Indigenous Americans Forms of Resistance to US European Dominance (Essay Sample)

Indigenous Americans forms of resistance to U.S. and European Dominance
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Indigenous Americans (Native Indians) forms of resistance that indigenous
In eighteenth and nineteenth century, warfare was common between Indians and the whites. Native Americans (the American Indians) fought hard to protect their heritage and land from encroachment by the whites. Therefore, with these vested interests, Native Americans resisted whites’ dominance. They employed scores of resistance methods in their continual struggles against European and U.S. domination. The most significant forms of resistance the indigenous peoples of North America used in defense of themselves and their homelands were guerrilla warfare, ambush, and military deception.
Guerrilla warfare was used by Indians to resist both the European and U.S. domination. Holterman (1970) noted that between Late 1820s and 1839, Indians used guerilla warfare to fight in Spain colonialists in San Francisco Bay. The notable Indian guerilla leader was Yozcolo. Through guerilla tactics, Yozcolo and his 500 subordinates were able to raid the colonial mission’s stores and escaped with cattle and horses as well as 200 girls from a female dormitory (Holterman, 1970). In 1760, the Cherokee tribe/community commenced their own guerrilla warfare against the English people in Carolina and Virginia. The Cherokee guerilla group was led by Oconostota and the warfare lasted for two years. This bore fruit because the war led to signing of a peace treaty which resulted into partitioning of Cherokee land has left after the English colonial troops razed Cherokee crops and villages (Hill, 2010). Therefore, Indians majorly used guerilla tactics to fight and resist European and U.S. dominance which indeed become successful.
Another tactic the Indians used was the ambush. The well-known success of this tactic was in Sioux War that spanned from 1876 to 1877. In June 1877, General George Custer with his forces seek to overtake the Black Hills of Dakota which was then inhabited the Sioux tribe of the Indians. The Black Hills was suspected to be a gold rush area hence the nonnatives had vested interest on this area. General Custer came across over 7000 Indian settlers in this area. The settlers were from Sioux, Arapaho and Cheyenne tribes. Even though General Custer knew that his troops were outnumbered, he believed that being that they came in surprise, this would work at their advantage. He eventually divided his solders into three groups of about 200 men each. He then directed the troops to surround the camp and then launch attack (Blome, 2013). Therefore, in this case, General Custer was banking on ambush as its main tactic to fight and defeat the Indian inhabitants/settlers.
However, before General Custer and his troops could commence the strike, he and his groups were surrounded by 2,500 Indian sneak attack forces led by Chief Crazy Horse, a famous war chief. The Indian forces were well-armed and they mercilessly attacked Custer and his forces. The battle lasted for two hours and all of the Custer’s 264 forces were massacred. Therefore, Crazy Horse’s forces defeated Custer’s forces. However, this did not provide the Siouxs with peace. Therefore, Chief Sitting Bull relocated along with the Sioux to Canada (Blome, 2013). In this scenario, it is evident that the ambush tactic worked well for the Native Americans. With Sioux wining the Sioux War, it is clear that ambush was the best tactic the Indians used to advance their resistance to European and U.S. dominance. Interestingly, the Native Americans could couple the ambush with a “hit and run” tactic like when they relocated to Canada after winning the war.
Native Americans also used military deception to resist European and U.S. dominance. Military deception is an attempt by a military group to mislead and enemy forces during the war. This form of resistance was perfected by the Native Americans especially during Anglo-American War of 1812. The well-known military deception which also succeeded was the Siege of Detroit (Surrender of Detroit) in which chief Tecumseh of the Native Americans along with Major General Isaa...