The excuse of Manifest Destiny was used when the Indians were being removed from the Mississippi River area. The dictionary definition of Manifest Destiny is the 19th century doctrine that the United States had the right and duty to expand throughout the North American continent. This was to say that the indigenous peoples living there did not have the right to live there.

An excellent example of Manifest Destiny being implemented was when the Permanen

The Ute, like many of the Indian tribes, agreed to the compromise under the condition that as soon as the miners were done they would leave and not set up camp, or live there for good. The whites certainly agreed to this, and tricked the Indians by making false documents saying that they would pull out when the mining was done, as well as agreeing to pay “…twenty-five thousand dollars a year for four million acres of treasure,” (Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee 371.)

The legacy of what went on with the removal of the American Indians from their homeland, is a dark spot in our American History that is not studied enough. Whether through certain ideologies such as Manifest Destiny, excuses of the gold rush, or just to move out because the white man said so, it seems as though the whites did in fact know that they were doing wrong but made these excuses not solely to justify their actions to the Indians, but to themselves also.

The whites sometimes did not even use any excuses, but just used brute force to move the Indians out. A perfect example of this comes from the Navaho in the west. They lived around New Mexico and Arizona in the 1860’s. At first contact, the Navaho and the Americans got along quite well. This is known because one of the chiefs, Manuelito stated, “When the Americans first came we had a big dance, and they danced with our women. We also traded.” (Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee 14).

This friendship, however, soon turned to fighting. A few young Navaho had upset t

Some topics in this essay:
Wounded Knee, Manifest Destiny, Ute Indian, American Indians, Felix Brunot, Ute Ute, Colorado Territory, River Indians, Navaho Americans, Fort Defiance, manifest destiny, heart wounded knee, bury heart wounded, wounded knee, bury heart, heart wounded, land west, white americans, american indians, indian tribes, indigenous peoples, ute land,