Your family has seen so many changes in the year 1815. You can hardly count them! You’ve traveled a long way by ship to the United States. Now you’re headed west in a covered wagon, with all the things your family needs to start a new farm.
One day, as the wagon rumbles along, you play tag with your little brother. You look through the trees and see some American Indian kids running, too. They are also playing tag! You wonder how else their lives are like yours. But you can’t see that their lives are also changing.
In the early 1800s, American Indians watched waves of pioneers travel across the land. Many of the settlers had come from Britain and other parts of Europe. These pioneers had heard about wide-open spaces ready to be taken. They wanted some land for themselves. They were from different places but started seeing some things the same way. More and more, they thought of themselves as Americans. Many had even begun to believe Americans should own all the land between the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans.
