[Forward the Light Brigade]

What you saw was a Hollywood Vision of the Indian Wars. My ancestors were old Indian Fighters. The truth was you would never see an Indian until the sunk an arrow into someone. They lost because they were divided into tribes. When ever they worked together they could win victories (Like Little Big Horn)but, they fought among themselves, some even worked with the White Man to undermine their “enemies” and so lost as well. There is a lesson here. United we stand, divided we fall.

[oyez]

White men have bee sneaking up on Indians for years--Dan George - Outlaw Josey Wales

[AuntB]

“What you saw was a Hollywood Vision of the Indian Wars. My ancestors were old Indian Fighters. The truth was you would never see an Indian until the sunk an arrow into someone. They lost because they were divided into tribes. When ever they worked together they could win victories (Like Little Big Horn)but, they fought among themselves, some even worked with the White Man to undermine their “enemies” and so lost as well. There is a lesson here. United we stand, divided we fall.”

Yep!

[mel]

I finished Centennial and it has a segment on how the Indians did indeed fight each other.

[BIGLOOK]

There is a lesson here. United we stand, divided we fall.

Within the tribal social structure the Chief of the tribe was the Peace Chief. War parties were organized under a War Chief, chosen by a group of young braves that had some grievance against a neighboring tribe or the settlers which could be anything from infringing on the tribe's territory, revenge or just plain old plunder. The rare cases of tribal unity against a common enemy were the Iroquois vs the Huron (and the French) and the Sioux tribes vs the 7th Cavalry.

The Iroquois went to war to establish a monopoly in trade in the NE and Canada, their ally and trading partner was the British and the British colonists. The Sioux went to war to stop the advance of the settlers who were protected by the US Army. Their reasoning was simple....deliver a crushing blow to the US Army and the settlers would retreat. (The best laid schemes.....)

Only one tribe invested in full time military incorporated into the tribe after the the repercussions from the massacre at the Little Big Horn. They were the Cheyenne.

[shield]

They also ate each other. Truly........

[Boogieman]

I think you hit the nail on the head. The Indian tribes fought valiantly, and they had advantages of knowing the terrain, and being masterful guerilla fighters. Not to mention the pretty effective terror techniques that some tribes employed, which, although distasteful, certainly had the desired effect.

However, they faced an enemy the likes of which they had never encountered, and I think their culture didn’t have the time to react and adapt to it. They did adapt western technology and knowledge when it was useful to them, but without a real overhaul, their society was too decentralized to make an effective resistance.

Throughout history, the only time I can think of primarily nomadic cultures defeating agrarian-urban cultures was when the nomads had a clear technological, numerical, or strategic advantage; otherwise it was only a temporary opportunistic victory when the settled civillizations had been weakened due to things like prior wars, internal upheavals, famines, etc.

[NavyCanDo]

I would add also that the Indians were a Stone Age culture. They hadn’t learned how to use metals, a skill used in parts of Europe and Asia more than five thousand years earlier. Here you have people who are making tools out of stone, who haven’t figured out the wheel, and who had no written language, and their facing people who are building railroads, cities, fortresses, and using repeating rifles. They were a warrior culture also, and would win battles, but the outcome could of only gone one way over time. Even without the devastating defeats for them they would of still ended up swallowed by a more advance and powerful culture.