The Indians here I find are not very unlike white people, some are willing to labor for what they have and others think they ought to be supported in their idleness. It has been my aim from the first to put a premium on industry, and condemn indolence in any and all. I find the complaining and fault-finding usually belong to this class. The Indians here as a rule learn the trades easily, perhaps more readily even than farming. There are goodly numbers who can perform service in the shops or mills, and show evidence of rapid advancement in mechanism.

Source: United States, Interior Department, Report of the Secretary of the Interior, vol. 2 (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1882), 199–202, NADP Document D 54.

The Indians here I find are not very unlike white people, some are willing to labor for what they have and others think they ought to be supported in their idleness. It has been my aim from the first to put a premium on industry, and condemn indolence in any and all. I find the complaining and fault-finding usually belong to this class. The Indians here as a rule learn the trades easily, perhaps more readily even than farming. There are goodly numbers who can perform service in the shops or mills, and show evidence of rapid advancement in mechanism.

Source: United States, Interior Department, Report of the Secretary of the Interior, vol. 2 (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1882), 199–202, NADP Document D 54.

1st. Resolved, That the organization of the Indians in tribes is, and has been, one of the most serious hindrances to the advancement of the Indian toward civilization, and that every effort should be made to secure the disintegration of all tribal organizations; that to accomplish this result the Government should . . . cease to recognize the Indians as political bodies or organized tribes. . . .

4th. Resolved, That all adult male Indians should be admitted to the full privileges of citizenship by a process analogous to naturalization, upon evidence presented before the proper court of record of adequate intellectual and moral qualifications. . . .

6th. Resolved, That . . . our conviction has been strengthened as to importance of taking Indian youth from the reservations to be trained in industrial schools placed among communities of white citizens. . . .

14th. Resolved, That immediate efforts should be made to place the Indian in the same position before the law as that held by the rest of the population.

Source: Executive Committee of the Indian Rights Association, 1884

1st. Resolved, That the organization of the Indians in tribes is, and has been, one of the most serious hindrances to the advancement of the Indian toward civilization, and that every effort should be made to secure the disintegration of all tribal organizations; that to accomplish this result the Government should . . . cease to recognize the Indians as political bodies or organized tribes. . . .

4th. Resolved, That all adult male Indians should be admitted to the full privileges of citizenship by a process analogous to naturalization, upon evidence presented before the proper court of record of adequate intellectual and moral qualifications. . . .

6th. Resolved, That . . . our conviction has been strengthened as to importance of taking Indian youth from the reservations to be trained in industrial schools placed among communities of white citizens. . . .

14th. Resolved, That immediate efforts should be made to place the Indian in the same position before the law as that held by the rest of the population.

Source: Executive Committee of the Indian Rights Association, 1884

An act to provide for an exchange of lands with the Indians residing in any of the states or

territories, and for their removal west of the river Mississippi.  Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America, in Congress assembled, That it shall and may be lawful for the President of the United States to cause so much of any territory belonging to the United States, west of the river Mississippi, not included in any state or organized territory, and to which the Indian title has been extinguished [revoked], as he [the president] may judge necessary, to be divided into a suitable number of districts, for the reception of such tribes or nations of Indians as may choose to exchange the lands where they now reside, and remove there; and to cause each of said districts to be so described by natural or artificial marks, as to be easily distinguished from every other. . . .

Source: Digital History; The Removal Act of 1830

An act to provide for an exchange of lands with the Indians residing in any of the states or

territories, and for their removal west of the river Mississippi.  Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America, in Congress assembled, That it shall and may be lawful for the President of the United States to cause so much of any territory belonging to the United States, west of the river Mississippi, not included in any state or organized territory, and to which the Indian title has been extinguished [revoked], as he [the president] may judge necessary, to be divided into a suitable number of districts, for the reception of such tribes or nations of Indians as may choose to exchange the lands where they now reside, and remove there; and to cause each of said districts to be so described by natural or artificial marks, as to be easily distinguished from every other. . . .

Source: Digital History; The Removal Act of 1830

“The American claim is by the right to our manifest destiny to overspread and possess the whole of the continent which Providence has given us for the development of the great experiment of liberty and . . . self-government entrusted to us.”

-John L. O’Sullivan- New York Morning News-December 27, 1845

“The American claim is by the right to our manifest destiny to overspread and possess the whole of the continent which Providence has given us for the development of the great experiment of liberty and . . . self-government entrusted to us.”

-John L. O’Sullivan- New York Morning News-December 27, 1845

" American Progress ." Loc.gov. N. p., 2018. Web. 10 Sept. 2018.

" American Progress ." Loc.gov. N. p., 2018. Web. 10 Sept. 2018.

Directions: Use question stems to facilitate a discussion on westward expansion.

1. What do you see?

2. What is most interesting in this image?

3. What do you want to know more about?

4. How might this image relate to westward expansion?