The Wild West

The Arrival of Strangers:
Columbus discovered America in 1492. He brought back thing people had never seen before: chocolate, corn and peanuts. People from Europe wanted to go to the New World. In the beginning the settlers from Europe were friends with the Native Americans and they helped each other. But when the Europeans started taking land from them and hunted buffalo, it made life difficult for the Native Americans. As the Europeans went west, they fought hard with the Native Americans over land. They drove the tribes out of the places where they had lived for hundreds of years. The government made reservations for the Native Americans where they had to live. Reservations were areas of poor land where it was difficult to hunt and grow food. Whole tribes of Native Americans were forced to move to the reservations. There were many battles between them and the US soldiers, who forced them to leave their homes. Thousands of Native Americans died.