Conflicting Attitudes to the Indians
The
exterminators think that to solve the Indian problem the best way is to kill
them and get rid of them completely. Many of the leading army officers believed
that the only way possible to solve this problem was extermination and that
nothing else would possibly work with the Indians. They thought this because the
white Americans saw them as savages and unhuman creatures. This feeling became
mutual with other white Americans after the massacre of Fetterman’s troop in
1866, this all happened when William J Fetterman and his troop of 80 men were
killed in a battle against the Indians. This made the feelings of the white
Americans stronger about how the Indians were becoming a big problem and how
they were seen as savages only looking out for themselves, this also showed them
that they aren’t afraid to use violence so therefore there too hostile to even
speak to rationally so the best way would just to be exterminate them
completely.
The humanitarians think that it is best to teach the Indians the life style of white Americans rather than been aggressive and killing them. The main people who thought this were the best idea lived in the west and away from the Indians.
The humanitarians thought that if you were aggressive towards the Indians they would just want to take revenge and no peace would be made, which would then cause a lot more conflict, which would therefore achieve nothing. They also thought that extermination was not Christian as one of the Ten Commandments is thy shall not kill.
The
humanitarians were in agreement of putting the Indians onto the reservations and
for them to be taught how to be a good Christian farmer and for them to learn
and practice the white American culture. For the Indians to have no other way
out of this they thought that the buffalo should all be slaughtered this means
that the Indians' God never go back to their hunting life style as their whole
live revolved around the buffalo.