There are two main conflicting attitudes towards the Indians they are: the humanitarians and the exterminators.
The exterminators think that to solve the Indian problem the best way is to kill them and get rid of them completely. Many of the leading army officers believed that the only way possible to solve this problem was extermination and that nothing else would possibly work with the Indians. They thought this because the white Americans saw them as savages and unhuman creatures. This feeling became mutual with other white Americans after the massacre of Fetterman’s troop in 1866, this all happened when William J Fetterman and his troop of 80 men were killed in a battle against the Indians. This made the feelings of the white Americans stronger about how the Indians were becoming a big problem and how they were seen as savages only looking out for themselves, this also showed them that they aren’t afraid to use violence so therefore there too hostile to even speak to rationally so the best way would just to be exterminate them completely.
The humanitarians think that it is best to teach the Indians the lifestyle of white Americans, and ‘convert’ the Indians, rather than been aggressive and killing them. The main people who thought this were the best idea lived in the west and away from the Indians.
The humanitarians thought that if you were aggressive towards the Indians they would just want to take revenge and no peace would be made, which would then cause a lot more conflict, which would therefore achieve nothing. They also thought that extermination was not Christian as one of the Ten Commandments is thy shall not kill.
The humanitarians were in agreement of putting the Indians onto the reservations and for them to be taught how to be a good Christian farmer and for them to learn and practice the white American culture. For the Indians to have no other way out of this they thought that the buffalo should all be slaughtered this means that the Indians’ God never go back to their hunting life style as their whole live revolved around the buffalo.
Lucy Jarman