1850 American Gold Tycoon.

Chapter 719: Great Plains Aboriginal Tribes

What McClellan was waiting for was not an attack by the Western Army.

After the rocket wash ended, what followed was a more intense artillery bombardment from the Western Army and a hail of metal bullets from the Thunder machine guns.

The Western Army seemed to have no intention of engaging in street fighting with them.

A battalion commander named Qiu Guoyi of the machine gun regiment proposed the idea of ​​using projectiles to extend the range of the machine gun, and the idea was quickly adopted.

The machine gunners of the machine gun regiment raised the muzzles of their machine guns like they were using field artillery and continued to deliver fire into the city of Omaha.

The Union Army in Omaha was caught off guard and had no time to react, and many Union soldiers were hit by bullets that came from nowhere.

McClellan's hastily assembled makeshift defense line quickly collapsed, and in order to save their lives, almost all the soldiers of the Omaha Corps rushed to buildings and even cellars to save their lives.

While the fighting in Omaha was in full swing, Liang Yao met with several major Native American tribal leaders in the Great Plains region on the outskirts of Omaha.

The American Republic's policy toward the Native Americans in the Great Plains basically followed the mild assimilation policy toward the Native Americans on the West Coast during the West Coast period.

Even since 1856, when Kruger led his troops to the Platte River Valley on the pretext of defending against unfriendly Indian tribes, the Western Army stationed in the Platte area never used troops against nearby Indian tribes.

Therefore, the Great Plains region's impression and attitude towards the Western Army was much better than that of the Union Army and the Confederate Army.

Since the war began, the Western Army had asked Indian tribes in the Great Plains several times to purchase dry food for horses and livestock, and the nearby Indian tribes almost always responded.

The Sioux, who had the closest relationship with the Western Army, also directly sent young and strong men from their tribe to join the second-line militia.

"Great chief, we have delivered to you the 125 horses, 54 cows, 850 buffalo skins, and 3250 kilograms of dry food that you purchased from our tribe." Black Buffalo said to Liang Yao.

Black Buffalo was a leader of the Cheyenne tribe active in the South Dakota region north of Nebraska.

In the Great Plains region in the mid-19th century, the term "Cheyenne" was commonly used to refer to some Plains Indian tribes other than the Cherokee. This name is often used in historical documents to refer to some Indian tribes living on the Great Plains, and can be understood as a tribal group rather than a specific population.

The same is true for other Indian ethnic groups.

The main trade items provided by the Cheyenne to the Western Army were bison meat and a type of dry food called pem-mic.

Pem-mic is beef jerky made from fresh bison meat that has been seasoned, dried, and air-dried after hunting the buffalo.

This kind of food that does not spoil is the main food for local indigenous people during long journeys, and has also become an important commodity in the trade of indigenous tribes.

The taste of pem-mic is slightly better than the canned meat provided by the military, and it has no glass or metal packaging and is lighter, so it has become a popular portable ration in the Western Army.

The trading center of Native Americans in the Great Plains is Sioux City, 150 kilometers north of Omaha. Sioux City is a large frontier city where local Native Indians (mainly the Sioux) and Chinese immigrants live together.

Through long-term trade with the Chinese, the black buffalo have also become accustomed to the Chinese units of measurement.

"Just hand over these matters to our quartermaster. You came to me specially for something else, right?" Liang Yao glanced at the several native Indian tribe members following behind Black Buffalo.

Except for the Sioux leaders Hongyun and Little Crow whom Liang Yao knew, all the others were strangers. However, many of them wore silk short coats and leather sandals produced by the Pratt Shoe Factory, so they were probably not ordinary indigenous people but leaders of various tribes.

"These are the leaders of the tribes near the Great Plains. They want to know, after the war, do you plan to continue the original white people's policy? Or do you have other arrangements for us?" Black Buffalo's Chinese is already very proficient, and although some words are pronounced strangely, they can still barely understand what he means.

The so-called original white people's policy is the infamous reservation policy in later generations.

In 1830, the then President of the United States, President Jackson, officially signed a decree to "exchange" the land west of the Mississippi River for the Indian land east of the river.

The policy was implemented by the United States regular army and a militia composed of local white immigrants. It forced westward migration and drove the Indian tribes east of the river to settle in designated "reservations" west of the Mississippi River.

Subsequent presidents were similar and basically followed Jackson's policies.

In the 1840s, with the end of the Mexican-American War, more and more white immigrants from the East crossed the Mississippi and came to live on the so-called Indian reservations.

The conflict between the two sides thus heated up again, and the federal government's way of solving the problem was simple and crude. It was nothing more than setting up new reservations in more remote places with worse living conditions, and driving the indigenous people of the Indian tribes to places with even worse living conditions.

This would create living space for white immigrants in the East and strengthen the federal government's control over the central frontier regions.

Black Buffalo was a well-known leader of the Southern Cheyenne of the Cheyenne tribe and a moderate figure among the Native American tribes. He was known for his commitment to seeking peaceful solutions to conflicts with foreign settlers and the military, and for trying to reduce bloodshed through negotiations.

Unfortunately, Black Buffalo's gentle attitude in the early years was regarded as weakness by the eastern white immigrants and federal troops who always believed that might is right. His efforts not only failed to achieve any results, but also led to bloody suppression by white immigrants and federal troops. Black Buffalo's reputation in the tribe also plummeted.

The situation did not improve until the Western Brigade began to attack Pratt.

The Black Buffalo finally met foreign settlers and the military who were willing to reason with them and live in peace with them.

The living conditions of the Cheyenne tribe also improved, and the prestige of the black buffalo increased accordingly.

If he were a general of the federal army, Black Buffalo would definitely not dare to bring so many leaders of Native Indian tribes to the military camp for negotiations. This would be no different from walking into a trap.

But it was different with the Western Army. The Western Army and immigrants of the same skin color from the West had always gotten along well with them and had always had a good reputation.

Therefore, Black Buffalo thought that he could bring the leaders of various tribes to have a serious discussion with the rumored generous and magnanimous West Coast chief about the survival issues of the tribes in order to avoid future bloody conflicts.

"After driving out the Northern Federation's army, this place is no longer the Northern Federation's territory. Since it is no longer their territory, their policies naturally cannot continue to be effective." Liang Yao first gave the leaders of the Black Buffalo and other Native American tribes a reassurance, and then painted a pie in the sky for them.

"From now on, all tribes of the Great Plains will be free to live wherever our armies advance, including east of the Mississippi River."

"East of the Mississippi? Really?"

The leaders of the Great Plains Native Americans were delighted when they learned that they would be able to settle east of the Mississippi River.

Since 1830, they have been driven westward by white immigrants from the east and the federal government's army. Except for crossing the river on small rafts when fighting against white immigrants from the east and the federal army, they have had no chance to return to their homeland east of the river.

Not to mention that young people don’t know what the east side of the Mississippi River looks like, even older people are almost forgetting what their hometown east of the river looks like.

"Great chief, can we really live in the area east of the Mississippi River?" Buffalo (the full name of the literal translation is Buffalo Horn. There are too many names of bison and bison organs among Native Indians. In order to avoid confusion, transliteration and literal translation are mixed.) confirmed with Liang Yao again and again.

Unlike Black Buffalo, the Comanche leader Buffalo was a hardliner among the Great Plains Native American tribes. He spent most of his life fighting the Union Army and the Eastern Settlers.

If it weren't for the fact that the population of the tribe was dwindling, life was getting worse year by year, and Black Buffalo's painstaking persuasion, Buffalo would never have considered negotiating with foreign settlers.

"You can ask Liang Yeniu and the others, when have I ever broken my promise?" Liang Yao said with a smile.

Liang Bison is one of the first Native American tribal leaders to submit to Liang Yao, and is now the commander of the First Cavalry Regiment.

The leader of the Kiowa tribe, Dohasan, asked: "I am a friend of Liang Bison. He once told me that leaders from the West Coast can serve as members of your parliament and participate in discussions and make bills. Can we do the same in the future?"

Dohasan thought more long-term. He understood the role of parliament in the government. As long as their representatives could enter parliament, even if there were conflicts with immigrants from the west, at least there would be a useful platform for them to occur.

"Of course you can." Liang Yao gave an affirmative answer, "But it's not that easy to enter the parliament to participate in political discussions and draft bills. You must first learn Chinese and Chinese characters."

This time Liang Yao did not paint a rosy picture for them. There are eight Native American members of the House of Representatives of the Republic.

Liang Yeniu's father even became a senator of Liangzhou and was the most powerful leader among all the Native Indian tribal leaders.

Of course, this was also something they had fought for themselves. Most of the soldiers in the First Cavalry Regiment came from Liang Yeniu's tribe. Not only did they all speak Chinese, but they also wrote pretty good Chinese characters, so they were easily accepted by the mainstream circles in the west.

"If we settle on the same land east of the Mississippi River as the western immigrants, what if the western immigrants get established and drive us away like the white people did?" This time the question was asked by the older Pawnee leader Petalesaro.

Having lived for most of his life, Petalesaro has seen more people and experienced more things than other chiefs.

Many immigrants from the east got along well with the indigenous people when there were only a few of them at first, but this harmony did not last long.

Once those white immigrants from the East established themselves there, or the federal army built a military base nearby.

Those hypocritical and shameless white immigrants from the East would immediately tear off their disguises and reveal their true ugly faces. They would either kill all the local indigenous people or drive them away and then occupy their land.

This story of the farmer and the snake is not an isolated one, and it happens every year in the Great Plains, exacerbating Petalesaro's distrust of immigrants.

Petalesaro was concerned that the Spanish Army and the immigrants from the west were the same people as the Union Army and the immigrants from the east.

After they completely controlled the Great Plains region, they went back on their word and even repeated the atrocities committed by white immigrants in the East.

(End of this chapter)