SOURCE: “Native American Resistance and Accommodation During the Late Nineteenth Century,” in The Gilded Age: Essays on the Origins of Modern America, edited by Charles W. Calhoun, Scholarly Resources, Inc., 1996, pp. 163-84.

In this excerpt, Danziger describes the struggles of Native Americans in the face of post-Civil War white migrations westward that forced Indian accommodation to reservation life.

Long ago the Arapahoes had a fine country of their own. The white man came to see them, and the Indians gave him buffalo meat and a horse to ride on, and they told him the country was big enough for the white man and the Arapahoes, too.

After a while the white men found gold in our country. They took the gold and pushed the Indian from his home. I thought Washington would make it all right. I am an old man now. I have been waiting many years...