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They called it "civilization." But it was land theft, pure and simple. The U.S.
1876 Event

January 31

US Orders All Native Americans onto Reservations: Manifest Destiny's Cruelest Order

They called it "civilization." But it was land theft, pure and simple. The U.S. government issued an ultimatum: surrender your ancestral territories or face military force. Tribes like the Lakota and Cheyenne would be corralled into tiny, resource-starved parcels of land, their hunting grounds and sacred spaces stripped away. And the punishment for resistance? Brutal. Soldiers would hunt down those who refused, killing entire communities to "pacify" the West. A policy of cultural destruction, wrapped in bureaucratic language.

January 31, 1876

150 years ago

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