The rise and fall of Indian country, 1825-1855

"The Indian Trade and Intercourse Act of 1834 represented what many considered the ongoing benevolence of the United States toward Native Americans, establishing a congressionally designated refuge for displaced Indians to protect them from exploitation by white men. Others came to see it as a legally sanctioned way to swindle Indians out of their land." "This first book-length study of "Indian country" focuses on Section 1 of the 1834 Act - which established its boundaries - to show that this legislation was ineffectual from the beginning. William Unrau challenges conventional views that the act was a continuation of the government's benevolence toward Indians, revealing it instead as little more than a deceptive stopgap that facilitated white settlement and development of the trans-Missouri West." "Unrau's work shows that there has been a general misunderstanding of Indian country both then and now - that it was never more or less than what the white man said it was, not what the Indians were told or believed - and represents a significant chapter in the shameful history of America's treatment of Indians."--BOOK JACKET.