As the United States expanded westward, the federal government strove to enforce its ideals on a not-entirely-receptive populace. So, the white settlers didn’t just want to take land. They also wanted this land’s existing occupants to increasingly adopt cultural practices customarily pursued by the white settlers themselves.
Christianity’s battle for religious hegemony across North America was like a microcosm of the wider conflict between the new arrivals and the indigenous tribes. Like that conflict, too, it was often a matter of ‘two steps forward, one step back’.
Read Full Article »