Looking at the conflict

There a number of ways you can look at the conflict on the Plains.

It is possible to see the conflict as a clash of cultures. White Americans did not understand the Native Americans' way of life. Consequently, they distrusted and feared them, and could believe anything (including torture and deceit) of a people they did not understand. Conversely, the Native Americans felt that white Americans were devils who ruined the earth. Differences of culture caused them to hate and despise each other, and led to war.

The wars might be seen as the result of racism. The white settlers believed that the Native Americans were inferior. They felt justified in saying that 'complete extermination is our motto', and in slaughtering the buffalo to starve the Native Americans to death. In 1864, Colonel Chivington justified the massacre at Sand Creek by saying: "Kill them all, big and little: nits make lice". Faced by an attitude of genocide, Native Americans had nothing to lose - as the Sioux Chief Gall said: "You fought me and I had to fight back".

It could be argued that war broke out simply because the white men wanted the Great Plains - firstly to cross, then for gold, then for cattle and then for farming. Many white Americans believed that it was their manifest destiny [Manifest destiny: A phrase coined in 1845 to express the belief that it was America's mission to expand westward across the North American continent and to establish democratic and Protestant ideals. ] to take over the Plains. They took the land that Native Americans believed belonged to everyone.