ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the contradictions in the military perception of the native American during the pre-Civil War. From 1830 to 1860, the officer corps of the United States Army was more intimately involved than any other leadership group in the suppression of the American Indian. In an instance of cooperation, Blackfeet Indians provided useful information about the terrain to a party of army officers and civilians employed in a government survey. To most officers progress seemed attainable mainly in the context of their own culture. Officers portrayed themselves as selfless agents of the government, performing a thoroughly unpleasant task for a hypocritical and ungrateful public. The unpopularity of Indian warfare, combined with the prevailing view of Indian character, made it likely that officers would respond Indian-white controversies with force. The majority of army officers in the pre-Civil War period were neither humanitarians nor brutal Indian haters.
