Content Warning: This section of the guide contains references to the oppression of Indigenous Americans.

Conflict between Native people and mainstream white society has undergone many different phases since the first Europeans arrived in North America. During the early years of white settlement, many Native and colonial groups coexisted relatively peacefully, as white communities relied on their Indigenous neighbors for support in an unfamiliar land. Deloria sees this as a major reason why many tribes, especially in the East, readily agreed to treaties with the United States government. The Native communities had helped the newcomers and expected the same kind of fair treatment.

As white settlement expanded, conflicts between Native and European Americans became more and more frequent. The US broke every treaty in some regard and tribes were pushed into smaller and smaller patches of the least desirable land, sometimes hundreds of miles from the areas where their families had lived for generations. Over time, Native people came to be viewed as a relic of the past in need of management and preservation, rather than an active threat to white life. Instead of Army battalions being sent out to quell the “Indian problem,” missionaries, anthropologists, and government officials set out to become “friends” with the Native people.