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AN INTRODUCTION TO AMERICAN INDIAN HISTORY rethinking maniFEST destiny: WESTWARD EXPANSION AND AMERICAN INDIAN SOVEREIGNTY TEACHER BACKGROUND While commenting on the annexation of Texas in 1845, Democratic journalist John L. O’Sullivan wrote - that it was, “the fulfillment of our manifest destiny to overspread the continent allotted by Provi dence.” At that time, many Americans agreed with Sullivan, assuming that it was the divine right of- those of European descent to settle America from sea to shining sea. As white Americans pushed westward throughout the nineteenth century, the rights of the American Indians were rarely con sidered. While the settlers who came to the Salt Lake Valley in the mid-nineteenth century migrated west for a variety of complicated reasons, the ideology of manifest destiny was evident in the history OofB whiteJecti VsettlementE in Utah and had devastating consequences for Utah’s Indians. The student will be able to weigh the events of history influenced by the assumption of manifest destiny by examining the underlying concepts and points of view involved. Teacher Materials At a Glance: We Shall Remain: The Ute Manifest Destiny from the American Indian Perspective We Shall Remain: The Northwestern Shoshone (chapter 2, 3:25–8:19) We Shall Remain: The Navajo (chapter 2, 2:19–11:32) We Shall Remain: The Goshute (chapter 2, 5:27–9:02) Student Materials (chapter 2, 8:55–17:00) Additional Materials Needed John L. Sullivan Describes America’s “Manifest Destiny” Copy paper The Domínguez-Escalante Expedition Encounters a Band of Utes Dictionary Heinrich Lienhard Describes the Salt Lake Valley Textbook Henry Smith’s Account of Chief Seattle’s Oration TIME Frame William Clayton Describes Mormon Settlement of Utah Toney Tillohash Discusses Paiute Relations with Mormon Settlers Connor Chapoose Discusses Tensions with Mormon Settlers One period with homework Washakie LDS Ward Ute Group in Salt Lake City 21 WE SHALL REMAIN: UTAH INDIAN CURRICULUM GUIDE Timponogos - Ute Deep Creek Mountains - Goshute Monument Valley - Navajo AN INTRODUCTION TO AMERICAN INDIAN HISTORY Procedure Give each student a sheet of blank copy paper to fold into four boxes. Have them write the word “destiny” across the top of the first box. Give them two minutes to brainstorm in that box on the meaning of the word destiny. (Depending upon time this may be a Think-Pair-Share.) Have students title the next box “history.” This box is for brainstorming on the question of “Does destiny play a role in the events of U.S. history?” (Think-Pair-Share) The third box should be titled “manifest.” Have a student look up this word in the dictionary and share the definition with the class to record in the box. (You may need to direct them to the definition that will be the most useful.) The last box on the front side is for the definition of “manifest destiny” from the textbook glossary. On the backside of the page have the students find four references to manifest destiny in their textbooks. Each box can contain one reference page number, a short description, a notation as to whether the information available is fact or opinion, and the point of view offered on the event. - Each student now has a prewriting guide to write a five-paragraph document-based question evalu ating the impact of manifest destiny on Indian cultures. Although most of the documents focus on ASSESSMENTUtah, instruct /yourproducts students to keep the national context in mind. Pre-write page VariationsEssay /EXTENSIONS theme. Students can search www.UtahIndians.org to find documents to create their own DBQ on this Students can be split into groups representing differing historical points of view to debate the impact of manifest destiny. We Shall Remain: After the Mayflower Students can reflect on the religious themes that led to the conflict between the Wampanoag and the Pilgrims as shown in (chapters 7, 8, 9) and how they compare with the religious themes of manifest destiny. This could be a discussionWe Shall or an Remain: essay. Trail of Tears Students can discuss how Andrew Jackson’s actions, as shown in (chapterThe events 4), offacilitated We Shall manifest Remain: destiny Geronimo and the settlement of the American West. (chapters 2, 7) are geographically relevant to manifest destiny in Utah. Have students compare the situations. We Shall Remain: Wounded Knee Have students debate whether the events of 1973, as shown in (chapter 6, 7), can be considered the final acts of manifest destiny. 22 WE SHALL REMAIN: UTAH INDIAN CURRICULUM GUIDE Timponogos - Ute Deep Creek Mountains - Goshute Monument Valley - Navajo AN INTRODUCTION TO AMERICAN INDIAN HISTORY additional REFERENCES Utah Historical Quarterly Alley, John R., Jr. “Prelude to Dispossession: The Fur Trade’s Significance for the Northern Utes and Southern Paiutes.”Making Space on the Western Frontier: 50 (Spring Mormons, 1982): Miners, 104–23. and Southern Paiutes. Reeve, W. Paul. standardsChicago and addressed Urbana: University of Illinois, 2006. State Standards High School – United States History II: 1/3/a&e High School – United States Government and Citizenship: 3/1/c; 4/3/a; 6/1/c Accreditation Competencies Social and Civic Responsibility/Demonstrates an appreciation of diversity and interdependence of all people/Understands the history, people, and traditions that have shaped local communities, nations, and the world NCSS Standards High School: 1/b&f; 2/c,d&e; 3/h,i&k; 4/g; 5/a&e; 6/f 23 WE SHALL REMAIN: UTAH INDIAN CURRICULUM GUIDE Timponogos - Ute Deep Creek Mountains - Goshute Monument Valley - Navajo AN INTRODUCTION TO AMERICAN INDIAN HISTORY AT A GLANCE: MANIFEST DESTINY FROM THE AMERICAN INDIAN PERSPECTIVE - Newspaper editor John L. O’Sullivan first coined rialistic and expansionistic thrusts. In this regard, the phrase “manifest destiny” in an 1845 edito- Indians in the area that would come to be called- rial wherein he argued that it was America’s Utah, encountered expansionistic ideals first- “manifest destiny to overspread the continent al with the Spanish imperialists and then with Eng- lotted by Providence for the free development of- lish, American, and French fur traders and trap our yearly multiplying millions.” Historians have pers (for more information on this earlier peri since used the term to characterize the expan od see “Rethinking First Contact: The Effects of sionistic exuberance that typified the 1840s. By European Arrival on the Established Cultures of that point, white Americans had come to believe North America”). Then, in the 1840s, non-Indian- that both geographic expansion and population emigrants began to traverse Utah on their way to growth were a part of the national character. the West Coast. In 1841, a portion of the Bartle- The United States had doubled in size with the son-Bidwell Party became the first non-Indians addition of the Louisiana Purchase territory in to bring overland wagons through Utah. Govern 1803. James K. Polk ran for the presidency on ment explorer John C. Fremont was not far behind. ofan Texasexpansionist in 1845, platform, the settlement and the of theU.S. Oregonwould Fremont was married to Jessie Benton, daughter nearly double in size again with the annexation of Senator Thomas Hart Benton from Missouri, an ardent expansionist who ensured that his son-- boundary dispute with Britain in 1846, and the in-law’s explorations were well funded and that- acquisition of what would come to be called the they would enjoy immediate government pub American Southwest following the U.S.-Mexican lication. Three of Fremont’s five western explo- War in 1848. During the same time period, the rations took him to Utah, and his findings were population of the United States quadrupled. As published and widely read. Fremont greatly ex O’Sullivan articulated it, and many Americans panded the available knowledge about western came to believe it, God seemed to destine that lands and their potential for settlement. Before the United States span North America from coast departing for the West from Illinois members of to coast. As settlers spread across the continent- the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints- to occupy these new lands, they brought Anglo- ment(commonly locations. called the Mormons) read Fremont’s centric worldviews that caused them to per report and used it to determine potential settle ceive the indigenous peoples they encountered - in negative terms, which ultimately produced In 1846, one year before the Mormon migra devastating land and population losses for Native tion, an enterprising western promoter named Americans. In Utah, the story was no different. - Lansford W. Hastings persuaded four overland Even though “manifest destiny” is most specifically- parties to leave the well-worn Oregon/Califor- applicable to the United States in the 1840s, it can nia trail and take a proposed “cutoff” across the be broadly defined to include any nation’s impe south end of the Great Salt Lake and the salt des 24 WE SHALL REMAIN: UTAH INDIAN CURRICULUM GUIDE Timponogos - Ute Deep Creek Mountains - Goshute Monument Valley - Navajo AN INTRODUCTION TO AMERICAN INDIAN HISTORY - ert. It proved an ill-conceived plan, as the area from the world, economically, as well as spiritu was not conducive to wagon travel. The last of ally. Despite these differences, the end result for the groups Hastings attracted to his cutoff was reservations.the Native Americans was the same: they suffered the ill-fated Donner Party, but the less-well- loss of land and population and were removed to known Lienhard Party preceded the Donner group across Utah. Heinrich Lienhard, a young - As historian John R. Alley argues, both the Utes Swiss immigrant for whom the party was named, and Southern Paiutes initially welcomed Mor wrote in his journal of the impressive natural mon settlers but for different reasons.

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