SHORT ANSWER QUESTION PRACTICE
"About the Indian wars that plagued the American West... it is commonly
believed that they might have been avoided but for the avarice [greed] and
aggression of the white man. The root of the trouble lay in the Plains Indian's
rootlessness. It was freedom of movement, the privilege of ranging far and
wide seasonally that gave his life meaning and dignity.... [T]hat given time
and patience the Plains tribes could be persuaded to abandon their nomadic
ways... was wishful thinking.... Civilization may have had a clear duty to
save these people from themselves."
S. L. A. Marshall, historian, Crimsoned Prairie, 1972
"The grand irony of the Great Plains is that none of the tribes with which
the army would clash were native to the lands they claimed. All had been
caught up in a vast migration, precipitated by the white settlements in the
East. As the dislocated Indians spilled onto the Plains, they jockeyed with
native tribes for the choicest hunting grounds. In a real sense, then-and
this cannot be over emphasized-the wars that were to come between the
Indians and the government for the Great Plains would represent a clash
of emigrant peoples."
Peter Cozzens, historian, The Earth Is Weeping, 2016
Answer (a), (b), OR (c).
(a) Briefly explain ONE major difference between Marshall's and
Cozzen's interpretations of the Indian Wars from 1865 to 1898.
(b) Briefly explain how ONE specific historical event or development
that is not explicitly mentioned in the excerpts could be used to support
Marshall's interpretation.
(c) Briefly explain how ONE specific historical event or development that
is not explicitly mentioned in the excerpts could be used to support
Cozzen's interpretation.