Buffaalo Soldiers

For the second week of finals prep, we focused on the buffalo soldiers and native Americans. Just as last week, we were given ABC Clio videos to learn the important facts about the topics. After watching the videos and taking notes as a class, we began reading over resources such as Helen Hunt Jackson’s Century of Dishonor 1881, as well as Excerpts of the Dawes Act, which both provided the points of view of one side, whether it be the Natives or the government. By the end of the second day of class, we had already developed an essential question as a class, which we thing hits all the important points to be made throughout this lesson while also being broad enough for us to give it our own individual spin. Our essential question is, "During westward expansion, did the impact of federal policy towards buffalo soldiers and native Americans match the intent?”.

Timeline of the American frontier.

This essential question is basically asking whether or not the government actually lived up to their promises of helping the Native Americans, which the way I see it, they did not. In the perspective of the government, they went to the Great Plains to take land belonging to the Native Americans and for all to remain peaceful. However, they did not anticipate that the Natives would put up a fight. As a way to fight for their own cause, the government took away some of the Natives’ already limited rights and freedom, all the while saying they were “helping them” and “making their lives easier”, as well as brought the Buffalo warriors into the mix, giving them orders to get their land. To steer back to the essential question, the impact and the intent of federal policy towards Buffalo soldiers were not matched.