The American Westward Expansion era was a time of uncertainty and turmoil. As Americans, the American Dream represents that all are a free and equal people. During the 1860's this vision was lost. Many innocent human beings were treated harshly and without equality while our dream was replaced by selfishness and the humane urge to control territory. Two main examples of how Westward Expansion did not follow this American dream are the Battle of Wounded Knee and the way in which the immigrants were treated.
As Americans moved west, a major obstacle was the Native Americans. Instead of coming up with a peaceful solution to deal with his "road block" the settlers simply killed every Native American in sight. A man known by Colonel Chivington was famous for killing women and children along with unnecessary torture towards the Native Americans. A historic battle called Wounded Knee is an example of this cruelty. An officers account of one of these massacres goes as follows: " in going over the battleground the next day I did not see a body of a man, women, or child but was scalped and in many instances their bodies were mutilated in the most horrible manner-. These occurrences were accounted many times throughout the Westward Expansion which proves the American Dream was not followed in this era.
The second example as to why this Westward expansion was not done in the American way was how the immigrants were treated and welcomed in our country. Most immigrants were immediately put to work on the construction of the Railroad. An act was passed called the Chinese Exclusion Act which limited Chinese immigrants to certain jobs which were usually all manual labor jobs. There were not sufficient supportive jobs for the new immigrants. Not only were jobs a problem for the Chinese immigrants, but the hate towards them from white men. Most Chinese men were treated with little or no respect and they were usually shot or robbed or both without any guilt from the perpetrator.
