American War Dbq

On October 5, 1877, Nez Perce leader Chief Joseph formally surrendered his forces to General Nelson A. Miles and General Oliver O. Howard at Bear Paw Mountain, Montana Territory. This effectively ended the Nez Perce War of 1877 but was the United States justified in the actions of causing a war in the first place. A few conflicts that arose that led to the war were the westward expansion, the Homestead Act and the use of treaties.
First of all, the westward expansion was a big contributor to the war between the two cultures. For example, “[The]Westward expansion was enabled by buying land, [causing] wars, [signing] treaties and displacement of the Native Americans”(Alchin). What this means is that the settlers would come into the area where

Furthermore, “A citizen could get up to 160 acres of land, as long as they were 21 years old or older as well as had to live on the land and improve the new land over 5 years”(Hongell). At this point in time after the Westward expansion, the settlers would begin to sell the land they took from the native Americans and sell it to different people who could farm it and make new renovations on the land, but the catch was they must live there at least five years which is five years longer that the native Americans couldn’t live there. Although, by having people live there for a longer period of time as well as farming it creates a more stable economy and creates more food for the people to eat. Another example is “If a homesteader quit [working on], his or her land [it got] reverted back to the government and was offered to the public again. Ultimately, these lands often ended up as government property or in the hands of land speculators”(Hongell). Which was bad because as the land went from person to person, it could've been land the native Americans had been using for their needs and other necessities for a longer period of time which is not fair to the native Americans. In conclusion, the U.S creating the homestead act was not justified to the native Americans.
Lastly, the use of treaties was the one of the largest conflicts between the two groups. To elaborate more, according to Nebraska studies, they stated one agreement of the treaty was “The treaty called for peace and friendship among rival tribes and settlers”(Nebraska studies). But later in the text, it states “Unfortunately the peace did not last”.(Nebraska). This means that the violation of the agreement would result in a conflict between the two parties which would further prove the U.S was not justified in their actions of breaching the