Treaties

I was reading more of the Nez Perce story and it is bothersome how the US government made treaties that were understood so differently between the two groups. In one case, they got a chief to sign a treaty and took it to mean that a bunch of tribes were bound to the treaty, when the chief in question was most likely just binding himself and his immediate family. The government continuously tried to impose their own structure on cultures that were vastly different.

After the signing of major treaties that were supposed to relocate the natives to reservations, there was a very irresponsible article that opened the lands for white settlement, despite the fact that the government had not yet ratified the treaties (it took four years for them to do that) and precipitated war with several of the tribes in the area. There was some serious fighting and then a new man was put in charge of the military, and he took a stance that moved the white settlers out and left the natives alone since the treaties weren't ratified. There was over a year of peace while he was in charge, and yet he was ostracized in Washington for his pro-native rights stance. To think we could have actually ended up with peace instead of wars and found an acceptable way to live together. Too bad that didn't last.