In 1830 the United States Congress began to develop an Indian policy with the primary goal of removing all Native Indian tribes from any organized “state”. The plan was to allow the Indians to settle out west in “Indian country” and never be disturbed again. However, the country's population continued to grow, the Civil War ended, freed slaves and those exhausted by war began to ask for new opportunities. The government found that if America was to prosper economically it was necessary to encourage settlement in the West. The West promised vast resources, in timber, gold, and farmland. As people began to migrate west, they began to encroach on Indian Territory. As the Indians were driven from their lands and the emigrants exhausted their resources, many tribes began to rebel and resort to violence. The Cheyenne are a Great Plains tribe who settled in Minnesota and then migrated into the Dakotas before spreading into Wyoming, Colorado and Montana. The Cheyenne people were once a sedentary people but converted to the nomadic lifestyle on the plains. Like many Plains Indians, they ...