Peopling the Expanding Nation, 1776–1900
The inhabitants of the new nation were diverse and they would become more so with westward expansion, importation of enslaved Africans, incorporation and conquest of land and peoples, and increasing migration and immigration. With few restrictions on U.S. immigration until the late 1800s, peoples from Europe, the Americas, and Asia arrived seeking land and economic opportunity.
For the tour’s next stop, follow the wall around the corner again.
Indian Removal in the Midwest
The U.S. government’s 1830 Removal Act forcibly pushed Indians from their ancestral lands in the eastern United States to places west of the Mississippi. The act thereby made land in the Midwest available for European American settlement. Some Wisconsin and Michigan tribes resisted removal and continued to inhabit these lands. Those who remained learned to negotiate with European Americans, exchanging goods and agricultural knowledge. Some were able to retain Native belief systems; others became Christians.
Chief Agosa
Native Americans occasionally wore western-made clothing while on diplomatic trips to Washington, D.C. Agosa, an Anishinaabe chief, traveled as a delegate to the nation’s capital in 1836. An Anishinaabe-made band such as this could have adorned Agosa’s top hat. Later, with the threat of removal, Agosa purchased land and relocated his people.
