Politics, economics and Native American conflicts

Abstract

US military sources document more than 1800 conflicts of varying intensity between the United States and tribes from 1830 to 1897. Negative binomial and Tobit regressions both show that hostilities follow political and economic cycles. Politically, conflicts increased in recessionary election years, however, conflicts in non-election recessionary years lack significant changes. The second major trend is the influence of three economic factors. After western states began to mine gold conflicts drastically increased. Conflicts likewise increased with the expansion of the railroad and with buffalo extinctions at the state level. While nineteenth century Americans had perpetual anti-Indigenous sentiment, tribal persecution followed political and economic rationales.