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For Indigenous peoples, nature was not something to be possessed, but to the settlers, the North American continent was a land of abundance they could own. The settlers expanded westward after the United States gained independence from England in 1783. Conflicts and clashes between the settlers who viewed the westward expansion as their “manifest destiny” and Indigenous peoples who were protecting their homelands were inevitable.
The California Gold Rush is an emblematic event that brought settlers into conflict with Indigenous tribes. As a result, Indigenous peoples were forced to vacate the places in which they had lived for generations and move to reservations, or even lost their lives in the process.