The expansion of railroads in the West nearly exterminated Native American culture that lived there. Initially, Indian tribes were forced to sign treaties and were confined to reservations. But this kind of agreement only worked for a while, when the white expansion and settlement expanded, the force of those treaties started to weaken and be replaced by violent aggression and massacres. Beginning in 1887, the American government’s Indian policy was intended at forcing Indians to renounce their traditional culture and adopt individual land ownership, settled agriculture, and Christianity.
