American frontier

Westward movement in America carried settlers across America, from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean. The westward movement began in the early 1600's with European settlements along the Atlantic Coast of North America. It continued until the late 1800's. By that time, the western frontiers of the United States had been conquered. An abundance of land and other natural resources lured America's pioneers westward. Fur traders, cattle ranchers, farmers, and miners led the push …

…to victory over the Creek Indians in the Battle of Horseshoe Bend in what is now Alabama. By the mid-1800's, the U.S. government had moved almost all of the eastern Indians to the Indian Territory, an area set aside for the Indians west of the Mississippi River. That territory later became almost identical in area with present-day Oklahoma. Thousands of Indians died of starvation and disease on the march to the Indian Territory.