il of Tears" was a great tragedy and many thought it would be the last now that all of the Indians were out of the eastern United States. But the U.S. government became land hungry and due to their idealism of "Manifest Destiny," the "Trail of Tears" was only a starting point on the path to the destruction of the Indians of the West. By 1850 gold had been discovered in California, and white settlers were heading West to strike it rich and lay claim to the entire continent. (Utley and Washburn, page 163) New violence erupted as the white man moved into Indian hunting grounds. Ten percent of the Diggers in California met death violently. In 1846, California was home to 100,000 Indians. By 1851, the population had dropped to 30,000. (Utley and Washburn, 164)"That a war of extermination will continue to be waged until the Indian race becomes extinct, must be expected," said California governor in 1851. (Utley and Washburn, 179) Under the ideals of Tom Fitzpatrick, United States Indian Agent, the U.S. government decided it didn't only want to separate the whites and the Indians, but also intended to restrict them to specified areas known as reservations. Nineteenth century removal and reservation policies reduced Indian lands to mere islands in the stream of American settl...
