Abstract
The first pioneers thought the Great Plains had to be ploughed. They wanted to divide the land into plots and sell them to farmers. The Natives were against the idea of colonization. They were nomadic and would follow the buffalo for subsistence. They were deprived of their hunting grounds. The buffalo were almost extinguished and many Natives having no other way of subsistence had to face starvation.
The Native population had been since the beginning pushed further and further west to unwanted and unusable land. At the end of the nineteenth century, they had no place to go, the western coast being inhabited by white Settlers and the north being also settled. The only place where they could go was in reservations. For a nomadic people it was a dramatic change. Some decided to rebel to keep on living the way their ancestors had. Those rebellious acts were quickly crushed by the American troops.
