3 West Wars (extracts)
3.1 Indian wars
The Indian wars (1850-1898) are an important part of the West history.
Most of the conflicts with Indians erupted from the 1850s, when settlers would not only pass through their lands on the trails to Oregon or California, but when they came to settle their lands, often to look for gold or silver and then also later colonized the plains. It resulted in multiple Indian clashes and wars and settlers on their way overland to Oregon and California became targets of Indian threats.
The conflicts became more and more serious as the Indians had to give up their territories, often under the constraint of peace treaties that were, moreover, little respected by the Americans.
By 1862, the Indian wars had spread throughout the West, especially in the plains, in Arizona and in New-Mexico.
In the plains, an alliance composed of Sioux, Cheyenne, Arapaho, Kiowa, Comanche and the Plains Apache was formed to fight invading settlers and U.S soldiers
In Arizona and New Mexico Apache Indian wars were particularly numerous and virulent.
Dealing with nomadic tribes complicated the reservation strategy and also decentralized tribal power made treaty making difficult among the Plains Indians.
....