Buffalo Soldiers

This week in honors history 10 class we learned about buffalo soldiers. The essential question was did the government have good intentions when enacting policies for westward expansion? In what ways did these policies impact the natives and buffalo soldiers? In order to answer the essential question we watched videos in class. After we watched the videos we read and analyzed documents. As a class we came up with the essential question.

Buffalo soldiers are defined as African American soldiers who were in union army cavalry, and stayed in the military as career soldiers; interacted with native Americans. The government took part when enacting policies for westward expansion.Although the government provided food, clothing, shelter, uniform, steady job not as a sharecropper I did not think that their intentions were good.I did not think that the government’s intentions were good because they didn’t care about the soldiers. In the Helen Hunt Jackson document on edline states "receiving nothing from the Government except interest on their own moneys, or annuities granted them in consideration of the cession of their lands to the United States." This quote shows that the government did not have good intentions when enacting policies for westward expansion because the government doesn’t care about anything but money. Out of the many tribes and the buffalo soldiers all of them have suffered cruelly from these policies. The Helen Hunt Jackson document also states “The poorer, the more insignificant, the more helpless the band, the more certain the cruelty and outrage to which they have been subjected.” This quote shows that not only did the government have bad intentions but how the policies affected the natives and the buffalo soldiers.

(This is a video we watched in class 

about buffalo soldiers)

The natives and buffalo soldiers were affected greatly to the new policies that took part. I think that the government’s intentions were wrong when enacting these policies. I thought this because the government did not care about the soldiers and what they were doing they only cared about the money. Although the soldiers got food,shelter, uniform, and a steady job other than a sharecropper they got treated very cruelly.