfortunes already brought upon them.
Counteracting the forces of assimilation have been increasingly energetic programs to defend
and strengthen aboriginal identity.
In Canada the reservation system was adopted at a relatively early date; it protected First
Nation (Native American) settlements throughout the east, even in such agriculturally rich areas
as the Montreal plain or peninsular Ontario. As the Europeans moved west, care was taken to
retain Indians on at least part of their own lands, including such fertile areas as the valley of the
Red River of the North and the Fraser River delta. Intermarriage between whites and Indians was
much more common than in the United States and produced a sizable community of the French
and Indian métis, who in 1869–70 unsuccessfully attempted to set up a separate state in the
Canadian prairies.
In both Mexico and Central America, racial admixture has gone much farther. In Mexico,
the mestizo population—of mixed Indian and white descent—accounts for some three-fifths of
the population, while pure-blooded Indians amount to less than one-fifth, and whites constitute
nearly all the rest (small fractions are Mexicans of African and Arab descent). European
immigration to Mexico and Central America since the original Spanish conquest has been
negligible. When Velasco made his tally of 5,000,000 Indians within his jurisdiction, there were
only 150,000 Spaniards in the New World.
The European attitudes toward the environment
When European colonizers entered North America, they regarded the continent as a virtual
wilderness, one waiting to be settled and developed economically. The indigenous agriculture in
what is now the United States and Canada seemed strange and rudimentary to them, and it had
made only a slight dent in the vast forests and grasslands. There were no herds or flocks of
domesticated grazing animals exploiting the natural pastures, and mineral deposits, water power,
and other resources were being ignored by the aborigines. The Europeans saw no reason why
they should not claim land they thought could be used to better advantage; and they proceeded to
buy out, exterminate, or push out the Indians—when they did not enslave them—and established
their supremacy over the land.
The dispossession of the Indians
The process of removing the Indians from their ancestral lands led to bitter disputes. The
British tried to end one such problem by setting up the Proclamation of 1763 line along the
Appalachian divide, allowing whites to take over what lay to the east but attempting to reserve
what lay to the west as Indian territory. After their independence from Britain, the Americans
continued to adopt this ideal of a two-nation state, but in practice the notion soon collapsed as
they pushed the Indian line westward past the Appalachians to the Mississippi River and into the
Missouri River valley and other western lands. Nearly all the Indians in the east were displaced
to the west and into special zones in Oklahoma, the Great Plains, and the intermontane basins.
Even there, their land and their way of life were not respected, as ranchers, railroaders, and
homesteaders opened the West to settlement.
The Indian “territories” soon were reduced to isolated “reservations.” As a result, most of
the Indian population in the United States is now found west of the Mississippi River, usually in
drier areas unsuited to productive agriculture. At times the U.S. government has encouraged
Indians to leave the reservations and mix with the general population in the large cities of the
Midwest and West, a process of acculturation that some—including many younger and
ethnically conscious Indians—would claim poses as many dangers to the individual and social
well-being of Indians as do the communal misfortunes already brought upon them.
Counteracting the forces of assimilation have been increasingly energetic programs to defend
and strengthen aboriginal identity.
In Canada the reservation system was adopted at a relatively early date; it protected First
Nation (Native American) settlements throughout the east, even in such agriculturally rich areas
as the Montreal plain or peninsular Ontario. As the Europeans moved west, care was taken to
retain Indians on at least part of their own lands, including such fertile areas as the valley of the
Red River of the North and the Fraser River delta. Intermarriage between whites and Indians was
much more common than in the United States and produced a sizable community of the French
and Indian métis, who in 1869–70 unsuccessfully attempted to set up a separate state in the
Canadian prairies.
In both Mexico and Central America, racial admixture has gone much farther. In Mexico,
the mestizo population—of mixed Indian and white descent—accounts for some three-fifths of
the population, while pure-blooded Indians amount to less than one-fifth, and whites constitute
nearly all the rest (small fractions are Mexicans of African and Arab descent). European
immigration to Mexico and Central America since the original Spanish conquest has been
negligible. When Velasco made his tally of 5,000,000 Indians within his jurisdiction, there were
only 150,000 Spaniards in the New World.
The European attitudes toward the environment
When European colonizers entered North America, they regarded the continent as a virtual
wilderness, one waiting to be settled and developed economically. The indigenous agriculture in
what is now the United States and Canada seemed strange and rudimentary to them, and it had
made only a slight dent in the vast forests and grasslands. There were no herds or flocks of
domesticated grazing animals exploiting the natural pastures, and mineral deposits, water power,
and other resources were being ignored by the aborigines. The Europeans saw no reason why
they should not claim land they thought could be used to better advantage; and they proceeded to
buy out, exterminate, or push out the Indians—when they did not enslave them—and established
their supremacy over the land.
The dispossession of the Indians
The process of removing the Indians from their ancestral lands led to bitter disputes. The
British tried to end one such problem by setting up the Proclamation of 1763 line along the
Appalachian divide, allowing whites to take over what lay to the east but attempting to reserve
what lay to the west as Indian territory. After their independence from Britain, the Americans
continued to adopt this ideal of a two-nation state, but in practice the notion soon collapsed as
they pushed the Indian line westward past the Appalachians to the Mississippi River and into the
Missouri River valley and other western lands. Nearly all the Indians in the east were displaced
to the west and into special zones in Oklahoma, the Great Plains, and the intermontane basins.
Even there, their land and their way of life were not respected, as ranchers, railroaders, and
homesteaders opened the West to settlement.
The Indian “territories” soon were reduced to isolated “reservations.” As a result, most of
the Indian population in the United States is now found west of the Mississippi River, usually in
drier areas unsuited to productive agriculture. At times the U.S. government has encouraged
Indians to leave the reservations and mix with the general population in the large cities of the
Midwest and West, a process of acculturation that some—including many younger and
ethnically conscious Indians—would claim poses as many dangers to the individual and social
well-being of Indians as do the communal misfortunes already brought upon them.
Counteracting the forces of assimilation have been increasingly energetic programs to defend
and strengthen aboriginal identity.
In Canada the reservation system was adopted at a relatively early date; it protected First
Nation (Native American) settlements throughout the east, even in such agriculturally rich areas
as the Montreal plain or peninsular Ontario. As the Europeans moved west, care was taken to
retain Indians on at least part of their own lands, including such fertile areas as the valley of the
Red River of the North and the Fraser River delta. Intermarriage between whites and Indians was
much more common than in the United States and produced a sizable community of the French
and Indian métis, who in 1869–70 unsuccessfully attempted to set up a separate state in the
Canadian prairies.
In both Mexico and Central America, racial admixture has gone much farther. In Mexico,
the mestizo population—of mixed Indian and white descent—accounts for some three-fifths of
the population, while pure-blooded Indians amount to less than one-fifth, and whites constitute
nearly all the rest (small fractions are Mexicans of African and Arab descent). European
immigration to Mexico and Central America since the original Spanish conquest has been
negligible. When Velasco made his tally of 5,000,000 Indians within his jurisdiction, there were
only 150,000 Spaniards in the New World.
The European attitudes toward the environment
When European colonizers entered North America, they regarded the continent as a virtual
wilderness, one waiting to be settled and developed economically. The indigenous agriculture in
what is now the United States and Canada seemed strange and rudimentary to them, and it had
made only a slight dent in the vast forests and grasslands. There were no herds or flocks of
domesticated grazing animals exploiting the natural pastures, and mineral deposits, water power,
and other resources were being ignored by the aborigines. The Europeans saw no reason why
they should not claim land they thought could be used to better advantage; and they proceeded to
buy out, exterminate, or push out the Indians—when they did not enslave them—and established
their supremacy over the land.
The dispossession of the Indians
The process of removing the Indians from their ancestral lands led to bitter disputes. The
British tried to end one such problem by setting up the Proclamation of 1763 line along the
Appalachian divide, allowing whites to take over what lay to the east but attempting to reserve
what lay to the west as Indian territory. After their independence from Britain, the Americans
continued to adopt this ideal of a two-nation state, but in practice the notion soon collapsed as
they pushed the Indian line westward past the Appalachians to the Mississippi River and into the
Missouri River valley and other western lands. Nearly all the Indians in the east were displaced
to the west and into special zones in Oklahoma, the Great Plains, and the intermontane basins.
Even there, their land and their way of life were not respected, as ranchers, railroaders, and
homesteaders opened the West to settlement.
The Indian “territories” soon were reduced to isolated “reservations.” As a result, most of
the Indian population in the United States is now found west of the Mississippi River, usually in
drier areas unsuited to productive agriculture. At times the U.S. government has encouraged
Indians to leave the reservations and mix with the general population in the large cities of the
Midwest and West, a process of acculturation that some—including many younger and
ethnically conscious Indians—would claim poses as many dangers to the individual and social
well-being of Indians as do the communal misfortunes already brought upon them.
Counteracting the forces of assimilation have been increasingly energetic programs to defend
and strengthen aboriginal identity.
In Canada the reservation system was adopted at a relatively early date; it protected First
Nation (Native American) settlements throughout the east, even in such agriculturally rich areas
as the Montreal plain or peninsular Ontario. As the Europeans moved west, care was taken to
retain Indians on at least part of their own lands, including such fertile areas as the valley of the
Red River of the North and the Fraser River delta. Intermarriage between whites and Indians was
much more common than in the United States and produced a sizable community of the French
and Indian métis, who in 1869–70 unsuccessfully attempted to set up a separate state in the
Canadian prairies.
In both Mexico and Central America, racial admixture has gone much farther. In Mexico,
the mestizo population—of mixed Indian and white descent—accounts for some three-fifths of
the population, while pure-blooded Indians amount to less than one-fifth, and whites constitute
nearly all the rest (small fractions are Mexicans of African and Arab descent). European
immigration to Mexico and Central America since the original Spanish conquest has been
negligible. When Velasco made his tally of 5,000,000 Indians within his jurisdiction, there were
only 150,000 Spaniards in the New World.
The European attitudes toward the environment
When European colonizers entered North America, they regarded the continent as a virtual
wilderness, one waiting to be settled and developed economically. The indigenous agriculture in
what is now the United States and Canada seemed strange and rudimentary to them, and it had
made only a slight dent in the vast forests and grasslands. There were no herds or flocks of
domesticated grazing animals exploiting the natural pastures, and mineral deposits, water power,
and other resources were being ignored by the aborigines. The Europeans saw no reason why
they should not claim land they thought could be used to better advantage; and they proceeded to
buy out, exterminate, or push out the Indians—when they did not enslave them—and established
their supremacy over the land.
The dispossession of the Indians
The process of removing the Indians from their ancestral lands led to bitter disputes. The
British tried to end one such problem by setting up the Proclamation of 1763 line along the
Appalachian divide, allowing whites to take over what lay to the east but attempting to reserve
what lay to the west as Indian territory. After their independence from Britain, the Americans
continued to adopt this ideal of a two-nation state, but in practice the notion soon collapsed as
they pushed the Indian line westward past the Appalachians to the Mississippi River and into the
Missouri River valley and other western lands. Nearly all the Indians in the east were displaced
to the west and into special zones in Oklahoma, the Great Plains, and the intermontane basins.
Even there, their land and their way of life were not respected, as ranchers, railroaders, and
homesteaders opened the West to settlement.
The Indian “territories” soon were reduced to isolated “reservations.” As a result, most of
the Indian population in the United States is now found west of the Mississippi River, usually in
drier areas unsuited to productive agriculture. At times the U.S. government has encouraged
Indians to leave the reservations and mix with the general population in the large cities of the
Midwest and West, a process of acculturation that some—including many younger and
ethnically conscious Indians—would claim poses as many dangers to the individual and social
well-being of Indians as do the communal misfortunes already brought upon them.
Counteracting the forces of assimilation have been increasingly energetic programs to defend
and strengthen aboriginal identity.
In Canada the reservation system was adopted at a relatively early date; it protected First
Nation (Native American) settlements throughout the east, even in such agriculturally rich areas
as the Montreal plain or peninsular Ontario. As the Europeans moved west, care was taken to
retain Indians on at least part of their own lands, including such fertile areas as the valley of the
Red River of the North and the Fraser River delta. Intermarriage between whites and Indians was
much more common than in the United States and produced a sizable community of the French
and Indian métis, who in 1869–70 unsuccessfully attempted to set up a separate state in the
Canadian prairies.
In both Mexico and Central America, racial admixture has gone much farther. In Mexico,
the mestizo population—of mixed Indian and white descent—accounts for some three-fifths of
the population, while pure-blooded Indians amount to less than one-fifth, and whites constitute
nearly all the rest (small fractions are Mexicans of African and Arab descent). European
immigration to Mexico and Central America since the original Spanish conquest has been
negligible. When Velasco made his tally of 5,000,000 Indians within his jurisdiction, there were
only 150,000 Spaniards in the New World.
The European attitudes toward the environment
When European colonizers entered North America, they regarded the continent as a virtual
wilderness, one waiting to be settled and developed economically. The indigenous agriculture in
what is now the United States and Canada seemed strange and rudimentary to them, and it had
made only a slight dent in the vast forests and grasslands. There were no herds or flocks of
domesticated grazing animals exploiting the natural pastures, and mineral deposits, water power,
and other resources were being ignored by the aborigines. The Europeans saw no reason why
they should not claim land they thought could be used to better advantage; and they proceeded to
buy out, exterminate, or push out the Indians—when they did not enslave them—and established
their supremacy over the land.
The dispossession of the Indians
The process of removing the Indians from their ancestral lands led to bitter disputes. The
British tried to end one such problem by setting up the Proclamation of 1763 line along the
Appalachian divide, allowing whites to take over what lay to the east but attempting to reserve
what lay to the west as Indian territory. After their independence from Britain, the Americans
continued to adopt this ideal of a two-nation state, but in practice the notion soon collapsed as
they pushed the Indian line westward past the Appalachians to the Mississippi River and into the
Missouri River valley and other western lands. Nearly all the Indians in the east were displaced
to the west and into special zones in Oklahoma, the Great Plains, and the intermontane basins.
Even there, their land and their way of life were not respected, as ranchers, railroaders, and
homesteaders opened the West to settlement.
The Indian “territories” soon were reduced to isolated “reservations.” As a result, most of
the Indian population in the United States is now found west of the Mississippi River, usually in
drier areas unsuited to productive agriculture. At times the U.S. government has encouraged
Indians to leave the reservations and mix with the general population in the large cities of the
Midwest and West, a process of acculturation that some—including many younger and
ethnically conscious Indians—would claim poses as many dangers to the individual and social
well-being of Indians as do the communal misfortunes already brought upon them.
Counteracting the forces of assimilation have been increasingly energetic programs to defend
and strengthen aboriginal identity.
In Canada the reservation system was adopted at a relatively early date; it protected First
Nation (Native American) settlements throughout the east, even in such agriculturally rich areas
as the Montreal plain or peninsular Ontario. As the Europeans moved west, care was taken to
retain Indians on at least part of their own lands, including such fertile areas as the valley of the
Red River of the North and the Fraser River delta. Intermarriage between whites and Indians was
much more common than in the United States and produced a sizable community of the French
and Indian métis, who in 1869–70 unsuccessfully attempted to set up a separate state in the
Canadian prairies.
In both Mexico and Central America, racial admixture has gone much farther. In Mexico,
the mestizo population—of mixed Indian and white descent—accounts for some three-fifths of
the population, while pure-blooded Indians amount to less than one-fifth, and whites constitute
nearly all the rest (small fractions are Mexicans of African and Arab descent). European
immigration to Mexico and Central America since the original Spanish conquest has been
negligible. When Velasco made his tally of 5,000,000 Indians within his jurisdiction, there were
only 150,000 Spaniards in the New World.
The European attitudes toward the environment
When European colonizers entered North America, they regarded the continent as a virtual
wilderness, one waiting to be settled and developed economically. The indigenous agriculture in
what is now the United States and Canada seemed strange and rudimentary to them, and it had
made only a slight dent in the vast forests and grasslands. There were no herds or flocks of
domesticated grazing animals exploiting the natural pastures, and mineral deposits, water power,
and other resources were being ignored by the aborigines. The Europeans saw no reason why
they should not claim land they thought could be used to better advantage; and they proceeded to
buy out, exterminate, or push out the Indians—when they did not enslave them—and established
their supremacy over the land.
The dispossession of the Indians
The process of removing the Indians from their ancestral lands led to bitter disputes. The
British tried to end one such problem by setting up the Proclamation of 1763 line along the
Appalachian divide, allowing whites to take over what lay to the east but attempting to reserve
what lay to the west as Indian territory. After their independence from Britain, the Americans
continued to adopt this ideal of a two-nation state, but in practice the notion soon collapsed as
they pushed the Indian line westward past the Appalachians to the Mississippi River and into the
Missouri River valley and other western lands. Nearly all the Indians in the east were displaced
to the west and into special zones in Oklahoma, the Great Plains, and the intermontane basins.
Even there, their land and their way of life were not respected, as ranchers, railroaders, and
homesteaders opened the West to settlement.
The Indian “territories” soon were reduced to isolated “reservations.” As a result, most of
the Indian population in the United States is now found west of the Mississippi River, usually in
drier areas unsuited to productive agriculture. At times the U.S. government has encouraged
Indians to leave the reservations and mix with the general population in the large cities of the
Midwest and West, a process of acculturation that some—including many younger and
ethnically conscious Indians—would claim poses as many dangers to the individual and social
well-being of Indians as do the communal misfortunes already brought upon them.
Counteracting the forces of assimilation have been increasingly energetic programs to defend
and strengthen aboriginal identity.
In Canada the reservation system was adopted at a relatively early date; it protected First
Nation (Native American) settlements throughout the east, even in such agriculturally rich areas
as the Montreal plain or peninsular Ontario. As the Europeans moved west, care was taken to
retain Indians on at least part of their own lands, including such fertile areas as the valley of the
Red River of the North and the Fraser River delta. Intermarriage between whites and Indians was
much more common than in the United States and produced a sizable community of the French
and Indian métis, who in 1869–70 unsuccessfully attempted to set up a separate state in the
Canadian prairies.
In both Mexico and Central America, racial admixture has gone much farther. In Mexico,
the mestizo population—of mixed Indian and white descent—accounts for some three-fifths of
the population, while pure-blooded Indians amount to less than one-fifth, and whites constitute
nearly all the rest (small fractions are Mexicans of African and Arab descent). European
immigration to Mexico and Central America since the original Spanish conquest has been
negligible. When Velasco made his tally of 5,000,000 Indians within his jurisdiction, there were
only 150,000 Spaniards in the New World.
The European attitudes toward the environment
When European colonizers entered North America, they regarded the continent as a virtual
wilderness, one waiting to be settled and developed economically. The indigenous agriculture in
what is now the United States and Canada seemed strange and rudimentary to them, and it had
made only a slight dent in the vast forests and grasslands. There were no herds or flocks of
domesticated grazing animals exploiting the natural pastures, and mineral deposits, water power,
and other resources were being ignored by the aborigines. The Europeans saw no reason why
they should not claim land they thought could be used to better advantage; and they proceeded to
buy out, exterminate, or push out the Indians—when they did not enslave them—and established
their supremacy over the land.
The dispossession of the Indians
The process of removing the Indians from their ancestral lands led to bitter disputes. The
British tried to end one such problem by setting up the Proclamation of 1763 line along the
Appalachian divide, allowing whites to take over what lay to the east but attempting to reserve
what lay to the west as Indian territory. After their independence from Britain, the Americans
continued to adopt this ideal of a two-nation state, but in practice the notion soon collapsed as
they pushed the Indian line westward past the Appalachians to the Mississippi River and into the
Missouri River valley and other western lands. Nearly all the Indians in the east were displaced
to the west and into special zones in Oklahoma, the Great Plains, and the intermontane basins.
Even there, their land and their way of life were not respected, as ranchers, railroaders, and
homesteaders opened the West to settlement.
The Indian “territories” soon were reduced to isolated “reservations.” As a result, most of
the Indian population in the United States is now found west of the Mississippi River, usually in
drier areas unsuited to productive agriculture. At times the U.S. government has encouraged
Indians to leave the reservations and mix with the general population in the large cities of the
Midwest and West, a process of acculturation that some—including many younger and
ethnically conscious Indians—would claim poses as many dangers to the individual and social
well-being of Indians as do the communal misfortunes already brought upon them.
Counteracting the forces of assimilation have been increasingly energetic programs to defend
and strengthen aboriginal identity.
In Canada the reservation system was adopted at a relatively early date; it protected First
Nation (Native American) settlements throughout the east, even in such agriculturally rich areas
as the Montreal plain or peninsular Ontario. As the Europeans moved west, care was taken to
retain Indians on at least part of their own lands, including such fertile areas as the valley of the
Red River of the North and the Fraser River delta. Intermarriage between whites and Indians was
much more common than in the United States and produced a sizable community of the French
and Indian métis, who in 1869–70 unsuccessfully attempted to set up a separate state in the
Canadian prairies.
In both Mexico and Central America, racial admixture has gone much farther. In Mexico,
the mestizo population—of mixed Indian and white descent—accounts for some three-fifths of
the population, while pure-blooded Indians amount to less than one-fifth, and whites constitute
nearly all the rest (small fractions are Mexicans of African and Arab descent). European
immigration to Mexico and Central America since the original Spanish conquest has been
negligible. When Velasco made his tally of 5,000,000 Indians within his jurisdiction, there were
only 150,000 Spaniards in the New World.
The European attitudes toward the environment
When European colonizers entered North America, they regarded the continent as a virtual
wilderness, one waiting to be settled and developed economically. The indigenous agriculture in
what is now the United States and Canada seemed strange and rudimentary to them, and it had
made only a slight dent in the vast forests and grasslands. There were no herds or flocks of
domesticated grazing animals exploiting the natural pastures, and mineral deposits, water power,
and other resources were being ignored by the aborigines. The Europeans saw no reason why
they should not claim land they thought could be used to better advantage; and they proceeded to
buy out, exterminate, or push out the Indians—when they did not enslave them—and established
their supremacy over the land.
The dispossession of the Indians
The process of removing the Indians from their ancestral lands led to bitter disputes. The
British tried to end one such problem by setting up the Proclamation of 1763 line along the
Appalachian divide, allowing whites to take over what lay to the east but attempting to reserve
what lay to the west as Indian territory. After their independence from Britain, the Americans
continued to adopt this ideal of a two-nation state, but in practice the notion soon collapsed as
they pushed the Indian line westward past the Appalachians to the Mississippi River and into the
Missouri River valley and other western lands. Nearly all the Indians in the east were displaced
to the west and into special zones in Oklahoma, the Great Plains, and the intermontane basins.
Even there, their land and their way of life were not respected, as ranchers, railroaders, and
homesteaders opened the West to settlement.
The Indian “territories” soon were reduced to isolated “reservations.” As a result, most of
the Indian population in the United States is now found west of the Mississippi River, usually in
drier areas unsuited to productive agriculture. At times the U.S. government has encouraged
Indians to leave the reservations and mix with the general population in the large cities of the
Midwest and West, a process of acculturation that some—including many younger and
ethnically conscious Indians—would claim poses as many dangers to the individual and social
well-being of Indians as do the communal misfortunes already brought upon them.
Counteracting the forces of assimilation have been increasingly energetic programs to defend
and strengthen aboriginal identity.
In Canada the reservation system was adopted at a relatively early date; it protected First
Nation (Native American) settlements throughout the east, even in such agriculturally rich areas
as the Montreal plain or peninsular Ontario. As the Europeans moved west, care was taken to
retain Indians on at least part of their own lands, including such fertile areas as the valley of the
Red River of the North and the Fraser River delta. Intermarriage between whites and Indians was
much more common than in the United States and produced a sizable community of the French
and Indian métis, who in 1869–70 unsuccessfully attempted to set up a separate state in the
Canadian prairies.
In both Mexico and Central America, racial admixture has gone much farther. In Mexico,
the mestizo population—of mixed Indian and white descent—accounts for some three-fifths of
the population, while pure-blooded Indians amount to less than one-fifth, and whites constitute
nearly all the rest (small fractions are Mexicans of African and Arab descent). European
immigration to Mexico and Central America since the original Spanish conquest has been
negligible. When Velasco made his tally of 5,000,000 Indians within his jurisdiction, there were
only 150,000 Spaniards in the New World.
The European attitudes toward the environment
When European colonizers entered North America, they regarded the continent as a virtual
wilderness, one waiting to be settled and developed economically. The indigenous agriculture in
what is now the United States and Canada seemed strange and rudimentary to them, and it had
made only a slight dent in the vast forests and grasslands. There were no herds or flocks of
domesticated grazing animals exploiting the natural pastures, and mineral deposits, water power,
and other resources were being ignored by the aborigines. The Europeans saw no reason why
they should not claim land they thought could be used to better advantage; and they proceeded to
buy out, exterminate, or push out the Indians—when they did not enslave them—and established
their supremacy over the land.
The dispossession of the Indians
The process of removing the Indians from their ancestral lands led to bitter disputes. The
British tried to end one such problem by setting up the Proclamation of 1763 line along the
Appalachian divide, allowing whites to take over what lay to the east but attempting to reserve
what lay to the west as Indian territory. After their independence from Britain, the Americans
continued to adopt this ideal of a two-nation state, but in practice the notion soon collapsed as
they pushed the Indian line westward past the Appalachians to the Mississippi River and into the
Missouri River valley and other western lands. Nearly all the Indians in the east were displaced
to the west and into special zones in Oklahoma, the Great Plains, and the intermontane basins.
Even there, their land and their way of life were not respected, as ranchers, railroaders, and
homesteaders opened the West to settlement.
The Indian “territories” soon were reduced to isolated “reservations.” As a result, most of
the Indian population in the United States is now found west of the Mississippi River, usually in
drier areas unsuited to productive agriculture. At times the U.S. government has encouraged
Indians to leave the reservations and mix with the general population in the large cities of the
Midwest and West, a process of acculturation that some—including many younger and
ethnically conscious Indians—would claim poses as many dangers to the individual and social
well-being of Indians as do the communal misfortunes already brought upon them.
Counteracting the forces of assimilation have been increasingly energetic programs to defend
and strengthen aboriginal identity.
In Canada the reservation system was adopted at a relatively early date; it protected First
Nation (Native American) settlements throughout the east, even in such agriculturally rich areas
as the Montreal plain or peninsular Ontario. As the Europeans moved west, care was taken to
retain Indians on at least part of their own lands, including such fertile areas as the valley of the
Red River of the North and the Fraser River delta. Intermarriage between whites and Indians was
much more common than in the United States and produced a sizable community of the French
and Indian métis, who in 1869–70 unsuccessfully attempted to set up a separate state in the
Canadian prairies.
In both Mexico and Central America, racial admixture has gone much farther. In Mexico,
the mestizo population—of mixed Indian and white descent—accounts for some three-fifths of
the population, while pure-blooded Indians amount to less than one-fifth, and whites constitute
nearly all the rest (small fractions are Mexicans of African and Arab descent). European
immigration to Mexico and Central America since the original Spanish conquest has been
negligible. When Velasco made his tally of 5,000,000 Indians within his jurisdiction, there were
only 150,000 Spaniards in the New World.
The European attitudes toward the environment
When European colonizers entered North America, they regarded the continent as a virtual
wilderness, one waiting to be settled and developed economically. The indigenous agriculture in
what is now the United States and Canada seemed strange and rudimentary to them, and it had
made only a slight dent in the vast forests and grasslands. There were no herds or flocks of
domesticated grazing animals exploiting the natural pastures, and mineral deposits, water power,
and other resources were being ignored by the aborigines. The Europeans saw no reason why
they should not claim land they thought could be used to better advantage; and they proceeded to
buy out, exterminate, or push out the Indians—when they did not enslave them—and established
their supremacy over the land.
The dispossession of the Indians
The process of removing the Indians from their ancestral lands led to bitter disputes. The
British tried to end one such problem by setting up the Proclamation of 1763 line along the
Appalachian divide, allowing whites to take over what lay to the east but attempting to reserve
what lay to the west as Indian territory. After their independence from Britain, the Americans
continued to adopt this ideal of a two-nation state, but in practice the notion soon collapsed as
they pushed the Indian line westward past the Appalachians to the Mississippi River and into the
Missouri River valley and other western lands. Nearly all the Indians in the east were displaced
to the west and into special zones in Oklahoma, the Great Plains, and the intermontane basins.
Even there, their land and their way of life were not respected, as ranchers, railroaders, and
homesteaders opened the West to settlement.
The Indian “territories” soon were reduced to isolated “reservations.” As a result, most of
the Indian population in the United States is now found west of the Mississippi River, usually in
drier areas unsuited to productive agriculture. At times the U.S. government has encouraged
Indians to leave the reservations and mix with the general population in the large cities of the
Midwest and West, a process of acculturation that some—including many younger and
ethnically conscious Indians—would claim poses as many dangers to the individual and social
well-being of Indians as do the communal misfortunes already brought upon them.
Counteracting the forces of assimilation have been increasingly energetic programs to defend
and strengthen aboriginal identity.
In Canada the reservation system was adopted at a relatively early date; it protected First
Nation (Native American) settlements throughout the east, even in such agriculturally rich areas
as the Montreal plain or peninsular Ontario. As the Europeans moved west, care was taken to
retain Indians on at least part of their own lands, including such fertile areas as the valley of the
Red River of the North and the Fraser River delta. Intermarriage between whites and Indians was
much more common than in the United States and produced a sizable community of the French
and Indian métis, who in 1869–70 unsuccessfully attempted to set up a separate state in the
Canadian prairies.
In both Mexico and Central America, racial admixture has gone much farther. In Mexico,
the mestizo population—of mixed Indian and white descent—accounts for some three-fifths of
the population, while pure-blooded Indians amount to less than one-fifth, and whites constitute
nearly all the rest (small fractions are Mexicans of African and Arab descent). European
immigration to Mexico and Central America since the original Spanish conquest has been
negligible. When Velasco made his tally of 5,000,000 Indians within his jurisdiction, there were
only 150,000 Spaniards in the New World.
The European attitudes toward the environment
When European colonizers entered North America, they regarded the continent as a virtual
wilderness, one waiting to be settled and developed economically. The indigenous agriculture in
what is now the United States and Canada seemed strange and rudimentary to them, and it had
made only a slight dent in the vast forests and grasslands. There were no herds or flocks of
domesticated grazing animals exploiting the natural pastures, and mineral deposits, water power,
and other resources were being ignored by the aborigines. The Europeans saw no reason why
they should not claim land they thought could be used to better advantage; and they proceeded to
buy out, exterminate, or push out the Indians—when they did not enslave them—and established
their supremacy over the land.
The dispossession of the Indians
The process of removing the Indians from their ancestral lands led to bitter disputes. The
British tried to end one such problem by setting up the Proclamation of 1763 line along the
Appalachian divide, allowing whites to take over what lay to the east but attempting to reserve
what lay to the west as Indian territory. After their independence from Britain, the Americans
continued to adopt this ideal of a two-nation state, but in practice the notion soon collapsed as
they pushed the Indian line westward past the Appalachians to the Mississippi River and into the
Missouri River valley and other western lands. Nearly all the Indians in the east were displaced
to the west and into special zones in Oklahoma, the Great Plains, and the intermontane basins.
Even there, their land and their way of life were not respected, as ranchers, railroaders, and
homesteaders opened the West to settlement.
The Indian “territories” soon were reduced to isolated “reservations.” As a result, most of
the Indian population in the United States is now found west of the Mississippi River, usually in
drier areas unsuited to productive agriculture. At times the U.S. government has encouraged
Indians to leave the reservations and mix with the general population in the large cities of the
Midwest and West, a process of acculturation that some—including many younger and
ethnically conscious Indians—would claim poses as many dangers to the individual and social
well-being of Indians as do the communal misfortunes already brought upon them.
Counteracting the forces of assimilation have been increasingly energetic programs to defend
and strengthen aboriginal identity.
In Canada the reservation system was adopted at a relatively early date; it protected First
Nation (Native American) settlements throughout the east, even in such agriculturally rich areas
as the Montreal plain or peninsular Ontario. As the Europeans moved west, care was taken to
retain Indians on at least part of their own lands, including such fertile areas as the valley of the
Red River of the North and the Fraser River delta. Intermarriage between whites and Indians was
much more common than in the United States and produced a sizable community of the French
and Indian métis, who in 1869–70 unsuccessfully attempted to set up a separate state in the
Canadian prairies.
In both Mexico and Central America, racial admixture has gone much farther. In Mexico,
the mestizo population—of mixed Indian and white descent—accounts for some three-fifths of
the population, while pure-blooded Indians amount to less than one-fifth, and whites constitute
nearly all the rest (small fractions are Mexicans of African and Arab descent). European
immigration to Mexico and Central America since the original Spanish conquest has been
negligible. When Velasco made his tally of 5,000,000 Indians within his jurisdiction, there were
only 150,000 Spaniards in the New World.
The European attitudes toward the environment
When European colonizers entered North America, they regarded the continent as a virtual
wilderness, one waiting to be settled and developed economically. The indigenous agriculture in
what is now the United States and Canada seemed strange and rudimentary to them, and it had
made only a slight dent in the vast forests and grasslands. There were no herds or flocks of
domesticated grazing animals exploiting the natural pastures, and mineral deposits, water power,
and other resources were being ignored by the aborigines. The Europeans saw no reason why
they should not claim land they thought could be used to better advantage; and they proceeded to
buy out, exterminate, or push out the Indians—when they did not enslave them—and established
their supremacy over the land.
The dispossession of the Indians
The process of removing the Indians from their ancestral lands led to bitter disputes. The
British tried to end one such problem by setting up the Proclamation of 1763 line along the
Appalachian divide, allowing whites to take over what lay to the east but attempting to reserve
what lay to the west as Indian territory. After their independence from Britain, the Americans
continued to adopt this ideal of a two-nation state, but in practice the notion soon collapsed as
they pushed the Indian line westward past the Appalachians to the Mississippi River and into the
Missouri River valley and other western lands. Nearly all the Indians in the east were displaced
to the west and into special zones in Oklahoma, the Great Plains, and the intermontane basins.
Even there, their land and their way of life were not respected, as ranchers, railroaders, and
homesteaders opened the West to settlement.
The Indian “territories” soon were reduced to isolated “reservations.” As a result, most of
the Indian population in the United States is now found west of the Mississippi River, usually in
drier areas unsuited to productive agriculture. At times the U.S. government has encouraged
Indians to leave the reservations and mix with the general population in the large cities of the
Midwest and West, a process of acculturation that some—including many younger and
ethnically conscious Indians—would claim poses as many dangers to the individual and social
well-being of Indians as do the communal misfortunes already brought upon them.
Counteracting the forces of assimilation have been increasingly energetic programs to defend
and strengthen aboriginal identity.
In Canada the reservation system was adopted at a relatively early date; it protected First
Nation (Native American) settlements throughout the east, even in such agriculturally rich areas
as the Montreal plain or peninsular Ontario. As the Europeans moved west, care was taken to
retain Indians on at least part of their own lands, including such fertile areas as the valley of the
Red River of the North and the Fraser River delta. Intermarriage between whites and Indians was
much more common than in the United States and produced a sizable community of the French
and Indian métis, who in 1869–70 unsuccessfully attempted to set up a separate state in the
Canadian prairies.
In both Mexico and Central America, racial admixture has gone much farther. In Mexico,
the mestizo population—of mixed Indian and white descent—accounts for some three-fifths of
the population, while pure-blooded Indians amount to less than one-fifth, and whites constitute
nearly all the rest (small fractions are Mexicans of African and Arab descent). European
immigration to Mexico and Central America since the original Spanish conquest has been
negligible. When Velasco made his tally of 5,000,000 Indians within his jurisdiction, there were
only 150,000 Spaniards in the New World.
The European attitudes toward the environment
When European colonizers entered North America, they regarded the continent as a virtual
wilderness, one waiting to be settled and developed economically. The indigenous agriculture in
what is now the United States and Canada seemed strange and rudimentary to them, and it had
made only a slight dent in the vast forests and grasslands. There were no herds or flocks of
domesticated grazing animals exploiting the natural pastures, and mineral deposits, water power,
and other resources were being ignored by the aborigines. The Europeans saw no reason why
they should not claim land they thought could be used to better advantage; and they proceeded to
buy out, exterminate, or push out the Indians—when they did not enslave them—and established
their supremacy over the land.
The dispossession of the Indians
The process of removing the Indians from their ancestral lands led to bitter disputes. The
British tried to end one such problem by setting up the Proclamation of 1763 line along the
Appalachian divide, allowing whites to take over what lay to the east but attempting to reserve
what lay to the west as Indian territory. After their independence from Britain, the Americans
continued to adopt this ideal of a two-nation state, but in practice the notion soon collapsed as
they pushed the Indian line westward past the Appalachians to the Mississippi River and into the
Missouri River valley and other western lands. Nearly all the Indians in the east were displaced
to the west and into special zones in Oklahoma, the Great Plains, and the intermontane basins.
Even there, their land and their way of life were not respected, as ranchers, railroaders, and
homesteaders opened the West to settlement.
The Indian “territories” soon were reduced to isolated “reservations.” As a result, most of
the Indian population in the United States is now found west of the Mississippi River, usually in
drier areas unsuited to productive agriculture. At times the U.S. government has encouraged
Indians to leave the reservations and mix with the general population in the large cities of the
Midwest and West, a process of acculturation that some—including many younger and
ethnically conscious Indians—would claim poses as many dangers to the individual and social
well-being of Indians as do the communal misfortunes already brought upon them.
Counteracting the forces of assimilation have been increasingly energetic programs to defend
and strengthen aboriginal identity.
In Canada the reservation system was adopted at a relatively early date; it protected First
Nation (Native American) settlements throughout the east, even in such agriculturally rich areas
as the Montreal plain or peninsular Ontario. As the Europeans moved west, care was taken to
retain Indians on at least part of their own lands, including such fertile areas as the valley of the
Red River of the North and the Fraser River delta. Intermarriage between whites and Indians was
much more common than in the United States and produced a sizable community of the French
and Indian métis, who in 1869–70 unsuccessfully attempted to set up a separate state in the
Canadian prairies.
In both Mexico and Central America, racial admixture has gone much farther. In Mexico,
the mestizo population—of mixed Indian and white descent—accounts for some three-fifths of
the population, while pure-blooded Indians amount to less than one-fifth, and whites constitute
nearly all the rest (small fractions are Mexicans of African and Arab descent). European
immigration to Mexico and Central America since the original Spanish conquest has been
negligible. When Velasco made his tally of 5,000,000 Indians within his jurisdiction, there were
only 150,000 Spaniards in the New World.
The European attitudes toward the environment
When European colonizers entered North America, they regarded the continent as a virtual
wilderness, one waiting to be settled and developed economically. The indigenous agriculture in
what is now the United States and Canada seemed strange and rudimentary to them, and it had
made only a slight dent in the vast forests and grasslands. There were no herds or flocks of
domesticated grazing animals exploiting the natural pastures, and mineral deposits, water power,
and other resources were being ignored by the aborigines. The Europeans saw no reason why
they should not claim land they thought could be used to better advantage; and they proceeded to
buy out, exterminate, or push out the Indians—when they did not enslave them—and established
their supremacy over the land.
The dispossession of the Indians
The process of removing the Indians from their ancestral lands led to bitter disputes. The
British tried to end one such problem by setting up the Proclamation of 1763 line along the
Appalachian divide, allowing whites to take over what lay to the east but attempting to reserve
what lay to the west as Indian territory. After their independence from Britain, the Americans
continued to adopt this ideal of a two-nation state, but in practice the notion soon collapsed as
they pushed the Indian line westward past the Appalachians to the Mississippi River and into the
Missouri River valley and other western lands. Nearly all the Indians in the east were displaced
to the west and into special zones in Oklahoma, the Great Plains, and the intermontane basins.
Even there, their land and their way of life were not respected, as ranchers, railroaders, and
homesteaders opened the West to settlement.
The Indian “territories” soon were reduced to isolated “reservations.” As a result, most of
the Indian population in the United States is now found west of the Mississippi River, usually in
drier areas unsuited to productive agriculture. At times the U.S. government has encouraged
Indians to leave the reservations and mix with the general population in the large cities of the
Midwest and West, a process of acculturation that some—including many younger and
ethnically conscious Indians—would claim poses as many dangers to the individual and social
well-being of Indians as do the communal misfortunes already brought upon them.
Counteracting the forces of assimilation have been increasingly energetic programs to defend
and strengthen aboriginal identity.
In Canada the reservation system was adopted at a relatively early date; it protected First
Nation (Native American) settlements throughout the east, even in such agriculturally rich areas
as the Montreal plain or peninsular Ontario. As the Europeans moved west, care was taken to
retain Indians on at least part of their own lands, including such fertile areas as the valley of the
Red River of the North and the Fraser River delta. Intermarriage between whites and Indians was
much more common than in the United States and produced a sizable community of the French
and Indian métis, who in 1869–70 unsuccessfully attempted to set up a separate state in the
Canadian prairies.
In both Mexico and Central America, racial admixture has gone much farther. In Mexico,
the mestizo population—of mixed Indian and white descent—accounts for some three-fifths of
the population, while pure-blooded Indians amount to less than one-fifth, and whites constitute
nearly all the rest (small fractions are Mexicans of African and Arab descent). European
immigration to Mexico and Central America since the original Spanish conquest has been
negligible. When Velasco made his tally of 5,000,000 Indians within his jurisdiction, there were
only 150,000 Spaniards in the New World.
The European attitudes toward the environment
When European colonizers entered North America, they regarded the continent as a virtual
wilderness, one waiting to be settled and developed economically. The indigenous agriculture in
what is now the United States and Canada seemed strange and rudimentary to them, and it had
made only a slight dent in the vast forests and grasslands. There were no herds or flocks of
domesticated grazing animals exploiting the natural pastures, and mineral deposits, water power,
and other resources were being ignored by the aborigines. The Europeans saw no reason why
they should not claim land they thought could be used to better advantage; and they proceeded to
buy out, exterminate, or push out the Indians—when they did not enslave them—and established
their supremacy over the land.
The dispossession of the Indians
The process of removing the Indians from their ancestral lands led to bitter disputes. The
British tried to end one such problem by setting up the Proclamation of 1763 line along the
Appalachian divide, allowing whites to take over what lay to the east but attempting to reserve
what lay to the west as Indian territory. After their independence from Britain, the Americans
continued to adopt this ideal of a two-nation state, but in practice the notion soon collapsed as
they pushed the Indian line westward past the Appalachians to the Mississippi River and into the
Missouri River valley and other western lands. Nearly all the Indians in the east were displaced
to the west and into special zones in Oklahoma, the Great Plains, and the intermontane basins.
Even there, their land and their way of life were not respected, as ranchers, railroaders, and
homesteaders opened the West to settlement.
The Indian “territories” soon were reduced to isolated “reservations.” As a result, most of
the Indian population in the United States is now found west of the Mississippi River, usually in
drier areas unsuited to productive agriculture. At times the U.S. government has encouraged
Indians to leave the reservations and mix with the general population in the large cities of the
Midwest and West, a process of acculturation that some—including many younger and
ethnically conscious Indians—would claim poses as many dangers to the individual and social
well-being of Indians as do the communal misfortunes already brought upon them.
Counteracting the forces of assimilation have been increasingly energetic programs to defend
and strengthen aboriginal identity.
In Canada the reservation system was adopted at a relatively early date; it protected First
Nation (Native American) settlements throughout the east, even in such agriculturally rich areas
as the Montreal plain or peninsular Ontario. As the Europeans moved west, care was taken to
retain Indians on at least part of their own lands, including such fertile areas as the valley of the
Red River of the North and the Fraser River delta. Intermarriage between whites and Indians was
much more common than in the United States and produced a sizable community of the French
and Indian métis, who in 1869–70 unsuccessfully attempted to set up a separate state in the
Canadian prairies.
In both Mexico and Central America, racial admixture has gone much farther. In Mexico,
the mestizo population—of mixed Indian and white descent—accounts for some three-fifths of
the population, while pure-blooded Indians amount to less than one-fifth, and whites constitute
nearly all the rest (small fractions are Mexicans of African and Arab descent). European
immigration to Mexico and Central America since the original Spanish conquest has been
negligible. When Velasco made his tally of 5,000,000 Indians within his jurisdiction, there were
only 150,000 Spaniards in the New World.
The European attitudes toward the environment
When European colonizers entered North America, they regarded the continent as a virtual
wilderness, one waiting to be settled and developed economically. The indigenous agriculture in
what is now the United States and Canada seemed strange and rudimentary to them, and it had
made only a slight dent in the vast forests and grasslands. There were no herds or flocks of
domesticated grazing animals exploiting the natural pastures, and mineral deposits, water power,
and other resources were being ignored by the aborigines. The Europeans saw no reason why
they should not claim land they thought could be used to better advantage; and they proceeded to
buy out, exterminate, or push out the Indians—when they did not enslave them—and established
their supremacy over the land.
The dispossession of the Indians
The process of removing the Indians from their ancestral lands led to bitter disputes. The
British tried to end one such problem by setting up the Proclamation of 1763 line along the
Appalachian divide, allowing whites to take over what lay to the east but attempting to reserve
what lay to the west as Indian territory. After their independence from Britain, the Americans
continued to adopt this ideal of a two-nation state, but in practice the notion soon collapsed as
they pushed the Indian line westward past the Appalachians to the Mississippi River and into the
Missouri River valley and other western lands. Nearly all the Indians in the east were displaced
to the west and into special zones in Oklahoma, the Great Plains, and the intermontane basins.
Even there, their land and their way of life were not respected, as ranchers, railroaders, and
homesteaders opened the West to settlement.
The Indian “territories” soon were reduced to isolated “reservations.” As a result, most of
the Indian population in the United States is now found west of the Mississippi River, usually in
drier areas unsuited to productive agriculture. At times the U.S. government has encouraged
Indians to leave the reservations and mix with the general population in the large cities of the
Midwest and West, a process of acculturation that some—including many younger and
ethnically conscious Indians—would claim poses as many dangers to the individual and social
well-being of Indians as do the communal misfortunes already brought upon them.
Counteracting the forces of assimilation have been increasingly energetic programs to defend
and strengthen aboriginal identity.
In Canada the reservation system was adopted at a relatively early date; it protected First
Nation (Native American) settlements throughout the east, even in such agriculturally rich areas
as the Montreal plain or peninsular Ontario. As the Europeans moved west, care was taken to
retain Indians on at least part of their own lands, including such fertile areas as the valley of the
Red River of the North and the Fraser River delta. Intermarriage between whites and Indians was
much more common than in the United States and produced a sizable community of the French
and Indian métis, who in 1869–70 unsuccessfully attempted to set up a separate state in the
Canadian prairies.
In both Mexico and Central America, racial admixture has gone much farther. In Mexico,
the mestizo population—of mixed Indian and white descent—accounts for some three-fifths of
the population, while pure-blooded Indians amount to less than one-fifth, and whites constitute
nearly all the rest (small fractions are Mexicans of African and Arab descent). European
immigration to Mexico and Central America since the original Spanish conquest has been
negligible. When Velasco made his tally of 5,000,000 Indians within his jurisdiction, there were
only 150,000 Spaniards in the New World.
The European attitudes toward the environment
When European colonizers entered North America, they regarded the continent as a virtual
wilderness, one waiting to be settled and developed economically. The indigenous agriculture in
what is now the United States and Canada seemed strange and rudimentary to them, and it had
made only a slight dent in the vast forests and grasslands. There were no herds or flocks of
domesticated grazing animals exploiting the natural pastures, and mineral deposits, water power,
and other resources were being ignored by the aborigines. The Europeans saw no reason why
they should not claim land they thought could be used to better advantage; and they proceeded to
buy out, exterminate, or push out the Indians—when they did not enslave them—and established
their supremacy over the land.
The dispossession of the Indians
The process of removing the Indians from their ancestral lands led to bitter disputes. The
British tried to end one such problem by setting up the Proclamation of 1763 line along the
Appalachian divide, allowing whites to take over what lay to the east but attempting to reserve
what lay to the west as Indian territory. After their independence from Britain, the Americans
continued to adopt this ideal of a two-nation state, but in practice the notion soon collapsed as
they pushed the Indian line westward past the Appalachians to the Mississippi River and into the
Missouri River valley and other western lands. Nearly all the Indians in the east were displaced
to the west and into special zones in Oklahoma, the Great Plains, and the intermontane basins.
Even there, their land and their way of life were not respected, as ranchers, railroaders, and
homesteaders opened the West to settlement.
The Indian “territories” soon were reduced to isolated “reservations.” As a result, most of
the Indian population in the United States is now found west of the Mississippi River, usually in
drier areas unsuited to productive agriculture. At times the U.S. government has encouraged
Indians to leave the reservations and mix with the general population in the large cities of the
Midwest and West, a process of acculturation that some—including many younger and
ethnically conscious Indians—would claim poses as many dangers to the individual and social
well-being of Indians as do the communal misfortunes already brought upon them.
Counteracting the forces of assimilation have been increasingly energetic programs to defend
and strengthen aboriginal identity.
In Canada the reservation system was adopted at a relatively early date; it protected First
Nation (Native American) settlements throughout the east, even in such agriculturally rich areas
as the Montreal plain or peninsular Ontario. As the Europeans moved west, care was taken to
retain Indians on at least part of their own lands, including such fertile areas as the valley of the
Red River of the North and the Fraser River delta. Intermarriage between whites and Indians was
much more common than in the United States and produced a sizable community of the French
and Indian métis, who in 1869–70 unsuccessfully attempted to set up a separate state in the
Canadian prairies.
In both Mexico and Central America, racial admixture has gone much farther. In Mexico,
the mestizo population—of mixed Indian and white descent—accounts for some three-fifths of
the population, while pure-blooded Indians amount to less than one-fifth, and whites constitute
nearly all the rest (small fractions are Mexicans of African and Arab descent). European
immigration to Mexico and Central America since the original Spanish conquest has been
negligible. When Velasco made his tally of 5,000,000 Indians within his jurisdiction, there were
only 150,000 Spaniards in the New World.
The European attitudes toward the environment
When European colonizers entered North America, they regarded the continent as a virtual
wilderness, one waiting to be settled and developed economically. The indigenous agriculture in
what is now the United States and Canada seemed strange and rudimentary to them, and it had
made only a slight dent in the vast forests and grasslands. There were no herds or flocks of
domesticated grazing animals exploiting the natural pastures, and mineral deposits, water power,
and other resources were being ignored by the aborigines. The Europeans saw no reason why
they should not claim land they thought could be used to better advantage; and they proceeded to
buy out, exterminate, or push out the Indians—when they did not enslave them—and established
their supremacy over the land.
The dispossession of the Indians
The process of removing the Indians from their ancestral lands led to bitter disputes. The
British tried to end one such problem by setting up the Proclamation of 1763 line along the
Appalachian divide, allowing whites to take over what lay to the east but attempting to reserve
what lay to the west as Indian territory. After their independence from Britain, the Americans
continued to adopt this ideal of a two-nation state, but in practice the notion soon collapsed as
they pushed the Indian line westward past the Appalachians to the Mississippi River and into the
Missouri River valley and other western lands. Nearly all the Indians in the east were displaced
to the west and into special zones in Oklahoma, the Great Plains, and the intermontane basins.
Even there, their land and their way of life were not respected, as ranchers, railroaders, and
homesteaders opened the West to settlement.
The Indian “territories” soon were reduced to isolated “reservations.” As a result, most of
the Indian population in the United States is now found west of the Mississippi River, usually in
drier areas unsuited to productive agriculture. At times the U.S. government has encouraged
Indians to leave the reservations and mix with the general population in the large cities of the
Midwest and West, a process of acculturation that some—including many younger and
ethnically conscious Indians—would claim poses as many dangers to the individual and social
well-being of Indians as do the communal misfortunes already brought upon them.
Counteracting the forces of assimilation have been increasingly energetic programs to defend
and strengthen aboriginal identity.
In Canada the reservation system was adopted at a relatively early date; it protected First
Nation (Native American) settlements throughout the east, even in such agriculturally rich areas
as the Montreal plain or peninsular Ontario. As the Europeans moved west, care was taken to
retain Indians on at least part of their own lands, including such fertile areas as the valley of the
Red River of the North and the Fraser River delta. Intermarriage between whites and Indians was
much more common than in the United States and produced a sizable community of the French
and Indian métis, who in 1869–70 unsuccessfully attempted to set up a separate state in the
Canadian prairies.
In both Mexico and Central America, racial admixture has gone much farther. In Mexico,
the mestizo population—of mixed Indian and white descent—accounts for some three-fifths of
the population, while pure-blooded Indians amount to less than one-fifth, and whites constitute
nearly all the rest (small fractions are Mexicans of African and Arab descent). European
immigration to Mexico and Central America since the original Spanish conquest has been
negligible. When Velasco made his tally of 5,000,000 Indians within his jurisdiction, there were
only 150,000 Spaniards in the New World.
The European attitudes toward the environment
When European colonizers entered North America, they regarded the continent as a virtual
wilderness, one waiting to be settled and developed economically. The indigenous agriculture in
what is now the United States and Canada seemed strange and rudimentary to them, and it had
made only a slight dent in the vast forests and grasslands. There were no herds or flocks of
domesticated grazing animals exploiting the natural pastures, and mineral deposits, water power,
and other resources were being ignored by the aborigines. The Europeans saw no reason why
they should not claim land they thought could be used to better advantage; and they proceeded to
buy out, exterminate, or push out the Indians—when they did not enslave them—and established
their supremacy over the land.
The dispossession of the Indians
The process of removing the Indians from their ancestral lands led to bitter disputes. The
British tried to end one such problem by setting up the Proclamation of 1763 line along the
Appalachian divide, allowing whites to take over what lay to the east but attempting to reserve
what lay to the west as Indian territory. After their independence from Britain, the Americans
continued to adopt this ideal of a two-nation state, but in practice the notion soon collapsed as
they pushed the Indian line westward past the Appalachians to the Mississippi River and into the
Missouri River valley and other western lands. Nearly all the Indians in the east were displaced
to the west and into special zones in Oklahoma, the Great Plains, and the intermontane basins.
Even there, their land and their way of life were not respected, as ranchers, railroaders, and
homesteaders opened the West to settlement.
The Indian “territories” soon were reduced to isolated “reservations.” As a result, most of
the Indian population in the United States is now found west of the Mississippi River, usually in
drier areas unsuited to productive agriculture. At times the U.S. government has encouraged
Indians to leave the reservations and mix with the general population in the large cities of the
Midwest and West, a process of acculturation that some—including many younger and
ethnically conscious Indians—would claim poses as many dangers to the individual and social
well-being of Indians as do the communal misfortunes already brought upon them.
Counteracting the forces of assimilation have been increasingly energetic programs to defend
and strengthen aboriginal identity.
In Canada the reservation system was adopted at a relatively early date; it protected First
Nation (Native American) settlements throughout the east, even in such agriculturally rich areas
as the Montreal plain or peninsular Ontario. As the Europeans moved west, care was taken to
retain Indians on at least part of their own lands, including such fertile areas as the valley of the
Red River of the North and the Fraser River delta. Intermarriage between whites and Indians was
much more common than in the United States and produced a sizable community of the French
and Indian métis, who in 1869–70 unsuccessfully attempted to set up a separate state in the
Canadian prairies.
In both Mexico and Central America, racial admixture has gone much farther. In Mexico,
the mestizo population—of mixed Indian and white descent—accounts for some three-fifths of
the population, while pure-blooded Indians amount to less than one-fifth, and whites constitute
nearly all the rest (small fractions are Mexicans of African and Arab descent). European
immigration to Mexico and Central America since the original Spanish conquest has been
negligible. When Velasco made his tally of 5,000,000 Indians within his jurisdiction, there were
only 150,000 Spaniards in the New World.
The European attitudes toward the environment
When European colonizers entered North America, they regarded the continent as a virtual
wilderness, one waiting to be settled and developed economically. The indigenous agriculture in
what is now the United States and Canada seemed strange and rudimentary to them, and it had
made only a slight dent in the vast forests and grasslands. There were no herds or flocks of
domesticated grazing animals exploiting the natural pastures, and mineral deposits, water power,
and other resources were being ignored by the aborigines. The Europeans saw no reason why
they should not claim land they thought could be used to better advantage; and they proceeded to
buy out, exterminate, or push out the Indians—when they did not enslave them—and established
their supremacy over the land.
The dispossession of the Indians
The process of removing the Indians from their ancestral lands led to bitter disputes. The
British tried to end one such problem by setting up the Proclamation of 1763 line along the
Appalachian divide, allowing whites to take over what lay to the east but attempting to reserve
what lay to the west as Indian territory. After their independence from Britain, the Americans
continued to adopt this ideal of a two-nation state, but in practice the notion soon collapsed as
they pushed the Indian line westward past the Appalachians to the Mississippi River and into the
Missouri River valley and other western lands. Nearly all the Indians in the east were displaced
to the west and into special zones in Oklahoma, the Great Plains, and the intermontane basins.
Even there, their land and their way of life were not respected, as ranchers, railroaders, and
homesteaders opened the West to settlement.
The Indian “territories” soon were reduced to isolated “reservations.” As a result, most of
the Indian population in the United States is now found west of the Mississippi River, usually in
drier areas unsuited to productive agriculture. At times the U.S. government has encouraged
Indians to leave the reservations and mix with the general population in the large cities of the
Midwest and West, a process of acculturation that some—including many younger and
ethnically conscious Indians—would claim poses as many dangers to the individual and social
well-being of Indians as do the communal misfortunes already brought upon them.
Counteracting the forces of assimilation have been increasingly energetic programs to defend
and strengthen aboriginal identity.
In Canada the reservation system was adopted at a relatively early date; it protected First
Nation (Native American) settlements throughout the east, even in such agriculturally rich areas
as the Montreal plain or peninsular Ontario. As the Europeans moved west, care was taken to
retain Indians on at least part of their own lands, including such fertile areas as the valley of the
Red River of the North and the Fraser River delta. Intermarriage between whites and Indians was
much more common than in the United States and produced a sizable community of the French
and Indian métis, who in 1869–70 unsuccessfully attempted to set up a separate state in the
Canadian prairies.
In both Mexico and Central America, racial admixture has gone much farther. In Mexico,
the mestizo population—of mixed Indian and white descent—accounts for some three-fifths of
the population, while pure-blooded Indians amount to less than one-fifth, and whites constitute
nearly all the rest (small fractions are Mexicans of African and Arab descent). European
immigration to Mexico and Central America since the original Spanish conquest has been
negligible. When Velasco made his tally of 5,000,000 Indians within his jurisdiction, there were
only 150,000 Spaniards in the New World.
The European attitudes toward the environment
When European colonizers entered North America, they regarded the continent as a virtual
wilderness, one waiting to be settled and developed economically. The indigenous agriculture in
what is now the United States and Canada seemed strange and rudimentary to them, and it had
made only a slight dent in the vast forests and grasslands. There were no herds or flocks of
domesticated grazing animals exploiting the natural pastures, and mineral deposits, water power,
and other resources were being ignored by the aborigines. The Europeans saw no reason why
they should not claim land they thought could be used to better advantage; and they proceeded to
buy out, exterminate, or push out the Indians—when they did not enslave them—and established
their supremacy over the land.
The dispossession of the Indians
The process of removing the Indians from their ancestral lands led to bitter disputes. The
British tried to end one such problem by setting up the Proclamation of 1763 line along the
Appalachian divide, allowing whites to take over what lay to the east but attempting to reserve
what lay to the west as Indian territory. After their independence from Britain, the Americans
continued to adopt this ideal of a two-nation state, but in practice the notion soon collapsed as
they pushed the Indian line westward past the Appalachians to the Mississippi River and into the
Missouri River valley and other western lands. Nearly all the Indians in the east were displaced
to the west and into special zones in Oklahoma, the Great Plains, and the intermontane basins.
Even there, their land and their way of life were not respected, as ranchers, railroaders, and
homesteaders opened the West to settlement.
The Indian “territories” soon were reduced to isolated “reservations.” As a result, most of
the Indian population in the United States is now found west of the Mississippi River, usually in
drier areas unsuited to productive agriculture. At times the U.S. government has encouraged
Indians to leave the reservations and mix with the general population in the large cities of the
Midwest and West, a process of acculturation that some—including many younger and
ethnically conscious Indians—would claim poses as many dangers to the individual and social
well-being of Indians as do the communal misfortunes already brought upon them.
Counteracting the forces of assimilation have been increasingly energetic programs to defend
and strengthen aboriginal identity.
In Canada the reservation system was adopted at a relatively early date; it protected First
Nation (Native American) settlements throughout the east, even in such agriculturally rich areas
as the Montreal plain or peninsular Ontario. As the Europeans moved west, care was taken to
retain Indians on at least part of their own lands, including such fertile areas as the valley of the
Red River of the North and the Fraser River delta. Intermarriage between whites and Indians was
much more common than in the United States and produced a sizable community of the French
and Indian métis, who in 1869–70 unsuccessfully attempted to set up a separate state in the
Canadian prairies.
In both Mexico and Central America, racial admixture has gone much farther. In Mexico,
the mestizo population—of mixed Indian and white descent—accounts for some three-fifths of
the population, while pure-blooded Indians amount to less than one-fifth, and whites constitute
nearly all the rest (small fractions are Mexicans of African and Arab descent). European
immigration to Mexico and Central America since the original Spanish conquest has been
negligible. When Velasco made his tally of 5,000,000 Indians within his jurisdiction, there were
only 150,000 Spaniards in the New World.
The European attitudes toward the environment
When European colonizers entered North America, they regarded the continent as a virtual
wilderness, one waiting to be settled and developed economically. The indigenous agriculture in
what is now the United States and Canada seemed strange and rudimentary to them, and it had
made only a slight dent in the vast forests and grasslands. There were no herds or flocks of
domesticated grazing animals exploiting the natural pastures, and mineral deposits, water power,
and other resources were being ignored by the aborigines. The Europeans saw no reason why
they should not claim land they thought could be used to better advantage; and they proceeded to
buy out, exterminate, or push out the Indians—when they did not enslave them—and established
their supremacy over the land.
The dispossession of the Indians
The process of removing the Indians from their ancestral lands led to bitter disputes. The
British tried to end one such problem by setting up the Proclamation of 1763 line along the
Appalachian divide, allowing whites to take over what lay to the east but attempting to reserve
what lay to the west as Indian territory. After their independence from Britain, the Americans
continued to adopt this ideal of a two-nation state, but in practice the notion soon collapsed as
they pushed the Indian line westward past the Appalachians to the Mississippi River and into the
Missouri River valley and other western lands. Nearly all the Indians in the east were displaced
to the west and into special zones in Oklahoma, the Great Plains, and the intermontane basins.
Even there, their land and their way of life were not respected, as ranchers, railroaders, and
homesteaders opened the West to settlement.
The Indian “territories” soon were reduced to isolated “reservations.” As a result, most of
the Indian population in the United States is now found west of the Mississippi River, usually in
drier areas unsuited to productive agriculture. At times the U.S. government has encouraged
Indians to leave the reservations and mix with the general population in the large cities of the
Midwest and West, a process of acculturation that some—including many younger and
ethnically conscious Indians—would claim poses as many dangers to the individual and social
well-being of Indians as do the communal misfortunes already brought upon them.
Counteracting the forces of assimilation have been increasingly energetic programs to defend
and strengthen aboriginal identity.
In Canada the reservation system was adopted at a relatively early date; it protected First
Nation (Native American) settlements throughout the east, even in such agriculturally rich areas
as the Montreal plain or peninsular Ontario. As the Europeans moved west, care was taken to
retain Indians on at least part of their own lands, including such fertile areas as the valley of the
Red River of the North and the Fraser River delta. Intermarriage between whites and Indians was
much more common than in the United States and produced a sizable community of the French
and Indian métis, who in 1869–70 unsuccessfully attempted to set up a separate state in the
Canadian prairies.
In both Mexico and Central America, racial admixture has gone much farther. In Mexico,
the mestizo population—of mixed Indian and white descent—accounts for some three-fifths of
the population, while pure-blooded Indians amount to less than one-fifth, and whites constitute
nearly all the rest (small fractions are Mexicans of African and Arab descent). European
immigration to Mexico and Central America since the original Spanish conquest has been
negligible. When Velasco made his tally of 5,000,000 Indians within his jurisdiction, there were
only 150,000 Spaniards in the New World.
The European attitudes toward the environment
When European colonizers entered North America, they regarded the continent as a virtual
wilderness, one waiting to be settled and developed economically. The indigenous agriculture in
what is now the United States and Canada seemed strange and rudimentary to them, and it had
made only a slight dent in the vast forests and grasslands. There were no herds or flocks of
domesticated grazing animals exploiting the natural pastures, and mineral deposits, water power,
and other resources were being ignored by the aborigines. The Europeans saw no reason why
they should not claim land they thought could be used to better advantage; and they proceeded to
buy out, exterminate, or push out the Indians—when they did not enslave them—and established
their supremacy over the land.
The dispossession of the Indians
The process of removing the Indians from their ancestral lands led to bitter disputes. The
British tried to end one such problem by setting up the Proclamation of 1763 line along the
Appalachian divide, allowing whites to take over what lay to the east but attempting to reserve
what lay to the west as Indian territory. After their independence from Britain, the Americans
continued to adopt this ideal of a two-nation state, but in practice the notion soon collapsed as
they pushed the Indian line westward past the Appalachians to the Mississippi River and into the
Missouri River valley and other western lands. Nearly all the Indians in the east were displaced
to the west and into special zones in Oklahoma, the Great Plains, and the intermontane basins.
Even there, their land and their way of life were not respected, as ranchers, railroaders, and
homesteaders opened the West to settlement.
The Indian “territories” soon were reduced to isolated “reservations.” As a result, most of
the Indian population in the United States is now found west of the Mississippi River, usually in
drier areas unsuited to productive agriculture. At times the U.S. government has encouraged
Indians to leave the reservations and mix with the general population in the large cities of the
Midwest and West, a process of acculturation that some—including many younger and
ethnically conscious Indians—would claim poses as many dangers to the individual and social
well-being of Indians as do the communal misfortunes already brought upon them.
Counteracting the forces of assimilation have been increasingly energetic programs to defend
and strengthen aboriginal identity.
In Canada the reservation system was adopted at a relatively early date; it protected First
Nation (Native American) settlements throughout the east, even in such agriculturally rich areas
as the Montreal plain or peninsular Ontario. As the Europeans moved west, care was taken to
retain Indians on at least part of their own lands, including such fertile areas as the valley of the
Red River of the North and the Fraser River delta. Intermarriage between whites and Indians was
much more common than in the United States and produced a sizable community of the French
and Indian métis, who in 1869–70 unsuccessfully attempted to set up a separate state in the
Canadian prairies.
In both Mexico and Central America, racial admixture has gone much farther. In Mexico,
the mestizo population—of mixed Indian and white descent—accounts for some three-fifths of
the population, while pure-blooded Indians amount to less than one-fifth, and whites constitute
nearly all the rest (small fractions are Mexicans of African and Arab descent). European
immigration to Mexico and Central America since the original Spanish conquest has been
negligible. When Velasco made his tally of 5,000,000 Indians within his jurisdiction, there were
only 150,000 Spaniards in the New World.
The European attitudes toward the environment
When European colonizers entered North America, they regarded the continent as a virtual
wilderness, one waiting to be settled and developed economically. The indigenous agriculture in
what is now the United States and Canada seemed strange and rudimentary to them, and it had
made only a slight dent in the vast forests and grasslands. There were no herds or flocks of
domesticated grazing animals exploiting the natural pastures, and mineral deposits, water power,
and other resources were being ignored by the aborigines. The Europeans saw no reason why
they should not claim land they thought could be used to better advantage; and they proceeded to
buy out, exterminate, or push out the Indians—when they did not enslave them—and established
their supremacy over the land.
The dispossession of the Indians
The process of removing the Indians from their ancestral lands led to bitter disputes. The
British tried to end one such problem by setting up the Proclamation of 1763 line along the
Appalachian divide, allowing whites to take over what lay to the east but attempting to reserve
what lay to the west as Indian territory. After their independence from Britain, the Americans
continued to adopt this ideal of a two-nation state, but in practice the notion soon collapsed as
they pushed the Indian line westward past the Appalachians to the Mississippi River and into the
Missouri River valley and other western lands. Nearly all the Indians in the east were displaced
to the west and into special zones in Oklahoma, the Great Plains, and the intermontane basins.
Even there, their land and their way of life were not respected, as ranchers, railroaders, and
homesteaders opened the West to settlement.
The Indian “territories” soon were reduced to isolated “reservations.” As a result, most of
the Indian population in the United States is now found west of the Mississippi River, usually in
drier areas unsuited to productive agriculture. At times the U.S. government has encouraged
Indians to leave the reservations and mix with the general population in the large cities of the
Midwest and West, a process of acculturation that some—including many younger and
ethnically conscious Indians—would claim poses as many dangers to the individual and social
well-being of Indians as do the communal misfortunes already brought upon them.
Counteracting the forces of assimilation have been increasingly energetic programs to defend
and strengthen aboriginal identity.
In Canada the reservation system was adopted at a relatively early date; it protected First
Nation (Native American) settlements throughout the east, even in such agriculturally rich areas
as the Montreal plain or peninsular Ontario. As the Europeans moved west, care was taken to
retain Indians on at least part of their own lands, including such fertile areas as the valley of the
Red River of the North and the Fraser River delta. Intermarriage between whites and Indians was
much more common than in the United States and produced a sizable community of the French
and Indian métis, who in 1869–70 unsuccessfully attempted to set up a separate state in the
Canadian prairies.
In both Mexico and Central America, racial admixture has gone much farther. In Mexico,
the mestizo population—of mixed Indian and white descent—accounts for some three-fifths of
the population, while pure-blooded Indians amount to less than one-fifth, and whites constitute
nearly all the rest (small fractions are Mexicans of African and Arab descent). European
immigration to Mexico and Central America since the original Spanish conquest has been
negligible. When Velasco made his tally of 5,000,000 Indians within his jurisdiction, there were
only 150,000 Spaniards in the New World.
The European attitudes toward the environment
When European colonizers entered North America, they regarded the continent as a virtual
wilderness, one waiting to be settled and developed economically. The indigenous agriculture in
what is now the United States and Canada seemed strange and rudimentary to them, and it had
made only a slight dent in the vast forests and grasslands. There were no herds or flocks of
domesticated grazing animals exploiting the natural pastures, and mineral deposits, water power,
and other resources were being ignored by the aborigines. The Europeans saw no reason why
they should not claim land they thought could be used to better advantage; and they proceeded to
buy out, exterminate, or push out the Indians—when they did not enslave them—and established
their supremacy over the land.
The dispossession of the Indians
The process of removing the Indians from their ancestral lands led to bitter disputes. The
British tried to end one such problem by setting up the Proclamation of 1763 line along the
Appalachian divide, allowing whites to take over what lay to the east but attempting to reserve
what lay to the west as Indian territory. After their independence from Britain, the Americans
continued to adopt this ideal of a two-nation state, but in practice the notion soon collapsed as
they pushed the Indian line westward past the Appalachians to the Mississippi River and into the
Missouri River valley and other western lands. Nearly all the Indians in the east were displaced
to the west and into special zones in Oklahoma, the Great Plains, and the intermontane basins.
Even there, their land and their way of life were not respected, as ranchers, railroaders, and
homesteaders opened the West to settlement.
The Indian “territories” soon were reduced to isolated “reservations.” As a result, most of
the Indian population in the United States is now found west of the Mississippi River, usually in
drier areas unsuited to productive agriculture. At times the U.S. government has encouraged
Indians to leave the reservations and mix with the general population in the large cities of the
Midwest and West, a process of acculturation that some—including many younger and
ethnically conscious Indians—would claim poses as many dangers to the individual and social
well-being of Indians as do the communal misfortunes already brought upon them.
Counteracting the forces of assimilation have been increasingly energetic programs to defend
and strengthen aboriginal identity.
In Canada the reservation system was adopted at a relatively early date; it protected First
Nation (Native American) settlements throughout the east, even in such agriculturally rich areas
as the Montreal plain or peninsular Ontario. As the Europeans moved west, care was taken to
retain Indians on at least part of their own lands, including such fertile areas as the valley of the
Red River of the North and the Fraser River delta. Intermarriage between whites and Indians was
much more common than in the United States and produced a sizable community of the French
and Indian métis, who in 1869–70 unsuccessfully attempted to set up a separate state in the
Canadian prairies.
In both Mexico and Central America, racial admixture has gone much farther. In Mexico,
the mestizo population—of mixed Indian and white descent—accounts for some three-fifths of
the population, while pure-blooded Indians amount to less than one-fifth, and whites constitute
nearly all the rest (small fractions are Mexicans of African and Arab descent). European
immigration to Mexico and Central America since the original Spanish conquest has been
negligible. When Velasco made his tally of 5,000,000 Indians within his jurisdiction, there were
only 150,000 Spaniards in the New World.
The European attitudes toward the environment
When European colonizers entered North America, they regarded the continent as a virtual
wilderness, one waiting to be settled and developed economically. The indigenous agriculture in
what is now the United States and Canada seemed strange and rudimentary to them, and it had
made only a slight dent in the vast forests and grasslands. There were no herds or flocks of
domesticated grazing animals exploiting the natural pastures, and mineral deposits, water power,
and other resources were being ignored by the aborigines. The Europeans saw no reason why
they should not claim land they thought could be used to better advantage; and they proceeded to
buy out, exterminate, or push out the Indians—when they did not enslave them—and established
their supremacy over the land.
The dispossession of the Indians
The process of removing the Indians from their ancestral lands led to bitter disputes. The
British tried to end one such problem by setting up the Proclamation of 1763 line along the
Appalachian divide, allowing whites to take over what lay to the east but attempting to reserve
what lay to the west as Indian territory. After their independence from Britain, the Americans
continued to adopt this ideal of a two-nation state, but in practice the notion soon collapsed as
they pushed the Indian line westward past the Appalachians to the Mississippi River and into the
Missouri River valley and other western lands. Nearly all the Indians in the east were displaced
to the west and into special zones in Oklahoma, the Great Plains, and the intermontane basins.
Even there, their land and their way of life were not respected, as ranchers, railroaders, and
homesteaders opened the West to settlement.
The Indian “territories” soon were reduced to isolated “reservations.” As a result, most of
the Indian population in the United States is now found west of the Mississippi River, usually in
drier areas unsuited to productive agriculture. At times the U.S. government has encouraged
Indians to leave the reservations and mix with the general population in the large cities of the
Midwest and West, a process of acculturation that some—including many younger and
ethnically conscious Indians—would claim poses as many dangers to the individual and social
well-being of Indians as do the communal misfortunes already brought upon them.
Counteracting the forces of assimilation have been increasingly energetic programs to defend
and strengthen aboriginal identity.
In Canada the reservation system was adopted at a relatively early date; it protected First
Nation (Native American) settlements throughout the east, even in such agriculturally rich areas
as the Montreal plain or peninsular Ontario. As the Europeans moved west, care was taken to
retain Indians on at least part of their own lands, including such fertile areas as the valley of the
Red River of the North and the Fraser River delta. Intermarriage between whites and Indians was
much more common than in the United States and produced a sizable community of the French
and Indian métis, who in 1869–70 unsuccessfully attempted to set up a separate state in the
Canadian prairies.
In both Mexico and Central America, racial admixture has gone much farther. In Mexico,
the mestizo population—of mixed Indian and white descent—accounts for some three-fifths of
the population, while pure-blooded Indians amount to less than one-fifth, and whites constitute
nearly all the rest (small fractions are Mexicans of African and Arab descent). European
immigration to Mexico and Central America since the original Spanish conquest has been
negligible. When Velasco made his tally of 5,000,000 Indians within his jurisdiction, there were
only 150,000 Spaniards in the New World.
The European attitudes toward the environment
When European colonizers entered North America, they regarded the continent as a virtual
wilderness, one waiting to be settled and developed economically. The indigenous agriculture in
what is now the United States and Canada seemed strange and rudimentary to them, and it had
made only a slight dent in the vast forests and grasslands. There were no herds or flocks of
domesticated grazing animals exploiting the natural pastures, and mineral deposits, water power,
and other resources were being ignored by the aborigines. The Europeans saw no reason why
they should not claim land they thought could be used to better advantage; and they proceeded to
buy out, exterminate, or push out the Indians—when they did not enslave them—and established
their supremacy over the land.
The dispossession of the Indians
The process of removing the Indians from their ancestral lands led to bitter disputes. The
British tried to end one such problem by setting up the Proclamation of 1763 line along the
Appalachian divide, allowing whites to take over what lay to the east but attempting to reserve
what lay to the west as Indian territory. After their independence from Britain, the Americans
continued to adopt this ideal of a two-nation state, but in practice the notion soon collapsed as
they pushed the Indian line westward past the Appalachians to the Mississippi River and into the
Missouri River valley and other western lands. Nearly all the Indians in the east were displaced
to the west and into special zones in Oklahoma, the Great Plains, and the intermontane basins.
Even there, their land and their way of life were not respected, as ranchers, railroaders, and
homesteaders opened the West to settlement.
The Indian “territories” soon were reduced to isolated “reservations.” As a result, most of
the Indian population in the United States is now found west of the Mississippi River, usually in
drier areas unsuited to productive agriculture. At times the U.S. government has encouraged
Indians to leave the reservations and mix with the general population in the large cities of the
Midwest and West, a process of acculturation that some—including many younger and
ethnically conscious Indians—would claim poses as many dangers to the individual and social
well-being of Indians as do the communal misfortunes already brought upon them.
Counteracting the forces of assimilation have been increasingly energetic programs to defend
and strengthen aboriginal identity.
In Canada the reservation system was adopted at a relatively early date; it protected First
Nation (Native American) settlements throughout the east, even in such agriculturally rich areas
as the Montreal plain or peninsular Ontario. As the Europeans moved west, care was taken to
retain Indians on at least part of their own lands, including such fertile areas as the valley of the
Red River of the North and the Fraser River delta. Intermarriage between whites and Indians was
much more common than in the United States and produced a sizable community of the French
and Indian métis, who in 1869–70 unsuccessfully attempted to set up a separate state in the
Canadian prairies.
In both Mexico and Central America, racial admixture has gone much farther. In Mexico,
the mestizo population—of mixed Indian and white descent—accounts for some three-fifths of
the population, while pure-blooded Indians amount to less than one-fifth, and whites constitute
nearly all the rest (small fractions are Mexicans of African and Arab descent). European
immigration to Mexico and Central America since the original Spanish conquest has been
negligible. When Velasco made his tally of 5,000,000 Indians within his jurisdiction, there were
only 150,000 Spaniards in the New World.
The European attitudes toward the environment
When European colonizers entered North America, they regarded the continent as a virtual
wilderness, one waiting to be settled and developed economically. The indigenous agriculture in
what is now the United States and Canada seemed strange and rudimentary to them, and it had
made only a slight dent in the vast forests and grasslands. There were no herds or flocks of
domesticated grazing animals exploiting the natural pastures, and mineral deposits, water power,
and other resources were being ignored by the aborigines. The Europeans saw no reason why
they should not claim land they thought could be used to better advantage; and they proceeded to
buy out, exterminate, or push out the Indians—when they did not enslave them—and established
their supremacy over the land.
The dispossession of the Indians
The process of removing the Indians from their ancestral lands led to bitter disputes. The
British tried to end one such problem by setting up the Proclamation of 1763 line along the
Appalachian divide, allowing whites to take over what lay to the east but attempting to reserve
what lay to the west as Indian territory. After their independence from Britain, the Americans
continued to adopt this ideal of a two-nation state, but in practice the notion soon collapsed as
they pushed the Indian line westward past the Appalachians to the Mississippi River and into the
Missouri River valley and other western lands. Nearly all the Indians in the east were displaced
to the west and into special zones in Oklahoma, the Great Plains, and the intermontane basins.
Even there, their land and their way of life were not respected, as ranchers, railroaders, and
homesteaders opened the West to settlement.
The Indian “territories” soon were reduced to isolated “reservations.” As a result, most of
the Indian population in the United States is now found west of the Mississippi River, usually in
drier areas unsuited to productive agriculture. At times the U.S. government has encouraged
Indians to leave the reservations and mix with the general population in the large cities of the
Midwest and West, a process of acculturation that some—including many younger and
ethnically conscious Indians—would claim poses as many dangers to the individual and social
well-being of Indians as do the communal misfortunes already brought upon them.
Counteracting the forces of assimilation have been increasingly energetic programs to defend
and strengthen aboriginal identity.
In Canada the reservation system was adopted at a relatively early date; it protected First
Nation (Native American) settlements throughout the east, even in such agriculturally rich areas
as the Montreal plain or peninsular Ontario. As the Europeans moved west, care was taken to
retain Indians on at least part of their own lands, including such fertile areas as the valley of the
Red River of the North and the Fraser River delta. Intermarriage between whites and Indians was
much more common than in the United States and produced a sizable community of the French
and Indian métis, who in 1869–70 unsuccessfully attempted to set up a separate state in the
Canadian prairies.
In both Mexico and Central America, racial admixture has gone much farther. In Mexico,
the mestizo population—of mixed Indian and white descent—accounts for some three-fifths of
the population, while pure-blooded Indians amount to less than one-fifth, and whites constitute
nearly all the rest (small fractions are Mexicans of African and Arab descent). European
immigration to Mexico and Central America since the original Spanish conquest has been
negligible. When Velasco made his tally of 5,000,000 Indians within his jurisdiction, there were
only 150,000 Spaniards in the New World.
The European attitudes toward the environment
When European colonizers entered North America, they regarded the continent as a virtual
wilderness, one waiting to be settled and developed economically. The indigenous agriculture in
what is now the United States and Canada seemed strange and rudimentary to them, and it had
made only a slight dent in the vast forests and grasslands. There were no herds or flocks of
domesticated grazing animals exploiting the natural pastures, and mineral deposits, water power,
and other resources were being ignored by the aborigines. The Europeans saw no reason why
they should not claim land they thought could be used to better advantage; and they proceeded to
buy out, exterminate, or push out the Indians—when they did not enslave them—and established
their supremacy over the land.
The dispossession of the Indians
The process of removing the Indians from their ancestral lands led to bitter disputes. The
British tried to end one such problem by setting up the Proclamation of 1763 line along the
Appalachian divide, allowing whites to take over what lay to the east but attempting to reserve
what lay to the west as Indian territory. After their independence from Britain, the Americans
continued to adopt this ideal of a two-nation state, but in practice the notion soon collapsed as
they pushed the Indian line westward past the Appalachians to the Mississippi River and into the
Missouri River valley and other western lands. Nearly all the Indians in the east were displaced
to the west and into special zones in Oklahoma, the Great Plains, and the intermontane basins.
Even there, their land and their way of life were not respected, as ranchers, railroaders, and
homesteaders opened the West to settlement.
The Indian “territories” soon were reduced to isolated “reservations.” As a result, most of
the Indian population in the United States is now found west of the Mississippi River, usually in
drier areas unsuited to productive agriculture. At times the U.S. government has encouraged
Indians to leave the reservations and mix with the general population in the large cities of the
Midwest and West, a process of acculturation that some—including many younger and
ethnically conscious Indians—would claim poses as many dangers to the individual and social
well-being of Indians as do the communal misfortunes already brought upon them.
Counteracting the forces of assimilation have been increasingly energetic programs to defend
and strengthen aboriginal identity.
In Canada the reservation system was adopted at a relatively early date; it protected First
Nation (Native American) settlements throughout the east, even in such agriculturally rich areas
as the Montreal plain or peninsular Ontario. As the Europeans moved west, care was taken to
retain Indians on at least part of their own lands, including such fertile areas as the valley of the
Red River of the North and the Fraser River delta. Intermarriage between whites and Indians was
much more common than in the United States and produced a sizable community of the French
and Indian métis, who in 1869–70 unsuccessfully attempted to set up a separate state in the
Canadian prairies.
In both Mexico and Central America, racial admixture has gone much farther. In Mexico,
the mestizo population—of mixed Indian and white descent—accounts for some three-fifths of
the population, while pure-blooded Indians amount to less than one-fifth, and whites constitute
nearly all the rest (small fractions are Mexicans of African and Arab descent). European
immigration to Mexico and Central America since the original Spanish conquest has been
negligible. When Velasco made his tally of 5,000,000 Indians within his jurisdiction, there were
only 150,000 Spaniards in the New World.
The European attitudes toward the environment
When European colonizers entered North America, they regarded the continent as a virtual
wilderness, one waiting to be settled and developed economically. The indigenous agriculture in
what is now the United States and Canada seemed strange and rudimentary to them, and it had
made only a slight dent in the vast forests and grasslands. There were no herds or flocks of
domesticated grazing animals exploiting the natural pastures, and mineral deposits, water power,
and other resources were being ignored by the aborigines. The Europeans saw no reason why
they should not claim land they thought could be used to better advantage; and they proceeded to
buy out, exterminate, or push out the Indians—when they did not enslave them—and established
their supremacy over the land.
The dispossession of the Indians
The process of removing the Indians from their ancestral lands led to bitter disputes. The
British tried to end one such problem by setting up the Proclamation of 1763 line along the
Appalachian divide, allowing whites to take over what lay to the east but attempting to reserve
what lay to the west as Indian territory. After their independence from Britain, the Americans
continued to adopt this ideal of a two-nation state, but in practice the notion soon collapsed as
they pushed the Indian line westward past the Appalachians to the Mississippi River and into the
Missouri River valley and other western lands. Nearly all the Indians in the east were displaced
to the west and into special zones in Oklahoma, the Great Plains, and the intermontane basins.
Even there, their land and their way of life were not respected, as ranchers, railroaders, and
homesteaders opened the West to settlement.
The Indian “territories” soon were reduced to isolated “reservations.” As a result, most of
the Indian population in the United States is now found west of the Mississippi River, usually in
drier areas unsuited to productive agriculture. At times the U.S. government has encouraged
Indians to leave the reservations and mix with the general population in the large cities of the
Midwest and West, a process of acculturation that some—including many younger and
ethnically conscious Indians—would claim poses as many dangers to the individual and social
well-being of Indians as do the communal misfortunes already brought upon them.
Counteracting the forces of assimilation have been increasingly energetic programs to defend
and strengthen aboriginal identity.
In Canada the reservation system was adopted at a relatively early date; it protected First
Nation (Native American) settlements throughout the east, even in such agriculturally rich areas
as the Montreal plain or peninsular Ontario. As the Europeans moved west, care was taken to
retain Indians on at least part of their own lands, including such fertile areas as the valley of the
Red River of the North and the Fraser River delta. Intermarriage between whites and Indians was
much more common than in the United States and produced a sizable community of the French
and Indian métis, who in 1869–70 unsuccessfully attempted to set up a separate state in the
Canadian prairies.
In both Mexico and Central America, racial admixture has gone much farther. In Mexico,
the mestizo population—of mixed Indian and white descent—accounts for some three-fifths of
the population, while pure-blooded Indians amount to less than one-fifth, and whites constitute
nearly all the rest (small fractions are Mexicans of African and Arab descent). European
immigration to Mexico and Central America since the original Spanish conquest has been
negligible. When Velasco made his tally of 5,000,000 Indians within his jurisdiction, there were
only 150,000 Spaniards in the New World.
The European attitudes toward the environment
When European colonizers entered North America, they regarded the continent as a virtual
wilderness, one waiting to be settled and developed economically. The indigenous agriculture in
what is now the United States and Canada seemed strange and rudimentary to them, and it had
made only a slight dent in the vast forests and grasslands. There were no herds or flocks of
domesticated grazing animals exploiting the natural pastures, and mineral deposits, water power,
and other resources were being ignored by the aborigines. The Europeans saw no reason why
they should not claim land they thought could be used to better advantage; and they proceeded to
buy out, exterminate, or push out the Indians—when they did not enslave them—and established
their supremacy over the land.
The dispossession of the Indians
The process of removing the Indians from their ancestral lands led to bitter disputes. The
British tried to end one such problem by setting up the Proclamation of 1763 line along the
Appalachian divide, allowing whites to take over what lay to the east but attempting to reserve
what lay to the west as Indian territory. After their independence from Britain, the Americans
continued to adopt this ideal of a two-nation state, but in practice the notion soon collapsed as
they pushed the Indian line westward past the Appalachians to the Mississippi River and into the
Missouri River valley and other western lands. Nearly all the Indians in the east were displaced
to the west and into special zones in Oklahoma, the Great Plains, and the intermontane basins.
Even there, their land and their way of life were not respected, as ranchers, railroaders, and
homesteaders opened the West to settlement.
The Indian “territories” soon were reduced to isolated “reservations.” As a result, most of
the Indian population in the United States is now found west of the Mississippi River, usually in
drier areas unsuited to productive agriculture. At times the U.S. government has encouraged
Indians to leave the reservations and mix with the general population in the large cities of the
Midwest and West, a process of acculturation that some—including many younger and
ethnically conscious Indians—would claim poses as many dangers to the individual and social
well-being of Indians as do the communal misfortunes already brought upon them.
Counteracting the forces of assimilation have been increasingly energetic programs to defend
and strengthen aboriginal identity.
In Canada the reservation system was adopted at a relatively early date; it protected First
Nation (Native American) settlements throughout the east, even in such agriculturally rich areas
as the Montreal plain or peninsular Ontario. As the Europeans moved west, care was taken to
retain Indians on at least part of their own lands, including such fertile areas as the valley of the
Red River of the North and the Fraser River delta. Intermarriage between whites and Indians was
much more common than in the United States and produced a sizable community of the French
and Indian métis, who in 1869–70 unsuccessfully attempted to set up a separate state in the
Canadian prairies.
In both Mexico and Central America, racial admixture has gone much farther. In Mexico,
the mestizo population—of mixed Indian and white descent—accounts for some three-fifths of
the population, while pure-blooded Indians amount to less than one-fifth, and whites constitute
nearly all the rest (small fractions are Mexicans of African and Arab descent). European
immigration to Mexico and Central America since the original Spanish conquest has been
negligible. When Velasco made his tally of 5,000,000 Indians within his jurisdiction, there were
only 150,000 Spaniards in the New World.
The European attitudes toward the environment
When European colonizers entered North America, they regarded the continent as a virtual
wilderness, one waiting to be settled and developed economically. The indigenous agriculture in
what is now the United States and Canada seemed strange and rudimentary to them, and it had
made only a slight dent in the vast forests and grasslands. There were no herds or flocks of
domesticated grazing animals exploiting the natural pastures, and mineral deposits, water power,
and other resources were being ignored by the aborigines. The Europeans saw no reason why
they should not claim land they thought could be used to better advantage; and they proceeded to
buy out, exterminate, or push out the Indians—when they did not enslave them—and established
their supremacy over the land.
The dispossession of the Indians
The process of removing the Indians from their ancestral lands led to bitter disputes. The
British tried to end one such problem by setting up the Proclamation of 1763 line along the
Appalachian divide, allowing whites to take over what lay to the east but attempting to reserve
what lay to the west as Indian territory. After their independence from Britain, the Americans
continued to adopt this ideal of a two-nation state, but in practice the notion soon collapsed as
they pushed the Indian line westward past the Appalachians to the Mississippi River and into the
Missouri River valley and other western lands. Nearly all the Indians in the east were displaced
to the west and into special zones in Oklahoma, the Great Plains, and the intermontane basins.
Even there, their land and their way of life were not respected, as ranchers, railroaders, and
homesteaders opened the West to settlement.
The Indian “territories” soon were reduced to isolated “reservations.” As a result, most of
the Indian population in the United States is now found west of the Mississippi River, usually in
drier areas unsuited to productive agriculture. At times the U.S. government has encouraged
Indians to leave the reservations and mix with the general population in the large cities of the
Midwest and West, a process of acculturation that some—including many younger and
ethnically conscious Indians—would claim poses as many dangers to the individual and social
well-being of Indians as do the communal misfortunes already brought upon them.
Counteracting the forces of assimilation have been increasingly energetic programs to defend
and strengthen aboriginal identity.
In Canada the reservation system was adopted at a relatively early date; it protected First
Nation (Native American) settlements throughout the east, even in such agriculturally rich areas
as the Montreal plain or peninsular Ontario. As the Europeans moved west, care was taken to
retain Indians on at least part of their own lands, including such fertile areas as the valley of the
Red River of the North and the Fraser River delta. Intermarriage between whites and Indians was
much more common than in the United States and produced a sizable community of the French
and Indian métis, who in 1869–70 unsuccessfully attempted to set up a separate state in the
Canadian prairies.
In both Mexico and Central America, racial admixture has gone much farther. In Mexico,
the mestizo population—of mixed Indian and white descent—accounts for some three-fifths of
the population, while pure-blooded Indians amount to less than one-fifth, and whites constitute
nearly all the rest (small fractions are Mexicans of African and Arab descent). European
immigration to Mexico and Central America since the original Spanish conquest has been
negligible. When Velasco made his tally of 5,000,000 Indians within his jurisdiction, there were
only 150,000 Spaniards in the New World.
The European attitudes toward the environment
When European colonizers entered North America, they regarded the continent as a virtual
wilderness, one waiting to be settled and developed economically. The indigenous agriculture in
what is now the United States and Canada seemed strange and rudimentary to them, and it had
made only a slight dent in the vast forests and grasslands. There were no herds or flocks of
domesticated grazing animals exploiting the natural pastures, and mineral deposits, water power,
and other resources were being ignored by the aborigines. The Europeans saw no reason why
they should not claim land they thought could be used to better advantage; and they proceeded to
buy out, exterminate, or push out the Indians—when they did not enslave them—and established
their supremacy over the land.
The dispossession of the Indians
The process of removing the Indians from their ancestral lands led to bitter disputes. The
British tried to end one such problem by setting up the Proclamation of 1763 line along the
Appalachian divide, allowing whites to take over what lay to the east but attempting to reserve
what lay to the west as Indian territory. After their independence from Britain, the Americans
continued to adopt this ideal of a two-nation state, but in practice the notion soon collapsed as
they pushed the Indian line westward past the Appalachians to the Mississippi River and into the
Missouri River valley and other western lands. Nearly all the Indians in the east were displaced
to the west and into special zones in Oklahoma, the Great Plains, and the intermontane basins.
Even there, their land and their way of life were not respected, as ranchers, railroaders, and
homesteaders opened the West to settlement.
The Indian “territories” soon were reduced to isolated “reservations.” As a result, most of
the Indian population in the United States is now found west of the Mississippi River, usually in
drier areas unsuited to productive agriculture. At times the U.S. government has encouraged
Indians to leave the reservations and mix with the general population in the large cities of the
Midwest and West, a process of acculturation that some—including many younger and
ethnically conscious Indians—would claim poses as many dangers to the individual and social
well-being of Indians as do the communal misfortunes already brought upon them.
Counteracting the forces of assimilation have been increasingly energetic programs to defend
and strengthen aboriginal identity.
In Canada the reservation system was adopted at a relatively early date; it protected First
Nation (Native American) settlements throughout the east, even in such agriculturally rich areas
as the Montreal plain or peninsular Ontario. As the Europeans moved west, care was taken to
retain Indians on at least part of their own lands, including such fertile areas as the valley of the
Red River of the North and the Fraser River delta. Intermarriage between whites and Indians was
much more common than in the United States and produced a sizable community of the French
and Indian métis, who in 1869–70 unsuccessfully attempted to set up a separate state in the
Canadian prairies.
In both Mexico and Central America, racial admixture has gone much farther. In Mexico,
the mestizo population—of mixed Indian and white descent—accounts for some three-fifths of
the population, while pure-blooded Indians amount to less than one-fifth, and whites constitute
nearly all the rest (small fractions are Mexicans of African and Arab descent). European
immigration to Mexico and Central America since the original Spanish conquest has been
negligible. When Velasco made his tally of 5,000,000 Indians within his jurisdiction, there were
only 150,000 Spaniards in the New World.
The European attitudes toward the environment
When European colonizers entered North America, they regarded the continent as a virtual
wilderness, one waiting to be settled and developed economically. The indigenous agriculture in
what is now the United States and Canada seemed strange and rudimentary to them, and it had
made only a slight dent in the vast forests and grasslands. There were no herds or flocks of
domesticated grazing animals exploiting the natural pastures, and mineral deposits, water power,
and other resources were being ignored by the aborigines. The Europeans saw no reason why
they should not claim land they thought could be used to better advantage; and they proceeded to
buy out, exterminate, or push out the Indians—when they did not enslave them—and established
their supremacy over the land.
The dispossession of the Indians
The process of removing the Indians from their ancestral lands led to bitter disputes. The
British tried to end one such problem by setting up the Proclamation of 1763 line along the
Appalachian divide, allowing whites to take over what lay to the east but attempting to reserve
what lay to the west as Indian territory. After their independence from Britain, the Americans
continued to adopt this ideal of a two-nation state, but in practice the notion soon collapsed as
they pushed the Indian line westward past the Appalachians to the Mississippi River and into the
Missouri River valley and other western lands. Nearly all the Indians in the east were displaced
to the west and into special zones in Oklahoma, the Great Plains, and the intermontane basins.
Even there, their land and their way of life were not respected, as ranchers, railroaders, and
homesteaders opened the West to settlement.
The Indian “territories” soon were reduced to isolated “reservations.” As a result, most of
the Indian population in the United States is now found west of the Mississippi River, usually in
drier areas unsuited to productive agriculture. At times the U.S. government has encouraged
Indians to leave the reservations and mix with the general population in the large cities of the
Midwest and West, a process of acculturation that some—including many younger and
ethnically conscious Indians—would claim poses as many dangers to the individual and social
well-being of Indians as do the communal misfortunes already brought upon them.
Counteracting the forces of assimilation have been increasingly energetic programs to defend
and strengthen aboriginal identity.
In Canada the reservation system was adopted at a relatively early date; it protected First
Nation (Native American) settlements throughout the east, even in such agriculturally rich areas
as the Montreal plain or peninsular Ontario. As the Europeans moved west, care was taken to
retain Indians on at least part of their own lands, including such fertile areas as the valley of the
Red River of the North and the Fraser River delta. Intermarriage between whites and Indians was
much more common than in the United States and produced a sizable community of the French
and Indian métis, who in 1869–70 unsuccessfully attempted to set up a separate state in the
Canadian prairies.
In both Mexico and Central America, racial admixture has gone much farther. In Mexico,
the mestizo population—of mixed Indian and white descent—accounts for some three-fifths of
the population, while pure-blooded Indians amount to less than one-fifth, and whites constitute
nearly all the rest (small fractions are Mexicans of African and Arab descent). European
immigration to Mexico and Central America since the original Spanish conquest has been
negligible. When Velasco made his tally of 5,000,000 Indians within his jurisdiction, there were
only 150,000 Spaniards in the New World.
The European attitudes toward the environment
When European colonizers entered North America, they regarded the continent as a virtual
wilderness, one waiting to be settled and developed economically. The indigenous agriculture in
what is now the United States and Canada seemed strange and rudimentary to them, and it had
made only a slight dent in the vast forests and grasslands. There were no herds or flocks of
domesticated grazing animals exploiting the natural pastures, and mineral deposits, water power,
and other resources were being ignored by the aborigines. The Europeans saw no reason why
they should not claim land they thought could be used to better advantage; and they proceeded to
buy out, exterminate, or push out the Indians—when they did not enslave them—and established
their supremacy over the land.
The dispossession of the Indians
The process of removing the Indians from their ancestral lands led to bitter disputes. The
British tried to end one such problem by setting up the Proclamation of 1763 line along the
Appalachian divide, allowing whites to take over what lay to the east but attempting to reserve
what lay to the west as Indian territory. After their independence from Britain, the Americans
continued to adopt this ideal of a two-nation state, but in practice the notion soon collapsed as
they pushed the Indian line westward past the Appalachians to the Mississippi River and into the
Missouri River valley and other western lands. Nearly all the Indians in the east were displaced
to the west and into special zones in Oklahoma, the Great Plains, and the intermontane basins.
Even there, their land and their way of life were not respected, as ranchers, railroaders, and
homesteaders opened the West to settlement.
The Indian “territories” soon were reduced to isolated “reservations.” As a result, most of
the Indian population in the United States is now found west of the Mississippi River, usually in
drier areas unsuited to productive agriculture. At times the U.S. government has encouraged
Indians to leave the reservations and mix with the general population in the large cities of the
Midwest and West, a process of acculturation that some—including many younger and
ethnically conscious Indians—would claim poses as many dangers to the individual and social
well-being of Indians as do the communal misfortunes already brought upon them.
Counteracting the forces of assimilation have been increasingly energetic programs to defend
and strengthen aboriginal identity.
In Canada the reservation system was adopted at a relatively early date; it protected First
Nation (Native American) settlements throughout the east, even in such agriculturally rich areas
as the Montreal plain or peninsular Ontario. As the Europeans moved west, care was taken to
retain Indians on at least part of their own lands, including such fertile areas as the valley of the
Red River of the North and the Fraser River delta. Intermarriage between whites and Indians was
much more common than in the United States and produced a sizable community of the French
and Indian métis, who in 1869–70 unsuccessfully attempted to set up a separate state in the
Canadian prairies.
In both Mexico and Central America, racial admixture has gone much farther. In Mexico,
the mestizo population—of mixed Indian and white descent—accounts for some three-fifths of
the population, while pure-blooded Indians amount to less than one-fifth, and whites constitute
nearly all the rest (small fractions are Mexicans of African and Arab descent). European
immigration to Mexico and Central America since the original Spanish conquest has been
negligible. When Velasco made his tally of 5,000,000 Indians within his jurisdiction, there were
only 150,000 Spaniards in the New World.
The European attitudes toward the environment
When European colonizers entered North America, they regarded the continent as a virtual
wilderness, one waiting to be settled and developed economically. The indigenous agriculture in
what is now the United States and Canada seemed strange and rudimentary to them, and it had
made only a slight dent in the vast forests and grasslands. There were no herds or flocks of
domesticated grazing animals exploiting the natural pastures, and mineral deposits, water power,
and other resources were being ignored by the aborigines. The Europeans saw no reason why
they should not claim land they thought could be used to better advantage; and they proceeded to
buy out, exterminate, or push out the Indians—when they did not enslave them—and established
their supremacy over the land.
The dispossession of the Indians
The process of removing the Indians from their ancestral lands led to bitter disputes. The
British tried to end one such problem by setting up the Proclamation of 1763 line along the
Appalachian divide, allowing whites to take over what lay to the east but attempting to reserve
what lay to the west as Indian territory. After their independence from Britain, the Americans
continued to adopt this ideal of a two-nation state, but in practice the notion soon collapsed as
they pushed the Indian line westward past the Appalachians to the Mississippi River and into the
Missouri River valley and other western lands. Nearly all the Indians in the east were displaced
to the west and into special zones in Oklahoma, the Great Plains, and the intermontane basins.
Even there, their land and their way of life were not respected, as ranchers, railroaders, and
homesteaders opened the West to settlement.
The Indian “territories” soon were reduced to isolated “reservations.” As a result, most of
the Indian population in the United States is now found west of the Mississippi River, usually in
drier areas unsuited to productive agriculture. At times the U.S. government has encouraged
Indians to leave the reservations and mix with the general population in the large cities of the
Midwest and West, a process of acculturation that some—including many younger and
ethnically conscious Indians—would claim poses as many dangers to the individual and social
well-being of Indians as do the communal misfortunes already brought upon them.
Counteracting the forces of assimilation have been increasingly energetic programs to defend
and strengthen aboriginal identity.
In Canada the reservation system was adopted at a relatively early date; it protected First
Nation (Native American) settlements throughout the east, even in such agriculturally rich areas
as the Montreal plain or peninsular Ontario. As the Europeans moved west, care was taken to
retain Indians on at least part of their own lands, including such fertile areas as the valley of the
Red River of the North and the Fraser River delta. Intermarriage between whites and Indians was
much more common than in the United States and produced a sizable community of the French
and Indian métis, who in 1869–70 unsuccessfully attempted to set up a separate state in the
Canadian prairies.
In both Mexico and Central America, racial admixture has gone much farther. In Mexico,
the mestizo population—of mixed Indian and white descent—accounts for some three-fifths of
the population, while pure-blooded Indians amount to less than one-fifth, and whites constitute
nearly all the rest (small fractions are Mexicans of African and Arab descent). European
immigration to Mexico and Central America since the original Spanish conquest has been
negligible. When Velasco made his tally of 5,000,000 Indians within his jurisdiction, there were
only 150,000 Spaniards in the New World.
The European attitudes toward the environment
When European colonizers entered North America, they regarded the continent as a virtual
wilderness, one waiting to be settled and developed economically. The indigenous agriculture in
what is now the United States and Canada seemed strange and rudimentary to them, and it had
made only a slight dent in the vast forests and grasslands. There were no herds or flocks of
domesticated grazing animals exploiting the natural pastures, and mineral deposits, water power,
and other resources were being ignored by the aborigines. The Europeans saw no reason why
they should not claim land they thought could be used to better advantage; and they proceeded to
buy out, exterminate, or push out the Indians—when they did not enslave them—and established
their supremacy over the land.
The dispossession of the Indians
The process of removing the Indians from their ancestral lands led to bitter disputes. The
British tried to end one such problem by setting up the Proclamation of 1763 line along the
Appalachian divide, allowing whites to take over what lay to the east but attempting to reserve
what lay to the west as Indian territory. After their independence from Britain, the Americans
continued to adopt this ideal of a two-nation state, but in practice the notion soon collapsed as
they pushed the Indian line westward past the Appalachians to the Mississippi River and into the
Missouri River valley and other western lands. Nearly all the Indians in the east were displaced
to the west and into special zones in Oklahoma, the Great Plains, and the intermontane basins.
Even there, their land and their way of life were not respected, as ranchers, railroaders, and
homesteaders opened the West to settlement.
The Indian “territories” soon were reduced to isolated “reservations.” As a result, most of
the Indian population in the United States is now found west of the Mississippi River, usually in
drier areas unsuited to productive agriculture. At times the U.S. government has encouraged
Indians to leave the reservations and mix with the general population in the large cities of the
Midwest and West, a process of acculturation that some—including many younger and
ethnically conscious Indians—would claim poses as many dangers to the individual and social
well-being of Indians as do the communal misfortunes already brought upon them.
Counteracting the forces of assimilation have been increasingly energetic programs to defend
and strengthen aboriginal identity.
In Canada the reservation system was adopted at a relatively early date; it protected First
Nation (Native American) settlements throughout the east, even in such agriculturally rich areas
as the Montreal plain or peninsular Ontario. As the Europeans moved west, care was taken to
retain Indians on at least part of their own lands, including such fertile areas as the valley of the
Red River of the North and the Fraser River delta. Intermarriage between whites and Indians was
much more common than in the United States and produced a sizable community of the French
and Indian métis, who in 1869–70 unsuccessfully attempted to set up a separate state in the
Canadian prairies.
In both Mexico and Central America, racial admixture has gone much farther. In Mexico,
the mestizo population—of mixed Indian and white descent—accounts for some three-fifths of
the population, while pure-blooded Indians amount to less than one-fifth, and whites constitute
nearly all the rest (small fractions are Mexicans of African and Arab descent). European
immigration to Mexico and Central America since the original Spanish conquest has been
negligible. When Velasco made his tally of 5,000,000 Indians within his jurisdiction, there were
only 150,000 Spaniards in the New World.
The European attitudes toward the environment
When European colonizers entered North America, they regarded the continent as a virtual
wilderness, one waiting to be settled and developed economically. The indigenous agriculture in
what is now the United States and Canada seemed strange and rudimentary to them, and it had
made only a slight dent in the vast forests and grasslands. There were no herds or flocks of
domesticated grazing animals exploiting the natural pastures, and mineral deposits, water power,
and other resources were being ignored by the aborigines. The Europeans saw no reason why
they should not claim land they thought could be used to better advantage; and they proceeded to
buy out, exterminate, or push out the Indians—when they did not enslave them—and established
their supremacy over the land.
The dispossession of the Indians
The process of removing the Indians from their ancestral lands led to bitter disputes. The
British tried to end one such problem by setting up the Proclamation of 1763 line along the
Appalachian divide, allowing whites to take over what lay to the east but attempting to reserve
what lay to the west as Indian territory. After their independence from Britain, the Americans
continued to adopt this ideal of a two-nation state, but in practice the notion soon collapsed as
they pushed the Indian line westward past the Appalachians to the Mississippi River and into the
Missouri River valley and other western lands. Nearly all the Indians in the east were displaced
to the west and into special zones in Oklahoma, the Great Plains, and the intermontane basins.
Even there, their land and their way of life were not respected, as ranchers, railroaders, and
homesteaders opened the West to settlement.
The Indian “territories” soon were reduced to isolated “reservations.” As a result, most of
the Indian population in the United States is now found west of the Mississippi River, usually in
drier areas unsuited to productive agriculture. At times the U.S. government has encouraged
Indians to leave the reservations and mix with the general population in the large cities of the
Midwest and West, a process of acculturation that some—including many younger and
ethnically conscious Indians—would claim poses as many dangers to the individual and social
well-being of Indians as do the communal misfortunes already brought upon them.
Counteracting the forces of assimilation have been increasingly energetic programs to defend
and strengthen aboriginal identity.
In Canada the reservation system was adopted at a relatively early date; it protected First
Nation (Native American) settlements throughout the east, even in such agriculturally rich areas
as the Montreal plain or peninsular Ontario. As the Europeans moved west, care was taken to
retain Indians on at least part of their own lands, including such fertile areas as the valley of the
Red River of the North and the Fraser River delta. Intermarriage between whites and Indians was
much more common than in the United States and produced a sizable community of the French
and Indian métis, who in 1869–70 unsuccessfully attempted to set up a separate state in the
Canadian prairies.
In both Mexico and Central America, racial admixture has gone much farther. In Mexico,
the mestizo population—of mixed Indian and white descent—accounts for some three-fifths of
the population, while pure-blooded Indians amount to less than one-fifth, and whites constitute
nearly all the rest (small fractions are Mexicans of African and Arab descent). European
immigration to Mexico and Central America since the original Spanish conquest has been
negligible. When Velasco made his tally of 5,000,000 Indians within his jurisdiction, there were
only 150,000 Spaniards in the New World.
The European attitudes toward the environment
When European colonizers entered North America, they regarded the continent as a virtual
wilderness, one waiting to be settled and developed economically. The indigenous agriculture in
what is now the United States and Canada seemed strange and rudimentary to them, and it had
made only a slight dent in the vast forests and grasslands. There were no herds or flocks of
domesticated grazing animals exploiting the natural pastures, and mineral deposits, water power,
and other resources were being ignored by the aborigines. The Europeans saw no reason why
they should not claim land they thought could be used to better advantage; and they proceeded to
buy out, exterminate, or push out the Indians—when they did not enslave them—and established
their supremacy over the land.
The dispossession of the Indians
The process of removing the Indians from their ancestral lands led to bitter disputes. The
British tried to end one such problem by setting up the Proclamation of 1763 line along the
Appalachian divide, allowing whites to take over what lay to the east but attempting to reserve
what lay to the west as Indian territory. After their independence from Britain, the Americans
continued to adopt this ideal of a two-nation state, but in practice the notion soon collapsed as
they pushed the Indian line westward past the Appalachians to the Mississippi River and into the
Missouri River valley and other western lands. Nearly all the Indians in the east were displaced
to the west and into special zones in Oklahoma, the Great Plains, and the intermontane basins.
Even there, their land and their way of life were not respected, as ranchers, railroaders, and
homesteaders opened the West to settlement.
The Indian “territories” soon were reduced to isolated “reservations.” As a result, most of
the Indian population in the United States is now found west of the Mississippi River, usually in
drier areas unsuited to productive agriculture. At times the U.S. government has encouraged
Indians to leave the reservations and mix with the general population in the large cities of the
Midwest and West, a process of acculturation that some—including many younger and
ethnically conscious Indians—would claim poses as many dangers to the individual and social
well-being of Indians as do the communal misfortunes already brought upon them.
Counteracting the forces of assimilation have been increasingly energetic programs to defend
and strengthen aboriginal identity.
In Canada the reservation system was adopted at a relatively early date; it protected First
Nation (Native American) settlements throughout the east, even in such agriculturally rich areas
as the Montreal plain or peninsular Ontario. As the Europeans moved west, care was taken to
retain Indians on at least part of their own lands, including such fertile areas as the valley of the
Red River of the North and the Fraser River delta. Intermarriage between whites and Indians was
much more common than in the United States and produced a sizable community of the French
and Indian métis, who in 1869–70 unsuccessfully attempted to set up a separate state in the
Canadian prairies.
In both Mexico and Central America, racial admixture has gone much farther. In Mexico,
the mestizo population—of mixed Indian and white descent—accounts for some three-fifths of
the population, while pure-blooded Indians amount to less than one-fifth, and whites constitute
nearly all the rest (small fractions are Mexicans of African and Arab descent). European
immigration to Mexico and Central America since the original Spanish conquest has been
negligible. When Velasco made his tally of 5,000,000 Indians within his jurisdiction, there were
only 150,000 Spaniards in the New World.
The European attitudes toward the environment
When European colonizers entered North America, they regarded the continent as a virtual
wilderness, one waiting to be settled and developed economically. The indigenous agriculture in
what is now the United States and Canada seemed strange and rudimentary to them, and it had
made only a slight dent in the vast forests and grasslands. There were no herds or flocks of
domesticated grazing animals exploiting the natural pastures, and mineral deposits, water power,
and other resources were being ignored by the aborigines. The Europeans saw no reason why
they should not claim land they thought could be used to better advantage; and they proceeded to
buy out, exterminate, or push out the Indians—when they did not enslave them—and established
their supremacy over the land.
The dispossession of the Indians
The process of removing the Indians from their ancestral lands led to bitter disputes. The
British tried to end one such problem by setting up the Proclamation of 1763 line along the
Appalachian divide, allowing whites to take over what lay to the east but attempting to reserve
what lay to the west as Indian territory. After their independence from Britain, the Americans
continued to adopt this ideal of a two-nation state, but in practice the notion soon collapsed as
they pushed the Indian line westward past the Appalachians to the Mississippi River and into the
Missouri River valley and other western lands. Nearly all the Indians in the east were displaced
to the west and into special zones in Oklahoma, the Great Plains, and the intermontane basins.
Even there, their land and their way of life were not respected, as ranchers, railroaders, and
homesteaders opened the West to settlement.
The Indian “territories” soon were reduced to isolated “reservations.” As a result, most of
the Indian population in the United States is now found west of the Mississippi River, usually in
drier areas unsuited to productive agriculture. At times the U.S. government has encouraged
Indians to leave the reservations and mix with the general population in the large cities of the
Midwest and West, a process of acculturation that some—including many younger and
ethnically conscious Indians—would claim poses as many dangers to the individual and social
well-being of Indians as do the communal misfortunes already brought upon them.
Counteracting the forces of assimilation have been increasingly energetic programs to defend
and strengthen aboriginal identity.
In Canada the reservation system was adopted at a relatively early date; it protected First
Nation (Native American) settlements throughout the east, even in such agriculturally rich areas
as the Montreal plain or peninsular Ontario. As the Europeans moved west, care was taken to
retain Indians on at least part of their own lands, including such fertile areas as the valley of the
Red River of the North and the Fraser River delta. Intermarriage between whites and Indians was
much more common than in the United States and produced a sizable community of the French
and Indian métis, who in 1869–70 unsuccessfully attempted to set up a separate state in the
Canadian prairies.
In both Mexico and Central America, racial admixture has gone much farther. In Mexico,
the mestizo population—of mixed Indian and white descent—accounts for some three-fifths of
the population, while pure-blooded Indians amount to less than one-fifth, and whites constitute
nearly all the rest (small fractions are Mexicans of African and Arab descent). European
immigration to Mexico and Central America since the original Spanish conquest has been
negligible. When Velasco made his tally of 5,000,000 Indians within his jurisdiction, there were
only 150,000 Spaniards in the New World.
The European attitudes toward the environment
When European colonizers entered North America, they regarded the continent as a virtual
wilderness, one waiting to be settled and developed economically. The indigenous agriculture in
what is now the United States and Canada seemed strange and rudimentary to them, and it had
made only a slight dent in the vast forests and grasslands. There were no herds or flocks of
domesticated grazing animals exploiting the natural pastures, and mineral deposits, water power,
and other resources were being ignored by the aborigines. The Europeans saw no reason why
they should not claim land they thought could be used to better advantage; and they proceeded to
buy out, exterminate, or push out the Indians—when they did not enslave them—and established
their supremacy over the land.
The dispossession of the Indians
The process of removing the Indians from their ancestral lands led to bitter disputes. The
British tried to end one such problem by setting up the Proclamation of 1763 line along the
Appalachian divide, allowing whites to take over what lay to the east but attempting to reserve
what lay to the west as Indian territory. After their independence from Britain, the Americans
continued to adopt this ideal of a two-nation state, but in practice the notion soon collapsed as
they pushed the Indian line westward past the Appalachians to the Mississippi River and into the
Missouri River valley and other western lands. Nearly all the Indians in the east were displaced
to the west and into special zones in Oklahoma, the Great Plains, and the intermontane basins.
Even there, their land and their way of life were not respected, as ranchers, railroaders, and
homesteaders opened the West to settlement.
The Indian “territories” soon were reduced to isolated “reservations.” As a result, most of
the Indian population in the United States is now found west of the Mississippi River, usually in
drier areas unsuited to productive agriculture. At times the U.S. government has encouraged
Indians to leave the reservations and mix with the general population in the large cities of the
Midwest and West, a process of acculturation that some—including many younger and
ethnically conscious Indians—would claim poses as many dangers to the individual and social
well-being of Indians as do the communal misfortunes already brought upon them.
Counteracting the forces of assimilation have been increasingly energetic programs to defend
and strengthen aboriginal identity.
In Canada the reservation system was adopted at a relatively early date; it protected First
Nation (Native American) settlements throughout the east, even in such agriculturally rich areas
as the Montreal plain or peninsular Ontario. As the Europeans moved west, care was taken to
retain Indians on at least part of their own lands, including such fertile areas as the valley of the
Red River of the North and the Fraser River delta. Intermarriage between whites and Indians was
much more common than in the United States and produced a sizable community of the French
and Indian métis, who in 1869–70 unsuccessfully attempted to set up a separate state in the
Canadian prairies.
In both Mexico and Central America, racial admixture has gone much farther. In Mexico,
the mestizo population—of mixed Indian and white descent—accounts for some three-fifths of
the population, while pure-blooded Indians amount to less than one-fifth, and whites constitute
nearly all the rest (small fractions are Mexicans of African and Arab descent). European
immigration to Mexico and Central America since the original Spanish conquest has been
negligible. When Velasco made his tally of 5,000,000 Indians within his jurisdiction, there were
only 150,000 Spaniards in the New World.
The European attitudes toward the environment
When European colonizers entered North America, they regarded the continent as a virtual
wilderness, one waiting to be settled and developed economically. The indigenous agriculture in
what is now the United States and Canada seemed strange and rudimentary to them, and it had
made only a slight dent in the vast forests and grasslands. There were no herds or flocks of
domesticated grazing animals exploiting the natural pastures, and mineral deposits, water power,
and other resources were being ignored by the aborigines. The Europeans saw no reason why
they should not claim land they thought could be used to better advantage; and they proceeded to
buy out, exterminate, or push out the Indians—when they did not enslave them—and established
their supremacy over the land.
The dispossession of the Indians
The process of removing the Indians from their ancestral lands led to bitter disputes. The
British tried to end one such problem by setting up the Proclamation of 1763 line along the
Appalachian divide, allowing whites to take over what lay to the east but attempting to reserve
what lay to the west as Indian territory. After their independence from Britain, the Americans
continued to adopt this ideal of a two-nation state, but in practice the notion soon collapsed as
they pushed the Indian line westward past the Appalachians to the Mississippi River and into the
Missouri River valley and other western lands. Nearly all the Indians in the east were displaced
to the west and into special zones in Oklahoma, the Great Plains, and the intermontane basins.
Even there, their land and their way of life were not respected, as ranchers, railroaders, and
homesteaders opened the West to settlement.
The Indian “territories” soon were reduced to isolated “reservations.” As a result, most of
the Indian population in the United States is now found west of the Mississippi River, usually in
drier areas unsuited to productive agriculture. At times the U.S. government has encouraged
Indians to leave the reservations and mix with the general population in the large cities of the
Midwest and West, a process of acculturation that some—including many younger and
ethnically conscious Indians—would claim poses as many dangers to the individual and social
well-being of Indians as do the communal misfortunes already brought upon them.
Counteracting the forces of assimilation have been increasingly energetic programs to defend
and strengthen aboriginal identity.
In Canada the reservation system was adopted at a relatively early date; it protected First
Nation (Native American) settlements throughout the east, even in such agriculturally rich areas
as the Montreal plain or peninsular Ontario. As the Europeans moved west, care was taken to
retain Indians on at least part of their own lands, including such fertile areas as the valley of the
Red River of the North and the Fraser River delta. Intermarriage between whites and Indians was
much more common than in the United States and produced a sizable community of the French
and Indian métis, who in 1869–70 unsuccessfully attempted to set up a separate state in the
Canadian prairies.
In both Mexico and Central America, racial admixture has gone much farther. In Mexico,
the mestizo population—of mixed Indian and white descent—accounts for some three-fifths of
the population, while pure-blooded Indians amount to less than one-fifth, and whites constitute
nearly all the rest (small fractions are Mexicans of African and Arab descent). European
immigration to Mexico and Central America since the original Spanish conquest has been
negligible. When Velasco made his tally of 5,000,000 Indians within his jurisdiction, there were
only 150,000 Spaniards in the New World.
The European attitudes toward the environment
When European colonizers entered North America, they regarded the continent as a virtual
wilderness, one waiting to be settled and developed economically. The indigenous agriculture in
what is now the United States and Canada seemed strange and rudimentary to them, and it had
made only a slight dent in the vast forests and grasslands. There were no herds or flocks of
domesticated grazing animals exploiting the natural pastures, and mineral deposits, water power,
and other resources were being ignored by the aborigines. The Europeans saw no reason why
they should not claim land they thought could be used to better advantage; and they proceeded to
buy out, exterminate, or push out the Indians—when they did not enslave them—and established
their supremacy over the land.
The dispossession of the Indians
The process of removing the Indians from their ancestral lands led to bitter disputes. The
British tried to end one such problem by setting up the Proclamation of 1763 line along the
Appalachian divide, allowing whites to take over what lay to the east but attempting to reserve
what lay to the west as Indian territory. After their independence from Britain, the Americans
continued to adopt this ideal of a two-nation state, but in practice the notion soon collapsed as
they pushed the Indian line westward past the Appalachians to the Mississippi River and into the
Missouri River valley and other western lands. Nearly all the Indians in the east were displaced
to the west and into special zones in Oklahoma, the Great Plains, and the intermontane basins.
Even there, their land and their way of life were not respected, as ranchers, railroaders, and
homesteaders opened the West to settlement.
The Indian “territories” soon were reduced to isolated “reservations.” As a result, most of
the Indian population in the United States is now found west of the Mississippi River, usually in
drier areas unsuited to productive agriculture. At times the U.S. government has encouraged
Indians to leave the reservations and mix with the general population in the large cities of the
Midwest and West, a process of acculturation that some—including many younger and
ethnically conscious Indians—would claim poses as many dangers to the individual and social
well-being of Indians as do the communal misfortunes already brought upon them.
Counteracting the forces of assimilation have been increasingly energetic programs to defend
and strengthen aboriginal identity.
In Canada the reservation system was adopted at a relatively early date; it protected First
Nation (Native American) settlements throughout the east, even in such agriculturally rich areas
as the Montreal plain or peninsular Ontario. As the Europeans moved west, care was taken to
retain Indians on at least part of their own lands, including such fertile areas as the valley of the
Red River of the North and the Fraser River delta. Intermarriage between whites and Indians was
much more common than in the United States and produced a sizable community of the French
and Indian métis, who in 1869–70 unsuccessfully attempted to set up a separate state in the
Canadian prairies.
In both Mexico and Central America, racial admixture has gone much farther. In Mexico,
the mestizo population—of mixed Indian and white descent—accounts for some three-fifths of
the population, while pure-blooded Indians amount to less than one-fifth, and whites constitute
nearly all the rest (small fractions are Mexicans of African and Arab descent). European
immigration to Mexico and Central America since the original Spanish conquest has been
negligible. When Velasco made his tally of 5,000,000 Indians within his jurisdiction, there were
only 150,000 Spaniards in the New World.
The European attitudes toward the environment
When European colonizers entered North America, they regarded the continent as a virtual
wilderness, one waiting to be settled and developed economically. The indigenous agriculture in
what is now the United States and Canada seemed strange and rudimentary to them, and it had
made only a slight dent in the vast forests and grasslands. There were no herds or flocks of
domesticated grazing animals exploiting the natural pastures, and mineral deposits, water power,
and other resources were being ignored by the aborigines. The Europeans saw no reason why
they should not claim land they thought could be used to better advantage; and they proceeded to
buy out, exterminate, or push out the Indians—when they did not enslave them—and established
their supremacy over the land.
The dispossession of the Indians
The process of removing the Indians from their ancestral lands led to bitter disputes. The
British tried to end one such problem by setting up the Proclamation of 1763 line along the
Appalachian divide, allowing whites to take over what lay to the east but attempting to reserve
what lay to the west as Indian territory. After their independence from Britain, the Americans
continued to adopt this ideal of a two-nation state, but in practice the notion soon collapsed as
they pushed the Indian line westward past the Appalachians to the Mississippi River and into the
Missouri River valley and other western lands. Nearly all the Indians in the east were displaced
to the west and into special zones in Oklahoma, the Great Plains, and the intermontane basins.
Even there, their land and their way of life were not respected, as ranchers, railroaders, and
homesteaders opened the West to settlement.
The Indian “territories” soon were reduced to isolated “reservations.” As a result, most of
the Indian population in the United States is now found west of the Mississippi River, usually in
drier areas unsuited to productive agriculture. At times the U.S. government has encouraged
Indians to leave the reservations and mix with the general population in the large cities of the
Midwest and West, a process of acculturation that some—including many younger and
ethnically conscious Indians—would claim poses as many dangers to the individual and social
well-being of Indians as do the communal misfortunes already brought upon them.
Counteracting the forces of assimilation have been increasingly energetic programs to defend
and strengthen aboriginal identity.
In Canada the reservation system was adopted at a relatively early date; it protected First
Nation (Native American) settlements throughout the east, even in such agriculturally rich areas
as the Montreal plain or peninsular Ontario. As the Europeans moved west, care was taken to
retain Indians on at least part of their own lands, including such fertile areas as the valley of the
Red River of the North and the Fraser River delta. Intermarriage between whites and Indians was
much more common than in the United States and produced a sizable community of the French
and Indian métis, who in 1869–70 unsuccessfully attempted to set up a separate state in the
Canadian prairies.
In both Mexico and Central America, racial admixture has gone much farther. In Mexico,
the mestizo population—of mixed Indian and white descent—accounts for some three-fifths of
the population, while pure-blooded Indians amount to less than one-fifth, and whites constitute
nearly all the rest (small fractions are Mexicans of African and Arab descent). European
immigration to Mexico and Central America since the original Spanish conquest has been
negligible. When Velasco made his tally of 5,000,000 Indians within his jurisdiction, there were
only 150,000 Spaniards in the New World.
The European attitudes toward the environment
When European colonizers entered North America, they regarded the continent as a virtual
wilderness, one waiting to be settled and developed economically. The indigenous agriculture in
what is now the United States and Canada seemed strange and rudimentary to them, and it had
made only a slight dent in the vast forests and grasslands. There were no herds or flocks of
domesticated grazing animals exploiting the natural pastures, and mineral deposits, water power,
and other resources were being ignored by the aborigines. The Europeans saw no reason why
they should not claim land they thought could be used to better advantage; and they proceeded to
buy out, exterminate, or push out the Indians—when they did not enslave them—and established
their supremacy over the land.
The dispossession of the Indians
The process of removing the Indians from their ancestral lands led to bitter disputes. The
British tried to end one such problem by setting up the Proclamation of 1763 line along the
Appalachian divide, allowing whites to take over what lay to the east but attempting to reserve
what lay to the west as Indian territory. After their independence from Britain, the Americans
continued to adopt this ideal of a two-nation state, but in practice the notion soon collapsed as
they pushed the Indian line westward past the Appalachians to the Mississippi River and into the
Missouri River valley and other western lands. Nearly all the Indians in the east were displaced
to the west and into special zones in Oklahoma, the Great Plains, and the intermontane basins.
Even there, their land and their way of life were not respected, as ranchers, railroaders, and
homesteaders opened the West to settlement.
The Indian “territories” soon were reduced to isolated “reservations.” As a result, most of
the Indian population in the United States is now found west of the Mississippi River, usually in
drier areas unsuited to productive agriculture. At times the U.S. government has encouraged
Indians to leave the reservations and mix with the general population in the large cities of the
Midwest and West, a process of acculturation that some—including many younger and
ethnically conscious Indians—would claim poses as many dangers to the individual and social
well-being of Indians as do the communal misfortunes already brought upon them.
Counteracting the forces of assimilation have been increasingly energetic programs to defend
and strengthen aboriginal identity.
In Canada the reservation system was adopted at a relatively early date; it protected First
Nation (Native American) settlements throughout the east, even in such agriculturally rich areas
as the Montreal plain or peninsular Ontario. As the Europeans moved west, care was taken to
retain Indians on at least part of their own lands, including such fertile areas as the valley of the
Red River of the North and the Fraser River delta. Intermarriage between whites and Indians was
much more common than in the United States and produced a sizable community of the French
and Indian métis, who in 1869–70 unsuccessfully attempted to set up a separate state in the
Canadian prairies.
In both Mexico and Central America, racial admixture has gone much farther. In Mexico,
the mestizo population—of mixed Indian and white descent—accounts for some three-fifths of
the population, while pure-blooded Indians amount to less than one-fifth, and whites constitute
nearly all the rest (small fractions are Mexicans of African and Arab descent). European
immigration to Mexico and Central America since the original Spanish conquest has been
negligible. When Velasco made his tally of 5,000,000 Indians within his jurisdiction, there were
only 150,000 Spaniards in the New World.
The European attitudes toward the environment
When European colonizers entered North America, they regarded the continent as a virtual
wilderness, one waiting to be settled and developed economically. The indigenous agriculture in
what is now the United States and Canada seemed strange and rudimentary to them, and it had
made only a slight dent in the vast forests and grasslands. There were no herds or flocks of
domesticated grazing animals exploiting the natural pastures, and mineral deposits, water power,
and other resources were being ignored by the aborigines. The Europeans saw no reason why
they should not claim land they thought could be used to better advantage; and they proceeded to
buy out, exterminate, or push out the Indians—when they did not enslave them—and established
their supremacy over the land.
The dispossession of the Indians
The process of removing the Indians from their ancestral lands led to bitter disputes. The
British tried to end one such problem by setting up the Proclamation of 1763 line along the
Appalachian divide, allowing whites to take over what lay to the east but attempting to reserve
what lay to the west as Indian territory. After their independence from Britain, the Americans
continued to adopt this ideal of a two-nation state, but in practice the notion soon collapsed as
they pushed the Indian line westward past the Appalachians to the Mississippi River and into the
Missouri River valley and other western lands. Nearly all the Indians in the east were displaced
to the west and into special zones in Oklahoma, the Great Plains, and the intermontane basins.
Even there, their land and their way of life were not respected, as ranchers, railroaders, and
homesteaders opened the West to settlement.
The Indian “territories” soon were reduced to isolated “reservations.” As a result, most of
the Indian population in the United States is now found west of the Mississippi River, usually in
drier areas unsuited to productive agriculture. At times the U.S. government has encouraged
Indians to leave the reservations and mix with the general population in the large cities of the
Midwest and West, a process of acculturation that some—including many younger and
ethnically conscious Indians—would claim poses as many dangers to the individual and social
well-being of Indians as do the communal misfortunes already brought upon them.
Counteracting the forces of assimilation have been increasingly energetic programs to defend
and strengthen aboriginal identity.
In Canada the reservation system was adopted at a relatively early date; it protected First
Nation (Native American) settlements throughout the east, even in such agriculturally rich areas
as the Montreal plain or peninsular Ontario. As the Europeans moved west, care was taken to
retain Indians on at least part of their own lands, including such fertile areas as the valley of the
Red River of the North and the Fraser River delta. Intermarriage between whites and Indians was
much more common than in the United States and produced a sizable community of the French
and Indian métis, who in 1869–70 unsuccessfully attempted to set up a separate state in the
Canadian prairies.
In both Mexico and Central America, racial admixture has gone much farther. In Mexico,
the mestizo population—of mixed Indian and white descent—accounts for some three-fifths of
the population, while pure-blooded Indians amount to less than one-fifth, and whites constitute
nearly all the rest (small fractions are Mexicans of African and Arab descent). European
immigration to Mexico and Central America since the original Spanish conquest has been
negligible. When Velasco made his tally of 5,000,000 Indians within his jurisdiction, there were
only 150,000 Spaniards in the New World.
The European attitudes toward the environment
When European colonizers entered North America, they regarded the continent as a virtual
wilderness, one waiting to be settled and developed economically. The indigenous agriculture in
what is now the United States and Canada seemed strange and rudimentary to them, and it had
made only a slight dent in the vast forests and grasslands. There were no herds or flocks of
domesticated grazing animals exploiting the natural pastures, and mineral deposits, water power,
and other resources were being ignored by the aborigines. The Europeans saw no reason why
they should not claim land they thought could be used to better advantage; and they proceeded to
buy out, exterminate, or push out the Indians—when they did not enslave them—and established
their supremacy over the land.
The dispossession of the Indians
The process of removing the Indians from their ancestral lands led to bitter disputes. The
British tried to end one such problem by setting up the Proclamation of 1763 line along the
Appalachian divide, allowing whites to take over what lay to the east but attempting to reserve
what lay to the west as Indian territory. After their independence from Britain, the Americans
continued to adopt this ideal of a two-nation state, but in practice the notion soon collapsed as
they pushed the Indian line westward past the Appalachians to the Mississippi River and into the
Missouri River valley and other western lands. Nearly all the Indians in the east were displaced
to the west and into special zones in Oklahoma, the Great Plains, and the intermontane basins.
Even there, their land and their way of life were not respected, as ranchers, railroaders, and
homesteaders opened the West to settlement.
The Indian “territories” soon were reduced to isolated “reservations.” As a result, most of
the Indian population in the United States is now found west of the Mississippi River, usually in
drier areas unsuited to productive agriculture. At times the U.S. government has encouraged
Indians to leave the reservations and mix with the general population in the large cities of the
Midwest and West, a process of acculturation that some—including many younger and
ethnically conscious Indians—would claim poses as many dangers to the individual and social
well-being of Indians as do the communal misfortunes already brought upon them.
Counteracting the forces of assimilation have been increasingly energetic programs to defend
and strengthen aboriginal identity.
In Canada the reservation system was adopted at a relatively early date; it protected First
Nation (Native American) settlements throughout the east, even in such agriculturally rich areas
as the Montreal plain or peninsular Ontario. As the Europeans moved west, care was taken to
retain Indians on at least part of their own lands, including such fertile areas as the valley of the
Red River of the North and the Fraser River delta. Intermarriage between whites and Indians was
much more common than in the United States and produced a sizable community of the French
and Indian métis, who in 1869–70 unsuccessfully attempted to set up a separate state in the
Canadian prairies.
In both Mexico and Central America, racial admixture has gone much farther. In Mexico,
the mestizo population—of mixed Indian and white descent—accounts for some three-fifths of
the population, while pure-blooded Indians amount to less than one-fifth, and whites constitute
nearly all the rest (small fractions are Mexicans of African and Arab descent). European
immigration to Mexico and Central America since the original Spanish conquest has been
negligible. When Velasco made his tally of 5,000,000 Indians within his jurisdiction, there were
only 150,000 Spaniards in the New World.
The European attitudes toward the environment
When European colonizers entered North America, they regarded the continent as a virtual
wilderness, one waiting to be settled and developed economically. The indigenous agriculture in
what is now the United States and Canada seemed strange and rudimentary to them, and it had
made only a slight dent in the vast forests and grasslands. There were no herds or flocks of
domesticated grazing animals exploiting the natural pastures, and mineral deposits, water power,
and other resources were being ignored by the aborigines. The Europeans saw no reason why
they should not claim land they thought could be used to better advantage; and they proceeded to
buy out, exterminate, or push out the Indians—when they did not enslave them—and established
their supremacy over the land.
The dispossession of the Indians
The process of removing the Indians from their ancestral lands led to bitter disputes. The
British tried to end one such problem by setting up the Proclamation of 1763 line along the
Appalachian divide, allowing whites to take over what lay to the east but attempting to reserve
what lay to the west as Indian territory. After their independence from Britain, the Americans
continued to adopt this ideal of a two-nation state, but in practice the notion soon collapsed as
they pushed the Indian line westward past the Appalachians to the Mississippi River and into the
Missouri River valley and other western lands. Nearly all the Indians in the east were displaced
to the west and into special zones in Oklahoma, the Great Plains, and the intermontane basins.
Even there, their land and their way of life were not respected, as ranchers, railroaders, and
homesteaders opened the West to settlement.
The Indian “territories” soon were reduced to isolated “reservations.” As a result, most of
the Indian population in the United States is now found west of the Mississippi River, usually in
drier areas unsuited to productive agriculture. At times the U.S. government has encouraged
Indians to leave the reservations and mix with the general population in the large cities of the
Midwest and West, a process of acculturation that some—including many younger and
ethnically conscious Indians—would claim poses as many dangers to the individual and social
well-being of Indians as do the communal misfortunes already brought upon them.
Counteracting the forces of assimilation have been increasingly energetic programs to defend
and strengthen aboriginal identity.
In Canada the reservation system was adopted at a relatively early date; it protected First
Nation (Native American) settlements throughout the east, even in such agriculturally rich areas
as the Montreal plain or peninsular Ontario. As the Europeans moved west, care was taken to
retain Indians on at least part of their own lands, including such fertile areas as the valley of the
Red River of the North and the Fraser River delta. Intermarriage between whites and Indians was
much more common than in the United States and produced a sizable community of the French
and Indian métis, who in 1869–70 unsuccessfully attempted to set up a separate state in the
Canadian prairies.
In both Mexico and Central America, racial admixture has gone much farther. In Mexico,
the mestizo population—of mixed Indian and white descent—accounts for some three-fifths of
the population, while pure-blooded Indians amount to less than one-fifth, and whites constitute
nearly all the rest (small fractions are Mexicans of African and Arab descent). European
immigration to Mexico and Central America since the original Spanish conquest has been
negligible. When Velasco made his tally of 5,000,000 Indians within his jurisdiction, there were
only 150,000 Spaniards in the New World.
The European attitudes toward the environment
When European colonizers entered North America, they regarded the continent as a virtual
wilderness, one waiting to be settled and developed economically. The indigenous agriculture in
what is now the United States and Canada seemed strange and rudimentary to them, and it had
made only a slight dent in the vast forests and grasslands. There were no herds or flocks of
domesticated grazing animals exploiting the natural pastures, and mineral deposits, water power,
and other resources were being ignored by the aborigines. The Europeans saw no reason why
they should not claim land they thought could be used to better advantage; and they proceeded to
buy out, exterminate, or push out the Indians—when they did not enslave them—and established
their supremacy over the land.
The dispossession of the Indians
The process of removing the Indians from their ancestral lands led to bitter disputes. The
British tried to end one such problem by setting up the Proclamation of 1763 line along the
Appalachian divide, allowing whites to take over what lay to the east but attempting to reserve
what lay to the west as Indian territory. After their independence from Britain, the Americans
continued to adopt this ideal of a two-nation state, but in practice the notion soon collapsed as
they pushed the Indian line westward past the Appalachians to the Mississippi River and into the
Missouri River valley and other western lands. Nearly all the Indians in the east were displaced
to the west and into special zones in Oklahoma, the Great Plains, and the intermontane basins.
Even there, their land and their way of life were not respected, as ranchers, railroaders, and
homesteaders opened the West to settlement.
The Indian “territories” soon were reduced to isolated “reservations.” As a result, most of
the Indian population in the United States is now found west of the Mississippi River, usually in
drier areas unsuited to productive agriculture. At times the U.S. government has encouraged
Indians to leave the reservations and mix with the general population in the large cities of the
Midwest and West, a process of acculturation that some—including many younger and
ethnically conscious Indians—would claim poses as many dangers to the individual and social
well-being of Indians as do the communal misfortunes already brought upon them.
Counteracting the forces of assimilation have been increasingly energetic programs to defend
and strengthen aboriginal identity.
In Canada the reservation system was adopted at a relatively early date; it protected First
Nation (Native American) settlements throughout the east, even in such agriculturally rich areas
as the Montreal plain or peninsular Ontario. As the Europeans moved west, care was taken to
retain Indians on at least part of their own lands, including such fertile areas as the valley of the
Red River of the North and the Fraser River delta. Intermarriage between whites and Indians was
much more common than in the United States and produced a sizable community of the French
and Indian métis, who in 1869–70 unsuccessfully attempted to set up a separate state in the
Canadian prairies.
In both Mexico and Central America, racial admixture has gone much farther. In Mexico,
the mestizo population—of mixed Indian and white descent—accounts for some three-fifths of
the population, while pure-blooded Indians amount to less than one-fifth, and whites constitute
nearly all the rest (small fractions are Mexicans of African and Arab descent). European
immigration to Mexico and Central America since the original Spanish conquest has been
negligible. When Velasco made his tally of 5,000,000 Indians within his jurisdiction, there were
only 150,000 Spaniards in the New World.
The European attitudes toward the environment
When European colonizers entered North America, they regarded the continent as a virtual
wilderness, one waiting to be settled and developed economically. The indigenous agriculture in
what is now the United States and Canada seemed strange and rudimentary to them, and it had
made only a slight dent in the vast forests and grasslands. There were no herds or flocks of
domesticated grazing animals exploiting the natural pastures, and mineral deposits, water power,
and other resources were being ignored by the aborigines. The Europeans saw no reason why
they should not claim land they thought could be used to better advantage; and they proceeded to
buy out, exterminate, or push out the Indians—when they did not enslave them—and established
their supremacy over the land.
The dispossession of the Indians
The process of removing the Indians from their ancestral lands led to bitter disputes. The
British tried to end one such problem by setting up the Proclamation of 1763 line along the
Appalachian divide, allowing whites to take over what lay to the east but attempting to reserve
what lay to the west as Indian territory. After their independence from Britain, the Americans
continued to adopt this ideal of a two-nation state, but in practice the notion soon collapsed as
they pushed the Indian line westward past the Appalachians to the Mississippi River and into the
Missouri River valley and other western lands. Nearly all the Indians in the east were displaced
to the west and into special zones in Oklahoma, the Great Plains, and the intermontane basins.
Even there, their land and their way of life were not respected, as ranchers, railroaders, and
homesteaders opened the West to settlement.
The Indian “territories” soon were reduced to isolated “reservations.” As a result, most of
the Indian population in the United States is now found west of the Mississippi River, usually in
drier areas unsuited to productive agriculture. At times the U.S. government has encouraged
Indians to leave the reservations and mix with the general population in the large cities of the
Midwest and West, a process of acculturation that some—including many younger and
ethnically conscious Indians—would claim poses as many dangers to the individual and social
well-being of Indians as do the communal misfortunes already brought upon them.
Counteracting the forces of assimilation have been increasingly energetic programs to defend
and strengthen aboriginal identity.
In Canada the reservation system was adopted at a relatively early date; it protected First
Nation (Native American) settlements throughout the east, even in such agriculturally rich areas
as the Montreal plain or peninsular Ontario. As the Europeans moved west, care was taken to
retain Indians on at least part of their own lands, including such fertile areas as the valley of the
Red River of the North and the Fraser River delta. Intermarriage between whites and Indians was
much more common than in the United States and produced a sizable community of the French
and Indian métis, who in 1869–70 unsuccessfully attempted to set up a separate state in the
Canadian prairies.
In both Mexico and Central America, racial admixture has gone much farther. In Mexico,
the mestizo population—of mixed Indian and white descent—accounts for some three-fifths of
the population, while pure-blooded Indians amount to less than one-fifth, and whites constitute
nearly all the rest (small fractions are Mexicans of African and Arab descent). European
immigration to Mexico and Central America since the original Spanish conquest has been
negligible. When Velasco made his tally of 5,000,000 Indians within his jurisdiction, there were
only 150,000 Spaniards in the New World.
The European attitudes toward the environment
When European colonizers entered North America, they regarded the continent as a virtual
wilderness, one waiting to be settled and developed economically. The indigenous agriculture in
what is now the United States and Canada seemed strange and rudimentary to them, and it had
made only a slight dent in the vast forests and grasslands. There were no herds or flocks of
domesticated grazing animals exploiting the natural pastures, and mineral deposits, water power,
and other resources were being ignored by the aborigines. The Europeans saw no reason why
they should not claim land they thought could be used to better advantage; and they proceeded to
buy out, exterminate, or push out the Indians—when they did not enslave them—and established
their supremacy over the land.
The dispossession of the Indians
The process of removing the Indians from their ancestral lands led to bitter disputes. The
British tried to end one such problem by setting up the Proclamation of 1763 line along the
Appalachian divide, allowing whites to take over what lay to the east but attempting to reserve
what lay to the west as Indian territory. After their independence from Britain, the Americans
continued to adopt this ideal of a two-nation state, but in practice the notion soon collapsed as
they pushed the Indian line westward past the Appalachians to the Mississippi River and into the
Missouri River valley and other western lands. Nearly all the Indians in the east were displaced
to the west and into special zones in Oklahoma, the Great Plains, and the intermontane basins.
Even there, their land and their way of life were not respected, as ranchers, railroaders, and
homesteaders opened the West to settlement.
The Indian “territories” soon were reduced to isolated “reservations.” As a result, most of
the Indian population in the United States is now found west of the Mississippi River, usually in
drier areas unsuited to productive agriculture. At times the U.S. government has encouraged
Indians to leave the reservations and mix with the general population in the large cities of the
Midwest and West, a process of acculturation that some—including many younger and
ethnically conscious Indians—would claim poses as many dangers to the individual and social
well-being of Indians as do the communal misfortunes already brought upon them.
Counteracting the forces of assimilation have been increasingly energetic programs to defend
and strengthen aboriginal identity.
In Canada the reservation system was adopted at a relatively early date; it protected First
Nation (Native American) settlements throughout the east, even in such agriculturally rich areas
as the Montreal plain or peninsular Ontario. As the Europeans moved west, care was taken to
retain Indians on at least part of their own lands, including such fertile areas as the valley of the
Red River of the North and the Fraser River delta. Intermarriage between whites and Indians was
much more common than in the United States and produced a sizable community of the French
and Indian métis, who in 1869–70 unsuccessfully attempted to set up a separate state in the
Canadian prairies.
In both Mexico and Central America, racial admixture has gone much farther. In Mexico,
the mestizo population—of mixed Indian and white descent—accounts for some three-fifths of
the population, while pure-blooded Indians amount to less than one-fifth, and whites constitute
nearly all the rest (small fractions are Mexicans of African and Arab descent). European
immigration to Mexico and Central America since the original Spanish conquest has been
negligible. When Velasco made his tally of 5,000,000 Indians within his jurisdiction, there were
only 150,000 Spaniards in the New World.
The European attitudes toward the environment
When European colonizers entered North America, they regarded the continent as a virtual
wilderness, one waiting to be settled and developed economically. The indigenous agriculture in
what is now the United States and Canada seemed strange and rudimentary to them, and it had
made only a slight dent in the vast forests and grasslands. There were no herds or flocks of
domesticated grazing animals exploiting the natural pastures, and mineral deposits, water power,
and other resources were being ignored by the aborigines. The Europeans saw no reason why
they should not claim land they thought could be used to better advantage; and they proceeded to
buy out, exterminate, or push out the Indians—when they did not enslave them—and established
their supremacy over the land.
The dispossession of the Indians
The process of removing the Indians from their ancestral lands led to bitter disputes. The
British tried to end one such problem by setting up the Proclamation of 1763 line along the
Appalachian divide, allowing whites to take over what lay to the east but attempting to reserve
what lay to the west as Indian territory. After their independence from Britain, the Americans
continued to adopt this ideal of a two-nation state, but in practice the notion soon collapsed as
they pushed the Indian line westward past the Appalachians to the Mississippi River and into the
Missouri River valley and other western lands. Nearly all the Indians in the east were displaced
to the west and into special zones in Oklahoma, the Great Plains, and the intermontane basins.
Even there, their land and their way of life were not respected, as ranchers, railroaders, and
homesteaders opened the West to settlement.
The Indian “territories” soon were reduced to isolated “reservations.” As a result, most of
the Indian population in the United States is now found west of the Mississippi River, usually in
drier areas unsuited to productive agriculture. At times the U.S. government has encouraged
Indians to leave the reservations and mix with the general population in the large cities of the
Midwest and West, a process of acculturation that some—including many younger and
ethnically conscious Indians—would claim poses as many dangers to the individual and social
well-being of Indians as do the communal misfortunes already brought upon them.
Counteracting the forces of assimilation have been increasingly energetic programs to defend
and strengthen aboriginal identity.
In Canada the reservation system was adopted at a relatively early date; it protected First
Nation (Native American) settlements throughout the east, even in such agriculturally rich areas
as the Montreal plain or peninsular Ontario. As the Europeans moved west, care was taken to
retain Indians on at least part of their own lands, including such fertile areas as the valley of the
Red River of the North and the Fraser River delta. Intermarriage between whites and Indians was
much more common than in the United States and produced a sizable community of the French
and Indian métis, who in 1869–70 unsuccessfully attempted to set up a separate state in the
Canadian prairies.
In both Mexico and Central America, racial admixture has gone much farther. In Mexico,
the mestizo population—of mixed Indian and white descent—accounts for some three-fifths of
the population, while pure-blooded Indians amount to less than one-fifth, and whites constitute
nearly all the rest (small fractions are Mexicans of African and Arab descent). European
immigration to Mexico and Central America since the original Spanish conquest has been
negligible. When Velasco made his tally of 5,000,000 Indians within his jurisdiction, there were
only 150,000 Spaniards in the New World.
The European attitudes toward the environment
When European colonizers entered North America, they regarded the continent as a virtual
wilderness, one waiting to be settled and developed economically. The indigenous agriculture in
what is now the United States and Canada seemed strange and rudimentary to them, and it had
made only a slight dent in the vast forests and grasslands. There were no herds or flocks of
domesticated grazing animals exploiting the natural pastures, and mineral deposits, water power,
and other resources were being ignored by the aborigines. The Europeans saw no reason why
they should not claim land they thought could be used to better advantage; and they proceeded to
buy out, exterminate, or push out the Indians—when they did not enslave them—and established
their supremacy over the land.
The dispossession of the Indians
The process of removing the Indians from their ancestral lands led to bitter disputes. The
British tried to end one such problem by setting up the Proclamation of 1763 line along the
Appalachian divide, allowing whites to take over what lay to the east but attempting to reserve
what lay to the west as Indian territory. After their independence from Britain, the Americans
continued to adopt this ideal of a two-nation state, but in practice the notion soon collapsed as
they pushed the Indian line westward past the Appalachians to the Mississippi River and into the
Missouri River valley and other western lands. Nearly all the Indians in the east were displaced
to the west and into special zones in Oklahoma, the Great Plains, and the intermontane basins.
Even there, their land and their way of life were not respected, as ranchers, railroaders, and
homesteaders opened the West to settlement.
The Indian “territories” soon were reduced to isolated “reservations.” As a result, most of
the Indian population in the United States is now found west of the Mississippi River, usually in
drier areas unsuited to productive agriculture. At times the U.S. government has encouraged
Indians to leave the reservations and mix with the general population in the large cities of the
Midwest and West, a process of acculturation that some—including many younger and
ethnically conscious Indians—would claim poses as many dangers to the individual and social
well-being of Indians as do the communal misfortunes already brought upon them.
Counteracting the forces of assimilation have been increasingly energetic programs to defend
and strengthen aboriginal identity.
In Canada the reservation system was adopted at a relatively early date; it protected First
Nation (Native American) settlements throughout the east, even in such agriculturally rich areas
as the Montreal plain or peninsular Ontario. As the Europeans moved west, care was taken to
retain Indians on at least part of their own lands, including such fertile areas as the valley of the
Red River of the North and the Fraser River delta. Intermarriage between whites and Indians was
much more common than in the United States and produced a sizable community of the French
and Indian métis, who in 1869–70 unsuccessfully attempted to set up a separate state in the
Canadian prairies.
In both Mexico and Central America, racial admixture has gone much farther. In Mexico,
the mestizo population—of mixed Indian and white descent—accounts for some three-fifths of
the population, while pure-blooded Indians amount to less than one-fifth, and whites constitute
nearly all the rest (small fractions are Mexicans of African and Arab descent). European
immigration to Mexico and Central America since the original Spanish conquest has been
negligible. When Velasco made his tally of 5,000,000 Indians within his jurisdiction, there were
only 150,000 Spaniards in the New World.
The European attitudes toward the environment
When European colonizers entered North America, they regarded the continent as a virtual
wilderness, one waiting to be settled and developed economically. The indigenous agriculture in
what is now the United States and Canada seemed strange and rudimentary to them, and it had
made only a slight dent in the vast forests and grasslands. There were no herds or flocks of
domesticated grazing animals exploiting the natural pastures, and mineral deposits, water power,
and other resources were being ignored by the aborigines. The Europeans saw no reason why
they should not claim land they thought could be used to better advantage; and they proceeded to
buy out, exterminate, or push out the Indians—when they did not enslave them—and established
their supremacy over the land.
The dispossession of the Indians
The process of removing the Indians from their ancestral lands led to bitter disputes. The
British tried to end one such problem by setting up the Proclamation of 1763 line along the
Appalachian divide, allowing whites to take over what lay to the east but attempting to reserve
what lay to the west as Indian territory. After their independence from Britain, the Americans
continued to adopt this ideal of a two-nation state, but in practice the notion soon collapsed as
they pushed the Indian line westward past the Appalachians to the Mississippi River and into the
Missouri River valley and other western lands. Nearly all the Indians in the east were displaced
to the west and into special zones in Oklahoma, the Great Plains, and the intermontane basins.
Even there, their land and their way of life were not respected, as ranchers, railroaders, and
homesteaders opened the West to settlement.
The Indian “territories” soon were reduced to isolated “reservations.” As a result, most of
the Indian population in the United States is now found west of the Mississippi River, usually in
drier areas unsuited to productive agriculture. At times the U.S. government has encouraged
Indians to leave the reservations and mix with the general population in the large cities of the
Midwest and West, a process of acculturation that some—including many younger and
ethnically conscious Indians—would claim poses as many dangers to the individual and social
well-being of Indians as do the communal misfortunes already brought upon them.
Counteracting the forces of assimilation have been increasingly energetic programs to defend
and strengthen aboriginal identity.
In Canada the reservation system was adopted at a relatively early date; it protected First
Nation (Native American) settlements throughout the east, even in such agriculturally rich areas
as the Montreal plain or peninsular Ontario. As the Europeans moved west, care was taken to
retain Indians on at least part of their own lands, including such fertile areas as the valley of the
Red River of the North and the Fraser River delta. Intermarriage between whites and Indians was
much more common than in the United States and produced a sizable community of the French
and Indian métis, who in 1869–70 unsuccessfully attempted to set up a separate state in the
Canadian prairies.
In both Mexico and Central America, racial admixture has gone much farther. In Mexico,
the mestizo population—of mixed Indian and white descent—accounts for some three-fifths of
the population, while pure-blooded Indians amount to less than one-fifth, and whites constitute
nearly all the rest (small fractions are Mexicans of African and Arab descent). European
immigration to Mexico and Central America since the original Spanish conquest has been
negligible. When Velasco made his tally of 5,000,000 Indians within his jurisdiction, there were
only 150,000 Spaniards in the New World.
The European attitudes toward the environment
When European colonizers entered North America, they regarded the continent as a virtual
wilderness, one waiting to be settled and developed economically. The indigenous agriculture in
what is now the United States and Canada seemed strange and rudimentary to them, and it had
made only a slight dent in the vast forests and grasslands. There were no herds or flocks of
domesticated grazing animals exploiting the natural pastures, and mineral deposits, water power,
and other resources were being ignored by the aborigines. The Europeans saw no reason why
they should not claim land they thought could be used to better advantage; and they proceeded to
buy out, exterminate, or push out the Indians—when they did not enslave them—and established
their supremacy over the land.
The dispossession of the Indians
The process of removing the Indians from their ancestral lands led to bitter disputes. The
British tried to end one such problem by setting up the Proclamation of 1763 line along the
Appalachian divide, allowing whites to take over what lay to the east but attempting to reserve
what lay to the west as Indian territory. After their independence from Britain, the Americans
continued to adopt this ideal of a two-nation state, but in practice the notion soon collapsed as
they pushed the Indian line westward past the Appalachians to the Mississippi River and into the
Missouri River valley and other western lands. Nearly all the Indians in the east were displaced
to the west and into special zones in Oklahoma, the Great Plains, and the intermontane basins.
Even there, their land and their way of life were not respected, as ranchers, railroaders, and
homesteaders opened the West to settlement.
The Indian “territories” soon were reduced to isolated “reservations.” As a result, most of
the Indian population in the United States is now found west of the Mississippi River, usually in
drier areas unsuited to productive agriculture. At times the U.S. government has encouraged
Indians to leave the reservations and mix with the general population in the large cities of the
Midwest and West, a process of acculturation that some—including many younger and
ethnically conscious Indians—would claim poses as many dangers to the individual and social
well-being of Indians as do the communal misfortunes already brought upon them.
Counteracting the forces of assimilation have been increasingly energetic programs to defend
and strengthen aboriginal identity.
In Canada the reservation system was adopted at a relatively early date; it protected First
Nation (Native American) settlements throughout the east, even in such agriculturally rich areas
as the Montreal plain or peninsular Ontario. As the Europeans moved west, care was taken to
retain Indians on at least part of their own lands, including such fertile areas as the valley of the
Red River of the North and the Fraser River delta. Intermarriage between whites and Indians was
much more common than in the United States and produced a sizable community of the French
and Indian métis, who in 1869–70 unsuccessfully attempted to set up a separate state in the
Canadian prairies.
In both Mexico and Central America, racial admixture has gone much farther. In Mexico,
the mestizo population—of mixed Indian and white descent—accounts for some three-fifths of
the population, while pure-blooded Indians amount to less than one-fifth, and whites constitute
nearly all the rest (small fractions are Mexicans of African and Arab descent). European
immigration to Mexico and Central America since the original Spanish conquest has been
negligible. When Velasco made his tally of 5,000,000 Indians within his jurisdiction, there were
only 150,000 Spaniards in the New World.
The European attitudes toward the environment
When European colonizers entered North America, they regarded the continent as a virtual
wilderness, one waiting to be settled and developed economically. The indigenous agriculture in
what is now the United States and Canada seemed strange and rudimentary to them, and it had
made only a slight dent in the vast forests and grasslands. There were no herds or flocks of
domesticated grazing animals exploiting the natural pastures, and mineral deposits, water power,
and other resources were being ignored by the aborigines. The Europeans saw no reason why
they should not claim land they thought could be used to better advantage; and they proceeded to
buy out, exterminate, or push out the Indians—when they did not enslave them—and established
their supremacy over the land.
The dispossession of the Indians
The process of removing the Indians from their ancestral lands led to bitter disputes. The
British tried to end one such problem by setting up the Proclamation of 1763 line along the
Appalachian divide, allowing whites to take over what lay to the east but attempting to reserve
what lay to the west as Indian territory. After their independence from Britain, the Americans
continued to adopt this ideal of a two-nation state, but in practice the notion soon collapsed as
they pushed the Indian line westward past the Appalachians to the Mississippi River and into the
Missouri River valley and other western lands. Nearly all the Indians in the east were displaced
to the west and into special zones in Oklahoma, the Great Plains, and the intermontane basins.
Even there, their land and their way of life were not respected, as ranchers, railroaders, and
homesteaders opened the West to settlement.
The Indian “territories” soon were reduced to isolated “reservations.” As a result, most of
the Indian population in the United States is now found west of the Mississippi River, usually in
drier areas unsuited to productive agriculture. At times the U.S. government has encouraged
Indians to leave the reservations and mix with the general population in the large cities of the
Midwest and West, a process of acculturation that some—including many younger and
ethnically conscious Indians—would claim poses as many dangers to the individual and social
well-being of Indians as do the communal misfortunes already brought upon them.
Counteracting the forces of assimilation have been increasingly energetic programs to defend
and strengthen aboriginal identity.
In Canada the reservation system was adopted at a relatively early date; it protected First
Nation (Native American) settlements throughout the east, even in such agriculturally rich areas
as the Montreal plain or peninsular Ontario. As the Europeans moved west, care was taken to
retain Indians on at least part of their own lands, including such fertile areas as the valley of the
Red River of the North and the Fraser River delta. Intermarriage between whites and Indians was
much more common than in the United States and produced a sizable community of the French
and Indian métis, who in 1869–70 unsuccessfully attempted to set up a separate state in the
Canadian prairies.
In both Mexico and Central America, racial admixture has gone much farther. In Mexico,
the mestizo population—of mixed Indian and white descent—accounts for some three-fifths of
the population, while pure-blooded Indians amount to less than one-fifth, and whites constitute
nearly all the rest (small fractions are Mexicans of African and Arab descent). European
immigration to Mexico and Central America since the original Spanish conquest has been
negligible. When Velasco made his tally of 5,000,000 Indians within his jurisdiction, there were
only 150,000 Spaniards in the New World.
The European attitudes toward the environment
When European colonizers entered North America, they regarded the continent as a virtual
wilderness, one waiting to be settled and developed economically. The indigenous agriculture in
what is now the United States and Canada seemed strange and rudimentary to them, and it had
made only a slight dent in the vast forests and grasslands. There were no herds or flocks of
domesticated grazing animals exploiting the natural pastures, and mineral deposits, water power,
and other resources were being ignored by the aborigines. The Europeans saw no reason why
they should not claim land they thought could be used to better advantage; and they proceeded to
buy out, exterminate, or push out the Indians—when they did not enslave them—and established
their supremacy over the land.
The dispossession of the Indians
The process of removing the Indians from their ancestral lands led to bitter disputes. The
British tried to end one such problem by setting up the Proclamation of 1763 line along the
Appalachian divide, allowing whites to take over what lay to the east but attempting to reserve
what lay to the west as Indian territory. After their independence from Britain, the Americans
continued to adopt this ideal of a two-nation state, but in practice the notion soon collapsed as
they pushed the Indian line westward past the Appalachians to the Mississippi River and into the
Missouri River valley and other western lands. Nearly all the Indians in the east were displaced
to the west and into special zones in Oklahoma, the Great Plains, and the intermontane basins.
Even there, their land and their way of life were not respected, as ranchers, railroaders, and
homesteaders opened the West to settlement.
The Indian “territories” soon were reduced to isolated “reservations.” As a result, most of
the Indian population in the United States is now found west of the Mississippi River, usually in
drier areas unsuited to productive agriculture. At times the U.S. government has encouraged
Indians to leave the reservations and mix with the general population in the large cities of the
Midwest and West, a process of acculturation that some—including many younger and
ethnically conscious Indians—would claim poses as many dangers to the individual and social
well-being of Indians as do the communal misfortunes already brought upon them.
Counteracting the forces of assimilation have been increasingly energetic programs to defend
and strengthen aboriginal identity.
In Canada the reservation system was adopted at a relatively early date; it protected First
Nation (Native American) settlements throughout the east, even in such agriculturally rich areas
as the Montreal plain or peninsular Ontario. As the Europeans moved west, care was taken to
retain Indians on at least part of their own lands, including such fertile areas as the valley of the
Red River of the North and the Fraser River delta. Intermarriage between whites and Indians was
much more common than in the United States and produced a sizable community of the French
and Indian métis, who in 1869–70 unsuccessfully attempted to set up a separate state in the
Canadian prairies.
In both Mexico and Central America, racial admixture has gone much farther. In Mexico,
the mestizo population—of mixed Indian and white descent—accounts for some three-fifths of
the population, while pure-blooded Indians amount to less than one-fifth, and whites constitute
nearly all the rest (small fractions are Mexicans of African and Arab descent). European
immigration to Mexico and Central America since the original Spanish conquest has been
negligible. When Velasco made his tally of 5,000,000 Indians within his jurisdiction, there were
only 150,000 Spaniards in the New World.
The European attitudes toward the environment
When European colonizers entered North America, they regarded the continent as a virtual
wilderness, one waiting to be settled and developed economically. The indigenous agriculture in
what is now the United States and Canada seemed strange and rudimentary to them, and it had
made only a slight dent in the vast forests and grasslands. There were no herds or flocks of
domesticated grazing animals exploiting the natural pastures, and mineral deposits, water power,
and other resources were being ignored by the aborigines. The Europeans saw no reason why
they should not claim land they thought could be used to better advantage; and they proceeded to
buy out, exterminate, or push out the Indians—when they did not enslave them—and established
their supremacy over the land.
The dispossession of the Indians
The process of removing the Indians from their ancestral lands led to bitter disputes. The
British tried to end one such problem by setting up the Proclamation of 1763 line along the
Appalachian divide, allowing whites to take over what lay to the east but attempting to reserve
what lay to the west as Indian territory. After their independence from Britain, the Americans
continued to adopt this ideal of a two-nation state, but in practice the notion soon collapsed as
they pushed the Indian line westward past the Appalachians to the Mississippi River and into the
Missouri River valley and other western lands. Nearly all the Indians in the east were displaced
to the west and into special zones in Oklahoma, the Great Plains, and the intermontane basins.
Even there, their land and their way of life were not respected, as ranchers, railroaders, and
homesteaders opened the West to settlement.
The Indian “territories” soon were reduced to isolated “reservations.” As a result, most of
the Indian population in the United States is now found west of the Mississippi River, usually in
drier areas unsuited to productive agriculture. At times the U.S. government has encouraged
Indians to leave the reservations and mix with the general population in the large cities of the
Midwest and West, a process of acculturation that some—including many younger and
ethnically conscious Indians—would claim poses as many dangers to the individual and social
well-being of Indians as do the communal misfortunes already brought upon them.
Counteracting the forces of assimilation have been increasingly energetic programs to defend
and strengthen aboriginal identity.
In Canada the reservation system was adopted at a relatively early date; it protected First
Nation (Native American) settlements throughout the east, even in such agriculturally rich areas
as the Montreal plain or peninsular Ontario. As the Europeans moved west, care was taken to
retain Indians on at least part of their own lands, including such fertile areas as the valley of the
Red River of the North and the Fraser River delta. Intermarriage between whites and Indians was
much more common than in the United States and produced a sizable community of the French
and Indian métis, who in 1869–70 unsuccessfully attempted to set up a separate state in the
Canadian prairies.
In both Mexico and Central America, racial admixture has gone much farther. In Mexico,
the mestizo population—of mixed Indian and white descent—accounts for some three-fifths of
the population, while pure-blooded Indians amount to less than one-fifth, and whites constitute
nearly all the rest (small fractions are Mexicans of African and Arab descent). European
immigration to Mexico and Central America since the original Spanish conquest has been
negligible. When Velasco made his tally of 5,000,000 Indians within his jurisdiction, there were
only 150,000 Spaniards in the New World.
The European attitudes toward the environment
When European colonizers entered North America, they regarded the continent as a virtual
wilderness, one waiting to be settled and developed economically. The indigenous agriculture in
what is now the United States and Canada seemed strange and rudimentary to them, and it had
made only a slight dent in the vast forests and grasslands. There were no herds or flocks of
domesticated grazing animals exploiting the natural pastures, and mineral deposits, water power,
and other resources were being ignored by the aborigines. The Europeans saw no reason why
they should not claim land they thought could be used to better advantage; and they proceeded to
buy out, exterminate, or push out the Indians—when they did not enslave them—and established
their supremacy over the land.
The dispossession of the Indians
The process of removing the Indians from their ancestral lands led to bitter disputes. The
British tried to end one such problem by setting up the Proclamation of 1763 line along the
Appalachian divide, allowing whites to take over what lay to the east but attempting to reserve
what lay to the west as Indian territory. After their independence from Britain, the Americans
continued to adopt this ideal of a two-nation state, but in practice the notion soon collapsed as
they pushed the Indian line westward past the Appalachians to the Mississippi River and into the
Missouri River valley and other western lands. Nearly all the Indians in the east were displaced
to the west and into special zones in Oklahoma, the Great Plains, and the intermontane basins.
Even there, their land and their way of life were not respected, as ranchers, railroaders, and
homesteaders opened the West to settlement.
The Indian “territories” soon were reduced to isolated “reservations.” As a result, most of
the Indian population in the United States is now found west of the Mississippi River, usually in
drier areas unsuited to productive agriculture. At times the U.S. government has encouraged
Indians to leave the reservations and mix with the general population in the large cities of the
Midwest and West, a process of acculturation that some—including many younger and
ethnically conscious Indians—would claim poses as many dangers to the individual and social
well-being of Indians as do the communal misfortunes already brought upon them.
Counteracting the forces of assimilation have been increasingly energetic programs to defend
and strengthen aboriginal identity.
In Canada the reservation system was adopted at a relatively early date; it protected First
Nation (Native American) settlements throughout the east, even in such agriculturally rich areas
as the Montreal plain or peninsular Ontario. As the Europeans moved west, care was taken to
retain Indians on at least part of their own lands, including such fertile areas as the valley of the
Red River of the North and the Fraser River delta. Intermarriage between whites and Indians was
much more common than in the United States and produced a sizable community of the French
and Indian métis, who in 1869–70 unsuccessfully attempted to set up a separate state in the
Canadian prairies.
In both Mexico and Central America, racial admixture has gone much farther. In Mexico,
the mestizo population—of mixed Indian and white descent—accounts for some three-fifths of
the population, while pure-blooded Indians amount to less than one-fifth, and whites constitute
nearly all the rest (small fractions are Mexicans of African and Arab descent). European
immigration to Mexico and Central America since the original Spanish conquest has been
negligible. When Velasco made his tally of 5,000,000 Indians within his jurisdiction, there were
only 150,000 Spaniards in the New World.
The European attitudes toward the environment
When European colonizers entered North America, they regarded the continent as a virtual
wilderness, one waiting to be settled and developed economically. The indigenous agriculture in
what is now the United States and Canada seemed strange and rudimentary to them, and it had
made only a slight dent in the vast forests and grasslands. There were no herds or flocks of
domesticated grazing animals exploiting the natural pastures, and mineral deposits, water power,
and other resources were being ignored by the aborigines. The Europeans saw no reason why
they should not claim land they thought could be used to better advantage; and they proceeded to
buy out, exterminate, or push out the Indians—when they did not enslave them—and established
their supremacy over the land.
The dispossession of the Indians
The process of removing the Indians from their ancestral lands led to bitter disputes. The
British tried to end one such problem by setting up the Proclamation of 1763 line along the
Appalachian divide, allowing whites to take over what lay to the east but attempting to reserve
what lay to the west as Indian territory. After their independence from Britain, the Americans
continued to adopt this ideal of a two-nation state, but in practice the notion soon collapsed as
they pushed the Indian line westward past the Appalachians to the Mississippi River and into the
Missouri River valley and other western lands. Nearly all the Indians in the east were displaced
to the west and into special zones in Oklahoma, the Great Plains, and the intermontane basins.
Even there, their land and their way of life were not respected, as ranchers, railroaders, and
homesteaders opened the West to settlement.
The Indian “territories” soon were reduced to isolated “reservations.” As a result, most of
the Indian population in the United States is now found west of the Mississippi River, usually in
drier areas unsuited to productive agriculture. At times the U.S. government has encouraged
Indians to leave the reservations and mix with the general population in the large cities of the
Midwest and West, a process of acculturation that some—including many younger and
ethnically conscious Indians—would claim poses as many dangers to the individual and social
well-being of Indians as do the communal misfortunes already brought upon them.
Counteracting the forces of assimilation have been increasingly energetic programs to defend
and strengthen aboriginal identity.
In Canada the reservation system was adopted at a relatively early date; it protected First
Nation (Native American) settlements throughout the east, even in such agriculturally rich areas
as the Montreal plain or peninsular Ontario. As the Europeans moved west, care was taken to
retain Indians on at least part of their own lands, including such fertile areas as the valley of the
Red River of the North and the Fraser River delta. Intermarriage between whites and Indians was
much more common than in the United States and produced a sizable community of the French
and Indian métis, who in 1869–70 unsuccessfully attempted to set up a separate state in the
Canadian prairies.
In both Mexico and Central America, racial admixture has gone much farther. In Mexico,
the mestizo population—of mixed Indian and white descent—accounts for some three-fifths of
the population, while pure-blooded Indians amount to less than one-fifth, and whites constitute
nearly all the rest (small fractions are Mexicans of African and Arab descent). European
immigration to Mexico and Central America since the original Spanish conquest has been
negligible. When Velasco made his tally of 5,000,000 Indians within his jurisdiction, there were
only 150,000 Spaniards in the New World.
The European attitudes toward the environment
When European colonizers entered North America, they regarded the continent as a virtual
wilderness, one waiting to be settled and developed economically. The indigenous agriculture in
what is now the United States and Canada seemed strange and rudimentary to them, and it had
made only a slight dent in the vast forests and grasslands. There were no herds or flocks of
domesticated grazing animals exploiting the natural pastures, and mineral deposits, water power,
and other resources were being ignored by the aborigines. The Europeans saw no reason why
they should not claim land they thought could be used to better advantage; and they proceeded to
buy out, exterminate, or push out the Indians—when they did not enslave them—and established
their supremacy over the land.
The dispossession of the Indians
The process of removing the Indians from their ancestral lands led to bitter disputes. The
British tried to end one such problem by setting up the Proclamation of 1763 line along the
Appalachian divide, allowing whites to take over what lay to the east but attempting to reserve
what lay to the west as Indian territory. After their independence from Britain, the Americans
continued to adopt this ideal of a two-nation state, but in practice the notion soon collapsed as
they pushed the Indian line westward past the Appalachians to the Mississippi River and into the
Missouri River valley and other western lands. Nearly all the Indians in the east were displaced
to the west and into special zones in Oklahoma, the Great Plains, and the intermontane basins.
Even there, their land and their way of life were not respected, as ranchers, railroaders, and
homesteaders opened the West to settlement.
The Indian “territories” soon were reduced to isolated “reservations.” As a result, most of
the Indian population in the United States is now found west of the Mississippi River, usually in
drier areas unsuited to productive agriculture. At times the U.S. government has encouraged
Indians to leave the reservations and mix with the general population in the large cities of the
Midwest and West, a process of acculturation that some—including many younger and
ethnically conscious Indians—would claim poses as many dangers to the individual and social
well-being of Indians as do the communal misfortunes already brought upon them.
Counteracting the forces of assimilation have been increasingly energetic programs to defend
and strengthen aboriginal identity.
In Canada the reservation system was adopted at a relatively early date; it protected First
Nation (Native American) settlements throughout the east, even in such agriculturally rich areas
as the Montreal plain or peninsular Ontario. As the Europeans moved west, care was taken to
retain Indians on at least part of their own lands, including such fertile areas as the valley of the
Red River of the North and the Fraser River delta. Intermarriage between whites and Indians was
much more common than in the United States and produced a sizable community of the French
and Indian métis, who in 1869–70 unsuccessfully attempted to set up a separate state in the
Canadian prairies.
In both Mexico and Central America, racial admixture has gone much farther. In Mexico,
the mestizo population—of mixed Indian and white descent—accounts for some three-fifths of
the population, while pure-blooded Indians amount to less than one-fifth, and whites constitute
nearly all the rest (small fractions are Mexicans of African and Arab descent). European
immigration to Mexico and Central America since the original Spanish conquest has been
negligible. When Velasco made his tally of 5,000,000 Indians within his jurisdiction, there were
only 150,000 Spaniards in the New World.
The European attitudes toward the environment
When European colonizers entered North America, they regarded the continent as a virtual
wilderness, one waiting to be settled and developed economically. The indigenous agriculture in
what is now the United States and Canada seemed strange and rudimentary to them, and it had
made only a slight dent in the vast forests and grasslands. There were no herds or flocks of
domesticated grazing animals exploiting the natural pastures, and mineral deposits, water power,
and other resources were being ignored by the aborigines. The Europeans saw no reason why
they should not claim land they thought could be used to better advantage; and they proceeded to
buy out, exterminate, or push out the Indians—when they did not enslave them—and established
their supremacy over the land.
The dispossession of the Indians
The process of removing the Indians from their ancestral lands led to bitter disputes. The
British tried to end one such problem by setting up the Proclamation of 1763 line along the
Appalachian divide, allowing whites to take over what lay to the east but attempting to reserve
what lay to the west as Indian territory. After their independence from Britain, the Americans
continued to adopt this ideal of a two-nation state, but in practice the notion soon collapsed as
they pushed the Indian line westward past the Appalachians to the Mississippi River and into the
Missouri River valley and other western lands. Nearly all the Indians in the east were displaced
to the west and into special zones in Oklahoma, the Great Plains, and the intermontane basins.
Even there, their land and their way of life were not respected, as ranchers, railroaders, and
homesteaders opened the West to settlement.
The Indian “territories” soon were reduced to isolated “reservations.” As a result, most of
the Indian population in the United States is now found west of the Mississippi River, usually in
drier areas unsuited to productive agriculture. At times the U.S. government has encouraged
Indians to leave the reservations and mix with the general population in the large cities of the
Midwest and West, a process of acculturation that some—including many younger and
ethnically conscious Indians—would claim poses as many dangers to the individual and social
well-being of Indians as do the communal misfortunes already brought upon them.
Counteracting the forces of assimilation have been increasingly energetic programs to defend
and strengthen aboriginal identity.
In Canada the reservation system was adopted at a relatively early date; it protected First
Nation (Native American) settlements throughout the east, even in such agriculturally rich areas
as the Montreal plain or peninsular Ontario. As the Europeans moved west, care was taken to
retain Indians on at least part of their own lands, including such fertile areas as the valley of the
Red River of the North and the Fraser River delta. Intermarriage between whites and Indians was
much more common than in the United States and produced a sizable community of the French
and Indian métis, who in 1869–70 unsuccessfully attempted to set up a separate state in the
Canadian prairies.
In both Mexico and Central America, racial admixture has gone much farther. In Mexico,
the mestizo population—of mixed Indian and white descent—accounts for some three-fifths of
the population, while pure-blooded Indians amount to less than one-fifth, and whites constitute
nearly all the rest (small fractions are Mexicans of African and Arab descent). European
immigration to Mexico and Central America since the original Spanish conquest has been
negligible. When Velasco made his tally of 5,000,000 Indians within his jurisdiction, there were
only 150,000 Spaniards in the New World.
The European attitudes toward the environment
When European colonizers entered North America, they regarded the continent as a virtual
wilderness, one waiting to be settled and developed economically. The indigenous agriculture in
what is now the United States and Canada seemed strange and rudimentary to them, and it had
made only a slight dent in the vast forests and grasslands. There were no herds or flocks of
domesticated grazing animals exploiting the natural pastures, and mineral deposits, water power,
and other resources were being ignored by the aborigines. The Europeans saw no reason why
they should not claim land they thought could be used to better advantage; and they proceeded to
buy out, exterminate, or push out the Indians—when they did not enslave them—and established
their supremacy over the land.
The dispossession of the Indians
The process of removing the Indians from their ancestral lands led to bitter disputes. The
British tried to end one such problem by setting up the Proclamation of 1763 line along the
Appalachian divide, allowing whites to take over what lay to the east but attempting to reserve
what lay to the west as Indian territory. After their independence from Britain, the Americans
continued to adopt this ideal of a two-nation state, but in practice the notion soon collapsed as
they pushed the Indian line westward past the Appalachians to the Mississippi River and into the
Missouri River valley and other western lands. Nearly all the Indians in the east were displaced
to the west and into special zones in Oklahoma, the Great Plains, and the intermontane basins.
Even there, their land and their way of life were not respected, as ranchers, railroaders, and
homesteaders opened the West to settlement.
The Indian “territories” soon were reduced to isolated “reservations.” As a result, most of
the Indian population in the United States is now found west of the Mississippi River, usually in
drier areas unsuited to productive agriculture. At times the U.S. government has encouraged
Indians to leave the reservations and mix with the general population in the large cities of the
Midwest and West, a process of acculturation that some—including many younger and
ethnically conscious Indians—would claim poses as many dangers to the individual and social
well-being of Indians as do the communal misfortunes already brought upon them.
Counteracting the forces of assimilation have been increasingly energetic programs to defend
and strengthen aboriginal identity.
In Canada the reservation system was adopted at a relatively early date; it protected First
Nation (Native American) settlements throughout the east, even in such agriculturally rich areas
as the Montreal plain or peninsular Ontario. As the Europeans moved west, care was taken to
retain Indians on at least part of their own lands, including such fertile areas as the valley of the
Red River of the North and the Fraser River delta. Intermarriage between whites and Indians was
much more common than in the United States and produced a sizable community of the French
and Indian métis, who in 1869–70 unsuccessfully attempted to set up a separate state in the
Canadian prairies.
In both Mexico and Central America, racial admixture has gone much farther. In Mexico,
the mestizo population—of mixed Indian and white descent—accounts for some three-fifths of
the population, while pure-blooded Indians amount to less than one-fifth, and whites constitute
nearly all the rest (small fractions are Mexicans of African and Arab descent). European
immigration to Mexico and Central America since the original Spanish conquest has been
negligible. When Velasco made his tally of 5,000,000 Indians within his jurisdiction, there were
only 150,000 Spaniards in the New World.
The European attitudes toward the environment
When European colonizers entered North America, they regarded the continent as a virtual
wilderness, one waiting to be settled and developed economically. The indigenous agriculture in
what is now the United States and Canada seemed strange and rudimentary to them, and it had
made only a slight dent in the vast forests and grasslands. There were no herds or flocks of
domesticated grazing animals exploiting the natural pastures, and mineral deposits, water power,
and other resources were being ignored by the aborigines. The Europeans saw no reason why
they should not claim land they thought could be used to better advantage; and they proceeded to
buy out, exterminate, or push out the Indians—when they did not enslave them—and established
their supremacy over the land.
The dispossession of the Indians
The process of removing the Indians from their ancestral lands led to bitter disputes. The
British tried to end one such problem by setting up the Proclamation of 1763 line along the
Appalachian divide, allowing whites to take over what lay to the east but attempting to reserve
what lay to the west as Indian territory. After their independence from Britain, the Americans
continued to adopt this ideal of a two-nation state, but in practice the notion soon collapsed as
they pushed the Indian line westward past the Appalachians to the Mississippi River and into the
Missouri River valley and other western lands. Nearly all the Indians in the east were displaced
to the west and into special zones in Oklahoma, the Great Plains, and the intermontane basins.
Even there, their land and their way of life were not respected, as ranchers, railroaders, and
homesteaders opened the West to settlement.
The Indian “territories” soon were reduced to isolated “reservations.” As a result, most of
the Indian population in the United States is now found west of the Mississippi River, usually in
drier areas unsuited to productive agriculture. At times the U.S. government has encouraged
Indians to leave the reservations and mix with the general population in the large cities of the
Midwest and West, a process of acculturation that some—including many younger and
ethnically conscious Indians—would claim poses as many dangers to the individual and social
well-being of Indians as do the communal misfortunes already brought upon them.
Counteracting the forces of assimilation have been increasingly energetic programs to defend
and strengthen aboriginal identity.
In Canada the reservation system was adopted at a relatively early date; it protected First
Nation (Native American) settlements throughout the east, even in such agriculturally rich areas
as the Montreal plain or peninsular Ontario. As the Europeans moved west, care was taken to
retain Indians on at least part of their own lands, including such fertile areas as the valley of the
Red River of the North and the Fraser River delta. Intermarriage between whites and Indians was
much more common than in the United States and produced a sizable community of the French
and Indian métis, who in 1869–70 unsuccessfully attempted to set up a separate state in the
Canadian prairies.
In both Mexico and Central America, racial admixture has gone much farther. In Mexico,
the mestizo population—of mixed Indian and white descent—accounts for some three-fifths of
the population, while pure-blooded Indians amount to less than one-fifth, and whites constitute
nearly all the rest (small fractions are Mexicans of African and Arab descent). European
immigration to Mexico and Central America since the original Spanish conquest has been
negligible. When Velasco made his tally of 5,000,000 Indians within his jurisdiction, there were
only 150,000 Spaniards in the New World.
The European attitudes toward the environment
When European colonizers entered North America, they regarded the continent as a virtual
wilderness, one waiting to be settled and developed economically. The indigenous agriculture in
what is now the United States and Canada seemed strange and rudimentary to them, and it had
made only a slight dent in the vast forests and grasslands. There were no herds or flocks of
domesticated grazing animals exploiting the natural pastures, and mineral deposits, water power,
and other resources were being ignored by the aborigines. The Europeans saw no reason why
they should not claim land they thought could be used to better advantage; and they proceeded to
buy out, exterminate, or push out the Indians—when they did not enslave them—and established
their supremacy over the land.
The dispossession of the Indians
The process of removing the Indians from their ancestral lands led to bitter disputes. The
British tried to end one such problem by setting up the Proclamation of 1763 line along the
Appalachian divide, allowing whites to take over what lay to the east but attempting to reserve
what lay to the west as Indian territory. After their independence from Britain, the Americans
continued to adopt this ideal of a two-nation state, but in practice the notion soon collapsed as
they pushed the Indian line westward past the Appalachians to the Mississippi River and into the
Missouri River valley and other western lands. Nearly all the Indians in the east were displaced
to the west and into special zones in Oklahoma, the Great Plains, and the intermontane basins.
Even there, their land and their way of life were not respected, as ranchers, railroaders, and
homesteaders opened the West to settlement.
The Indian “territories” soon were reduced to isolated “reservations.” As a result, most of
the Indian population in the United States is now found west of the Mississippi River, usually in
drier areas unsuited to productive agriculture. At times the U.S. government has encouraged
Indians to leave the reservations and mix with the general population in the large cities of the
Midwest and West, a process of acculturation that some—including many younger and
ethnically conscious Indians—would claim poses as many dangers to the individual and social
well-being of Indians as do the communal misfortunes already brought upon them.
Counteracting the forces of assimilation have been increasingly energetic programs to defend
and strengthen aboriginal identity.
In Canada the reservation system was adopted at a relatively early date; it protected First
Nation (Native American) settlements throughout the east, even in such agriculturally rich areas
as the Montreal plain or peninsular Ontario. As the Europeans moved west, care was taken to
retain Indians on at least part of their own lands, including such fertile areas as the valley of the
Red River of the North and the Fraser River delta. Intermarriage between whites and Indians was
much more common than in the United States and produced a sizable community of the French
and Indian métis, who in 1869–70 unsuccessfully attempted to set up a separate state in the
Canadian prairies.
In both Mexico and Central America, racial admixture has gone much farther. In Mexico,
the mestizo population—of mixed Indian and white descent—accounts for some three-fifths of
the population, while pure-blooded Indians amount to less than one-fifth, and whites constitute
nearly all the rest (small fractions are Mexicans of African and Arab descent). European
immigration to Mexico and Central America since the original Spanish conquest has been
negligible. When Velasco made his tally of 5,000,000 Indians within his jurisdiction, there were
only 150,000 Spaniards in the New World.
The European attitudes toward the environment
When European colonizers entered North America, they regarded the continent as a virtual
wilderness, one waiting to be settled and developed economically. The indigenous agriculture in
what is now the United States and Canada seemed strange and rudimentary to them, and it had
made only a slight dent in the vast forests and grasslands. There were no herds or flocks of
domesticated grazing animals exploiting the natural pastures, and mineral deposits, water power,
and other resources were being ignored by the aborigines. The Europeans saw no reason why
they should not claim land they thought could be used to better advantage; and they proceeded to
buy out, exterminate, or push out the Indians—when they did not enslave them—and established
their supremacy over the land.
The dispossession of the Indians
The process of removing the Indians from their ancestral lands led to bitter disputes. The
British tried to end one such problem by setting up the Proclamation of 1763 line along the
Appalachian divide, allowing whites to take over what lay to the east but attempting to reserve
what lay to the west as Indian territory. After their independence from Britain, the Americans
continued to adopt this ideal of a two-nation state, but in practice the notion soon collapsed as
they pushed the Indian line westward past the Appalachians to the Mississippi River and into the
Missouri River valley and other western lands. Nearly all the Indians in the east were displaced
to the west and into special zones in Oklahoma, the Great Plains, and the intermontane basins.
Even there, their land and their way of life were not respected, as ranchers, railroaders, and
homesteaders opened the West to settlement.
The Indian “territories” soon were reduced to isolated “reservations.” As a result, most of
the Indian population in the United States is now found west of the Mississippi River, usually in
drier areas unsuited to productive agriculture. At times the U.S. government has encouraged
Indians to leave the reservations and mix with the general population in the large cities of the
Midwest and West, a process of acculturation that some—including many younger and
ethnically conscious Indians—would claim poses as many dangers to the individual and social
well-being of Indians as do the communal misfortunes already brought upon them.
Counteracting the forces of assimilation have been increasingly energetic programs to defend
and strengthen aboriginal identity.
In Canada the reservation system was adopted at a relatively early date; it protected First
Nation (Native American) settlements throughout the east, even in such agriculturally rich areas
as the Montreal plain or peninsular Ontario. As the Europeans moved west, care was taken to
retain Indians on at least part of their own lands, including such fertile areas as the valley of the
Red River of the North and the Fraser River delta. Intermarriage between whites and Indians was
much more common than in the United States and produced a sizable community of the French
and Indian métis, who in 1869–70 unsuccessfully attempted to set up a separate state in the
Canadian prairies.
In both Mexico and Central America, racial admixture has gone much farther. In Mexico,
the mestizo population—of mixed Indian and white descent—accounts for some three-fifths of
the population, while pure-blooded Indians amount to less than one-fifth, and whites constitute
nearly all the rest (small fractions are Mexicans of African and Arab descent). European
immigration to Mexico and Central America since the original Spanish conquest has been
negligible. When Velasco made his tally of 5,000,000 Indians within his jurisdiction, there were
only 150,000 Spaniards in the New World.
The European attitudes toward the environment
When European colonizers entered North America, they regarded the continent as a virtual
wilderness, one waiting to be settled and developed economically. The indigenous agriculture in
what is now the United States and Canada seemed strange and rudimentary to them, and it had
made only a slight dent in the vast forests and grasslands. There were no herds or flocks of
domesticated grazing animals exploiting the natural pastures, and mineral deposits, water power,
and other resources were being ignored by the aborigines. The Europeans saw no reason why
they should not claim land they thought could be used to better advantage; and they proceeded to
buy out, exterminate, or push out the Indians—when they did not enslave them—and established
their supremacy over the land.
The dispossession of the Indians
The process of removing the Indians from their ancestral lands led to bitter disputes. The
British tried to end one such problem by setting up the Proclamation of 1763 line along the
Appalachian divide, allowing whites to take over what lay to the east but attempting to reserve
what lay to the west as Indian territory. After their independence from Britain, the Americans
continued to adopt this ideal of a two-nation state, but in practice the notion soon collapsed as
they pushed the Indian line westward past the Appalachians to the Mississippi River and into the
Missouri River valley and other western lands. Nearly all the Indians in the east were displaced
to the west and into special zones in Oklahoma, the Great Plains, and the intermontane basins.
Even there, their land and their way of life were not respected, as ranchers, railroaders, and
homesteaders opened the West to settlement.
The Indian “territories” soon were reduced to isolated “reservations.” As a result, most of
the Indian population in the United States is now found west of the Mississippi River, usually in
drier areas unsuited to productive agriculture. At times the U.S. government has encouraged
Indians to leave the reservations and mix with the general population in the large cities of the
Midwest and West, a process of acculturation that some—including many younger and
ethnically conscious Indians—would claim poses as many dangers to the individual and social
well-being of Indians as do the communal misfortunes already brought upon them.
Counteracting the forces of assimilation have been increasingly energetic programs to defend
and strengthen aboriginal identity.
In Canada the reservation system was adopted at a relatively early date; it protected First
Nation (Native American) settlements throughout the east, even in such agriculturally rich areas
as the Montreal plain or peninsular Ontario. As the Europeans moved west, care was taken to
retain Indians on at least part of their own lands, including such fertile areas as the valley of the
Red River of the North and the Fraser River delta. Intermarriage between whites and Indians was
much more common than in the United States and produced a sizable community of the French
and Indian métis, who in 1869–70 unsuccessfully attempted to set up a separate state in the
Canadian prairies.
In both Mexico and Central America, racial admixture has gone much farther. In Mexico,
the mestizo population—of mixed Indian and white descent—accounts for some three-fifths of
the population, while pure-blooded Indians amount to less than one-fifth, and whites constitute
nearly all the rest (small fractions are Mexicans of African and Arab descent). European
immigration to Mexico and Central America since the original Spanish conquest has been
negligible. When Velasco made his tally of 5,000,000 Indians within his jurisdiction, there were
only 150,000 Spaniards in the New World.
The European attitudes toward the environment
When European colonizers entered North America, they regarded the continent as a virtual
wilderness, one waiting to be settled and developed economically. The indigenous agriculture in
what is now the United States and Canada seemed strange and rudimentary to them, and it had
made only a slight dent in the vast forests and grasslands. There were no herds or flocks of
domesticated grazing animals exploiting the natural pastures, and mineral deposits, water power,
and other resources were being ignored by the aborigines. The Europeans saw no reason why
they should not claim land they thought could be used to better advantage; and they proceeded to
buy out, exterminate, or push out the Indians—when they did not enslave them—and established
their supremacy over the land.
The dispossession of the Indians
The process of removing the Indians from their ancestral lands led to bitter disputes. The
British tried to end one such problem by setting up the Proclamation of 1763 line along the
Appalachian divide, allowing whites to take over what lay to the east but attempting to reserve
what lay to the west as Indian territory. After their independence from Britain, the Americans
continued to adopt this ideal of a two-nation state, but in practice the notion soon collapsed as
they pushed the Indian line westward past the Appalachians to the Mississippi River and into the
Missouri River valley and other western lands. Nearly all the Indians in the east were displaced
to the west and into special zones in Oklahoma, the Great Plains, and the intermontane basins.
Even there, their land and their way of life were not respected, as ranchers, railroaders, and
homesteaders opened the West to settlement.
The Indian “territories” soon were reduced to isolated “reservations.” As a result, most of
the Indian population in the United States is now found west of the Mississippi River, usually in
drier areas unsuited to productive agriculture. At times the U.S. government has encouraged
Indians to leave the reservations and mix with the general population in the large cities of the
Midwest and West, a process of acculturation that some—including many younger and
ethnically conscious Indians—would claim poses as many dangers to the individual and social
well-being of Indians as do the communal misfortunes already brought upon them.
Counteracting the forces of assimilation have been increasingly energetic programs to defend
and strengthen aboriginal identity.
In Canada the reservation system was adopted at a relatively early date; it protected First
Nation (Native American) settlements throughout the east, even in such agriculturally rich areas
as the Montreal plain or peninsular Ontario. As the Europeans moved west, care was taken to
retain Indians on at least part of their own lands, including such fertile areas as the valley of the
Red River of the North and the Fraser River delta. Intermarriage between whites and Indians was
much more common than in the United States and produced a sizable community of the French
and Indian métis, who in 1869–70 unsuccessfully attempted to set up a separate state in the
Canadian prairies.
In both Mexico and Central America, racial admixture has gone much farther. In Mexico,
the mestizo population—of mixed Indian and white descent—accounts for some three-fifths of
the population, while pure-blooded Indians amount to less than one-fifth, and whites constitute
nearly all the rest (small fractions are Mexicans of African and Arab descent). European
immigration to Mexico and Central America since the original Spanish conquest has been
negligible. When Velasco made his tally of 5,000,000 Indians within his jurisdiction, there were
only 150,000 Spaniards in the New World.
The European attitudes toward the environment
When European colonizers entered North America, they regarded the continent as a virtual
wilderness, one waiting to be settled and developed economically. The indigenous agriculture in
what is now the United States and Canada seemed strange and rudimentary to them, and it had
made only a slight dent in the vast forests and grasslands. There were no herds or flocks of
domesticated grazing animals exploiting the natural pastures, and mineral deposits, water power,
and other resources were being ignored by the aborigines. The Europeans saw no reason why
they should not claim land they thought could be used to better advantage; and they proceeded to
buy out, exterminate, or push out the Indians—when they did not enslave them—and established
their supremacy over the land.
The dispossession of the Indians
The process of removing the Indians from their ancestral lands led to bitter disputes. The
British tried to end one such problem by setting up the Proclamation of 1763 line along the
Appalachian divide, allowing whites to take over what lay to the east but attempting to reserve
what lay to the west as Indian territory. After their independence from Britain, the Americans
continued to adopt this ideal of a two-nation state, but in practice the notion soon collapsed as
they pushed the Indian line westward past the Appalachians to the Mississippi River and into the
Missouri River valley and other western lands. Nearly all the Indians in the east were displaced
to the west and into special zones in Oklahoma, the Great Plains, and the intermontane basins.
Even there, their land and their way of life were not respected, as ranchers, railroaders, and
homesteaders opened the West to settlement.
The Indian “territories” soon were reduced to isolated “reservations.” As a result, most of
the Indian population in the United States is now found west of the Mississippi River, usually in
drier areas unsuited to productive agriculture. At times the U.S. government has encouraged
Indians to leave the reservations and mix with the general population in the large cities of the
Midwest and West, a process of acculturation that some—including many younger and
ethnically conscious Indians—would claim poses as many dangers to the individual and social
well-being of Indians as do the communal misfortunes already brought upon them.
Counteracting the forces of assimilation have been increasingly energetic programs to defend
and strengthen aboriginal identity.
In Canada the reservation system was adopted at a relatively early date; it protected First
Nation (Native American) settlements throughout the east, even in such agriculturally rich areas
as the Montreal plain or peninsular Ontario. As the Europeans moved west, care was taken to
retain Indians on at least part of their own lands, including such fertile areas as the valley of the
Red River of the North and the Fraser River delta. Intermarriage between whites and Indians was
much more common than in the United States and produced a sizable community of the French
and Indian métis, who in 1869–70 unsuccessfully attempted to set up a separate state in the
Canadian prairies.
In both Mexico and Central America, racial admixture has gone much farther. In Mexico,
the mestizo population—of mixed Indian and white descent—accounts for some three-fifths of
the population, while pure-blooded Indians amount to less than one-fifth, and whites constitute
nearly all the rest (small fractions are Mexicans of African and Arab descent). European
immigration to Mexico and Central America since the original Spanish conquest has been
negligible. When Velasco made his tally of 5,000,000 Indians within his jurisdiction, there were
only 150,000 Spaniards in the New World.
The European attitudes toward the environment
When European colonizers entered North America, they regarded the continent as a virtual
wilderness, one waiting to be settled and developed economically. The indigenous agriculture in
what is now the United States and Canada seemed strange and rudimentary to them, and it had
made only a slight dent in the vast forests and grasslands. There were no herds or flocks of
domesticated grazing animals exploiting the natural pastures, and mineral deposits, water power,
and other resources were being ignored by the aborigines. The Europeans saw no reason why
they should not claim land they thought could be used to better advantage; and they proceeded to
buy out, exterminate, or push out the Indians—when they did not enslave them—and established
their supremacy over the land.
The dispossession of the Indians
The process of removing the Indians from their ancestral lands led to bitter disputes. The
British tried to end one such problem by setting up the Proclamation of 1763 line along the
Appalachian divide, allowing whites to take over what lay to the east but attempting to reserve
what lay to the west as Indian territory. After their independence from Britain, the Americans
continued to adopt this ideal of a two-nation state, but in practice the notion soon collapsed as
they pushed the Indian line westward past the Appalachians to the Mississippi River and into the
Missouri River valley and other western lands. Nearly all the Indians in the east were displaced
to the west and into special zones in Oklahoma, the Great Plains, and the intermontane basins.
Even there, their land and their way of life were not respected, as ranchers, railroaders, and
homesteaders opened the West to settlement.
The Indian “territories” soon were reduced to isolated “reservations.” As a result, most of
the Indian population in the United States is now found west of the Mississippi River, usually in
drier areas unsuited to productive agriculture. At times the U.S. government has encouraged
Indians to leave the reservations and mix with the general population in the large cities of the
Midwest and West, a process of acculturation that some—including many younger and
ethnically conscious Indians—would claim poses as many dangers to the individual and social
well-being of Indians as do the communal misfortunes already brought upon them.
Counteracting the forces of assimilation have been increasingly energetic programs to defend
and strengthen aboriginal identity.
In Canada the reservation system was adopted at a relatively early date; it protected First
Nation (Native American) settlements throughout the east, even in such agriculturally rich areas
as the Montreal plain or peninsular Ontario. As the Europeans moved west, care was taken to
retain Indians on at least part of their own lands, including such fertile areas as the valley of the
Red River of the North and the Fraser River delta. Intermarriage between whites and Indians was
much more common than in the United States and produced a sizable community of the French
and Indian métis, who in 1869–70 unsuccessfully attempted to set up a separate state in the
Canadian prairies.
In both Mexico and Central America, racial admixture has gone much farther. In Mexico,
the mestizo population—of mixed Indian and white descent—accounts for some three-fifths of
the population, while pure-blooded Indians amount to less than one-fifth, and whites constitute
nearly all the rest (small fractions are Mexicans of African and Arab descent). European
immigration to Mexico and Central America since the original Spanish conquest has been
negligible. When Velasco made his tally of 5,000,000 Indians within his jurisdiction, there were
only 150,000 Spaniards in the New World.
The European attitudes toward the environment
When European colonizers entered North America, they regarded the continent as a virtual
wilderness, one waiting to be settled and developed economically. The indigenous agriculture in
what is now the United States and Canada seemed strange and rudimentary to them, and it had
made only a slight dent in the vast forests and grasslands. There were no herds or flocks of
domesticated grazing animals exploiting the natural pastures, and mineral deposits, water power,
and other resources were being ignored by the aborigines. The Europeans saw no reason why
they should not claim land they thought could be used to better advantage; and they proceeded to
buy out, exterminate, or push out the Indians—when they did not enslave them—and established
their supremacy over the land.
The dispossession of the Indians
The process of removing the Indians from their ancestral lands led to bitter disputes. The
British tried to end one such problem by setting up the Proclamation of 1763 line along the
Appalachian divide, allowing whites to take over what lay to the east but attempting to reserve
what lay to the west as Indian territory. After their independence from Britain, the Americans
continued to adopt this ideal of a two-nation state, but in practice the notion soon collapsed as
they pushed the Indian line westward past the Appalachians to the Mississippi River and into the
Missouri River valley and other western lands. Nearly all the Indians in the east were displaced
to the west and into special zones in Oklahoma, the Great Plains, and the intermontane basins.
Even there, their land and their way of life were not respected, as ranchers, railroaders, and
homesteaders opened the West to settlement.
The Indian “territories” soon were reduced to isolated “reservations.” As a result, most of
the Indian population in the United States is now found west of the Mississippi River, usually in
drier areas unsuited to productive agriculture. At times the U.S. government has encouraged
Indians to leave the reservations and mix with the general population in the large cities of the
Midwest and West, a process of acculturation that some—including many younger and
ethnically conscious Indians—would claim poses as many dangers to the individual and social
well-being of Indians as do the communal misfortunes already brought upon them.
Counteracting the forces of assimilation have been increasingly energetic programs to defend
and strengthen aboriginal identity.
In Canada the reservation system was adopted at a relatively early date; it protected First
Nation (Native American) settlements throughout the east, even in such agriculturally rich areas
as the Montreal plain or peninsular Ontario. As the Europeans moved west, care was taken to
retain Indians on at least part of their own lands, including such fertile areas as the valley of the
Red River of the North and the Fraser River delta. Intermarriage between whites and Indians was
much more common than in the United States and produced a sizable community of the French
and Indian métis, who in 1869–70 unsuccessfully attempted to set up a separate state in the
Canadian prairies.
In both Mexico and Central America, racial admixture has gone much farther. In Mexico,
the mestizo population—of mixed Indian and white descent—accounts for some three-fifths of
the population, while pure-blooded Indians amount to less than one-fifth, and whites constitute
nearly all the rest (small fractions are Mexicans of African and Arab descent). European
immigration to Mexico and Central America since the original Spanish conquest has been
negligible. When Velasco made his tally of 5,000,000 Indians within his jurisdiction, there were
only 150,000 Spaniards in the New World.
The European attitudes toward the environment
When European colonizers entered North America, they regarded the continent as a virtual
wilderness, one waiting to be settled and developed economically. The indigenous agriculture in
what is now the United States and Canada seemed strange and rudimentary to them, and it had
made only a slight dent in the vast forests and grasslands. There were no herds or flocks of
domesticated grazing animals exploiting the natural pastures, and mineral deposits, water power,
and other resources were being ignored by the aborigines. The Europeans saw no reason why
they should not claim land they thought could be used to better advantage; and they proceeded to
buy out, exterminate, or push out the Indians—when they did not enslave them—and established
their supremacy over the land.
The dispossession of the Indians
The process of removing the Indians from their ancestral lands led to bitter disputes. The
British tried to end one such problem by setting up the Proclamation of 1763 line along the
Appalachian divide, allowing whites to take over what lay to the east but attempting to reserve
what lay to the west as Indian territory. After their independence from Britain, the Americans
continued to adopt this ideal of a two-nation state, but in practice the notion soon collapsed as
they pushed the Indian line westward past the Appalachians to the Mississippi River and into the
Missouri River valley and other western lands. Nearly all the Indians in the east were displaced
to the west and into special zones in Oklahoma, the Great Plains, and the intermontane basins.
Even there, their land and their way of life were not respected, as ranchers, railroaders, and
homesteaders opened the West to settlement.
The Indian “territories” soon were reduced to isolated “reservations.” As a result, most of
the Indian population in the United States is now found west of the Mississippi River, usually in
drier areas unsuited to productive agriculture. At times the U.S. government has encouraged
Indians to leave the reservations and mix with the general population in the large cities of the
Midwest and West, a process of acculturation that some—including many younger and
ethnically conscious Indians—would claim poses as many dangers to the individual and social
well-being of Indians as do the communal misfortunes already brought upon them.
Counteracting the forces of assimilation have been increasingly energetic programs to defend
and strengthen aboriginal identity.
In Canada the reservation system was adopted at a relatively early date; it protected First
Nation (Native American) settlements throughout the east, even in such agriculturally rich areas
as the Montreal plain or peninsular Ontario. As the Europeans moved west, care was taken to
retain Indians on at least part of their own lands, including such fertile areas as the valley of the
Red River of the North and the Fraser River delta. Intermarriage between whites and Indians was
much more common than in the United States and produced a sizable community of the French
and Indian métis, who in 1869–70 unsuccessfully attempted to set up a separate state in the
Canadian prairies.
In both Mexico and Central America, racial admixture has gone much farther. In Mexico,
the mestizo population—of mixed Indian and white descent—accounts for some three-fifths of
the population, while pure-blooded Indians amount to less than one-fifth, and whites constitute
nearly all the rest (small fractions are Mexicans of African and Arab descent). European
immigration to Mexico and Central America since the original Spanish conquest has been
negligible. When Velasco made his tally of 5,000,000 Indians within his jurisdiction, there were
only 150,000 Spaniards in the New World.
The European attitudes toward the environment
When European colonizers entered North America, they regarded the continent as a virtual
wilderness, one waiting to be settled and developed economically. The indigenous agriculture in
what is now the United States and Canada seemed strange and rudimentary to them, and it had
made only a slight dent in the vast forests and grasslands. There were no herds or flocks of
domesticated grazing animals exploiting the natural pastures, and mineral deposits, water power,
and other resources were being ignored by the aborigines. The Europeans saw no reason why
they should not claim land they thought could be used to better advantage; and they proceeded to
buy out, exterminate, or push out the Indians—when they did not enslave them—and established
their supremacy over the land.
The dispossession of the Indians
The process of removing the Indians from their ancestral lands led to bitter disputes. The
British tried to end one such problem by setting up the Proclamation of 1763 line along the
Appalachian divide, allowing whites to take over what lay to the east but attempting to reserve
what lay to the west as Indian territory. After their independence from Britain, the Americans
continued to adopt this ideal of a two-nation state, but in practice the notion soon collapsed as
they pushed the Indian line westward past the Appalachians to the Mississippi River and into the
Missouri River valley and other western lands. Nearly all the Indians in the east were displaced
to the west and into special zones in Oklahoma, the Great Plains, and the intermontane basins.
Even there, their land and their way of life were not respected, as ranchers, railroaders, and
homesteaders opened the West to settlement.
The Indian “territories” soon were reduced to isolated “reservations.” As a result, most of
the Indian population in the United States is now found west of the Mississippi River, usually in
drier areas unsuited to productive agriculture. At times the U.S. government has encouraged
Indians to leave the reservations and mix with the general population in the large cities of the
Midwest and West, a process of acculturation that some—including many younger and
ethnically conscious Indians—would claim poses as many dangers to the individual and social
well-being of Indians as do the communal misfortunes already brought upon them.
Counteracting the forces of assimilation have been increasingly energetic programs to defend
and strengthen aboriginal identity.
In Canada the reservation system was adopted at a relatively early date; it protected First
Nation (Native American) settlements throughout the east, even in such agriculturally rich areas
as the Montreal plain or peninsular Ontario. As the Europeans moved west, care was taken to
retain Indians on at least part of their own lands, including such fertile areas as the valley of the
Red River of the North and the Fraser River delta. Intermarriage between whites and Indians was
much more common than in the United States and produced a sizable community of the French
and Indian métis, who in 1869–70 unsuccessfully attempted to set up a separate state in the
Canadian prairies.
In both Mexico and Central America, racial admixture has gone much farther. In Mexico,
the mestizo population—of mixed Indian and white descent—accounts for some three-fifths of
the population, while pure-blooded Indians amount to less than one-fifth, and whites constitute
nearly all the rest (small fractions are Mexicans of African and Arab descent). European
immigration to Mexico and Central America since the original Spanish conquest has been
negligible. When Velasco made his tally of 5,000,000 Indians within his jurisdiction, there were
only 150,000 Spaniards in the New World.
The European attitudes toward the environment
When European colonizers entered North America, they regarded the continent as a virtual
wilderness, one waiting to be settled and developed economically. The indigenous agriculture in
what is now the United States and Canada seemed strange and rudimentary to them, and it had
made only a slight dent in the vast forests and grasslands. There were no herds or flocks of
domesticated grazing animals exploiting the natural pastures, and mineral deposits, water power,
and other resources were being ignored by the aborigines. The Europeans saw no reason why
they should not claim land they thought could be used to better advantage; and they proceeded to
buy out, exterminate, or push out the Indians—when they did not enslave them—and established
their supremacy over the land.
The dispossession of the Indians
The process of removing the Indians from their ancestral lands led to bitter disputes. The
British tried to end one such problem by setting up the Proclamation of 1763 line along the
Appalachian divide, allowing whites to take over what lay to the east but attempting to reserve
what lay to the west as Indian territory. After their independence from Britain, the Americans
continued to adopt this ideal of a two-nation state, but in practice the notion soon collapsed as
they pushed the Indian line westward past the Appalachians to the Mississippi River and into the
Missouri River valley and other western lands. Nearly all the Indians in the east were displaced
to the west and into special zones in Oklahoma, the Great Plains, and the intermontane basins.
Even there, their land and their way of life were not respected, as ranchers, railroaders, and
homesteaders opened the West to settlement.
The Indian “territories” soon were reduced to isolated “reservations.” As a result, most of
the Indian population in the United States is now found west of the Mississippi River, usually in
drier areas unsuited to productive agriculture. At times the U.S. government has encouraged
Indians to leave the reservations and mix with the general population in the large cities of the
Midwest and West, a process of acculturation that some—including many younger and
ethnically conscious Indians—would claim poses as many dangers to the individual and social
well-being of Indians as do the communal misfortunes already brought upon them.
Counteracting the forces of assimilation have been increasingly energetic programs to defend
and strengthen aboriginal identity.
In Canada the reservation system was adopted at a relatively early date; it protected First
Nation (Native American) settlements throughout the east, even in such agriculturally rich areas
as the Montreal plain or peninsular Ontario. As the Europeans moved west, care was taken to
retain Indians on at least part of their own lands, including such fertile areas as the valley of the
Red River of the North and the Fraser River delta. Intermarriage between whites and Indians was
much more common than in the United States and produced a sizable community of the French
and Indian métis, who in 1869–70 unsuccessfully attempted to set up a separate state in the
Canadian prairies.
In both Mexico and Central America, racial admixture has gone much farther. In Mexico,
the mestizo population—of mixed Indian and white descent—accounts for some three-fifths of
the population, while pure-blooded Indians amount to less than one-fifth, and whites constitute
nearly all the rest (small fractions are Mexicans of African and Arab descent). European
immigration to Mexico and Central America since the original Spanish conquest has been
negligible. When Velasco made his tally of 5,000,000 Indians within his jurisdiction, there were
only 150,000 Spaniards in the New World.
The European attitudes toward the environment
When European colonizers entered North America, they regarded the continent as a virtual
wilderness, one waiting to be settled and developed economically. The indigenous agriculture in
what is now the United States and Canada seemed strange and rudimentary to them, and it had
made only a slight dent in the vast forests and grasslands. There were no herds or flocks of
domesticated grazing animals exploiting the natural pastures, and mineral deposits, water power,
and other resources were being ignored by the aborigines. The Europeans saw no reason why
they should not claim land they thought could be used to better advantage; and they proceeded to
buy out, exterminate, or push out the Indians—when they did not enslave them—and established
their supremacy over the land.
The dispossession of the Indians
The process of removing the Indians from their ancestral lands led to bitter disputes. The
British tried to end one such problem by setting up the Proclamation of 1763 line along the
Appalachian divide, allowing whites to take over what lay to the east but attempting to reserve
what lay to the west as Indian territory. After their independence from Britain, the Americans
continued to adopt this ideal of a two-nation state, but in practice the notion soon collapsed as
they pushed the Indian line westward past the Appalachians to the Mississippi River and into the
Missouri River valley and other western lands. Nearly all the Indians in the east were displaced
to the west and into special zones in Oklahoma, the Great Plains, and the intermontane basins.
Even there, their land and their way of life were not respected, as ranchers, railroaders, and
homesteaders opened the West to settlement.
The Indian “territories” soon were reduced to isolated “reservations.” As a result, most of
the Indian population in the United States is now found west of the Mississippi River, usually in
drier areas unsuited to productive agriculture. At times the U.S. government has encouraged
Indians to leave the reservations and mix with the general population in the large cities of the
Midwest and West, a process of acculturation that some—including many younger and
ethnically conscious Indians—would claim poses as many dangers to the individual and social
well-being of Indians as do the communal misfortunes already brought upon them.
Counteracting the forces of assimilation have been increasingly energetic programs to defend
and strengthen aboriginal identity.
In Canada the reservation system was adopted at a relatively early date; it protected First
Nation (Native American) settlements throughout the east, even in such agriculturally rich areas
as the Montreal plain or peninsular Ontario. As the Europeans moved west, care was taken to
retain Indians on at least part of their own lands, including such fertile areas as the valley of the
Red River of the North and the Fraser River delta. Intermarriage between whites and Indians was
much more common than in the United States and produced a sizable community of the French
and Indian métis, who in 1869–70 unsuccessfully attempted to set up a separate state in the
Canadian prairies.
In both Mexico and Central America, racial admixture has gone much farther. In Mexico,
the mestizo population—of mixed Indian and white descent—accounts for some three-fifths of
the population, while pure-blooded Indians amount to less than one-fifth, and whites constitute
nearly all the rest (small fractions are Mexicans of African and Arab descent). European
immigration to Mexico and Central America since the original Spanish conquest has been
negligible. When Velasco made his tally of 5,000,000 Indians within his jurisdiction, there were
only 150,000 Spaniards in the New World.
The European attitudes toward the environment
When European colonizers entered North America, they regarded the continent as a virtual
wilderness, one waiting to be settled and developed economically. The indigenous agriculture in
what is now the United States and Canada seemed strange and rudimentary to them, and it had
made only a slight dent in the vast forests and grasslands. There were no herds or flocks of
domesticated grazing animals exploiting the natural pastures, and mineral deposits, water power,
and other resources were being ignored by the aborigines. The Europeans saw no reason why
they should not claim land they thought could be used to better advantage; and they proceeded to
buy out, exterminate, or push out the Indians—when they did not enslave them—and established
their supremacy over the land.
The dispossession of the Indians
The process of removing the Indians from their ancestral lands led to bitter disputes. The
British tried to end one such problem by setting up the Proclamation of 1763 line along the
Appalachian divide, allowing whites to take over what lay to the east but attempting to reserve
what lay to the west as Indian territory. After their independence from Britain, the Americans
continued to adopt this ideal of a two-nation state, but in practice the notion soon collapsed as
they pushed the Indian line westward past the Appalachians to the Mississippi River and into the
Missouri River valley and other western lands. Nearly all the Indians in the east were displaced
to the west and into special zones in Oklahoma, the Great Plains, and the intermontane basins.
Even there, their land and their way of life were not respected, as ranchers, railroaders, and
homesteaders opened the West to settlement.
The Indian “territories” soon were reduced to isolated “reservations.” As a result, most of
the Indian population in the United States is now found west of the Mississippi River, usually in
drier areas unsuited to productive agriculture. At times the U.S. government has encouraged
Indians to leave the reservations and mix with the general population in the large cities of the
Midwest and West, a process of acculturation that some—including many younger and
ethnically conscious Indians—would claim poses as many dangers to the individual and social
well-being of Indians as do the communal misfortunes already brought upon them.
Counteracting the forces of assimilation have been increasingly energetic programs to defend
and strengthen aboriginal identity.
In Canada the reservation system was adopted at a relatively early date; it protected First
Nation (Native American) settlements throughout the east, even in such agriculturally rich areas
as the Montreal plain or peninsular Ontario. As the Europeans moved west, care was taken to
retain Indians on at least part of their own lands, including such fertile areas as the valley of the
Red River of the North and the Fraser River delta. Intermarriage between whites and Indians was
much more common than in the United States and produced a sizable community of the French
and Indian métis, who in 1869–70 unsuccessfully attempted to set up a separate state in the
Canadian prairies.
In both Mexico and Central America, racial admixture has gone much farther. In Mexico,
the mestizo population—of mixed Indian and white descent—accounts for some three-fifths of
the population, while pure-blooded Indians amount to less than one-fifth, and whites constitute
nearly all the rest (small fractions are Mexicans of African and Arab descent). European
immigration to Mexico and Central America since the original Spanish conquest has been
negligible. When Velasco made his tally of 5,000,000 Indians within his jurisdiction, there were
only 150,000 Spaniards in the New World.
The European attitudes toward the environment
When European colonizers entered North America, they regarded the continent as a virtual
wilderness, one waiting to be settled and developed economically. The indigenous agriculture in
what is now the United States and Canada seemed strange and rudimentary to them, and it had
made only a slight dent in the vast forests and grasslands. There were no herds or flocks of
domesticated grazing animals exploiting the natural pastures, and mineral deposits, water power,
and other resources were being ignored by the aborigines. The Europeans saw no reason why
they should not claim land they thought could be used to better advantage; and they proceeded to
buy out, exterminate, or push out the Indians—when they did not enslave them—and established
their supremacy over the land.
The dispossession of the Indians
The process of removing the Indians from their ancestral lands led to bitter disputes. The
British tried to end one such problem by setting up the Proclamation of 1763 line along the
Appalachian divide, allowing whites to take over what lay to the east but attempting to reserve
what lay to the west as Indian territory. After their independence from Britain, the Americans
continued to adopt this ideal of a two-nation state, but in practice the notion soon collapsed as
they pushed the Indian line westward past the Appalachians to the Mississippi River and into the
Missouri River valley and other western lands. Nearly all the Indians in the east were displaced
to the west and into special zones in Oklahoma, the Great Plains, and the intermontane basins.
Even there, their land and their way of life were not respected, as ranchers, railroaders, and
homesteaders opened the West to settlement.
The Indian “territories” soon were reduced to isolated “reservations.” As a result, most of
the Indian population in the United States is now found west of the Mississippi River, usually in
drier areas unsuited to productive agriculture. At times the U.S. government has encouraged
Indians to leave the reservations and mix with the general population in the large cities of the
Midwest and West, a process of acculturation that some—including many younger and
ethnically conscious Indians—would claim poses as many dangers to the individual and social
well-being of Indians as do the communal misfortunes already brought upon them.
Counteracting the forces of assimilation have been increasingly energetic programs to defend
and strengthen aboriginal identity.
In Canada the reservation system was adopted at a relatively early date; it protected First
Nation (Native American) settlements throughout the east, even in such agriculturally rich areas
as the Montreal plain or peninsular Ontario. As the Europeans moved west, care was taken to
retain Indians on at least part of their own lands, including such fertile areas as the valley of the
Red River of the North and the Fraser River delta. Intermarriage between whites and Indians was
much more common than in the United States and produced a sizable community of the French
and Indian métis, who in 1869–70 unsuccessfully attempted to set up a separate state in the
Canadian prairies.
In both Mexico and Central America, racial admixture has gone much farther. In Mexico,
the mestizo population—of mixed Indian and white descent—accounts for some three-fifths of
the population, while pure-blooded Indians amount to less than one-fifth, and whites constitute
nearly all the rest (small fractions are Mexicans of African and Arab descent). European
immigration to Mexico and Central America since the original Spanish conquest has been
negligible. When Velasco made his tally of 5,000,000 Indians within his jurisdiction, there were
only 150,000 Spaniards in the New World.
The European attitudes toward the environment
When European colonizers entered North America, they regarded the continent as a virtual
wilderness, one waiting to be settled and developed economically. The indigenous agriculture in
what is now the United States and Canada seemed strange and rudimentary to them, and it had
made only a slight dent in the vast forests and grasslands. There were no herds or flocks of
domesticated grazing animals exploiting the natural pastures, and mineral deposits, water power,
and other resources were being ignored by the aborigines. The Europeans saw no reason why
they should not claim land they thought could be used to better advantage; and they proceeded to
buy out, exterminate, or push out the Indians—when they did not enslave them—and established
their supremacy over the land.
The dispossession of the Indians
The process of removing the Indians from their ancestral lands led to bitter disputes. The
British tried to end one such problem by setting up the Proclamation of 1763 line along the
Appalachian divide, allowing whites to take over what lay to the east but attempting to reserve
what lay to the west as Indian territory. After their independence from Britain, the Americans
continued to adopt this ideal of a two-nation state, but in practice the notion soon collapsed as
they pushed the Indian line westward past the Appalachians to the Mississippi River and into the
Missouri River valley and other western lands. Nearly all the Indians in the east were displaced
to the west and into special zones in Oklahoma, the Great Plains, and the intermontane basins.
Even there, their land and their way of life were not respected, as ranchers, railroaders, and
homesteaders opened the West to settlement.
The Indian “territories” soon were reduced to isolated “reservations.” As a result, most of
the Indian population in the United States is now found west of the Mississippi River, usually in
drier areas unsuited to productive agriculture. At times the U.S. government has encouraged
Indians to leave the reservations and mix with the general population in the large cities of the
Midwest and West, a process of acculturation that some—including many younger and
ethnically conscious Indians—would claim poses as many dangers to the individual and social
well-being of Indians as do the communal misfortunes already brought upon them.
Counteracting the forces of assimilation have been increasingly energetic programs to defend
and strengthen aboriginal identity.
In Canada the reservation system was adopted at a relatively early date; it protected First
Nation (Native American) settlements throughout the east, even in such agriculturally rich areas
as the Montreal plain or peninsular Ontario. As the Europeans moved west, care was taken to
retain Indians on at least part of their own lands, including such fertile areas as the valley of the
Red River of the North and the Fraser River delta. Intermarriage between whites and Indians was
much more common than in the United States and produced a sizable community of the French
and Indian métis, who in 1869–70 unsuccessfully attempted to set up a separate state in the
Canadian prairies.
In both Mexico and Central America, racial admixture has gone much farther. In Mexico,
the mestizo population—of mixed Indian and white descent—accounts for some three-fifths of
the population, while pure-blooded Indians amount to less than one-fifth, and whites constitute
nearly all the rest (small fractions are Mexicans of African and Arab descent). European
immigration to Mexico and Central America since the original Spanish conquest has been
negligible. When Velasco made his tally of 5,000,000 Indians within his jurisdiction, there were
only 150,000 Spaniards in the New World.
The European attitudes toward the environment
When European colonizers entered North America, they regarded the continent as a virtual
wilderness, one waiting to be settled and developed economically. The indigenous agriculture in
what is now the United States and Canada seemed strange and rudimentary to them, and it had
made only a slight dent in the vast forests and grasslands. There were no herds or flocks of
domesticated grazing animals exploiting the natural pastures, and mineral deposits, water power,
and other resources were being ignored by the aborigines. The Europeans saw no reason why
they should not claim land they thought could be used to better advantage; and they proceeded to
buy out, exterminate, or push out the Indians—when they did not enslave them—and established
their supremacy over the land.
The dispossession of the Indians
The process of removing the Indians from their ancestral lands led to bitter disputes. The
British tried to end one such problem by setting up the Proclamation of 1763 line along the
Appalachian divide, allowing whites to take over what lay to the east but attempting to reserve
what lay to the west as Indian territory. After their independence from Britain, the Americans
continued to adopt this ideal of a two-nation state, but in practice the notion soon collapsed as
they pushed the Indian line westward past the Appalachians to the Mississippi River and into the
Missouri River valley and other western lands. Nearly all the Indians in the east were displaced
to the west and into special zones in Oklahoma, the Great Plains, and the intermontane basins.
Even there, their land and their way of life were not respected, as ranchers, railroaders, and
homesteaders opened the West to settlement.
The Indian “territories” soon were reduced to isolated “reservations.” As a result, most of
the Indian population in the United States is now found west of the Mississippi River, usually in
drier areas unsuited to productive agriculture. At times the U.S. government has encouraged
Indians to leave the reservations and mix with the general population in the large cities of the
Midwest and West, a process of acculturation that some—including many younger and
ethnically conscious Indians—would claim poses as many dangers to the individual and social
well-being of Indians as do the communal misfortunes already brought upon them.
Counteracting the forces of assimilation have been increasingly energetic programs to defend
and strengthen aboriginal identity.
In Canada the reservation system was adopted at a relatively early date; it protected First
Nation (Native American) settlements throughout the east, even in such agriculturally rich areas
as the Montreal plain or peninsular Ontario. As the Europeans moved west, care was taken to
retain Indians on at least part of their own lands, including such fertile areas as the valley of the
Red River of the North and the Fraser River delta. Intermarriage between whites and Indians was
much more common than in the United States and produced a sizable community of the French
and Indian métis, who in 1869–70 unsuccessfully attempted to set up a separate state in the
Canadian prairies.
In both Mexico and Central America, racial admixture has gone much farther. In Mexico,
the mestizo population—of mixed Indian and white descent—accounts for some three-fifths of
the population, while pure-blooded Indians amount to less than one-fifth, and whites constitute
nearly all the rest (small fractions are Mexicans of African and Arab descent). European
immigration to Mexico and Central America since the original Spanish conquest has been
negligible. When Velasco made his tally of 5,000,000 Indians within his jurisdiction, there were
only 150,000 Spaniards in the New World.
The European attitudes toward the environment
When European colonizers entered North America, they regarded the continent as a virtual
wilderness, one waiting to be settled and developed economically. The indigenous agriculture in
what is now the United States and Canada seemed strange and rudimentary to them, and it had
made only a slight dent in the vast forests and grasslands. There were no herds or flocks of
domesticated grazing animals exploiting the natural pastures, and mineral deposits, water power,
and other resources were being ignored by the aborigines. The Europeans saw no reason why
they should not claim land they thought could be used to better advantage; and they proceeded to
buy out, exterminate, or push out the Indians—when they did not enslave them—and established
their supremacy over the land.
The dispossession of the Indians
The process of removing the Indians from their ancestral lands led to bitter disputes. The
British tried to end one such problem by setting up the Proclamation of 1763 line along the
Appalachian divide, allowing whites to take over what lay to the east but attempting to reserve
what lay to the west as Indian territory. After their independence from Britain, the Americans
continued to adopt this ideal of a two-nation state, but in practice the notion soon collapsed as
they pushed the Indian line westward past the Appalachians to the Mississippi River and into the
Missouri River valley and other western lands. Nearly all the Indians in the east were displaced
to the west and into special zones in Oklahoma, the Great Plains, and the intermontane basins.
Even there, their land and their way of life were not respected, as ranchers, railroaders, and
homesteaders opened the West to settlement.
The Indian “territories” soon were reduced to isolated “reservations.” As a result, most of
the Indian population in the United States is now found west of the Mississippi River, usually in
drier areas unsuited to productive agriculture. At times the U.S. government has encouraged
Indians to leave the reservations and mix with the general population in the large cities of the
Midwest and West, a process of acculturation that some—including many younger and
ethnically conscious Indians—would claim poses as many dangers to the individual and social
well-being of Indians as do the communal misfortunes already brought upon them.
Counteracting the forces of assimilation have been increasingly energetic programs to defend
and strengthen aboriginal identity.
In Canada the reservation system was adopted at a relatively early date; it protected First
Nation (Native American) settlements throughout the east, even in such agriculturally rich areas
as the Montreal plain or peninsular Ontario. As the Europeans moved west, care was taken to
retain Indians on at least part of their own lands, including such fertile areas as the valley of the
Red River of the North and the Fraser River delta. Intermarriage between whites and Indians was
much more common than in the United States and produced a sizable community of the French
and Indian métis, who in 1869–70 unsuccessfully attempted to set up a separate state in the
Canadian prairies.
In both Mexico and Central America, racial admixture has gone much farther. In Mexico,
the mestizo population—of mixed Indian and white descent—accounts for some three-fifths of
the population, while pure-blooded Indians amount to less than one-fifth, and whites constitute
nearly all the rest (small fractions are Mexicans of African and Arab descent). European
immigration to Mexico and Central America since the original Spanish conquest has been
negligible. When Velasco made his tally of 5,000,000 Indians within his jurisdiction, there were
only 150,000 Spaniards in the New World.
The European attitudes toward the environment
When European colonizers entered North America, they regarded the continent as a virtual
wilderness, one waiting to be settled and developed economically. The indigenous agriculture in
what is now the United States and Canada seemed strange and rudimentary to them, and it had
made only a slight dent in the vast forests and grasslands. There were no herds or flocks of
domesticated grazing animals exploiting the natural pastures, and mineral deposits, water power,
and other resources were being ignored by the aborigines. The Europeans saw no reason why
they should not claim land they thought could be used to better advantage; and they proceeded to
buy out, exterminate, or push out the Indians—when they did not enslave them—and established
their supremacy over the land.
The dispossession of the Indians
The process of removing the Indians from their ancestral lands led to bitter disputes. The
British tried to end one such problem by setting up the Proclamation of 1763 line along the
Appalachian divide, allowing whites to take over what lay to the east but attempting to reserve
what lay to the west as Indian territory. After their independence from Britain, the Americans
continued to adopt this ideal of a two-nation state, but in practice the notion soon collapsed as
they pushed the Indian line westward past the Appalachians to the Mississippi River and into the
Missouri River valley and other western lands. Nearly all the Indians in the east were displaced
to the west and into special zones in Oklahoma, the Great Plains, and the intermontane basins.
Even there, their land and their way of life were not respected, as ranchers, railroaders, and
homesteaders opened the West to settlement.
The Indian “territories” soon were reduced to isolated “reservations.” As a result, most of
the Indian population in the United States is now found west of the Mississippi River, usually in
drier areas unsuited to productive agriculture. At times the U.S. government has encouraged
Indians to leave the reservations and mix with the general population in the large cities of the
Midwest and West, a process of acculturation that some—including many younger and
ethnically conscious Indians—would claim poses as many dangers to the individual and social
well-being of Indians as do the communal misfortunes already brought upon them.
Counteracting the forces of assimilation have been increasingly energetic programs to defend
and strengthen aboriginal identity.
In Canada the reservation system was adopted at a relatively early date; it protected First
Nation (Native American) settlements throughout the east, even in such agriculturally rich areas
as the Montreal plain or peninsular Ontario. As the Europeans moved west, care was taken to
retain Indians on at least part of their own lands, including such fertile areas as the valley of the
Red River of the North and the Fraser River delta. Intermarriage between whites and Indians was
much more common than in the United States and produced a sizable community of the French
and Indian métis, who in 1869–70 unsuccessfully attempted to set up a separate state in the
Canadian prairies.
In both Mexico and Central America, racial admixture has gone much farther. In Mexico,
the mestizo population—of mixed Indian and white descent—accounts for some three-fifths of
the population, while pure-blooded Indians amount to less than one-fifth, and whites constitute
nearly all the rest (small fractions are Mexicans of African and Arab descent). European
immigration to Mexico and Central America since the original Spanish conquest has been
negligible. When Velasco made his tally of 5,000,000 Indians within his jurisdiction, there were
only 150,000 Spaniards in the New World.
The European attitudes toward the environment
When European colonizers entered North America, they regarded the continent as a virtual
wilderness, one waiting to be settled and developed economically. The indigenous agriculture in
what is now the United States and Canada seemed strange and rudimentary to them, and it had
made only a slight dent in the vast forests and grasslands. There were no herds or flocks of
domesticated grazing animals exploiting the natural pastures, and mineral deposits, water power,
and other resources were being ignored by the aborigines. The Europeans saw no reason why
they should not claim land they thought could be used to better advantage; and they proceeded to
buy out, exterminate, or push out the Indians—when they did not enslave them—and established
their supremacy over the land.
The dispossession of the Indians
The process of removing the Indians from their ancestral lands led to bitter disputes. The
British tried to end one such problem by setting up the Proclamation of 1763 line along the
Appalachian divide, allowing whites to take over what lay to the east but attempting to reserve
what lay to the west as Indian territory. After their independence from Britain, the Americans
continued to adopt this ideal of a two-nation state, but in practice the notion soon collapsed as
they pushed the Indian line westward past the Appalachians to the Mississippi River and into the
Missouri River valley and other western lands. Nearly all the Indians in the east were displaced
to the west and into special zones in Oklahoma, the Great Plains, and the intermontane basins.
Even there, their land and their way of life were not respected, as ranchers, railroaders, and
homesteaders opened the West to settlement.
The Indian “territories” soon were reduced to isolated “reservations.” As a result, most of
the Indian population in the United States is now found west of the Mississippi River, usually in
drier areas unsuited to productive agriculture. At times the U.S. government has encouraged
Indians to leave the reservations and mix with the general population in the large cities of the
Midwest and West, a process of acculturation that some—including many younger and
ethnically conscious Indians—would claim poses as many dangers to the individual and social
well-being of Indians as do the communal misfortunes already brought upon them.
Counteracting the forces of assimilation have been increasingly energetic programs to defend
and strengthen aboriginal identity.
In Canada the reservation system was adopted at a relatively early date; it protected First
Nation (Native American) settlements throughout the east, even in such agriculturally rich areas
as the Montreal plain or peninsular Ontario. As the Europeans moved west, care was taken to
retain Indians on at least part of their own lands, including such fertile areas as the valley of the
Red River of the North and the Fraser River delta. Intermarriage between whites and Indians was
much more common than in the United States and produced a sizable community of the French
and Indian métis, who in 1869–70 unsuccessfully attempted to set up a separate state in the
Canadian prairies.
In both Mexico and Central America, racial admixture has gone much farther. In Mexico,
the mestizo population—of mixed Indian and white descent—accounts for some three-fifths of
the population, while pure-blooded Indians amount to less than one-fifth, and whites constitute
nearly all the rest (small fractions are Mexicans of African and Arab descent). European
immigration to Mexico and Central America since the original Spanish conquest has been
negligible. When Velasco made his tally of 5,000,000 Indians within his jurisdiction, there were
only 150,000 Spaniards in the New World.
The European attitudes toward the environment
When European colonizers entered North America, they regarded the continent as a virtual
wilderness, one waiting to be settled and developed economically. The indigenous agriculture in
what is now the United States and Canada seemed strange and rudimentary to them, and it had
made only a slight dent in the vast forests and grasslands. There were no herds or flocks of
domesticated grazing animals exploiting the natural pastures, and mineral deposits, water power,
and other resources were being ignored by the aborigines. The Europeans saw no reason why
they should not claim land they thought could be used to better advantage; and they proceeded to
buy out, exterminate, or push out the Indians—when they did not enslave them—and established
their supremacy over the land.
The dispossession of the Indians
The process of removing the Indians from their ancestral lands led to bitter disputes. The
British tried to end one such problem by setting up the Proclamation of 1763 line along the
Appalachian divide, allowing whites to take over what lay to the east but attempting to reserve
what lay to the west as Indian territory. After their independence from Britain, the Americans
continued to adopt this ideal of a two-nation state, but in practice the notion soon collapsed as
they pushed the Indian line westward past the Appalachians to the Mississippi River and into the
Missouri River valley and other western lands. Nearly all the Indians in the east were displaced
to the west and into special zones in Oklahoma, the Great Plains, and the intermontane basins.
Even there, their land and their way of life were not respected, as ranchers, railroaders, and
homesteaders opened the West to settlement.
The Indian “territories” soon were reduced to isolated “reservations.” As a result, most of
the Indian population in the United States is now found west of the Mississippi River, usually in
drier areas unsuited to productive agriculture. At times the U.S. government has encouraged
Indians to leave the reservations and mix with the general population in the large cities of the
Midwest and West, a process of acculturation that some—including many younger and
ethnically conscious Indians—would claim poses as many dangers to the individual and social
well-being of Indians as do the communal misfortunes already brought upon them.
Counteracting the forces of assimilation have been increasingly energetic programs to defend
and strengthen aboriginal identity.
In Canada the reservation system was adopted at a relatively early date; it protected First
Nation (Native American) settlements throughout the east, even in such agriculturally rich areas
as the Montreal plain or peninsular Ontario. As the Europeans moved west, care was taken to
retain Indians on at least part of their own lands, including such fertile areas as the valley of the
Red River of the North and the Fraser River delta. Intermarriage between whites and Indians was
much more common than in the United States and produced a sizable community of the French
and Indian métis, who in 1869–70 unsuccessfully attempted to set up a separate state in the
Canadian prairies.
In both Mexico and Central America, racial admixture has gone much farther. In Mexico,
the mestizo population—of mixed Indian and white descent—accounts for some three-fifths of
the population, while pure-blooded Indians amount to less than one-fifth, and whites constitute
nearly all the rest (small fractions are Mexicans of African and Arab descent). European
immigration to Mexico and Central America since the original Spanish conquest has been
negligible. When Velasco made his tally of 5,000,000 Indians within his jurisdiction, there were
only 150,000 Spaniards in the New World.
The European attitudes toward the environment
When European colonizers entered North America, they regarded the continent as a virtual
wilderness, one waiting to be settled and developed economically. The indigenous agriculture in
what is now the United States and Canada seemed strange and rudimentary to them, and it had
made only a slight dent in the vast forests and grasslands. There were no herds or flocks of
domesticated grazing animals exploiting the natural pastures, and mineral deposits, water power,
and other resources were being ignored by the aborigines. The Europeans saw no reason why
they should not claim land they thought could be used to better advantage; and they proceeded to
buy out, exterminate, or push out the Indians—when they did not enslave them—and established
their supremacy over the land.
The dispossession of the Indians
The process of removing the Indians from their ancestral lands led to bitter disputes. The
British tried to end one such problem by setting up the Proclamation of 1763 line along the
Appalachian divide, allowing whites to take over what lay to the east but attempting to reserve
what lay to the west as Indian territory. After their independence from Britain, the Americans
continued to adopt this ideal of a two-nation state, but in practice the notion soon collapsed as
they pushed the Indian line westward past the Appalachians to the Mississippi River and into the
Missouri River valley and other western lands. Nearly all the Indians in the east were displaced
to the west and into special zones in Oklahoma, the Great Plains, and the intermontane basins.
Even there, their land and their way of life were not respected, as ranchers, railroaders, and
homesteaders opened the West to settlement.
The Indian “territories” soon were reduced to isolated “reservations.” As a result, most of
the Indian population in the United States is now found west of the Mississippi River, usually in
drier areas unsuited to productive agriculture. At times the U.S. government has encouraged
Indians to leave the reservations and mix with the general population in the large cities of the
Midwest and West, a process of acculturation that some—including many younger and
ethnically conscious Indians—would claim poses as many dangers to the individual and social
well-being of Indians as do the communal misfortunes already brought upon them.
Counteracting the forces of assimilation have been increasingly energetic programs to defend
and strengthen aboriginal identity.
In Canada the reservation system was adopted at a relatively early date; it protected First
Nation (Native American) settlements throughout the east, even in such agriculturally rich areas
as the Montreal plain or peninsular Ontario. As the Europeans moved west, care was taken to
retain Indians on at least part of their own lands, including such fertile areas as the valley of the
Red River of the North and the Fraser River delta. Intermarriage between whites and Indians was
much more common than in the United States and produced a sizable community of the French
and Indian métis, who in 1869–70 unsuccessfully attempted to set up a separate state in the
Canadian prairies.
In both Mexico and Central America, racial admixture has gone much farther. In Mexico,
the mestizo population—of mixed Indian and white descent—accounts for some three-fifths of
the population, while pure-blooded Indians amount to less than one-fifth, and whites constitute
nearly all the rest (small fractions are Mexicans of African and Arab descent). European
immigration to Mexico and Central America since the original Spanish conquest has been
negligible. When Velasco made his tally of 5,000,000 Indians within his jurisdiction, there were
only 150,000 Spaniards in the New World.
The European attitudes toward the environment
When European colonizers entered North America, they regarded the continent as a virtual
wilderness, one waiting to be settled and developed economically. The indigenous agriculture in
what is now the United States and Canada seemed strange and rudimentary to them, and it had
made only a slight dent in the vast forests and grasslands. There were no herds or flocks of
domesticated grazing animals exploiting the natural pastures, and mineral deposits, water power,
and other resources were being ignored by the aborigines. The Europeans saw no reason why
they should not claim land they thought could be used to better advantage; and they proceeded to
buy out, exterminate, or push out the Indians—when they did not enslave them—and established
their supremacy over the land.
The dispossession of the Indians
The process of removing the Indians from their ancestral lands led to bitter disputes. The
British tried to end one such problem by setting up the Proclamation of 1763 line along the
Appalachian divide, allowing whites to take over what lay to the east but attempting to reserve
what lay to the west as Indian territory. After their independence from Britain, the Americans
continued to adopt this ideal of a two-nation state, but in practice the notion soon collapsed as
they pushed the Indian line westward past the Appalachians to the Mississippi River and into the
Missouri River valley and other western lands. Nearly all the Indians in the east were displaced
to the west and into special zones in Oklahoma, the Great Plains, and the intermontane basins.
Even there, their land and their way of life were not respected, as ranchers, railroaders, and
homesteaders opened the West to settlement.
The Indian “territories” soon were reduced to isolated “reservations.” As a result, most of
the Indian population in the United States is now found west of the Mississippi River, usually in
drier areas unsuited to productive agriculture. At times the U.S. government has encouraged
Indians to leave the reservations and mix with the general population in the large cities of the
Midwest and West, a process of acculturation that some—including many younger and
ethnically conscious Indians—would claim poses as many dangers to the individual and social
well-being of Indians as do the communal misfortunes already brought upon them.
Counteracting the forces of assimilation have been increasingly energetic programs to defend
and strengthen aboriginal identity.
In Canada the reservation system was adopted at a relatively early date; it protected First
Nation (Native American) settlements throughout the east, even in such agriculturally rich areas
as the Montreal plain or peninsular Ontario. As the Europeans moved west, care was taken to
retain Indians on at least part of their own lands, including such fertile areas as the valley of the
Red River of the North and the Fraser River delta. Intermarriage between whites and Indians was
much more common than in the United States and produced a sizable community of the French
and Indian métis, who in 1869–70 unsuccessfully attempted to set up a separate state in the
Canadian prairies.
In both Mexico and Central America, racial admixture has gone much farther. In Mexico,
the mestizo population—of mixed Indian and white descent—accounts for some three-fifths of
the population, while pure-blooded Indians amount to less than one-fifth, and whites constitute
nearly all the rest (small fractions are Mexicans of African and Arab descent). European
immigration to Mexico and Central America since the original Spanish conquest has been
negligible. When Velasco made his tally of 5,000,000 Indians within his jurisdiction, there were
only 150,000 Spaniards in the New World.
The European attitudes toward the environment
When European colonizers entered North America, they regarded the continent as a virtual
wilderness, one waiting to be settled and developed economically. The indigenous agriculture in
what is now the United States and Canada seemed strange and rudimentary to them, and it had
made only a slight dent in the vast forests and grasslands. There were no herds or flocks of
domesticated grazing animals exploiting the natural pastures, and mineral deposits, water power,
and other resources were being ignored by the aborigines. The Europeans saw no reason why
they should not claim land they thought could be used to better advantage; and they proceeded to
buy out, exterminate, or push out the Indians—when they did not enslave them—and established
their supremacy over the land.
The dispossession of the Indians
The process of removing the Indians from their ancestral lands led to bitter disputes. The
British tried to end one such problem by setting up the Proclamation of 1763 line along the
Appalachian divide, allowing whites to take over what lay to the east but attempting to reserve
what lay to the west as Indian territory. After their independence from Britain, the Americans
continued to adopt this ideal of a two-nation state, but in practice the notion soon collapsed as
they pushed the Indian line westward past the Appalachians to the Mississippi River and into the
Missouri River valley and other western lands. Nearly all the Indians in the east were displaced
to the west and into special zones in Oklahoma, the Great Plains, and the intermontane basins.
Even there, their land and their way of life were not respected, as ranchers, railroaders, and
homesteaders opened the West to settlement.
The Indian “territories” soon were reduced to isolated “reservations.” As a result, most of
the Indian population in the United States is now found west of the Mississippi River, usually in
drier areas unsuited to productive agriculture. At times the U.S. government has encouraged
Indians to leave the reservations and mix with the general population in the large cities of the
Midwest and West, a process of acculturation that some—including many younger and
ethnically conscious Indians—would claim poses as many dangers to the individual and social
well-being of Indians as do the communal misfortunes already brought upon them.
Counteracting the forces of assimilation have been increasingly energetic programs to defend
and strengthen aboriginal identity.
In Canada the reservation system was adopted at a relatively early date; it protected First
Nation (Native American) settlements throughout the east, even in such agriculturally rich areas
as the Montreal plain or peninsular Ontario. As the Europeans moved west, care was taken to
retain Indians on at least part of their own lands, including such fertile areas as the valley of the
Red River of the North and the Fraser River delta. Intermarriage between whites and Indians was
much more common than in the United States and produced a sizable community of the French
and Indian métis, who in 1869–70 unsuccessfully attempted to set up a separate state in the
Canadian prairies.
In both Mexico and Central America, racial admixture has gone much farther. In Mexico,
the mestizo population—of mixed Indian and white descent—accounts for some three-fifths of
the population, while pure-blooded Indians amount to less than one-fifth, and whites constitute
nearly all the rest (small fractions are Mexicans of African and Arab descent). European
immigration to Mexico and Central America since the original Spanish conquest has been
negligible. When Velasco made his tally of 5,000,000 Indians within his jurisdiction, there were
only 150,000 Spaniards in the New World.
The European attitudes toward the environment
When European colonizers entered North America, they regarded the continent as a virtual
wilderness, one waiting to be settled and developed economically. The indigenous agriculture in
what is now the United States and Canada seemed strange and rudimentary to them, and it had
made only a slight dent in the vast forests and grasslands. There were no herds or flocks of
domesticated grazing animals exploiting the natural pastures, and mineral deposits, water power,
and other resources were being ignored by the aborigines. The Europeans saw no reason why
they should not claim land they thought could be used to better advantage; and they proceeded to
buy out, exterminate, or push out the Indians—when they did not enslave them—and established
their supremacy over the land.
The dispossession of the Indians
The process of removing the Indians from their ancestral lands led to bitter disputes. The
British tried to end one such problem by setting up the Proclamation of 1763 line along the
Appalachian divide, allowing whites to take over what lay to the east but attempting to reserve
what lay to the west as Indian territory. After their independence from Britain, the Americans
continued to adopt this ideal of a two-nation state, but in practice the notion soon collapsed as
they pushed the Indian line westward past the Appalachians to the Mississippi River and into the
Missouri River valley and other western lands. Nearly all the Indians in the east were displaced
to the west and into special zones in Oklahoma, the Great Plains, and the intermontane basins.
Even there, their land and their way of life were not respected, as ranchers, railroaders, and
homesteaders opened the West to settlement.
The Indian “territories” soon were reduced to isolated “reservations.” As a result, most of
the Indian population in the United States is now found west of the Mississippi River, usually in
drier areas unsuited to productive agriculture. At times the U.S. government has encouraged
Indians to leave the reservations and mix with the general population in the large cities of the
Midwest and West, a process of acculturation that some—including many younger and
ethnically conscious Indians—would claim poses as many dangers to the individual and social
well-being of Indians as do the communal misfortunes already brought upon them.
Counteracting the forces of assimilation have been increasingly energetic programs to defend
and strengthen aboriginal identity.
In Canada the reservation system was adopted at a relatively early date; it protected First
Nation (Native American) settlements throughout the east, even in such agriculturally rich areas
as the Montreal plain or peninsular Ontario. As the Europeans moved west, care was taken to
retain Indians on at least part of their own lands, including such fertile areas as the valley of the
Red River of the North and the Fraser River delta. Intermarriage between whites and Indians was
much more common than in the United States and produced a sizable community of the French
and Indian métis, who in 1869–70 unsuccessfully attempted to set up a separate state in the
Canadian prairies.
In both Mexico and Central America, racial admixture has gone much farther. In Mexico,
the mestizo population—of mixed Indian and white descent—accounts for some three-fifths of
the population, while pure-blooded Indians amount to less than one-fifth, and whites constitute
nearly all the rest (small fractions are Mexicans of African and Arab descent). European
immigration to Mexico and Central America since the original Spanish conquest has been
negligible. When Velasco made his tally of 5,000,000 Indians within his jurisdiction, there were
only 150,000 Spaniards in the New World.
The European attitudes toward the environment
When European colonizers entered North America, they regarded the continent as a virtual
wilderness, one waiting to be settled and developed economically. The indigenous agriculture in
what is now the United States and Canada seemed strange and rudimentary to them, and it had
made only a slight dent in the vast forests and grasslands. There were no herds or flocks of
domesticated grazing animals exploiting the natural pastures, and mineral deposits, water power,
and other resources were being ignored by the aborigines. The Europeans saw no reason why
they should not claim land they thought could be used to better advantage; and they proceeded to
buy out, exterminate, or push out the Indians—when they did not enslave them—and established
their supremacy over the land.
The dispossession of the Indians
The process of removing the Indians from their ancestral lands led to bitter disputes. The
British tried to end one such problem by setting up the Proclamation of 1763 line along the
Appalachian divide, allowing whites to take over what lay to the east but attempting to reserve
what lay to the west as Indian territory. After their independence from Britain, the Americans
continued to adopt this ideal of a two-nation state, but in practice the notion soon collapsed as
they pushed the Indian line westward past the Appalachians to the Mississippi River and into the
Missouri River valley and other western lands. Nearly all the Indians in the east were displaced
to the west and into special zones in Oklahoma, the Great Plains, and the intermontane basins.
Even there, their land and their way of life were not respected, as ranchers, railroaders, and
homesteaders opened the West to settlement.
The Indian “territories” soon were reduced to isolated “reservations.” As a result, most of
the Indian population in the United States is now found west of the Mississippi River, usually in
drier areas unsuited to productive agriculture. At times the U.S. government has encouraged
Indians to leave the reservations and mix with the general population in the large cities of the
Midwest and West, a process of acculturation that some—including many younger and
ethnically conscious Indians—would claim poses as many dangers to the individual and social
well-being of Indians as do the communal misfortunes already brought upon them.
Counteracting the forces of assimilation have been increasingly energetic programs to defend
and strengthen aboriginal identity.
In Canada the reservation system was adopted at a relatively early date; it protected First
Nation (Native American) settlements throughout the east, even in such agriculturally rich areas
as the Montreal plain or peninsular Ontario. As the Europeans moved west, care was taken to
retain Indians on at least part of their own lands, including such fertile areas as the valley of the
Red River of the North and the Fraser River delta. Intermarriage between whites and Indians was
much more common than in the United States and produced a sizable community of the French
and Indian métis, who in 1869–70 unsuccessfully attempted to set up a separate state in the
Canadian prairies.
In both Mexico and Central America, racial admixture has gone much farther. In Mexico,
the mestizo population—of mixed Indian and white descent—accounts for some three-fifths of
the population, while pure-blooded Indians amount to less than one-fifth, and whites constitute
nearly all the rest (small fractions are Mexicans of African and Arab descent). European
immigration to Mexico and Central America since the original Spanish conquest has been
negligible. When Velasco made his tally of 5,000,000 Indians within his jurisdiction, there were
only 150,000 Spaniards in the New World.
The European attitudes toward the environment
When European colonizers entered North America, they regarded the continent as a virtual
wilderness, one waiting to be settled and developed economically. The indigenous agriculture in
what is now the United States and Canada seemed strange and rudimentary to them, and it had
made only a slight dent in the vast forests and grasslands. There were no herds or flocks of
domesticated grazing animals exploiting the natural pastures, and mineral deposits, water power,
and other resources were being ignored by the aborigines. The Europeans saw no reason why
they should not claim land they thought could be used to better advantage; and they proceeded to
buy out, exterminate, or push out the Indians—when they did not enslave them—and established
their supremacy over the land.
The dispossession of the Indians
The process of removing the Indians from their ancestral lands led to bitter disputes. The
British tried to end one such problem by setting up the Proclamation of 1763 line along the
Appalachian divide, allowing whites to take over what lay to the east but attempting to reserve
what lay to the west as Indian territory. After their independence from Britain, the Americans
continued to adopt this ideal of a two-nation state, but in practice the notion soon collapsed as
they pushed the Indian line westward past the Appalachians to the Mississippi River and into the
Missouri River valley and other western lands. Nearly all the Indians in the east were displaced
to the west and into special zones in Oklahoma, the Great Plains, and the intermontane basins.
Even there, their land and their way of life were not respected, as ranchers, railroaders, and
homesteaders opened the West to settlement.
The Indian “territories” soon were reduced to isolated “reservations.” As a result, most of
the Indian population in the United States is now found west of the Mississippi River, usually in
drier areas unsuited to productive agriculture. At times the U.S. government has encouraged
Indians to leave the reservations and mix with the general population in the large cities of the
Midwest and West, a process of acculturation that some—including many younger and
ethnically conscious Indians—would claim poses as many dangers to the individual and social
well-being of Indians as do the communal misfortunes already brought upon them.
Counteracting the forces of assimilation have been increasingly energetic programs to defend
and strengthen aboriginal identity.
In Canada the reservation system was adopted at a relatively early date; it protected First
Nation (Native American) settlements throughout the east, even in such agriculturally rich areas
as the Montreal plain or peninsular Ontario. As the Europeans moved west, care was taken to
retain Indians on at least part of their own lands, including such fertile areas as the valley of the
Red River of the North and the Fraser River delta. Intermarriage between whites and Indians was
much more common than in the United States and produced a sizable community of the French
and Indian métis, who in 1869–70 unsuccessfully attempted to set up a separate state in the
Canadian prairies.
In both Mexico and Central America, racial admixture has gone much farther. In Mexico,
the mestizo population—of mixed Indian and white descent—accounts for some three-fifths of
the population, while pure-blooded Indians amount to less than one-fifth, and whites constitute
nearly all the rest (small fractions are Mexicans of African and Arab descent). European
immigration to Mexico and Central America since the original Spanish conquest has been
negligible. When Velasco made his tally of 5,000,000 Indians within his jurisdiction, there were
only 150,000 Spaniards in the New World.
The European attitudes toward the environment
When European colonizers entered North America, they regarded the continent as a virtual
wilderness, one waiting to be settled and developed economically. The indigenous agriculture in
what is now the United States and Canada seemed strange and rudimentary to them, and it had
made only a slight dent in the vast forests and grasslands. There were no herds or flocks of
domesticated grazing animals exploiting the natural pastures, and mineral deposits, water power,
and other resources were being ignored by the aborigines. The Europeans saw no reason why
they should not claim land they thought could be used to better advantage; and they proceeded to
buy out, exterminate, or push out the Indians—when they did not enslave them—and established
their supremacy over the land.
The dispossession of the Indians
The process of removing the Indians from their ancestral lands led to bitter disputes. The
British tried to end one such problem by setting up the Proclamation of 1763 line along the
Appalachian divide, allowing whites to take over what lay to the east but attempting to reserve
what lay to the west as Indian territory. After their independence from Britain, the Americans
continued to adopt this ideal of a two-nation state, but in practice the notion soon collapsed as
they pushed the Indian line westward past the Appalachians to the Mississippi River and into the
Missouri River valley and other western lands. Nearly all the Indians in the east were displaced
to the west and into special zones in Oklahoma, the Great Plains, and the intermontane basins.
Even there, their land and their way of life were not respected, as ranchers, railroaders, and
homesteaders opened the West to settlement.
The Indian “territories” soon were reduced to isolated “reservations.” As a result, most of
the Indian population in the United States is now found west of the Mississippi River, usually in
drier areas unsuited to productive agriculture. At times the U.S. government has encouraged
Indians to leave the reservations and mix with the general population in the large cities of the
Midwest and West, a process of acculturation that some—including many younger and
ethnically conscious Indians—would claim poses as many dangers to the individual and social
well-being of Indians as do the communal misfortunes already brought upon them.
Counteracting the forces of assimilation have been increasingly energetic programs to defend
and strengthen aboriginal identity.
In Canada the reservation system was adopted at a relatively early date; it protected First
Nation (Native American) settlements throughout the east, even in such agriculturally rich areas
as the Montreal plain or peninsular Ontario. As the Europeans moved west, care was taken to
retain Indians on at least part of their own lands, including such fertile areas as the valley of the
Red River of the North and the Fraser River delta. Intermarriage between whites and Indians was
much more common than in the United States and produced a sizable community of the French
and Indian métis, who in 1869–70 unsuccessfully attempted to set up a separate state in the
Canadian prairies.
In both Mexico and Central America, racial admixture has gone much farther. In Mexico,
the mestizo population—of mixed Indian and white descent—accounts for some three-fifths of
the population, while pure-blooded Indians amount to less than one-fifth, and whites constitute
nearly all the rest (small fractions are Mexicans of African and Arab descent). European
immigration to Mexico and Central America since the original Spanish conquest has been
negligible. When Velasco made his tally of 5,000,000 Indians within his jurisdiction, there were
only 150,000 Spaniards in the New World.
The European attitudes toward the environment
When European colonizers entered North America, they regarded the continent as a virtual
wilderness, one waiting to be settled and developed economically. The indigenous agriculture in
what is now the United States and Canada seemed strange and rudimentary to them, and it had
made only a slight dent in the vast forests and grasslands. There were no herds or flocks of
domesticated grazing animals exploiting the natural pastures, and mineral deposits, water power,
and other resources were being ignored by the aborigines. The Europeans saw no reason why
they should not claim land they thought could be used to better advantage; and they proceeded to
buy out, exterminate, or push out the Indians—when they did not enslave them—and established
their supremacy over the land.
The dispossession of the Indians
The process of removing the Indians from their ancestral lands led to bitter disputes. The
British tried to end one such problem by setting up the Proclamation of 1763 line along the
Appalachian divide, allowing whites to take over what lay to the east but attempting to reserve
what lay to the west as Indian territory. After their independence from Britain, the Americans
continued to adopt this ideal of a two-nation state, but in practice the notion soon collapsed as
they pushed the Indian line westward past the Appalachians to the Mississippi River and into the
Missouri River valley and other western lands. Nearly all the Indians in the east were displaced
to the west and into special zones in Oklahoma, the Great Plains, and the intermontane basins.
Even there, their land and their way of life were not respected, as ranchers, railroaders, and
homesteaders opened the West to settlement.
The Indian “territories” soon were reduced to isolated “reservations.” As a result, most of
the Indian population in the United States is now found west of the Mississippi River, usually in
drier areas unsuited to productive agriculture. At times the U.S. government has encouraged
Indians to leave the reservations and mix with the general population in the large cities of the
Midwest and West, a process of acculturation that some—including many younger and
ethnically conscious Indians—would claim poses as many dangers to the individual and social
well-being of Indians as do the communal misfortunes already brought upon them.
Counteracting the forces of assimilation have been increasingly energetic programs to defend
and strengthen aboriginal identity.
In Canada the reservation system was adopted at a relatively early date; it protected First
Nation (Native American) settlements throughout the east, even in such agriculturally rich areas
as the Montreal plain or peninsular Ontario. As the Europeans moved west, care was taken to
retain Indians on at least part of their own lands, including such fertile areas as the valley of the
Red River of the North and the Fraser River delta. Intermarriage between whites and Indians was
much more common than in the United States and produced a sizable community of the French
and Indian métis, who in 1869–70 unsuccessfully attempted to set up a separate state in the
Canadian prairies.
In both Mexico and Central America, racial admixture has gone much farther. In Mexico,
the mestizo population—of mixed Indian and white descent—accounts for some three-fifths of
the population, while pure-blooded Indians amount to less than one-fifth, and whites constitute
nearly all the rest (small fractions are Mexicans of African and Arab descent). European
immigration to Mexico and Central America since the original Spanish conquest has been
negligible. When Velasco made his tally of 5,000,000 Indians within his jurisdiction, there were
only 150,000 Spaniards in the New World.
The European attitudes toward the environment
When European colonizers entered North America, they regarded the continent as a virtual
wilderness, one waiting to be settled and developed economically. The indigenous agriculture in
what is now the United States and Canada seemed strange and rudimentary to them, and it had
made only a slight dent in the vast forests and grasslands. There were no herds or flocks of
domesticated grazing animals exploiting the natural pastures, and mineral deposits, water power,
and other resources were being ignored by the aborigines. The Europeans saw no reason why
they should not claim land they thought could be used to better advantage; and they proceeded to
buy out, exterminate, or push out the Indians—when they did not enslave them—and established
their supremacy over the land.
The dispossession of the Indians
The process of removing the Indians from their ancestral lands led to bitter disputes. The
British tried to end one such problem by setting up the Proclamation of 1763 line along the
Appalachian divide, allowing whites to take over what lay to the east but attempting to reserve
what lay to the west as Indian territory. After their independence from Britain, the Americans
continued to adopt this ideal of a two-nation state, but in practice the notion soon collapsed as
they pushed the Indian line westward past the Appalachians to the Mississippi River and into the
Missouri River valley and other western lands. Nearly all the Indians in the east were displaced
to the west and into special zones in Oklahoma, the Great Plains, and the intermontane basins.
Even there, their land and their way of life were not respected, as ranchers, railroaders, and
homesteaders opened the West to settlement.
The Indian “territories” soon were reduced to isolated “reservations.” As a result, most of
the Indian population in the United States is now found west of the Mississippi River, usually in
drier areas unsuited to productive agriculture. At times the U.S. government has encouraged
Indians to leave the reservations and mix with the general population in the large cities of the
Midwest and West, a process of acculturation that some—including many younger and
ethnically conscious Indians—would claim poses as many dangers to the individual and social
well-being of Indians as do the communal misfortunes already brought upon them.
Counteracting the forces of assimilation have been increasingly energetic programs to defend
and strengthen aboriginal identity.
In Canada the reservation system was adopted at a relatively early date; it protected First
Nation (Native American) settlements throughout the east, even in such agriculturally rich areas
as the Montreal plain or peninsular Ontario. As the Europeans moved west, care was taken to
retain Indians on at least part of their own lands, including such fertile areas as the valley of the
Red River of the North and the Fraser River delta. Intermarriage between whites and Indians was
much more common than in the United States and produced a sizable community of the French
and Indian métis, who in 1869–70 unsuccessfully attempted to set up a separate state in the
Canadian prairies.
In both Mexico and Central America, racial admixture has gone much farther. In Mexico,
the mestizo population—of mixed Indian and white descent—accounts for some three-fifths of
the population, while pure-blooded Indians amount to less than one-fifth, and whites constitute
nearly all the rest (small fractions are Mexicans of African and Arab descent). European
immigration to Mexico and Central America since the original Spanish conquest has been
negligible. When Velasco made his tally of 5,000,000 Indians within his jurisdiction, there were
only 150,000 Spaniards in the New World.
The European attitudes toward the environment
When European colonizers entered North America, they regarded the continent as a virtual
wilderness, one waiting to be settled and developed economically. The indigenous agriculture in
what is now the United States and Canada seemed strange and rudimentary to them, and it had
made only a slight dent in the vast forests and grasslands. There were no herds or flocks of
domesticated grazing animals exploiting the natural pastures, and mineral deposits, water power,
and other resources were being ignored by the aborigines. The Europeans saw no reason why
they should not claim land they thought could be used to better advantage; and they proceeded to
buy out, exterminate, or push out the Indians—when they did not enslave them—and established
their supremacy over the land.
The dispossession of the Indians
The process of removing the Indians from their ancestral lands led to bitter disputes. The
British tried to end one such problem by setting up the Proclamation of 1763 line along the
Appalachian divide, allowing whites to take over what lay to the east but attempting to reserve
what lay to the west as Indian territory. After their independence from Britain, the Americans
continued to adopt this ideal of a two-nation state, but in practice the notion soon collapsed as
they pushed the Indian line westward past the Appalachians to the Mississippi River and into the
Missouri River valley and other western lands. Nearly all the Indians in the east were displaced
to the west and into special zones in Oklahoma, the Great Plains, and the intermontane basins.
Even there, their land and their way of life were not respected, as ranchers, railroaders, and
homesteaders opened the West to settlement.
The Indian “territories” soon were reduced to isolated “reservations.” As a result, most of
the Indian population in the United States is now found west of the Mississippi River, usually in
drier areas unsuited to productive agriculture. At times the U.S. government has encouraged
Indians to leave the reservations and mix with the general population in the large cities of the
Midwest and West, a process of acculturation that some—including many younger and
ethnically conscious Indians—would claim poses as many dangers to the individual and social
well-being of Indians as do the communal misfortunes already brought upon them.
Counteracting the forces of assimilation have been increasingly energetic programs to defend
and strengthen aboriginal identity.
In Canada the reservation system was adopted at a relatively early date; it protected First
Nation (Native American) settlements throughout the east, even in such agriculturally rich areas
as the Montreal plain or peninsular Ontario. As the Europeans moved west, care was taken to
retain Indians on at least part of their own lands, including such fertile areas as the valley of the
Red River of the North and the Fraser River delta. Intermarriage between whites and Indians was
much more common than in the United States and produced a sizable community of the French
and Indian métis, who in 1869–70 unsuccessfully attempted to set up a separate state in the
Canadian prairies.
In both Mexico and Central America, racial admixture has gone much farther. In Mexico,
the mestizo population—of mixed Indian and white descent—accounts for some three-fifths of
the population, while pure-blooded Indians amount to less than one-fifth, and whites constitute
nearly all the rest (small fractions are Mexicans of African and Arab descent). European
immigration to Mexico and Central America since the original Spanish conquest has been
negligible. When Velasco made his tally of 5,000,000 Indians within his jurisdiction, there were
only 150,000 Spaniards in the New World.
The European attitudes toward the environment
When European colonizers entered North America, they regarded the continent as a virtual
wilderness, one waiting to be settled and developed economically. The indigenous agriculture in
what is now the United States and Canada seemed strange and rudimentary to them, and it had
made only a slight dent in the vast forests and grasslands. There were no herds or flocks of
domesticated grazing animals exploiting the natural pastures, and mineral deposits, water power,
and other resources were being ignored by the aborigines. The Europeans saw no reason why
they should not claim land they thought could be used to better advantage; and they proceeded to
buy out, exterminate, or push out the Indians—when they did not enslave them—and established
their supremacy over the land.
The dispossession of the Indians
The process of removing the Indians from their ancestral lands led to bitter disputes. The
British tried to end one such problem by setting up the Proclamation of 1763 line along the
Appalachian divide, allowing whites to take over what lay to the east but attempting to reserve
what lay to the west as Indian territory. After their independence from Britain, the Americans
continued to adopt this ideal of a two-nation state, but in practice the notion soon collapsed as
they pushed the Indian line westward past the Appalachians to the Mississippi River and into the
Missouri River valley and other western lands. Nearly all the Indians in the east were displaced
to the west and into special zones in Oklahoma, the Great Plains, and the intermontane basins.
Even there, their land and their way of life were not respected, as ranchers, railroaders, and
homesteaders opened the West to settlement.
The Indian “territories” soon were reduced to isolated “reservations.” As a result, most of
the Indian population in the United States is now found west of the Mississippi River, usually in
drier areas unsuited to productive agriculture. At times the U.S. government has encouraged
Indians to leave the reservations and mix with the general population in the large cities of the
Midwest and West, a process of acculturation that some—including many younger and
ethnically conscious Indians—would claim poses as many dangers to the individual and social
well-being of Indians as do the communal misfortunes already brought upon them.
Counteracting the forces of assimilation have been increasingly energetic programs to defend
and strengthen aboriginal identity.
In Canada the reservation system was adopted at a relatively early date; it protected First
Nation (Native American) settlements throughout the east, even in such agriculturally rich areas
as the Montreal plain or peninsular Ontario. As the Europeans moved west, care was taken to
retain Indians on at least part of their own lands, including such fertile areas as the valley of the
Red River of the North and the Fraser River delta. Intermarriage between whites and Indians was
much more common than in the United States and produced a sizable community of the French
and Indian métis, who in 1869–70 unsuccessfully attempted to set up a separate state in the
Canadian prairies.
In both Mexico and Central America, racial admixture has gone much farther. In Mexico,
the mestizo population—of mixed Indian and white descent—accounts for some three-fifths of
the population, while pure-blooded Indians amount to less than one-fifth, and whites constitute
nearly all the rest (small fractions are Mexicans of African and Arab descent). European
immigration to Mexico and Central America since the original Spanish conquest has been
negligible. When Velasco made his tally of 5,000,000 Indians within his jurisdiction, there were
only 150,000 Spaniards in the New World.
The European attitudes toward the environment
When European colonizers entered North America, they regarded the continent as a virtual
wilderness, one waiting to be settled and developed economically. The indigenous agriculture in
what is now the United States and Canada seemed strange and rudimentary to them, and it had
made only a slight dent in the vast forests and grasslands. There were no herds or flocks of
domesticated grazing animals exploiting the natural pastures, and mineral deposits, water power,
and other resources were being ignored by the aborigines. The Europeans saw no reason why
they should not claim land they thought could be used to better advantage; and they proceeded to
buy out, exterminate, or push out the Indians—when they did not enslave them—and established
their supremacy over the land.
The dispossession of the Indians
The process of removing the Indians from their ancestral lands led to bitter disputes. The
British tried to end one such problem by setting up the Proclamation of 1763 line along the
Appalachian divide, allowing whites to take over what lay to the east but attempting to reserve
what lay to the west as Indian territory. After their independence from Britain, the Americans
continued to adopt this ideal of a two-nation state, but in practice the notion soon collapsed as
they pushed the Indian line westward past the Appalachians to the Mississippi River and into the
Missouri River valley and other western lands. Nearly all the Indians in the east were displaced
to the west and into special zones in Oklahoma, the Great Plains, and the intermontane basins.
Even there, their land and their way of life were not respected, as ranchers, railroaders, and
homesteaders opened the West to settlement.
The Indian “territories” soon were reduced to isolated “reservations.” As a result, most of
the Indian population in the United States is now found west of the Mississippi River, usually in
drier areas unsuited to productive agriculture. At times the U.S. government has encouraged
Indians to leave the reservations and mix with the general population in the large cities of the
Midwest and West, a process of acculturation that some—including many younger and
ethnically conscious Indians—would claim poses as many dangers to the individual and social
well-being of Indians as do the communal misfortunes already brought upon them.
Counteracting the forces of assimilation have been increasingly energetic programs to defend
and strengthen aboriginal identity.
In Canada the reservation system was adopted at a relatively early date; it protected First
Nation (Native American) settlements throughout the east, even in such agriculturally rich areas
as the Montreal plain or peninsular Ontario. As the Europeans moved west, care was taken to
retain Indians on at least part of their own lands, including such fertile areas as the valley of the
Red River of the North and the Fraser River delta. Intermarriage between whites and Indians was
much more common than in the United States and produced a sizable community of the French
and Indian métis, who in 1869–70 unsuccessfully attempted to set up a separate state in the
Canadian prairies.
In both Mexico and Central America, racial admixture has gone much farther. In Mexico,
the mestizo population—of mixed Indian and white descent—accounts for some three-fifths of
the population, while pure-blooded Indians amount to less than one-fifth, and whites constitute
nearly all the rest (small fractions are Mexicans of African and Arab descent). European
immigration to Mexico and Central America since the original Spanish conquest has been
negligible. When Velasco made his tally of 5,000,000 Indians within his jurisdiction, there were
only 150,000 Spaniards in the New World.
The European attitudes toward the environment
When European colonizers entered North America, they regarded the continent as a virtual
wilderness, one waiting to be settled and developed economically. The indigenous agriculture in
what is now the United States and Canada seemed strange and rudimentary to them, and it had
made only a slight dent in the vast forests and grasslands. There were no herds or flocks of
domesticated grazing animals exploiting the natural pastures, and mineral deposits, water power,
and other resources were being ignored by the aborigines. The Europeans saw no reason why
they should not claim land they thought could be used to better advantage; and they proceeded to
buy out, exterminate, or push out the Indians—when they did not enslave them—and established
their supremacy over the land.
The dispossession of the Indians
The process of removing the Indians from their ancestral lands led to bitter disputes. The
British tried to end one such problem by setting up the Proclamation of 1763 line along the
Appalachian divide, allowing whites to take over what lay to the east but attempting to reserve
what lay to the west as Indian territory. After their independence from Britain, the Americans
continued to adopt this ideal of a two-nation state, but in practice the notion soon collapsed as
they pushed the Indian line westward past the Appalachians to the Mississippi River and into the
Missouri River valley and other western lands. Nearly all the Indians in the east were displaced
to the west and into special zones in Oklahoma, the Great Plains, and the intermontane basins.
Even there, their land and their way of life were not respected, as ranchers, railroaders, and
homesteaders opened the West to settlement.
The Indian “territories” soon were reduced to isolated “reservations.” As a result, most of
the Indian population in the United States is now found west of the Mississippi River, usually in
drier areas unsuited to productive agriculture. At times the U.S. government has encouraged
Indians to leave the reservations and mix with the general population in the large cities of the
Midwest and West, a process of acculturation that some—including many younger and
ethnically conscious Indians—would claim poses as many dangers to the individual and social
well-being of Indians as do the communal misfortunes already brought upon them.
Counteracting the forces of assimilation have been increasingly energetic programs to defend
and strengthen aboriginal identity.
In Canada the reservation system was adopted at a relatively early date; it protected First
Nation (Native American) settlements throughout the east, even in such agriculturally rich areas
as the Montreal plain or peninsular Ontario. As the Europeans moved west, care was taken to
retain Indians on at least part of their own lands, including such fertile areas as the valley of the
Red River of the North and the Fraser River delta. Intermarriage between whites and Indians was
much more common than in the United States and produced a sizable community of the French
and Indian métis, who in 1869–70 unsuccessfully attempted to set up a separate state in the
Canadian prairies.
In both Mexico and Central America, racial admixture has gone much farther. In Mexico,
the mestizo population—of mixed Indian and white descent—accounts for some three-fifths of
the population, while pure-blooded Indians amount to less than one-fifth, and whites constitute
nearly all the rest (small fractions are Mexicans of African and Arab descent). European
immigration to Mexico and Central America since the original Spanish conquest has been
negligible. When Velasco made his tally of 5,000,000 Indians within his jurisdiction, there were
only 150,000 Spaniards in the New World.
The European attitudes toward the environment
When European colonizers entered North America, they regarded the continent as a virtual
wilderness, one waiting to be settled and developed economically. The indigenous agriculture in
what is now the United States and Canada seemed strange and rudimentary to them, and it had
made only a slight dent in the vast forests and grasslands. There were no herds or flocks of
domesticated grazing animals exploiting the natural pastures, and mineral deposits, water power,
and other resources were being ignored by the aborigines. The Europeans saw no reason why
they should not claim land they thought could be used to better advantage; and they proceeded to
buy out, exterminate, or push out the Indians—when they did not enslave them—and established
their supremacy over the land.
The dispossession of the Indians
The process of removing the Indians from their ancestral lands led to bitter disputes. The
British tried to end one such problem by setting up the Proclamation of 1763 line along the
Appalachian divide, allowing whites to take over what lay to the east but attempting to reserve
what lay to the west as Indian territory. After their independence from Britain, the Americans
continued to adopt this ideal of a two-nation state, but in practice the notion soon collapsed as
they pushed the Indian line westward past the Appalachians to the Mississippi River and into the
Missouri River valley and other western lands. Nearly all the Indians in the east were displaced
to the west and into special zones in Oklahoma, the Great Plains, and the intermontane basins.
Even there, their land and their way of life were not respected, as ranchers, railroaders, and
homesteaders opened the West to settlement.
The Indian “territories” soon were reduced to isolated “reservations.” As a result, most of
the Indian population in the United States is now found west of the Mississippi River, usually in
drier areas unsuited to productive agriculture. At times the U.S. government has encouraged
Indians to leave the reservations and mix with the general population in the large cities of the
Midwest and West, a process of acculturation that some—including many younger and
ethnically conscious Indians—would claim poses as many dangers to the individual and social
well-being of Indians as do the communal misfortunes already brought upon them.
Counteracting the forces of assimilation have been increasingly energetic programs to defend
and strengthen aboriginal identity.
In Canada the reservation system was adopted at a relatively early date; it protected First
Nation (Native American) settlements throughout the east, even in such agriculturally rich areas
as the Montreal plain or peninsular Ontario. As the Europeans moved west, care was taken to
retain Indians on at least part of their own lands, including such fertile areas as the valley of the
Red River of the North and the Fraser River delta. Intermarriage between whites and Indians was
much more common than in the United States and produced a sizable community of the French
and Indian métis, who in 1869–70 unsuccessfully attempted to set up a separate state in the
Canadian prairies.
In both Mexico and Central America, racial admixture has gone much farther. In Mexico,
the mestizo population—of mixed Indian and white descent—accounts for some three-fifths of
the population, while pure-blooded Indians amount to less than one-fifth, and whites constitute
nearly all the rest (small fractions are Mexicans of African and Arab descent). European
immigration to Mexico and Central America since the original Spanish conquest has been
negligible. When Velasco made his tally of 5,000,000 Indians within his jurisdiction, there were
only 150,000 Spaniards in the New World.
The European attitudes toward the environment
When European colonizers entered North America, they regarded the continent as a virtual
wilderness, one waiting to be settled and developed economically. The indigenous agriculture in
what is now the United States and Canada seemed strange and rudimentary to them, and it had
made only a slight dent in the vast forests and grasslands. There were no herds or flocks of
domesticated grazing animals exploiting the natural pastures, and mineral deposits, water power,
and other resources were being ignored by the aborigines. The Europeans saw no reason why
they should not claim land they thought could be used to better advantage; and they proceeded to
buy out, exterminate, or push out the Indians—when they did not enslave them—and established
their supremacy over the land.
The dispossession of the Indians
The process of removing the Indians from their ancestral lands led to bitter disputes. The
British tried to end one such problem by setting up the Proclamation of 1763 line along the
Appalachian divide, allowing whites to take over what lay to the east but attempting to reserve
what lay to the west as Indian territory. After their independence from Britain, the Americans
continued to adopt this ideal of a two-nation state, but in practice the notion soon collapsed as
they pushed the Indian line westward past the Appalachians to the Mississippi River and into the
Missouri River valley and other western lands. Nearly all the Indians in the east were displaced
to the west and into special zones in Oklahoma, the Great Plains, and the intermontane basins.
Even there, their land and their way of life were not respected, as ranchers, railroaders, and
homesteaders opened the West to settlement.
The Indian “territories” soon were reduced to isolated “reservations.” As a result, most of
the Indian population in the United States is now found west of the Mississippi River, usually in
drier areas unsuited to productive agriculture. At times the U.S. government has encouraged
Indians to leave the reservations and mix with the general population in the large cities of the
Midwest and West, a process of acculturation that some—including many younger and
ethnically conscious Indians—would claim poses as many dangers to the individual and social
well-being of Indians as do the communal misfortunes already brought upon them.
Counteracting the forces of assimilation have been increasingly energetic programs to defend
and strengthen aboriginal identity.
In Canada the reservation system was adopted at a relatively early date; it protected First
Nation (Native American) settlements throughout the east, even in such agriculturally rich areas
as the Montreal plain or peninsular Ontario. As the Europeans moved west, care was taken to
retain Indians on at least part of their own lands, including such fertile areas as the valley of the
Red River of the North and the Fraser River delta. Intermarriage between whites and Indians was
much more common than in the United States and produced a sizable community of the French
and Indian métis, who in 1869–70 unsuccessfully attempted to set up a separate state in the
Canadian prairies.
In both Mexico and Central America, racial admixture has gone much farther. In Mexico,
the mestizo population—of mixed Indian and white descent—accounts for some three-fifths of
the population, while pure-blooded Indians amount to less than one-fifth, and whites constitute
nearly all the rest (small fractions are Mexicans of African and Arab descent). European
immigration to Mexico and Central America since the original Spanish conquest has been
negligible. When Velasco made his tally of 5,000,000 Indians within his jurisdiction, there were
only 150,000 Spaniards in the New World.
The European attitudes toward the environment
When European colonizers entered North America, they regarded the continent as a virtual
wilderness, one waiting to be settled and developed economically. The indigenous agriculture in
what is now the United States and Canada seemed strange and rudimentary to them, and it had
made only a slight dent in the vast forests and grasslands. There were no herds or flocks of
domesticated grazing animals exploiting the natural pastures, and mineral deposits, water power,
and other resources were being ignored by the aborigines. The Europeans saw no reason why
they should not claim land they thought could be used to better advantage; and they proceeded to
buy out, exterminate, or push out the Indians—when they did not enslave them—and established
their supremacy over the land.
The dispossession of the Indians
The process of removing the Indians from their ancestral lands led to bitter disputes. The
British tried to end one such problem by setting up the Proclamation of 1763 line along the
Appalachian divide, allowing whites to take over what lay to the east but attempting to reserve
what lay to the west as Indian territory. After their independence from Britain, the Americans
continued to adopt this ideal of a two-nation state, but in practice the notion soon collapsed as
they pushed the Indian line westward past the Appalachians to the Mississippi River and into the
Missouri River valley and other western lands. Nearly all the Indians in the east were displaced
to the west and into special zones in Oklahoma, the Great Plains, and the intermontane basins.
Even there, their land and their way of life were not respected, as ranchers, railroaders, and
homesteaders opened the West to settlement.
The Indian “territories” soon were reduced to isolated “reservations.” As a result, most of
the Indian population in the United States is now found west of the Mississippi River, usually in
drier areas unsuited to productive agriculture. At times the U.S. government has encouraged
Indians to leave the reservations and mix with the general population in the large cities of the
Midwest and West, a process of acculturation that some—including many younger and
ethnically conscious Indians—would claim poses as many dangers to the individual and social
well-being of Indians as do the communal misfortunes already brought upon them.
Counteracting the forces of assimilation have been increasingly energetic programs to defend
and strengthen aboriginal identity.
In Canada the reservation system was adopted at a relatively early date; it protected First
Nation (Native American) settlements throughout the east, even in such agriculturally rich areas
as the Montreal plain or peninsular Ontario. As the Europeans moved west, care was taken to
retain Indians on at least part of their own lands, including such fertile areas as the valley of the
Red River of the North and the Fraser River delta. Intermarriage between whites and Indians was
much more common than in the United States and produced a sizable community of the French
and Indian métis, who in 1869–70 unsuccessfully attempted to set up a separate state in the
Canadian prairies.
In both Mexico and Central America, racial admixture has gone much farther. In Mexico,
the mestizo population—of mixed Indian and white descent—accounts for some three-fifths of
the population, while pure-blooded Indians amount to less than one-fifth, and whites constitute
nearly all the rest (small fractions are Mexicans of African and Arab descent). European
immigration to Mexico and Central America since the original Spanish conquest has been
negligible. When Velasco made his tally of 5,000,000 Indians within his jurisdiction, there were
only 150,000 Spaniards in the New World.
The European attitudes toward the environment
When European colonizers entered North America, they regarded the continent as a virtual
wilderness, one waiting to be settled and developed economically. The indigenous agriculture in
what is now the United States and Canada seemed strange and rudimentary to them, and it had
made only a slight dent in the vast forests and grasslands. There were no herds or flocks of
domesticated grazing animals exploiting the natural pastures, and mineral deposits, water power,
and other resources were being ignored by the aborigines. The Europeans saw no reason why
they should not claim land they thought could be used to better advantage; and they proceeded to
buy out, exterminate, or push out the Indians—when they did not enslave them—and established
their supremacy over the land.
The dispossession of the Indians
The process of removing the Indians from their ancestral lands led to bitter disputes. The
British tried to end one such problem by setting up the Proclamation of 1763 line along the
Appalachian divide, allowing whites to take over what lay to the east but attempting to reserve
what lay to the west as Indian territory. After their independence from Britain, the Americans
continued to adopt this ideal of a two-nation state, but in practice the notion soon collapsed as
they pushed the Indian line westward past the Appalachians to the Mississippi River and into the
Missouri River valley and other western lands. Nearly all the Indians in the east were displaced
to the west and into special zones in Oklahoma, the Great Plains, and the intermontane basins.
Even there, their land and their way of life were not respected, as ranchers, railroaders, and
homesteaders opened the West to settlement.
The Indian “territories” soon were reduced to isolated “reservations.” As a result, most of
the Indian population in the United States is now found west of the Mississippi River, usually in
drier areas unsuited to productive agriculture. At times the U.S. government has encouraged
Indians to leave the reservations and mix with the general population in the large cities of the
Midwest and West, a process of acculturation that some—including many younger and
ethnically conscious Indians—would claim poses as many dangers to the individual and social
well-being of Indians as do the communal misfortunes already brought upon them.
Counteracting the forces of assimilation have been increasingly energetic programs to defend
and strengthen aboriginal identity.
In Canada the reservation system was adopted at a relatively early date; it protected First
Nation (Native American) settlements throughout the east, even in such agriculturally rich areas
as the Montreal plain or peninsular Ontario. As the Europeans moved west, care was taken to
retain Indians on at least part of their own lands, including such fertile areas as the valley of the
Red River of the North and the Fraser River delta. Intermarriage between whites and Indians was
much more common than in the United States and produced a sizable community of the French
and Indian métis, who in 1869–70 unsuccessfully attempted to set up a separate state in the
Canadian prairies.
In both Mexico and Central America, racial admixture has gone much farther. In Mexico,
the mestizo population—of mixed Indian and white descent—accounts for some three-fifths of
the population, while pure-blooded Indians amount to less than one-fifth, and whites constitute
nearly all the rest (small fractions are Mexicans of African and Arab descent). European
immigration to Mexico and Central America since the original Spanish conquest has been
negligible. When Velasco made his tally of 5,000,000 Indians within his jurisdiction, there were
only 150,000 Spaniards in the New World.
The European attitudes toward the environment
When European colonizers entered North America, they regarded the continent as a virtual
wilderness, one waiting to be settled and developed economically. The indigenous agriculture in
what is now the United States and Canada seemed strange and rudimentary to them, and it had
made only a slight dent in the vast forests and grasslands. There were no herds or flocks of
domesticated grazing animals exploiting the natural pastures, and mineral deposits, water power,
and other resources were being ignored by the aborigines. The Europeans saw no reason why
they should not claim land they thought could be used to better advantage; and they proceeded to
buy out, exterminate, or push out the Indians—when they did not enslave them—and established
their supremacy over the land.
The dispossession of the Indians
The process of removing the Indians from their ancestral lands led to bitter disputes. The
British tried to end one such problem by setting up the Proclamation of 1763 line along the
Appalachian divide, allowing whites to take over what lay to the east but attempting to reserve
what lay to the west as Indian territory. After their independence from Britain, the Americans
continued to adopt this ideal of a two-nation state, but in practice the notion soon collapsed as
they pushed the Indian line westward past the Appalachians to the Mississippi River and into the
Missouri River valley and other western lands. Nearly all the Indians in the east were displaced
to the west and into special zones in Oklahoma, the Great Plains, and the intermontane basins.
Even there, their land and their way of life were not respected, as ranchers, railroaders, and
homesteaders opened the West to settlement.
The Indian “territories” soon were reduced to isolated “reservations.” As a result, most of
the Indian population in the United States is now found west of the Mississippi River, usually in
drier areas unsuited to productive agriculture. At times the U.S. government has encouraged
Indians to leave the reservations and mix with the general population in the large cities of the
Midwest and West, a process of acculturation that some—including many younger and
ethnically conscious Indians—would claim poses as many dangers to the individual and social
well-being of Indians as do the communal misfortunes already brought upon them.
Counteracting the forces of assimilation have been increasingly energetic programs to defend
and strengthen aboriginal identity.
In Canada the reservation system was adopted at a relatively early date; it protected First
Nation (Native American) settlements throughout the east, even in such agriculturally rich areas
as the Montreal plain or peninsular Ontario. As the Europeans moved west, care was taken to
retain Indians on at least part of their own lands, including such fertile areas as the valley of the
Red River of the North and the Fraser River delta. Intermarriage between whites and Indians was
much more common than in the United States and produced a sizable community of the French
and Indian métis, who in 1869–70 unsuccessfully attempted to set up a separate state in the
Canadian prairies.
In both Mexico and Central America, racial admixture has gone much farther. In Mexico,
the mestizo population—of mixed Indian and white descent—accounts for some three-fifths of
the population, while pure-blooded Indians amount to less than one-fifth, and whites constitute
nearly all the rest (small fractions are Mexicans of African and Arab descent). European
immigration to Mexico and Central America since the original Spanish conquest has been
negligible. When Velasco made his tally of 5,000,000 Indians within his jurisdiction, there were
only 150,000 Spaniards in the New World.
The European attitudes toward the environment
When European colonizers entered North America, they regarded the continent as a virtual
wilderness, one waiting to be settled and developed economically. The indigenous agriculture in
what is now the United States and Canada seemed strange and rudimentary to them, and it had
made only a slight dent in the vast forests and grasslands. There were no herds or flocks of
domesticated grazing animals exploiting the natural pastures, and mineral deposits, water power,
and other resources were being ignored by the aborigines. The Europeans saw no reason why
they should not claim land they thought could be used to better advantage; and they proceeded to
buy out, exterminate, or push out the Indians—when they did not enslave them—and established
their supremacy over the land.
The dispossession of the Indians
The process of removing the Indians from their ancestral lands led to bitter disputes. The
British tried to end one such problem by setting up the Proclamation of 1763 line along the
Appalachian divide, allowing whites to take over what lay to the east but attempting to reserve
what lay to the west as Indian territory. After their independence from Britain, the Americans
continued to adopt this ideal of a two-nation state, but in practice the notion soon collapsed as
they pushed the Indian line westward past the Appalachians to the Mississippi River and into the
Missouri River valley and other western lands. Nearly all the Indians in the east were displaced
to the west and into special zones in Oklahoma, the Great Plains, and the intermontane basins.
Even there, their land and their way of life were not respected, as ranchers, railroaders, and
homesteaders opened the West to settlement.
The Indian “territories” soon were reduced to isolated “reservations.” As a result, most of
the Indian population in the United States is now found west of the Mississippi River, usually in
drier areas unsuited to productive agriculture. At times the U.S. government has encouraged
Indians to leave the reservations and mix with the general population in the large cities of the
Midwest and West, a process of acculturation that some—including many younger and
ethnically conscious Indians—would claim poses as many dangers to the individual and social
well-being of Indians as do the communal misfortunes already brought upon them.
Counteracting the forces of assimilation have been increasingly energetic programs to defend
and strengthen aboriginal identity.
In Canada the reservation system was adopted at a relatively early date; it protected First
Nation (Native American) settlements throughout the east, even in such agriculturally rich areas
as the Montreal plain or peninsular Ontario. As the Europeans moved west, care was taken to
retain Indians on at least part of their own lands, including such fertile areas as the valley of the
Red River of the North and the Fraser River delta. Intermarriage between whites and Indians was
much more common than in the United States and produced a sizable community of the French
and Indian métis, who in 1869–70 unsuccessfully attempted to set up a separate state in the
Canadian prairies.
In both Mexico and Central America, racial admixture has gone much farther. In Mexico,
the mestizo population—of mixed Indian and white descent—accounts for some three-fifths of
the population, while pure-blooded Indians amount to less than one-fifth, and whites constitute
nearly all the rest (small fractions are Mexicans of African and Arab descent). European
immigration to Mexico and Central America since the original Spanish conquest has been
negligible. When Velasco made his tally of 5,000,000 Indians within his jurisdiction, there were
only 150,000 Spaniards in the New World.
The European attitudes toward the environment
When European colonizers entered North America, they regarded the continent as a virtual
wilderness, one waiting to be settled and developed economically. The indigenous agriculture in
what is now the United States and Canada seemed strange and rudimentary to them, and it had
made only a slight dent in the vast forests and grasslands. There were no herds or flocks of
domesticated grazing animals exploiting the natural pastures, and mineral deposits, water power,
and other resources were being ignored by the aborigines. The Europeans saw no reason why
they should not claim land they thought could be used to better advantage; and they proceeded to
buy out, exterminate, or push out the Indians—when they did not enslave them—and established
their supremacy over the land.
The dispossession of the Indians
The process of removing the Indians from their ancestral lands led to bitter disputes. The
British tried to end one such problem by setting up the Proclamation of 1763 line along the
Appalachian divide, allowing whites to take over what lay to the east but attempting to reserve
what lay to the west as Indian territory. After their independence from Britain, the Americans
continued to adopt this ideal of a two-nation state, but in practice the notion soon collapsed as
they pushed the Indian line westward past the Appalachians to the Mississippi River and into the
Missouri River valley and other western lands. Nearly all the Indians in the east were displaced
to the west and into special zones in Oklahoma, the Great Plains, and the intermontane basins.
Even there, their land and their way of life were not respected, as ranchers, railroaders, and
homesteaders opened the West to settlement.
The Indian “territories” soon were reduced to isolated “reservations.” As a result, most of
the Indian population in the United States is now found west of the Mississippi River, usually in
drier areas unsuited to productive agriculture. At times the U.S. government has encouraged
Indians to leave the reservations and mix with the general population in the large cities of the
Midwest and West, a process of acculturation that some—including many younger and
ethnically conscious Indians—would claim poses as many dangers to the individual and social
well-being of Indians as do the communal misfortunes already brought upon them.
Counteracting the forces of assimilation have been increasingly energetic programs to defend
and strengthen aboriginal identity.
In Canada the reservation system was adopted at a relatively early date; it protected First
Nation (Native American) settlements throughout the east, even in such agriculturally rich areas
as the Montreal plain or peninsular Ontario. As the Europeans moved west, care was taken to
retain Indians on at least part of their own lands, including such fertile areas as the valley of the
Red River of the North and the Fraser River delta. Intermarriage between whites and Indians was
much more common than in the United States and produced a sizable community of the French
and Indian métis, who in 1869–70 unsuccessfully attempted to set up a separate state in the
Canadian prairies.
In both Mexico and Central America, racial admixture has gone much farther. In Mexico,
the mestizo population—of mixed Indian and white descent—accounts for some three-fifths of
the population, while pure-blooded Indians amount to less than one-fifth, and whites constitute
nearly all the rest (small fractions are Mexicans of African and Arab descent). European
immigration to Mexico and Central America since the original Spanish conquest has been
negligible. When Velasco made his tally of 5,000,000 Indians within his jurisdiction, there were
only 150,000 Spaniards in the New World.
The European attitudes toward the environment
When European colonizers entered North America, they regarded the continent as a virtual
wilderness, one waiting to be settled and developed economically. The indigenous agriculture in
what is now the United States and Canada seemed strange and rudimentary to them, and it had
made only a slight dent in the vast forests and grasslands. There were no herds or flocks of
domesticated grazing animals exploiting the natural pastures, and mineral deposits, water power,
and other resources were being ignored by the aborigines. The Europeans saw no reason why
they should not claim land they thought could be used to better advantage; and they proceeded to
buy out, exterminate, or push out the Indians—when they did not enslave them—and established
their supremacy over the land.
The dispossession of the Indians
The process of removing the Indians from their ancestral lands led to bitter disputes. The
British tried to end one such problem by setting up the Proclamation of 1763 line along the
Appalachian divide, allowing whites to take over what lay to the east but attempting to reserve
what lay to the west as Indian territory. After their independence from Britain, the Americans
continued to adopt this ideal of a two-nation state, but in practice the notion soon collapsed as
they pushed the Indian line westward past the Appalachians to the Mississippi River and into the
Missouri River valley and other western lands. Nearly all the Indians in the east were displaced
to the west and into special zones in Oklahoma, the Great Plains, and the intermontane basins.
Even there, their land and their way of life were not respected, as ranchers, railroaders, and
homesteaders opened the West to settlement.
The Indian “territories” soon were reduced to isolated “reservations.” As a result, most of
the Indian population in the United States is now found west of the Mississippi River, usually in
drier areas unsuited to productive agriculture. At times the U.S. government has encouraged
Indians to leave the reservations and mix with the general population in the large cities of the
Midwest and West, a process of acculturation that some—including many younger and
ethnically conscious Indians—would claim poses as many dangers to the individual and social
well-being of Indians as do the communal misfortunes already brought upon them.
Counteracting the forces of assimilation have been increasingly energetic programs to defend
and strengthen aboriginal identity.
In Canada the reservation system was adopted at a relatively early date; it protected First
Nation (Native American) settlements throughout the east, even in such agriculturally rich areas
as the Montreal plain or peninsular Ontario. As the Europeans moved west, care was taken to
retain Indians on at least part of their own lands, including such fertile areas as the valley of the
Red River of the North and the Fraser River delta. Intermarriage between whites and Indians was
much more common than in the United States and produced a sizable community of the French
and Indian métis, who in 1869–70 unsuccessfully attempted to set up a separate state in the
Canadian prairies.
In both Mexico and Central America, racial admixture has gone much farther. In Mexico,
the mestizo population—of mixed Indian and white descent—accounts for some three-fifths of
the population, while pure-blooded Indians amount to less than one-fifth, and whites constitute
nearly all the rest (small fractions are Mexicans of African and Arab descent). European
immigration to Mexico and Central America since the original Spanish conquest has been
negligible. When Velasco made his tally of 5,000,000 Indians within his jurisdiction, there were
only 150,000 Spaniards in the New World.
The European attitudes toward the environment
When European colonizers entered North America, they regarded the continent as a virtual
wilderness, one waiting to be settled and developed economically. The indigenous agriculture in
what is now the United States and Canada seemed strange and rudimentary to them, and it had
made only a slight dent in the vast forests and grasslands. There were no herds or flocks of
domesticated grazing animals exploiting the natural pastures, and mineral deposits, water power,
and other resources were being ignored by the aborigines. The Europeans saw no reason why
they should not claim land they thought could be used to better advantage; and they proceeded to
buy out, exterminate, or push out the Indians—when they did not enslave them—and established
their supremacy over the land.
The dispossession of the Indians
The process of removing the Indians from their ancestral lands led to bitter disputes. The
British tried to end one such problem by setting up the Proclamation of 1763 line along the
Appalachian divide, allowing whites to take over what lay to the east but attempting to reserve
what lay to the west as Indian territory. After their independence from Britain, the Americans
continued to adopt this ideal of a two-nation state, but in practice the notion soon collapsed as
they pushed the Indian line westward past the Appalachians to the Mississippi River and into the
Missouri River valley and other western lands. Nearly all the Indians in the east were displaced
to the west and into special zones in Oklahoma, the Great Plains, and the intermontane basins.
Even there, their land and their way of life were not respected, as ranchers, railroaders, and
homesteaders opened the West to settlement.
The Indian “territories” soon were reduced to isolated “reservations.” As a result, most of
the Indian population in the United States is now found west of the Mississippi River, usually in
drier areas unsuited to productive agriculture. At times the U.S. government has encouraged
Indians to leave the reservations and mix with the general population in the large cities of the
Midwest and West, a process of acculturation that some—including many younger and
ethnically conscious Indians—would claim poses as many dangers to the individual and social
well-being of Indians as do the communal misfortunes already brought upon them.
Counteracting the forces of assimilation have been increasingly energetic programs to defend
and strengthen aboriginal identity.
In Canada the reservation system was adopted at a relatively early date; it protected First
Nation (Native American) settlements throughout the east, even in such agriculturally rich areas
as the Montreal plain or peninsular Ontario. As the Europeans moved west, care was taken to
retain Indians on at least part of their own lands, including such fertile areas as the valley of the
Red River of the North and the Fraser River delta. Intermarriage between whites and Indians was
much more common than in the United States and produced a sizable community of the French
and Indian métis, who in 1869–70 unsuccessfully attempted to set up a separate state in the
Canadian prairies.
In both Mexico and Central America, racial admixture has gone much farther. In Mexico,
the mestizo population—of mixed Indian and white descent—accounts for some three-fifths of
the population, while pure-blooded Indians amount to less than one-fifth, and whites constitute
nearly all the rest (small fractions are Mexicans of African and Arab descent). European
immigration to Mexico and Central America since the original Spanish conquest has been
negligible. When Velasco made his tally of 5,000,000 Indians within his jurisdiction, there were
only 150,000 Spaniards in the New World.
The European attitudes toward the environment
When European colonizers entered North America, they regarded the continent as a virtual
wilderness, one waiting to be settled and developed economically. The indigenous agriculture in
what is now the United States and Canada seemed strange and rudimentary to them, and it had
made only a slight dent in the vast forests and grasslands. There were no herds or flocks of
domesticated grazing animals exploiting the natural pastures, and mineral deposits, water power,
and other resources were being ignored by the aborigines. The Europeans saw no reason why
they should not claim land they thought could be used to better advantage; and they proceeded to
buy out, exterminate, or push out the Indians—when they did not enslave them—and established
their supremacy over the land.
The dispossession of the Indians
The process of removing the Indians from their ancestral lands led to bitter disputes. The
British tried to end one such problem by setting up the Proclamation of 1763 line along the
Appalachian divide, allowing whites to take over what lay to the east but attempting to reserve
what lay to the west as Indian territory. After their independence from Britain, the Americans
continued to adopt this ideal of a two-nation state, but in practice the notion soon collapsed as
they pushed the Indian line westward past the Appalachians to the Mississippi River and into the
Missouri River valley and other western lands. Nearly all the Indians in the east were displaced
to the west and into special zones in Oklahoma, the Great Plains, and the intermontane basins.
Even there, their land and their way of life were not respected, as ranchers, railroaders, and
homesteaders opened the West to settlement.
The Indian “territories” soon were reduced to isolated “reservations.” As a result, most of
the Indian population in the United States is now found west of the Mississippi River, usually in
drier areas unsuited to productive agriculture. At times the U.S. government has encouraged
Indians to leave the reservations and mix with the general population in the large cities of the
Midwest and West, a process of acculturation that some—including many younger and
ethnically conscious Indians—would claim poses as many dangers to the individual and social
well-being of Indians as do the communal misfortunes already brought upon them.
Counteracting the forces of assimilation have been increasingly energetic programs to defend
and strengthen aboriginal identity.
In Canada the reservation system was adopted at a relatively early date; it protected First
Nation (Native American) settlements throughout the east, even in such agriculturally rich areas
as the Montreal plain or peninsular Ontario. As the Europeans moved west, care was taken to
retain Indians on at least part of their own lands, including such fertile areas as the valley of the
Red River of the North and the Fraser River delta. Intermarriage between whites and Indians was
much more common than in the United States and produced a sizable community of the French
and Indian métis, who in 1869–70 unsuccessfully attempted to set up a separate state in the
Canadian prairies.
In both Mexico and Central America, racial admixture has gone much farther. In Mexico,
the mestizo population—of mixed Indian and white descent—accounts for some three-fifths of
the population, while pure-blooded Indians amount to less than one-fifth, and whites constitute
nearly all the rest (small fractions are Mexicans of African and Arab descent). European
immigration to Mexico and Central America since the original Spanish conquest has been
negligible. When Velasco made his tally of 5,000,000 Indians within his jurisdiction, there were
only 150,000 Spaniards in the New World.
The European attitudes toward the environment
When European colonizers entered North America, they regarded the continent as a virtual
wilderness, one waiting to be settled and developed economically. The indigenous agriculture in
what is now the United States and Canada seemed strange and rudimentary to them, and it had
made only a slight dent in the vast forests and grasslands. There were no herds or flocks of
domesticated grazing animals exploiting the natural pastures, and mineral deposits, water power,
and other resources were being ignored by the aborigines. The Europeans saw no reason why
they should not claim land they thought could be used to better advantage; and they proceeded to
buy out, exterminate, or push out the Indians—when they did not enslave them—and established
their supremacy over the land.
The dispossession of the Indians
The process of removing the Indians from their ancestral lands led to bitter disputes. The
British tried to end one such problem by setting up the Proclamation of 1763 line along the
Appalachian divide, allowing whites to take over what lay to the east but attempting to reserve
what lay to the west as Indian territory. After their independence from Britain, the Americans
continued to adopt this ideal of a two-nation state, but in practice the notion soon collapsed as
they pushed the Indian line westward past the Appalachians to the Mississippi River and into the
Missouri River valley and other western lands. Nearly all the Indians in the east were displaced
to the west and into special zones in Oklahoma, the Great Plains, and the intermontane basins.
Even there, their land and their way of life were not respected, as ranchers, railroaders, and
homesteaders opened the West to settlement.
The Indian “territories” soon were reduced to isolated “reservations.” As a result, most of
the Indian population in the United States is now found west of the Mississippi River, usually in
drier areas unsuited to productive agriculture. At times the U.S. government has encouraged
Indians to leave the reservations and mix with the general population in the large cities of the
Midwest and West, a process of acculturation that some—including many younger and
ethnically conscious Indians—would claim poses as many dangers to the individual and social
well-being of Indians as do the communal misfortunes already brought upon them.
Counteracting the forces of assimilation have been increasingly energetic programs to defend
and strengthen aboriginal identity.
In Canada the reservation system was adopted at a relatively early date; it protected First
Nation (Native American) settlements throughout the east, even in such agriculturally rich areas
as the Montreal plain or peninsular Ontario. As the Europeans moved west, care was taken to
retain Indians on at least part of their own lands, including such fertile areas as the valley of the
Red River of the North and the Fraser River delta. Intermarriage between whites and Indians was
much more common than in the United States and produced a sizable community of the French
and Indian métis, who in 1869–70 unsuccessfully attempted to set up a separate state in the
Canadian prairies.
In both Mexico and Central America, racial admixture has gone much farther. In Mexico,
the mestizo population—of mixed Indian and white descent—accounts for some three-fifths of
the population, while pure-blooded Indians amount to less than one-fifth, and whites constitute
nearly all the rest (small fractions are Mexicans of African and Arab descent). European
immigration to Mexico and Central America since the original Spanish conquest has been
negligible. When Velasco made his tally of 5,000,000 Indians within his jurisdiction, there were
only 150,000 Spaniards in the New World.
The European attitudes toward the environment
When European colonizers entered North America, they regarded the continent as a virtual
wilderness, one waiting to be settled and developed economically. The indigenous agriculture in
what is now the United States and Canada seemed strange and rudimentary to them, and it had
made only a slight dent in the vast forests and grasslands. There were no herds or flocks of
domesticated grazing animals exploiting the natural pastures, and mineral deposits, water power,
and other resources were being ignored by the aborigines. The Europeans saw no reason why
they should not claim land they thought could be used to better advantage; and they proceeded to
buy out, exterminate, or push out the Indians—when they did not enslave them—and established
their supremacy over the land.
The dispossession of the Indians
The process of removing the Indians from their ancestral lands led to bitter disputes. The
British tried to end one such problem by setting up the Proclamation of 1763 line along the
Appalachian divide, allowing whites to take over what lay to the east but attempting to reserve
what lay to the west as Indian territory. After their independence from Britain, the Americans
continued to adopt this ideal of a two-nation state, but in practice the notion soon collapsed as
they pushed the Indian line westward past the Appalachians to the Mississippi River and into the
Missouri River valley and other western lands. Nearly all the Indians in the east were displaced
to the west and into special zones in Oklahoma, the Great Plains, and the intermontane basins.
Even there, their land and their way of life were not respected, as ranchers, railroaders, and
homesteaders opened the West to settlement.
The Indian “territories” soon were reduced to isolated “reservations.” As a result, most of
the Indian population in the United States is now found west of the Mississippi River, usually in
drier areas unsuited to productive agriculture. At times the U.S. government has encouraged
Indians to leave the reservations and mix with the general population in the large cities of the
Midwest and West, a process of acculturation that some—including many younger and
ethnically conscious Indians—would claim poses as many dangers to the individual and social
well-being of Indians as do the communal misfortunes already brought upon them.
Counteracting the forces of assimilation have been increasingly energetic programs to defend
and strengthen aboriginal identity.
In Canada the reservation system was adopted at a relatively early date; it protected First
Nation (Native American) settlements throughout the east, even in such agriculturally rich areas
as the Montreal plain or peninsular Ontario. As the Europeans moved west, care was taken to
retain Indians on at least part of their own lands, including such fertile areas as the valley of the
Red River of the North and the Fraser River delta. Intermarriage between whites and Indians was
much more common than in the United States and produced a sizable community of the French
and Indian métis, who in 1869–70 unsuccessfully attempted to set up a separate state in the
Canadian prairies.
In both Mexico and Central America, racial admixture has gone much farther. In Mexico,
the mestizo population—of mixed Indian and white descent—accounts for some three-fifths of
the population, while pure-blooded Indians amount to less than one-fifth, and whites constitute
nearly all the rest (small fractions are Mexicans of African and Arab descent). European
immigration to Mexico and Central America since the original Spanish conquest has been
negligible. When Velasco made his tally of 5,000,000 Indians within his jurisdiction, there were
only 150,000 Spaniards in the New World.
The European attitudes toward the environment
When European colonizers entered North America, they regarded the continent as a virtual
wilderness, one waiting to be settled and developed economically. The indigenous agriculture in
what is now the United States and Canada seemed strange and rudimentary to them, and it had
made only a slight dent in the vast forests and grasslands. There were no herds or flocks of
domesticated grazing animals exploiting the natural pastures, and mineral deposits, water power,
and other resources were being ignored by the aborigines. The Europeans saw no reason why
they should not claim land they thought could be used to better advantage; and they proceeded to
buy out, exterminate, or push out the Indians—when they did not enslave them—and established
their supremacy over the land.
The dispossession of the Indians
The process of removing the Indians from their ancestral lands led to bitter disputes. The
British tried to end one such problem by setting up the Proclamation of 1763 line along the
Appalachian divide, allowing whites to take over what lay to the east but attempting to reserve
what lay to the west as Indian territory. After their independence from Britain, the Americans
continued to adopt this ideal of a two-nation state, but in practice the notion soon collapsed as
they pushed the Indian line westward past the Appalachians to the Mississippi River and into the
Missouri River valley and other western lands. Nearly all the Indians in the east were displaced
to the west and into special zones in Oklahoma, the Great Plains, and the intermontane basins.
Even there, their land and their way of life were not respected, as ranchers, railroaders, and
homesteaders opened the West to settlement.
The Indian “territories” soon were reduced to isolated “reservations.” As a result, most of
the Indian population in the United States is now found west of the Mississippi River, usually in
drier areas unsuited to productive agriculture. At times the U.S. government has encouraged
Indians to leave the reservations and mix with the general population in the large cities of the
Midwest and West, a process of acculturation that some—including many younger and
ethnically conscious Indians—would claim poses as many dangers to the individual and social
well-being of Indians as do the communal misfortunes already brought upon them.
Counteracting the forces of assimilation have been increasingly energetic programs to defend
and strengthen aboriginal identity.
In Canada the reservation system was adopted at a relatively early date; it protected First
Nation (Native American) settlements throughout the east, even in such agriculturally rich areas
as the Montreal plain or peninsular Ontario. As the Europeans moved west, care was taken to
retain Indians on at least part of their own lands, including such fertile areas as the valley of the
Red River of the North and the Fraser River delta. Intermarriage between whites and Indians was
much more common than in the United States and produced a sizable community of the French
and Indian métis, who in 1869–70 unsuccessfully attempted to set up a separate state in the
Canadian prairies.
In both Mexico and Central America, racial admixture has gone much farther. In Mexico,
the mestizo population—of mixed Indian and white descent—accounts for some three-fifths of
the population, while pure-blooded Indians amount to less than one-fifth, and whites constitute
nearly all the rest (small fractions are Mexicans of African and Arab descent). European
immigration to Mexico and Central America since the original Spanish conquest has been
negligible. When Velasco made his tally of 5,000,000 Indians within his jurisdiction, there were
only 150,000 Spaniards in the New World.
The European attitudes toward the environment
When European colonizers entered North America, they regarded the continent as a virtual
wilderness, one waiting to be settled and developed economically. The indigenous agriculture in
what is now the United States and Canada seemed strange and rudimentary to them, and it had
made only a slight dent in the vast forests and grasslands. There were no herds or flocks of
domesticated grazing animals exploiting the natural pastures, and mineral deposits, water power,
and other resources were being ignored by the aborigines. The Europeans saw no reason why
they should not claim land they thought could be used to better advantage; and they proceeded to
buy out, exterminate, or push out the Indians—when they did not enslave them—and established
their supremacy over the land.
The dispossession of the Indians
The process of removing the Indians from their ancestral lands led to bitter disputes. The
British tried to end one such problem by setting up the Proclamation of 1763 line along the
Appalachian divide, allowing whites to take over what lay to the east but attempting to reserve
what lay to the west as Indian territory. After their independence from Britain, the Americans
continued to adopt this ideal of a two-nation state, but in practice the notion soon collapsed as
they pushed the Indian line westward past the Appalachians to the Mississippi River and into the
Missouri River valley and other western lands. Nearly all the Indians in the east were displaced
to the west and into special zones in Oklahoma, the Great Plains, and the intermontane basins.
Even there, their land and their way of life were not respected, as ranchers, railroaders, and
homesteaders opened the West to settlement.
The Indian “territories” soon were reduced to isolated “reservations.” As a result, most of
the Indian population in the United States is now found west of the Mississippi River, usually in
drier areas unsuited to productive agriculture. At times the U.S. government has encouraged
Indians to leave the reservations and mix with the general population in the large cities of the
Midwest and West, a process of acculturation that some—including many younger and
ethnically conscious Indians—would claim poses as many dangers to the individual and social
well-being of Indians as do the communal misfortunes already brought upon them.
Counteracting the forces of assimilation have been increasingly energetic programs to defend
and strengthen aboriginal identity.
In Canada the reservation system was adopted at a relatively early date; it protected First
Nation (Native American) settlements throughout the east, even in such agriculturally rich areas
as the Montreal plain or peninsular Ontario. As the Europeans moved west, care was taken to
retain Indians on at least part of their own lands, including such fertile areas as the valley of the
Red River of the North and the Fraser River delta. Intermarriage between whites and Indians was
much more common than in the United States and produced a sizable community of the French
and Indian métis, who in 1869–70 unsuccessfully attempted to set up a separate state in the
Canadian prairies.
In both Mexico and Central America, racial admixture has gone much farther. In Mexico,
the mestizo population—of mixed Indian and white descent—accounts for some three-fifths of
the population, while pure-blooded Indians amount to less than one-fifth, and whites constitute
nearly all the rest (small fractions are Mexicans of African and Arab descent). European
immigration to Mexico and Central America since the original Spanish conquest has been
negligible. When Velasco made his tally of 5,000,000 Indians within his jurisdiction, there were
only 150,000 Spaniards in the New World.
The European attitudes toward the environment
When European colonizers entered North America, they regarded the continent as a virtual
wilderness, one waiting to be settled and developed economically. The indigenous agriculture in
what is now the United States and Canada seemed strange and rudimentary to them, and it had
made only a slight dent in the vast forests and grasslands. There were no herds or flocks of
domesticated grazing animals exploiting the natural pastures, and mineral deposits, water power,
and other resources were being ignored by the aborigines. The Europeans saw no reason why
they should not claim land they thought could be used to better advantage; and they proceeded to
buy out, exterminate, or push out the Indians—when they did not enslave them—and established
their supremacy over the land.
The dispossession of the Indians
The process of removing the Indians from their ancestral lands led to bitter disputes. The
British tried to end one such problem by setting up the Proclamation of 1763 line along the
Appalachian divide, allowing whites to take over what lay to the east but attempting to reserve
what lay to the west as Indian territory. After their independence from Britain, the Americans
continued to adopt this ideal of a two-nation state, but in practice the notion soon collapsed as
they pushed the Indian line westward past the Appalachians to the Mississippi River and into the
Missouri River valley and other western lands. Nearly all the Indians in the east were displaced
to the west and into special zones in Oklahoma, the Great Plains, and the intermontane basins.
Even there, their land and their way of life were not respected, as ranchers, railroaders, and
homesteaders opened the West to settlement.
The Indian “territories” soon were reduced to isolated “reservations.” As a result, most of
the Indian population in the United States is now found west of the Mississippi River, usually in
drier areas unsuited to productive agriculture. At times the U.S. government has encouraged
Indians to leave the reservations and mix with the general population in the large cities of the
Midwest and West, a process of acculturation that some—including many younger and
ethnically conscious Indians—would claim poses as many dangers to the individual and social
well-being of Indians as do the communal misfortunes already brought upon them.
Counteracting the forces of assimilation have been increasingly energetic programs to defend
and strengthen aboriginal identity.
In Canada the reservation system was adopted at a relatively early date; it protected First
Nation (Native American) settlements throughout the east, even in such agriculturally rich areas
as the Montreal plain or peninsular Ontario. As the Europeans moved west, care was taken to
retain Indians on at least part of their own lands, including such fertile areas as the valley of the
Red River of the North and the Fraser River delta. Intermarriage between whites and Indians was
much more common than in the United States and produced a sizable community of the French
and Indian métis, who in 1869–70 unsuccessfully attempted to set up a separate state in the
Canadian prairies.
In both Mexico and Central America, racial admixture has gone much farther. In Mexico,
the mestizo population—of mixed Indian and white descent—accounts for some three-fifths of
the population, while pure-blooded Indians amount to less than one-fifth, and whites constitute
nearly all the rest (small fractions are Mexicans of African and Arab descent). European
immigration to Mexico and Central America since the original Spanish conquest has been
negligible. When Velasco made his tally of 5,000,000 Indians within his jurisdiction, there were
only 150,000 Spaniards in the New World.
The European attitudes toward the environment
When European colonizers entered North America, they regarded the continent as a virtual
wilderness, one waiting to be settled and developed economically. The indigenous agriculture in
what is now the United States and Canada seemed strange and rudimentary to them, and it had
made only a slight dent in the vast forests and grasslands. There were no herds or flocks of
domesticated grazing animals exploiting the natural pastures, and mineral deposits, water power,
and other resources were being ignored by the aborigines. The Europeans saw no reason why
they should not claim land they thought could be used to better advantage; and they proceeded to
buy out, exterminate, or push out the Indians—when they did not enslave them—and established
their supremacy over the land.
The dispossession of the Indians
The process of removing the Indians from their ancestral lands led to bitter disputes. The
British tried to end one such problem by setting up the Proclamation of 1763 line along the
Appalachian divide, allowing whites to take over what lay to the east but attempting to reserve
what lay to the west as Indian territory. After their independence from Britain, the Americans
continued to adopt this ideal of a two-nation state, but in practice the notion soon collapsed as
they pushed the Indian line westward past the Appalachians to the Mississippi River and into the
Missouri River valley and other western lands. Nearly all the Indians in the east were displaced
to the west and into special zones in Oklahoma, the Great Plains, and the intermontane basins.
Even there, their land and their way of life were not respected, as ranchers, railroaders, and
homesteaders opened the West to settlement.
The Indian “territories” soon were reduced to isolated “reservations.” As a result, most of
the Indian population in the United States is now found west of the Mississippi River, usually in
drier areas unsuited to productive agriculture. At times the U.S. government has encouraged
Indians to leave the reservations and mix with the general population in the large cities of the
Midwest and West, a process of acculturation that some—including many younger and
ethnically conscious Indians—would claim poses as many dangers to the individual and social
well-being of Indians as do the communal misfortunes already brought upon them.
Counteracting the forces of assimilation have been increasingly energetic programs to defend
and strengthen aboriginal identity.
In Canada the reservation system was adopted at a relatively early date; it protected First
Nation (Native American) settlements throughout the east, even in such agriculturally rich areas
as the Montreal plain or peninsular Ontario. As the Europeans moved west, care was taken to
retain Indians on at least part of their own lands, including such fertile areas as the valley of the
Red River of the North and the Fraser River delta. Intermarriage between whites and Indians was
much more common than in the United States and produced a sizable community of the French
and Indian métis, who in 1869–70 unsuccessfully attempted to set up a separate state in the
Canadian prairies.
In both Mexico and Central America, racial admixture has gone much farther. In Mexico,
the mestizo population—of mixed Indian and white descent—accounts for some three-fifths of
the population, while pure-blooded Indians amount to less than one-fifth, and whites constitute
nearly all the rest (small fractions are Mexicans of African and Arab descent). European
immigration to Mexico and Central America since the original Spanish conquest has been
negligible. When Velasco made his tally of 5,000,000 Indians within his jurisdiction, there were
only 150,000 Spaniards in the New World.
The European attitudes toward the environment
When European colonizers entered North America, they regarded the continent as a virtual
wilderness, one waiting to be settled and developed economically. The indigenous agriculture in
what is now the United States and Canada seemed strange and rudimentary to them, and it had
made only a slight dent in the vast forests and grasslands. There were no herds or flocks of
domesticated grazing animals exploiting the natural pastures, and mineral deposits, water power,
and other resources were being ignored by the aborigines. The Europeans saw no reason why
they should not claim land they thought could be used to better advantage; and they proceeded to
buy out, exterminate, or push out the Indians—when they did not enslave them—and established
their supremacy over the land.
The dispossession of the Indians
The process of removing the Indians from their ancestral lands led to bitter disputes. The
British tried to end one such problem by setting up the Proclamation of 1763 line along the
Appalachian divide, allowing whites to take over what lay to the east but attempting to reserve
what lay to the west as Indian territory. After their independence from Britain, the Americans
continued to adopt this ideal of a two-nation state, but in practice the notion soon collapsed as
they pushed the Indian line westward past the Appalachians to the Mississippi River and into the
Missouri River valley and other western lands. Nearly all the Indians in the east were displaced
to the west and into special zones in Oklahoma, the Great Plains, and the intermontane basins.
Even there, their land and their way of life were not respected, as ranchers, railroaders, and
homesteaders opened the West to settlement.
The Indian “territories” soon were reduced to isolated “reservations.” As a result, most of
the Indian population in the United States is now found west of the Mississippi River, usually in
drier areas unsuited to productive agriculture. At times the U.S. government has encouraged
Indians to leave the reservations and mix with the general population in the large cities of the
Midwest and West, a process of acculturation that some—including many younger and
ethnically conscious Indians—would claim poses as many dangers to the individual and social
well-being of Indians as do the communal misfortunes already brought upon them.
Counteracting the forces of assimilation have been increasingly energetic programs to defend
and strengthen aboriginal identity.
In Canada the reservation system was adopted at a relatively early date; it protected First
Nation (Native American) settlements throughout the east, even in such agriculturally rich areas
as the Montreal plain or peninsular Ontario. As the Europeans moved west, care was taken to
retain Indians on at least part of their own lands, including such fertile areas as the valley of the
Red River of the North and the Fraser River delta. Intermarriage between whites and Indians was
much more common than in the United States and produced a sizable community of the French
and Indian métis, who in 1869–70 unsuccessfully attempted to set up a separate state in the
Canadian prairies.
In both Mexico and Central America, racial admixture has gone much farther. In Mexico,
the mestizo population—of mixed Indian and white descent—accounts for some three-fifths of
the population, while pure-blooded Indians amount to less than one-fifth, and whites constitute
nearly all the rest (small fractions are Mexicans of African and Arab descent). European
immigration to Mexico and Central America since the original Spanish conquest has been
negligible. When Velasco made his tally of 5,000,000 Indians within his jurisdiction, there were
only 150,000 Spaniards in the New World.
The European attitudes toward the environment
When European colonizers entered North America, they regarded the continent as a virtual
wilderness, one waiting to be settled and developed economically. The indigenous agriculture in
what is now the United States and Canada seemed strange and rudimentary to them, and it had
made only a slight dent in the vast forests and grasslands. There were no herds or flocks of
domesticated grazing animals exploiting the natural pastures, and mineral deposits, water power,
and other resources were being ignored by the aborigines. The Europeans saw no reason why
they should not claim land they thought could be used to better advantage; and they proceeded to
buy out, exterminate, or push out the Indians—when they did not enslave them—and established
their supremacy over the land.
The dispossession of the Indians
The process of removing the Indians from their ancestral lands led to bitter disputes. The
British tried to end one such problem by setting up the Proclamation of 1763 line along the
Appalachian divide, allowing whites to take over what lay to the east but attempting to reserve
what lay to the west as Indian territory. After their independence from Britain, the Americans
continued to adopt this ideal of a two-nation state, but in practice the notion soon collapsed as
they pushed the Indian line westward past the Appalachians to the Mississippi River and into the
Missouri River valley and other western lands. Nearly all the Indians in the east were displaced
to the west and into special zones in Oklahoma, the Great Plains, and the intermontane basins.
Even there, their land and their way of life were not respected, as ranchers, railroaders, and
homesteaders opened the West to settlement.
The Indian “territories” soon were reduced to isolated “reservations.” As a result, most of
the Indian population in the United States is now found west of the Mississippi River, usually in
drier areas unsuited to productive agriculture. At times the U.S. government has encouraged
Indians to leave the reservations and mix with the general population in the large cities of the
Midwest and West, a process of acculturation that some—including many younger and
ethnically conscious Indians—would claim poses as many dangers to the individual and social
well-being of Indians as do the communal misfortunes already brought upon them.
Counteracting the forces of assimilation have been increasingly energetic programs to defend
and strengthen aboriginal identity.
In Canada the reservation system was adopted at a relatively early date; it protected First
Nation (Native American) settlements throughout the east, even in such agriculturally rich areas
as the Montreal plain or peninsular Ontario. As the Europeans moved west, care was taken to
retain Indians on at least part of their own lands, including such fertile areas as the valley of the
Red River of the North and the Fraser River delta. Intermarriage between whites and Indians was
much more common than in the United States and produced a sizable community of the French
and Indian métis, who in 1869–70 unsuccessfully attempted to set up a separate state in the
Canadian prairies.
In both Mexico and Central America, racial admixture has gone much farther. In Mexico,
the mestizo population—of mixed Indian and white descent—accounts for some three-fifths of
the population, while pure-blooded Indians amount to less than one-fifth, and whites constitute
nearly all the rest (small fractions are Mexicans of African and Arab descent). European
immigration to Mexico and Central America since the original Spanish conquest has been
negligible. When Velasco made his tally of 5,000,000 Indians within his jurisdiction, there were
only 150,000 Spaniards in the New World.
The European attitudes toward the environment
When European colonizers entered North America, they regarded the continent as a virtual
wilderness, one waiting to be settled and developed economically. The indigenous agriculture in
what is now the United States and Canada seemed strange and rudimentary to them, and it had
made only a slight dent in the vast forests and grasslands. There were no herds or flocks of
domesticated grazing animals exploiting the natural pastures, and mineral deposits, water power,
and other resources were being ignored by the aborigines. The Europeans saw no reason why
they should not claim land they thought could be used to better advantage; and they proceeded to
buy out, exterminate, or push out the Indians—when they did not enslave them—and established
their supremacy over the land.
The dispossession of the Indians
The process of removing the Indians from their ancestral lands led to bitter disputes. The
British tried to end one such problem by setting up the Proclamation of 1763 line along the
Appalachian divide, allowing whites to take over what lay to the east but attempting to reserve
what lay to the west as Indian territory. After their independence from Britain, the Americans
continued to adopt this ideal of a two-nation state, but in practice the notion soon collapsed as
they pushed the Indian line westward past the Appalachians to the Mississippi River and into the
Missouri River valley and other western lands. Nearly all the Indians in the east were displaced
to the west and into special zones in Oklahoma, the Great Plains, and the intermontane basins.
Even there, their land and their way of life were not respected, as ranchers, railroaders, and
homesteaders opened the West to settlement.
The Indian “territories” soon were reduced to isolated “reservations.” As a result, most of
the Indian population in the United States is now found west of the Mississippi River, usually in
drier areas unsuited to productive agriculture. At times the U.S. government has encouraged
Indians to leave the reservations and mix with the general population in the large cities of the
Midwest and West, a process of acculturation that some—including many younger and
ethnically conscious Indians—would claim poses as many dangers to the individual and social
well-being of Indians as do the communal misfortunes already brought upon them.
Counteracting the forces of assimilation have been increasingly energetic programs to defend
and strengthen aboriginal identity.
In Canada the reservation system was adopted at a relatively early date; it protected First
Nation (Native American) settlements throughout the east, even in such agriculturally rich areas
as the Montreal plain or peninsular Ontario. As the Europeans moved west, care was taken to
retain Indians on at least part of their own lands, including such fertile areas as the valley of the
Red River of the North and the Fraser River delta. Intermarriage between whites and Indians was
much more common than in the United States and produced a sizable community of the French
and Indian métis, who in 1869–70 unsuccessfully attempted to set up a separate state in the
Canadian prairies.
In both Mexico and Central America, racial admixture has gone much farther. In Mexico,
the mestizo population—of mixed Indian and white descent—accounts for some three-fifths of
the population, while pure-blooded Indians amount to less than one-fifth, and whites constitute
nearly all the rest (small fractions are Mexicans of African and Arab descent). European
immigration to Mexico and Central America since the original Spanish conquest has been
negligible. When Velasco made his tally of 5,000,000 Indians within his jurisdiction, there were
only 150,000 Spaniards in the New World.
The European attitudes toward the environment
When European colonizers entered North America, they regarded the continent as a virtual
wilderness, one waiting to be settled and developed economically. The indigenous agriculture in
what is now the United States and Canada seemed strange and rudimentary to them, and it had
made only a slight dent in the vast forests and grasslands. There were no herds or flocks of
domesticated grazing animals exploiting the natural pastures, and mineral deposits, water power,
and other resources were being ignored by the aborigines. The Europeans saw no reason why
they should not claim land they thought could be used to better advantage; and they proceeded to
buy out, exterminate, or push out the Indians—when they did not enslave them—and established
their supremacy over the land.
The dispossession of the Indians
The process of removing the Indians from their ancestral lands led to bitter disputes. The
British tried to end one such problem by setting up the Proclamation of 1763 line along the
Appalachian divide, allowing whites to take over what lay to the east but attempting to reserve
what lay to the west as Indian territory. After their independence from Britain, the Americans
continued to adopt this ideal of a two-nation state, but in practice the notion soon collapsed as
they pushed the Indian line westward past the Appalachians to the Mississippi River and into the
Missouri River valley and other western lands. Nearly all the Indians in the east were displaced
to the west and into special zones in Oklahoma, the Great Plains, and the intermontane basins.
Even there, their land and their way of life were not respected, as ranchers, railroaders, and
homesteaders opened the West to settlement.
The Indian “territories” soon were reduced to isolated “reservations.” As a result, most of
the Indian population in the United States is now found west of the Mississippi River, usually in
drier areas unsuited to productive agriculture. At times the U.S. government has encouraged
Indians to leave the reservations and mix with the general population in the large cities of the
Midwest and West, a process of acculturation that some—including many younger and
ethnically conscious Indians—would claim poses as many dangers to the individual and social
well-being of Indians as do the communal misfortunes already brought upon them.
Counteracting the forces of assimilation have been increasingly energetic programs to defend
and strengthen aboriginal identity.
In Canada the reservation system was adopted at a relatively early date; it protected First
Nation (Native American) settlements throughout the east, even in such agriculturally rich areas
as the Montreal plain or peninsular Ontario. As the Europeans moved west, care was taken to
retain Indians on at least part of their own lands, including such fertile areas as the valley of the
Red River of the North and the Fraser River delta. Intermarriage between whites and Indians was
much more common than in the United States and produced a sizable community of the French
and Indian métis, who in 1869–70 unsuccessfully attempted to set up a separate state in the
Canadian prairies.
In both Mexico and Central America, racial admixture has gone much farther. In Mexico,
the mestizo population—of mixed Indian and white descent—accounts for some three-fifths of
the population, while pure-blooded Indians amount to less than one-fifth, and whites constitute
nearly all the rest (small fractions are Mexicans of African and Arab descent). European
immigration to Mexico and Central America since the original Spanish conquest has been
negligible. When Velasco made his tally of 5,000,000 Indians within his jurisdiction, there were
only 150,000 Spaniards in the New World.
The European attitudes toward the environment
When European colonizers entered North America, they regarded the continent as a virtual
wilderness, one waiting to be settled and developed economically. The indigenous agriculture in
what is now the United States and Canada seemed strange and rudimentary to them, and it had
made only a slight dent in the vast forests and grasslands. There were no herds or flocks of
domesticated grazing animals exploiting the natural pastures, and mineral deposits, water power,
and other resources were being ignored by the aborigines. The Europeans saw no reason why
they should not claim land they thought could be used to better advantage; and they proceeded to
buy out, exterminate, or push out the Indians—when they did not enslave them—and established
their supremacy over the land.
The dispossession of the Indians
The process of removing the Indians from their ancestral lands led to bitter disputes. The
British tried to end one such problem by setting up the Proclamation of 1763 line along the
Appalachian divide, allowing whites to take over what lay to the east but attempting to reserve
what lay to the west as Indian territory. After their independence from Britain, the Americans
continued to adopt this ideal of a two-nation state, but in practice the notion soon collapsed as
they pushed the Indian line westward past the Appalachians to the Mississippi River and into the
Missouri River valley and other western lands. Nearly all the Indians in the east were displaced
to the west and into special zones in Oklahoma, the Great Plains, and the intermontane basins.
Even there, their land and their way of life were not respected, as ranchers, railroaders, and
homesteaders opened the West to settlement.
The Indian “territories” soon were reduced to isolated “reservations.” As a result, most of
the Indian population in the United States is now found west of the Mississippi River, usually in
drier areas unsuited to productive agriculture. At times the U.S. government has encouraged
Indians to leave the reservations and mix with the general population in the large cities of the
Midwest and West, a process of acculturation that some—including many younger and
ethnically conscious Indians—would claim poses as many dangers to the individual and social
well-being of Indians as do the communal misfortunes already brought upon them.
Counteracting the forces of assimilation have been increasingly energetic programs to defend
and strengthen aboriginal identity.
In Canada the reservation system was adopted at a relatively early date; it protected First
Nation (Native American) settlements throughout the east, even in such agriculturally rich areas
as the Montreal plain or peninsular Ontario. As the Europeans moved west, care was taken to
retain Indians on at least part of their own lands, including such fertile areas as the valley of the
Red River of the North and the Fraser River delta. Intermarriage between whites and Indians was
much more common than in the United States and produced a sizable community of the French
and Indian métis, who in 1869–70 unsuccessfully attempted to set up a separate state in the
Canadian prairies.
In both Mexico and Central America, racial admixture has gone much farther. In Mexico,
the mestizo population—of mixed Indian and white descent—accounts for some three-fifths of
the population, while pure-blooded Indians amount to less than one-fifth, and whites constitute
nearly all the rest (small fractions are Mexicans of African and Arab descent). European
immigration to Mexico and Central America since the original Spanish conquest has been
negligible. When Velasco made his tally of 5,000,000 Indians within his jurisdiction, there were
only 150,000 Spaniards in the New World.
The European attitudes toward the environment
When European colonizers entered North America, they regarded the continent as a virtual
wilderness, one waiting to be settled and developed economically. The indigenous agriculture in
what is now the United States and Canada seemed strange and rudimentary to them, and it had
made only a slight dent in the vast forests and grasslands. There were no herds or flocks of
domesticated grazing animals exploiting the natural pastures, and mineral deposits, water power,
and other resources were being ignored by the aborigines. The Europeans saw no reason why
they should not claim land they thought could be used to better advantage; and they proceeded to
buy out, exterminate, or push out the Indians—when they did not enslave them—and established
their supremacy over the land.
The dispossession of the Indians
The process of removing the Indians from their ancestral lands led to bitter disputes. The
British tried to end one such problem by setting up the Proclamation of 1763 line along the
Appalachian divide, allowing whites to take over what lay to the east but attempting to reserve
what lay to the west as Indian territory. After their independence from Britain, the Americans
continued to adopt this ideal of a two-nation state, but in practice the notion soon collapsed as
they pushed the Indian line westward past the Appalachians to the Mississippi River and into the
Missouri River valley and other western lands. Nearly all the Indians in the east were displaced
to the west and into special zones in Oklahoma, the Great Plains, and the intermontane basins.
Even there, their land and their way of life were not respected, as ranchers, railroaders, and
homesteaders opened the West to settlement.
The Indian “territories” soon were reduced to isolated “reservations.” As a result, most of
the Indian population in the United States is now found west of the Mississippi River, usually in
drier areas unsuited to productive agriculture. At times the U.S. government has encouraged
Indians to leave the reservations and mix with the general population in the large cities of the
Midwest and West, a process of acculturation that some—including many younger and
ethnically conscious Indians—would claim poses as many dangers to the individual and social
well-being of Indians as do the communal misfortunes already brought upon them.
Counteracting the forces of assimilation have been increasingly energetic programs to defend
and strengthen aboriginal identity.
In Canada the reservation system was adopted at a relatively early date; it protected First
Nation (Native American) settlements throughout the east, even in such agriculturally rich areas
as the Montreal plain or peninsular Ontario. As the Europeans moved west, care was taken to
retain Indians on at least part of their own lands, including such fertile areas as the valley of the
Red River of the North and the Fraser River delta. Intermarriage between whites and Indians was
much more common than in the United States and produced a sizable community of the French
and Indian métis, who in 1869–70 unsuccessfully attempted to set up a separate state in the
Canadian prairies.
In both Mexico and Central America, racial admixture has gone much farther. In Mexico,
the mestizo population—of mixed Indian and white descent—accounts for some three-fifths of
the population, while pure-blooded Indians amount to less than one-fifth, and whites constitute
nearly all the rest (small fractions are Mexicans of African and Arab descent). European
immigration to Mexico and Central America since the original Spanish conquest has been
negligible. When Velasco made his tally of 5,000,000 Indians within his jurisdiction, there were
only 150,000 Spaniards in the New World.
The European attitudes toward the environment
When European colonizers entered North America, they regarded the continent as a virtual
wilderness, one waiting to be settled and developed economically. The indigenous agriculture in
what is now the United States and Canada seemed strange and rudimentary to them, and it had
made only a slight dent in the vast forests and grasslands. There were no herds or flocks of
domesticated grazing animals exploiting the natural pastures, and mineral deposits, water power,
and other resources were being ignored by the aborigines. The Europeans saw no reason why
they should not claim land they thought could be used to better advantage; and they proceeded to
buy out, exterminate, or push out the Indians—when they did not enslave them—and established
their supremacy over the land.
The dispossession of the Indians
The process of removing the Indians from their ancestral lands led to bitter disputes. The
British tried to end one such problem by setting up the Proclamation of 1763 line along the
Appalachian divide, allowing whites to take over what lay to the east but attempting to reserve
what lay to the west as Indian territory. After their independence from Britain, the Americans
continued to adopt this ideal of a two-nation state, but in practice the notion soon collapsed as
they pushed the Indian line westward past the Appalachians to the Mississippi River and into the
Missouri River valley and other western lands. Nearly all the Indians in the east were displaced
to the west and into special zones in Oklahoma, the Great Plains, and the intermontane basins.
Even there, their land and their way of life were not respected, as ranchers, railroaders, and
homesteaders opened the West to settlement.
The Indian “territories” soon were reduced to isolated “reservations.” As a result, most of
the Indian population in the United States is now found west of the Mississippi River, usually in
drier areas unsuited to productive agriculture. At times the U.S. government has encouraged
Indians to leave the reservations and mix with the general population in the large cities of the
Midwest and West, a process of acculturation that some—including many younger and
ethnically conscious Indians—would claim poses as many dangers to the individual and social
well-being of Indians as do the communal misfortunes already brought upon them.
Counteracting the forces of assimilation have been increasingly energetic programs to defend
and strengthen aboriginal identity.
In Canada the reservation system was adopted at a relatively early date; it protected First
Nation (Native American) settlements throughout the east, even in such agriculturally rich areas
as the Montreal plain or peninsular Ontario. As the Europeans moved west, care was taken to
retain Indians on at least part of their own lands, including such fertile areas as the valley of the
Red River of the North and the Fraser River delta. Intermarriage between whites and Indians was
much more common than in the United States and produced a sizable community of the French
and Indian métis, who in 1869–70 unsuccessfully attempted to set up a separate state in the
Canadian prairies.
In both Mexico and Central America, racial admixture has gone much farther. In Mexico,
the mestizo population—of mixed Indian and white descent—accounts for some three-fifths of
the population, while pure-blooded Indians amount to less than one-fifth, and whites constitute
nearly all the rest (small fractions are Mexicans of African and Arab descent). European
immigration to Mexico and Central America since the original Spanish conquest has been
negligible. When Velasco made his tally of 5,000,000 Indians within his jurisdiction, there were
only 150,000 Spaniards in the New World.
The European attitudes toward the environment
When European colonizers entered North America, they regarded the continent as a virtual
wilderness, one waiting to be settled and developed economically. The indigenous agriculture in
what is now the United States and Canada seemed strange and rudimentary to them, and it had
made only a slight dent in the vast forests and grasslands. There were no herds or flocks of
domesticated grazing animals exploiting the natural pastures, and mineral deposits, water power,
and other resources were being ignored by the aborigines. The Europeans saw no reason why
they should not claim land they thought could be used to better advantage; and they proceeded to
buy out, exterminate, or push out the Indians—when they did not enslave them—and established
their supremacy over the land.
The dispossession of the Indians
The process of removing the Indians from their ancestral lands led to bitter disputes. The
British tried to end one such problem by setting up the Proclamation of 1763 line along the
Appalachian divide, allowing whites to take over what lay to the east but attempting to reserve
what lay to the west as Indian territory. After their independence from Britain, the Americans
continued to adopt this ideal of a two-nation state, but in practice the notion soon collapsed as
they pushed the Indian line westward past the Appalachians to the Mississippi River and into the
Missouri River valley and other western lands. Nearly all the Indians in the east were displaced
to the west and into special zones in Oklahoma, the Great Plains, and the intermontane basins.
Even there, their land and their way of life were not respected, as ranchers, railroaders, and
homesteaders opened the West to settlement.
The Indian “territories” soon were reduced to isolated “reservations.” As a result, most of
the Indian population in the United States is now found west of the Mississippi River, usually in
drier areas unsuited to productive agriculture. At times the U.S. government has encouraged
Indians to leave the reservations and mix with the general population in the large cities of the
Midwest and West, a process of acculturation that some—including many younger and
ethnically conscious Indians—would claim poses as many dangers to the individual and social
well-being of Indians as do the communal misfortunes already brought upon them.
Counteracting the forces of assimilation have been increasingly energetic programs to defend
and strengthen aboriginal identity.
In Canada the reservation system was adopted at a relatively early date; it protected First
Nation (Native American) settlements throughout the east, even in such agriculturally rich areas
as the Montreal plain or peninsular Ontario. As the Europeans moved west, care was taken to
retain Indians on at least part of their own lands, including such fertile areas as the valley of the
Red River of the North and the Fraser River delta. Intermarriage between whites and Indians was
much more common than in the United States and produced a sizable community of the French
and Indian métis, who in 1869–70 unsuccessfully attempted to set up a separate state in the
Canadian prairies.
In both Mexico and Central America, racial admixture has gone much farther. In Mexico,
the mestizo population—of mixed Indian and white descent—accounts for some three-fifths of
the population, while pure-blooded Indians amount to less than one-fifth, and whites constitute
nearly all the rest (small fractions are Mexicans of African and Arab descent). European
immigration to Mexico and Central America since the original Spanish conquest has been
negligible. When Velasco made his tally of 5,000,000 Indians within his jurisdiction, there were
only 150,000 Spaniards in the New World.
The European attitudes toward the environment
When European colonizers entered North America, they regarded the continent as a virtual
wilderness, one waiting to be settled and developed economically. The indigenous agriculture in
what is now the United States and Canada seemed strange and rudimentary to them, and it had
made only a slight dent in the vast forests and grasslands. There were no herds or flocks of
domesticated grazing animals exploiting the natural pastures, and mineral deposits, water power,
and other resources were being ignored by the aborigines. The Europeans saw no reason why
they should not claim land they thought could be used to better advantage; and they proceeded to
buy out, exterminate, or push out the Indians—when they did not enslave them—and established
their supremacy over the land.
The dispossession of the Indians
The process of removing the Indians from their ancestral lands led to bitter disputes. The
British tried to end one such problem by setting up the Proclamation of 1763 line along the
Appalachian divide, allowing whites to take over what lay to the east but attempting to reserve
what lay to the west as Indian territory. After their independence from Britain, the Americans
continued to adopt this ideal of a two-nation state, but in practice the notion soon collapsed as
they pushed the Indian line westward past the Appalachians to the Mississippi River and into the
Missouri River valley and other western lands. Nearly all the Indians in the east were displaced
to the west and into special zones in Oklahoma, the Great Plains, and the intermontane basins.
Even there, their land and their way of life were not respected, as ranchers, railroaders, and
homesteaders opened the West to settlement.
The Indian “territories” soon were reduced to isolated “reservations.” As a result, most of
the Indian population in the United States is now found west of the Mississippi River, usually in
drier areas unsuited to productive agriculture. At times the U.S. government has encouraged
Indians to leave the reservations and mix with the general population in the large cities of the
Midwest and West, a process of acculturation that some—including many younger and
ethnically conscious Indians—would claim poses as many dangers to the individual and social
well-being of Indians as do the communal misfortunes already brought upon them.
Counteracting the forces of assimilation have been increasingly energetic programs to defend
and strengthen aboriginal identity.
In Canada the reservation system was adopted at a relatively early date; it protected First
Nation (Native American) settlements throughout the east, even in such agriculturally rich areas
as the Montreal plain or peninsular Ontario. As the Europeans moved west, care was taken to
retain Indians on at least part of their own lands, including such fertile areas as the valley of the
Red River of the North and the Fraser River delta. Intermarriage between whites and Indians was
much more common than in the United States and produced a sizable community of the French
and Indian métis, who in 1869–70 unsuccessfully attempted to set up a separate state in the
Canadian prairies.
In both Mexico and Central America, racial admixture has gone much farther. In Mexico,
the mestizo population—of mixed Indian and white descent—accounts for some three-fifths of
the population, while pure-blooded Indians amount to less than one-fifth, and whites constitute
nearly all the rest (small fractions are Mexicans of African and Arab descent). European
immigration to Mexico and Central America since the original Spanish conquest has been
negligible. When Velasco made his tally of 5,000,000 Indians within his jurisdiction, there were
only 150,000 Spaniards in the New World.
The European attitudes toward the environment
When European colonizers entered North America, they regarded the continent as a virtual
wilderness, one waiting to be settled and developed economically. The indigenous agriculture in
what is now the United States and Canada seemed strange and rudimentary to them, and it had
made only a slight dent in the vast forests and grasslands. There were no herds or flocks of
domesticated grazing animals exploiting the natural pastures, and mineral deposits, water power,
and other resources were being ignored by the aborigines. The Europeans saw no reason why
they should not claim land they thought could be used to better advantage; and they proceeded to
buy out, exterminate, or push out the Indians—when they did not enslave them—and established
their supremacy over the land.
The dispossession of the Indians
The process of removing the Indians from their ancestral lands led to bitter disputes. The
British tried to end one such problem by setting up the Proclamation of 1763 line along the
Appalachian divide, allowing whites to take over what lay to the east but attempting to reserve
what lay to the west as Indian territory. After their independence from Britain, the Americans
continued to adopt this ideal of a two-nation state, but in practice the notion soon collapsed as
they pushed the Indian line westward past the Appalachians to the Mississippi River and into the
Missouri River valley and other western lands. Nearly all the Indians in the east were displaced
to the west and into special zones in Oklahoma, the Great Plains, and the intermontane basins.
Even there, their land and their way of life were not respected, as ranchers, railroaders, and
homesteaders opened the West to settlement.
The Indian “territories” soon were reduced to isolated “reservations.” As a result, most of
the Indian population in the United States is now found west of the Mississippi River, usually in
drier areas unsuited to productive agriculture. At times the U.S. government has encouraged
Indians to leave the reservations and mix with the general population in the large cities of the
Midwest and West, a process of acculturation that some—including many younger and
ethnically conscious Indians—would claim poses as many dangers to the individual and social
well-being of Indians as do the communal misfortunes already brought upon them.
Counteracting the forces of assimilation have been increasingly energetic programs to defend
and strengthen aboriginal identity.
In Canada the reservation system was adopted at a relatively early date; it protected First
Nation (Native American) settlements throughout the east, even in such agriculturally rich areas
as the Montreal plain or peninsular Ontario. As the Europeans moved west, care was taken to
retain Indians on at least part of their own lands, including such fertile areas as the valley of the
Red River of the North and the Fraser River delta. Intermarriage between whites and Indians was
much more common than in the United States and produced a sizable community of the French
and Indian métis, who in 1869–70 unsuccessfully attempted to set up a separate state in the
Canadian prairies.
In both Mexico and Central America, racial admixture has gone much farther. In Mexico,
the mestizo population—of mixed Indian and white descent—accounts for some three-fifths of
the population, while pure-blooded Indians amount to less than one-fifth, and whites constitute
nearly all the rest (small fractions are Mexicans of African and Arab descent). European
immigration to Mexico and Central America since the original Spanish conquest has been
negligible. When Velasco made his tally of 5,000,000 Indians within his jurisdiction, there were
only 150,000 Spaniards in the New World.
The European attitudes toward the environment
When European colonizers entered North America, they regarded the continent as a virtual
wilderness, one waiting to be settled and developed economically. The indigenous agriculture in
what is now the United States and Canada seemed strange and rudimentary to them, and it had
made only a slight dent in the vast forests and grasslands. There were no herds or flocks of
domesticated grazing animals exploiting the natural pastures, and mineral deposits, water power,
and other resources were being ignored by the aborigines. The Europeans saw no reason why
they should not claim land they thought could be used to better advantage; and they proceeded to
buy out, exterminate, or push out the Indians—when they did not enslave them—and established
their supremacy over the land.
The dispossession of the Indians
The process of removing the Indians from their ancestral lands led to bitter disputes. The
British tried to end one such problem by setting up the Proclamation of 1763 line along the
Appalachian divide, allowing whites to take over what lay to the east but attempting to reserve
what lay to the west as Indian territory. After their independence from Britain, the Americans
continued to adopt this ideal of a two-nation state, but in practice the notion soon collapsed as
they pushed the Indian line westward past the Appalachians to the Mississippi River and into the
Missouri River valley and other western lands. Nearly all the Indians in the east were displaced
to the west and into special zones in Oklahoma, the Great Plains, and the intermontane basins.
Even there, their land and their way of life were not respected, as ranchers, railroaders, and
homesteaders opened the West to settlement.
The Indian “territories” soon were reduced to isolated “reservations.” As a result, most of
the Indian population in the United States is now found west of the Mississippi River, usually in
drier areas unsuited to productive agriculture. At times the U.S. government has encouraged
Indians to leave the reservations and mix with the general population in the large cities of the
Midwest and West, a process of acculturation that some—including many younger and
ethnically conscious Indians—would claim poses as many dangers to the individual and social
well-being of Indians as do the communal misfortunes already brought upon them.
Counteracting the forces of assimilation have been increasingly energetic programs to defend
and strengthen aboriginal identity.
In Canada the reservation system was adopted at a relatively early date; it protected First
Nation (Native American) settlements throughout the east, even in such agriculturally rich areas
as the Montreal plain or peninsular Ontario. As the Europeans moved west, care was taken to
retain Indians on at least part of their own lands, including such fertile areas as the valley of the
Red River of the North and the Fraser River delta. Intermarriage between whites and Indians was
much more common than in the United States and produced a sizable community of the French
and Indian métis, who in 1869–70 unsuccessfully attempted to set up a separate state in the
Canadian prairies.
In both Mexico and Central America, racial admixture has gone much farther. In Mexico,
the mestizo population—of mixed Indian and white descent—accounts for some three-fifths of
the population, while pure-blooded Indians amount to less than one-fifth, and whites constitute
nearly all the rest (small fractions are Mexicans of African and Arab descent). European
immigration to Mexico and Central America since the original Spanish conquest has been
negligible. When Velasco made his tally of 5,000,000 Indians within his jurisdiction, there were
only 150,000 Spaniards in the New World.
The European attitudes toward the environment
When European colonizers entered North America, they regarded the continent as a virtual
wilderness, one waiting to be settled and developed economically. The indigenous agriculture in
what is now the United States and Canada seemed strange and rudimentary to them, and it had
made only a slight dent in the vast forests and grasslands. There were no herds or flocks of
domesticated grazing animals exploiting the natural pastures, and mineral deposits, water power,
and other resources were being ignored by the aborigines. The Europeans saw no reason why
they should not claim land they thought could be used to better advantage; and they proceeded to
buy out, exterminate, or push out the Indians—when they did not enslave them—and established
their supremacy over the land.
The dispossession of the Indians
The process of removing the Indians from their ancestral lands led to bitter disputes. The
British tried to end one such problem by setting up the Proclamation of 1763 line along the
Appalachian divide, allowing whites to take over what lay to the east but attempting to reserve
what lay to the west as Indian territory. After their independence from Britain, the Americans
continued to adopt this ideal of a two-nation state, but in practice the notion soon collapsed as
they pushed the Indian line westward past the Appalachians to the Mississippi River and into the
Missouri River valley and other western lands. Nearly all the Indians in the east were displaced
to the west and into special zones in Oklahoma, the Great Plains, and the intermontane basins.
Even there, their land and their way of life were not respected, as ranchers, railroaders, and
homesteaders opened the West to settlement.
The Indian “territories” soon were reduced to isolated “reservations.” As a result, most of
the Indian population in the United States is now found west of the Mississippi River, usually in
drier areas unsuited to productive agriculture. At times the U.S. government has encouraged
Indians to leave the reservations and mix with the general population in the large cities of the
Midwest and West, a process of acculturation that some—including many younger and
ethnically conscious Indians—would claim poses as many dangers to the individual and social
well-being of Indians as do the communal misfortunes already brought upon them.
Counteracting the forces of assimilation have been increasingly energetic programs to defend
and strengthen aboriginal identity.
In Canada the reservation system was adopted at a relatively early date; it protected First
Nation (Native American) settlements throughout the east, even in such agriculturally rich areas
as the Montreal plain or peninsular Ontario. As the Europeans moved west, care was taken to
retain Indians on at least part of their own lands, including such fertile areas as the valley of the
Red River of the North and the Fraser River delta. Intermarriage between whites and Indians was
much more common than in the United States and produced a sizable community of the French
and Indian métis, who in 1869–70 unsuccessfully attempted to set up a separate state in the
Canadian prairies.
In both Mexico and Central America, racial admixture has gone much farther. In Mexico,
the mestizo population—of mixed Indian and white descent—accounts for some three-fifths of
the population, while pure-blooded Indians amount to less than one-fifth, and whites constitute
nearly all the rest (small fractions are Mexicans of African and Arab descent). European
immigration to Mexico and Central America since the original Spanish conquest has been
negligible. When Velasco made his tally of 5,000,000 Indians within his jurisdiction, there were
only 150,000 Spaniards in the New World.
The European attitudes toward the environment
When European colonizers entered North America, they regarded the continent as a virtual
wilderness, one waiting to be settled and developed economically. The indigenous agriculture in
what is now the United States and Canada seemed strange and rudimentary to them, and it had
made only a slight dent in the vast forests and grasslands. There were no herds or flocks of
domesticated grazing animals exploiting the natural pastures, and mineral deposits, water power,
and other resources were being ignored by the aborigines. The Europeans saw no reason why
they should not claim land they thought could be used to better advantage; and they proceeded to
buy out, exterminate, or push out the Indians—when they did not enslave them—and established
their supremacy over the land.
The dispossession of the Indians
The process of removing the Indians from their ancestral lands led to bitter disputes. The
British tried to end one such problem by setting up the Proclamation of 1763 line along the
Appalachian divide, allowing whites to take over what lay to the east but attempting to reserve
what lay to the west as Indian territory. After their independence from Britain, the Americans
continued to adopt this ideal of a two-nation state, but in practice the notion soon collapsed as
they pushed the Indian line westward past the Appalachians to the Mississippi River and into the
Missouri River valley and other western lands. Nearly all the Indians in the east were displaced
to the west and into special zones in Oklahoma, the Great Plains, and the intermontane basins.
Even there, their land and their way of life were not respected, as ranchers, railroaders, and
homesteaders opened the West to settlement.
The Indian “territories” soon were reduced to isolated “reservations.” As a result, most of
the Indian population in the United States is now found west of the Mississippi River, usually in
drier areas unsuited to productive agriculture. At times the U.S. government has encouraged
Indians to leave the reservations and mix with the general population in the large cities of the
Midwest and West, a process of acculturation that some—including many younger and
ethnically conscious Indians—would claim poses as many dangers to the individual and social
well-being of Indians as do the communal misfortunes already brought upon them.
Counteracting the forces of assimilation have been increasingly energetic programs to defend
and strengthen aboriginal identity.
In Canada the reservation system was adopted at a relatively early date; it protected First
Nation (Native American) settlements throughout the east, even in such agriculturally rich areas
as the Montreal plain or peninsular Ontario. As the Europeans moved west, care was taken to
retain Indians on at least part of their own lands, including such fertile areas as the valley of the
Red River of the North and the Fraser River delta. Intermarriage between whites and Indians was
much more common than in the United States and produced a sizable community of the French
and Indian métis, who in 1869–70 unsuccessfully attempted to set up a separate state in the
Canadian prairies.
In both Mexico and Central America, racial admixture has gone much farther. In Mexico,
the mestizo population—of mixed Indian and white descent—accounts for some three-fifths of
the population, while pure-blooded Indians amount to less than one-fifth, and whites constitute
nearly all the rest (small fractions are Mexicans of African and Arab descent). European
immigration to Mexico and Central America since the original Spanish conquest has been
negligible. When Velasco made his tally of 5,000,000 Indians within his jurisdiction, there were
only 150,000 Spaniards in the New World.
The European attitudes toward the environment
When European colonizers entered North America, they regarded the continent as a virtual
wilderness, one waiting to be settled and developed economically. The indigenous agriculture in
what is now the United States and Canada seemed strange and rudimentary to them, and it had
made only a slight dent in the vast forests and grasslands. There were no herds or flocks of
domesticated grazing animals exploiting the natural pastures, and mineral deposits, water power,
and other resources were being ignored by the aborigines. The Europeans saw no reason why
they should not claim land they thought could be used to better advantage; and they proceeded to
buy out, exterminate, or push out the Indians—when they did not enslave them—and established
their supremacy over the land.
The dispossession of the Indians
The process of removing the Indians from their ancestral lands led to bitter disputes. The
British tried to end one such problem by setting up the Proclamation of 1763 line along the
Appalachian divide, allowing whites to take over what lay to the east but attempting to reserve
what lay to the west as Indian territory. After their independence from Britain, the Americans
continued to adopt this ideal of a two-nation state, but in practice the notion soon collapsed as
they pushed the Indian line westward past the Appalachians to the Mississippi River and into the
Missouri River valley and other western lands. Nearly all the Indians in the east were displaced
to the west and into special zones in Oklahoma, the Great Plains, and the intermontane basins.
Even there, their land and their way of life were not respected, as ranchers, railroaders, and
homesteaders opened the West to settlement.
The Indian “territories” soon were reduced to isolated “reservations.” As a result, most of
the Indian population in the United States is now found west of the Mississippi River, usually in
drier areas unsuited to productive agriculture. At times the U.S. government has encouraged
Indians to leave the reservations and mix with the general population in the large cities of the
Midwest and West, a process of acculturation that some—including many younger and
ethnically conscious Indians—would claim poses as many dangers to the individual and social
well-being of Indians as do the communal misfortunes already brought upon them.
Counteracting the forces of assimilation have been increasingly energetic programs to defend
and strengthen aboriginal identity.
In Canada the reservation system was adopted at a relatively early date; it protected First
Nation (Native American) settlements throughout the east, even in such agriculturally rich areas
as the Montreal plain or peninsular Ontario. As the Europeans moved west, care was taken to
retain Indians on at least part of their own lands, including such fertile areas as the valley of the
Red River of the North and the Fraser River delta. Intermarriage between whites and Indians was
much more common than in the United States and produced a sizable community of the French
and Indian métis, who in 1869–70 unsuccessfully attempted to set up a separate state in the
Canadian prairies.
In both Mexico and Central America, racial admixture has gone much farther. In Mexico,
the mestizo population—of mixed Indian and white descent—accounts for some three-fifths of
the population, while pure-blooded Indians amount to less than one-fifth, and whites constitute
nearly all the rest (small fractions are Mexicans of African and Arab descent). European
immigration to Mexico and Central America since the original Spanish conquest has been
negligible. When Velasco made his tally of 5,000,000 Indians within his jurisdiction, there were
only 150,000 Spaniards in the New World.
The European attitudes toward the environment
When European colonizers entered North America, they regarded the continent as a virtual
wilderness, one waiting to be settled and developed economically. The indigenous agriculture in
what is now the United States and Canada seemed strange and rudimentary to them, and it had
made only a slight dent in the vast forests and grasslands. There were no herds or flocks of
domesticated grazing animals exploiting the natural pastures, and mineral deposits, water power,
and other resources were being ignored by the aborigines. The Europeans saw no reason why
they should not claim land they thought could be used to better advantage; and they proceeded to
buy out, exterminate, or push out the Indians—when they did not enslave them—and established
their supremacy over the land.
The dispossession of the Indians
The process of removing the Indians from their ancestral lands led to bitter disputes. The
British tried to end one such problem by setting up the Proclamation of 1763 line along the
Appalachian divide, allowing whites to take over what lay to the east but attempting to reserve
what lay to the west as Indian territory. After their independence from Britain, the Americans
continued to adopt this ideal of a two-nation state, but in practice the notion soon collapsed as
they pushed the Indian line westward past the Appalachians to the Mississippi River and into the
Missouri River valley and other western lands. Nearly all the Indians in the east were displaced
to the west and into special zones in Oklahoma, the Great Plains, and the intermontane basins.
Even there, their land and their way of life were not respected, as ranchers, railroaders, and
homesteaders opened the West to settlement.
The Indian “territories” soon were reduced to isolated “reservations.” As a result, most of
the Indian population in the United States is now found west of the Mississippi River, usually in
drier areas unsuited to productive agriculture. At times the U.S. government has encouraged
Indians to leave the reservations and mix with the general population in the large cities of the
Midwest and West, a process of acculturation that some—including many younger and
ethnically conscious Indians—would claim poses as many dangers to the individual and social
well-being of Indians as do the communal misfortunes already brought upon them.
Counteracting the forces of assimilation have been increasingly energetic programs to defend
and strengthen aboriginal identity.
In Canada the reservation system was adopted at a relatively early date; it protected First
Nation (Native American) settlements throughout the east, even in such agriculturally rich areas
as the Montreal plain or peninsular Ontario. As the Europeans moved west, care was taken to
retain Indians on at least part of their own lands, including such fertile areas as the valley of the
Red River of the North and the Fraser River delta. Intermarriage between whites and Indians was
much more common than in the United States and produced a sizable community of the French
and Indian métis, who in 1869–70 unsuccessfully attempted to set up a separate state in the
Canadian prairies.
In both Mexico and Central America, racial admixture has gone much farther. In Mexico,
the mestizo population—of mixed Indian and white descent—accounts for some three-fifths of
the population, while pure-blooded Indians amount to less than one-fifth, and whites constitute
nearly all the rest (small fractions are Mexicans of African and Arab descent). European
immigration to Mexico and Central America since the original Spanish conquest has been
negligible. When Velasco made his tally of 5,000,000 Indians within his jurisdiction, there were
only 150,000 Spaniards in the New World.
The European attitudes toward the environment
When European colonizers entered North America, they regarded the continent as a virtual
wilderness, one waiting to be settled and developed economically. The indigenous agriculture in
what is now the United States and Canada seemed strange and rudimentary to them, and it had
made only a slight dent in the vast forests and grasslands. There were no herds or flocks of
domesticated grazing animals exploiting the natural pastures, and mineral deposits, water power,
and other resources were being ignored by the aborigines. The Europeans saw no reason why
they should not claim land they thought could be used to better advantage; and they proceeded to
buy out, exterminate, or push out the Indians—when they did not enslave them—and established
their supremacy over the land.
The dispossession of the Indians
The process of removing the Indians from their ancestral lands led to bitter disputes. The
British tried to end one such problem by setting up the Proclamation of 1763 line along the
Appalachian divide, allowing whites to take over what lay to the east but attempting to reserve
what lay to the west as Indian territory. After their independence from Britain, the Americans
continued to adopt this ideal of a two-nation state, but in practice the notion soon collapsed as
they pushed the Indian line westward past the Appalachians to the Mississippi River and into the
Missouri River valley and other western lands. Nearly all the Indians in the east were displaced
to the west and into special zones in Oklahoma, the Great Plains, and the intermontane basins.
Even there, their land and their way of life were not respected, as ranchers, railroaders, and
homesteaders opened the West to settlement.
The Indian “territories” soon were reduced to isolated “reservations.” As a result, most of
the Indian population in the United States is now found west of the Mississippi River, usually in
drier areas unsuited to productive agriculture. At times the U.S. government has encouraged
Indians to leave the reservations and mix with the general population in the large cities of the
Midwest and West, a process of acculturation that some—including many younger and
ethnically conscious Indians—would claim poses as many dangers to the individual and social
well-being of Indians as do the communal misfortunes already brought upon them.
Counteracting the forces of assimilation have been increasingly energetic programs to defend
and strengthen aboriginal identity.
In Canada the reservation system was adopted at a relatively early date; it protected First
Nation (Native American) settlements throughout the east, even in such agriculturally rich areas
as the Montreal plain or peninsular Ontario. As the Europeans moved west, care was taken to
retain Indians on at least part of their own lands, including such fertile areas as the valley of the
Red River of the North and the Fraser River delta. Intermarriage between whites and Indians was
much more common than in the United States and produced a sizable community of the French
and Indian métis, who in 1869–70 unsuccessfully attempted to set up a separate state in the
Canadian prairies.
In both Mexico and Central America, racial admixture has gone much farther. In Mexico,
the mestizo population—of mixed Indian and white descent—accounts for some three-fifths of
the population, while pure-blooded Indians amount to less than one-fifth, and whites constitute
nearly all the rest (small fractions are Mexicans of African and Arab descent). European
immigration to Mexico and Central America since the original Spanish conquest has been
negligible. When Velasco made his tally of 5,000,000 Indians within his jurisdiction, there were
only 150,000 Spaniards in the New World.
