Thomas Jefferson and the Execution of the United States Indian Policy

This work investigates the American-Indian policy between 1790 and 1810 through the vehicle of the American government, focusing on the “white, sincere, religious-minded men who believed intensely in both American expansion and positive relations with the Indians.” While Indian reaction comprises an important piece of the native-white cultural encounter in the West, this study questions if scholars have the ability to address this problem in more than a very general way. In truth, each tribe was unique and different in their reaction to white legislation and settlement. There was no pan-Indian movement against settlement, and for the same reason, there is no pan-Indian history. However, it is possible to write of the white Americans as more of a single entity. They were closely united both in outlook and in goals. They had a single program which they meant to apply to all the Indians. This work will attempt to assess the piece of this policy regarding the fur trade and the Northwest. Settlement of the Western frontier did not follow a predetermined path; private settlement and frontier violence were not predestined. Many junctures existed where it could have shifted.