Indians and the Westward movement

“The white people had now found our Country.” - Iroquois Chief Red Jacket The transportation problems facing the nation were as huge as the country itself. Only a few roads for coaches and wagons stretched between the states. Coaches and wagons also moved slowly, very slowly. The 260-mile journey from New York to Boston, for example, took 39 hours by stagecoach. The only other ways to travel or move goods were by small boats, on horseback …

…took place. The Indians were in somewhat of a “Catch-22” situation. They tried to acculturate to the white culture and lost. The Indians then tried to resist and lost as well. Joseph Brant in his essay comparing Indian and white civilizations said you “Cease to call other nations savage, when you are tenfold more children of cruelty, than they.” Brant says this in response to the impact of the westward movement by the white man.