Manifest Destiny was something that motivated settlers to push to the west for expansion and with this, came the idea of creating a difficult environment and life for Native Americans who were pushed away from their homes and relocated to difficult areas to live in. I believe that the idea of these settlers expanding based on the belief that they were chosen to conquer the land and take power of it makes it sound fictional. Although this idea wasn’t legitimate enough to cover up the actions they took to expand to the West, people still seemed to follow them and continue these actions until the geographical limit of the territory. The effects that this belief had on Native Americans were huge, the ambition of expansion led settlers to not only take away the land from Native Americans but also take control of them politically, they would take control of the legal matters in the tribes even if the Native Americans had considered themselves a separate nation from the settlers. Not only this but the idea of slavery was also something that came into play around the same time, the creation of settlements was from the harsh conditions in which many people were put through for the expansion of territory.
Native Americans had no way to react to this expansion that was taking place from Americans into their territories. Americans had the upper hand when it came to oppression and support from others. The government had the power and resources to send more troops out to the areas which created trouble for them to continue expanding. This ultimately meant that although Native Americans had the territory and knew the area well, they didn’t have the military resources to stand against the Americans. Many other tribes tried to initiate an agreement where land was offered to remain in place but this just brought more dedication to the Americans to take away the land that they so passionately wanted to keep. With this expansion, came the idea of economic opportunity for them to take the resources that they “found” during their oppression to the West, meaning that while they were not only gaining territory, they were also gaining wealth for the government and people in power creating an uneven competition for Native Americans to stand their ground and try to keep their territory since they just didn’t have the resources to fight back.